As great as this night was…it should have been greater. When Justin Hayward sang “Nights in White Satin” you better believe I was missing my dear wife, Carrie. She had to stay home. She was not feeling well. If you are thinking it must have been bad…you are correct.
Who: The Moody Blues on their 2016 Fly Me High Tour
Where: The Louisville Palace
When: Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Twenty four hours ago I was sitting in The Louisville Palace watching and listening to The Moody Blues sing to a raucous and engaged crowd. Know this is not the first time I have seen The Moody Blues live. What started a few blocks from the Palace at The old Louisville Gardens has never reached an end. In thirty years I have seen The Moody Blues 53 times. I don’t regret a second of it. One guy I know recently looked at me and told me I was nuts. I looked at him and asked how many years he has had season tickets to see the Indianapolis Colts….his answer…”Well…since the second year Peyton’s been there.” That’s near a hundred home games, I told him. He rethought his position. I really don’t care.
This is what I know. Last night I was able to have a great time with my Mom and Dad. They too are fans of The Moody Blues. I encouraged that to be sure. When the concert was over my Dad looked at me and said, “That was the best concert I have ever seen.” He meant it. Know that Mom and Dad were attending their 5th Moodies show. This was the one for the ages.
They had a good old time.
Song by song:
1. Gemini Dream from 1981 LP Long Distance Voyager. Will forever be a clunker for me. I know many folks like it. I am listening to Long Distance Voyager as I type this, in fact. Just not a strong song in my opinion. It starts “Long time, no see…” and I get that. But for me they have other in repertoire that are better. It gets better in a hurry…from the same album comes…
2. The Voice. A classic Justin Hayward tune with a signature guitar lick and a great lyric. A song full of positive energy and hope.
3. Stepping in a Slide Zone from 1978 LP Octave. Inspired by the mud slides that were produced by rain storms during the recording of the only album the group ever recorded in America. Before it was finished, original member, Mike Pinder, was out the door and has yet to be back. A John Lodge tune, it is nice number to have in the show. A great deal of energy in this one.
4. You and Me from 1972 LP Seventh Sojourn. Some call this album The Moody Blues best effort. It may be. That is saying something for a record with a paltry 8 songs on it…or is that part of genius? Here is what I do know. I like this song. Moody Blues never hit you over the head with anything. They sing what they write and write what they feel and it either works out or it doesn’t. They have never been about media pushes. They didn’t put their photos on the album covers. There is one line in this song that I relish from a band that so many folks have painted into a psychedelia-cosmic corner. The line goes…”We look around in wonder of the work that has been done by the visions of our Father touched by his loving Son.” Amen indeed. One of the best guitar solos ever.
5. Gypsy from the 1969 LP To Our Children’s Children’s Children. This album was themed around the space exploration of the day. A guy walked on the moon that year. The Gypsy is the space explorer. Fortunately Neil Armstrong’s fate was better than this Gypsy’s. Great guitar work again. And the help of the flute playing by stagehand Norda Mullen (a Mississippi girl) is incredible.
6. Nervous from Long Distance Voyager. I remember being a young lad listening to this song very intently and very loud on a set of headphones. John Lodge’s tune is a masterpiece. I am so glad they took this tune out of mothballs a few years ago and put it in the show.
7. Say it with Love from the 1991 CD Keys of the Kingdom. I remember bringing the cassette of this album to my parents dining room table the day I got it. We listened to it. My Dad looked up and said, “This stuff is too good for its own good.” Last night after the concert Dad looked at me as the house lights were brightening up the Palace and said, “That was the best concert I have ever seen.” It was good for a reason. Hayward sings it like I heard it at Kings Island in August of 1991 not long after it was released.
8. Peak Hour from the 1967 classic LP Days of Future Passed. The middle of the day never sounded so good. A john Lodge upbeat tune that features an organ that sounds like it straight out of the Phantom and a Justin Hayward guitar lick that sounds like it belongs in a song by the beach. One of three gems off Days of Future Passed in the show.
9. I Know You’re Out There Somewhere from the 1988 LP Sur La Mer. A crowd favorite and the single most favorite Moodies song of my Mom. She LOVES this song. The origin of her affection for this song goes back to the week this album came out. Mom and I were driving down South to tend to some ailing relatives. We played this song over and over and over again. The last Top 30 hit for the band…so far. I was at the concert where they debuted this song live.
10. The Story in Your Eyes from the 1971 LP Every Good boy Deserves Favour. A song we could probably do without and one that will never go away. I would miss it I suppose. The guitar work is great and the song is timeless. Just read the lyrics.
INTERMISSION
The only picture I took with my piddly phone.
11. Your Wildest Dreams from the 1986 LP The Other Side of Life. I was a senior in high school when this tune came out and it a sentimental Top 10 hit. It still shows up on radio now and again and really did a great deal to give the band a shot in the arm. Not much rocking. Not much classic guitar. This song doesn’t need it. The sentiment of the song does not warrant it. One of my favorites.
