Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Classic Rock magazine (Loudersound.com) just republished an interview with the Moody Blues from Jan. 2007
And it's well worth reading, despite some snark and condescension, with the Moodies being viewed as a "guilty pleasure" - and since they're described in the next-to-last paragraph as "the big woolly jumper of prog" I'd better add that jumper is Brit for sweater.
https://www.loudersound.com/bands-artists/one-song-took-about-seven-weeks-to-do-it-was-insane-the-moody-blues-on-their-best-and-worst-albums-charles-manson-and-the-mood-altering-magic-of-nights-in-white-satin
"One song took about seven weeks to do. It was insane": The Moody Blues on their best and worst albums, Charles Manson, and the mood-altering magic of Nights In White Satin
By Peter Makowski ( Classic Rock, Prog ) published 9 hours ago
The Moody Blues were just another British R&B band. Then they got into some old clothes, mind-expanding drugs and lashings of