12. Isn’t Life Strange a heavily orchestrated John Lodge number from the aforementioned Seventh Sojourn. Quite the philosophical number. It stands the test of time. One of the songs I have heard in every Moodies concert I have attended.
13. Tuesday Afternoon from Days of Future Passed. An FM classic. The first single that was released in America for the band in 1968. Was seen in a Visa commercial a few years ago. Was also featured on The Wonder years TV show and the movie 1969 with Keifer Sutherland and Robert Downey Jr. a few years…decades….back. Note about this song is that at The Louisville Palace in 2013 Justin Hayward had trouble with his Fender Strat. I would not work. Tech came out. Could not get it to work. They did not waste time. Justin picked up the red 335 and went on to the next number. In the second set they did play Tuesday. It has been in the second set of the show ever since and it belongs there.
14. High and Higher from To Our Children’s Children’s Children. All about the spaceship taking flight. In the concert there is footage of a Saturn 5 Rocket taking off. Graeme Edge comes off the drum kit to take center stage on this song. This was Graeme a few years ago. His birthday happened to fall on the day we saw the show this week. He turned 75. Notice the photo behind them.
15. Fly Me High was released as a single in 1966 in Europe. It was the first thing they recorded after Justin and John joined the group 50 years ago. There was a first incarnation of the group in 64-65…what many called the “Go Now” Moody Blues. That was a big hit for them. The problem was they were trying to play blues music. Graeme Edge has since said they had no business singing about bales of cotton because none of them had ever seen one. When Justin and John joined the group they decided to write and perform their own songs. It has worked out. Before this tour I had only dreamed of hearing this song live. I never thought I would ever hear this rather elusive tune. I have it on CD…but predating Days of Future Passed, it was hard to think this tune would ever come back around.
16. I’m Just a Singer in A Rock and Roll Band was the last song on the Seventh Sojourn album. It is the beginning of what my old friend Corner King and I would call “The Big Five”. From 1972 to 2002 they played this song, Nights in White Satin, Legend of Mind, Question, and Ride My See-Saw as the last five songs of the show. We knew what we were getting. There is a comfort zone there. We enjoy it and we know we can count on it. When Ray Thomas retired in 2003, Legend of a Mind was gone. So now it is The Big Four. I’m Just a Singer is still on classic rock radio. I heard it Wednesday morning on 96.3 WJAA in Seymour. John Lodge wrote this one. He has said the sentiment is as simple as the title of the song. The guitar solo Justin Hayward brings on this song is his most blistering guitar work. It is over the top and polar opposite to what is coming in the next song.
17. Late Lament is the poem by Graeme Edge that is recited on Days of Future Passed by the departed Mike Pinder. In today’s live show Graeme recites it. I first heard him recite in 1993. Like Fly Me High, I was just as stunned then to hear these spoken words in concert. He wrote the lines while he was in his 20s. There is one line he speaks and puts a pause to now…”…senior citizens wish they were young…” It is almost too much. It is awesome. This is the lead into the next song. On the record, it follows the song. THEE Moody Blues song.
18. Justin Hayward sat on the side of his bed in the early morning hours as he was realizing the end of one love affair and the beginning of another. He was 19 years old as the story goes. That is what amazes me. 19 years old and writing lyrics like Nights in White Satin from Days of Future Passed. Something was in store to be sure. It is still the show stopper…literally. The ovation for this song went about long as it took for him to sing it. It was like that in 1993 when they played an orchestra show at The Louisville Gardens. The cheering went on and on and on. It always does. This song will, as it suggests, never reach an end.
19. Question from the 1970 LP A Question of Balance. Another Hayward tune. The day before he went into the studio to record this he had two songs. One he called a fast protest sort of song and the other was a ballad. The night before the session he took the best of both songs and put them together. It is easy to understand this explanation if you are familiar with the song. Part of it is fast and furious and the other part is soft and solemn. Together they give you Moody Blues history. It is an awesome tune that gets the crowd dancing without fail.
Encore:
20. Ride My See-Saw from the 1968 LP In Search of the Lost Chord, which was their second album. This is perfect see you later song. It soars and and has a great beat…and a last great guitar solo of the evening. Perfect.
There was so much energy at the show. Standing ovation after standing ovation. As it should be.
The Moody Blues are not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I hope they never get there. They are much better than that place. Look at the roster of some that are in. It is a joke. The Beastie Boys are in the Hall of Fame and The Moody Blues are not. Did I say joke? If they are ever extended an invitation, I hope they tell the constipated folks at Rolling Stone magazine to stick the nomination up their Rolling Stone hindparts!
Now that is speaking The Moody Blues rights!
God Save The Queen!
Danny Johnson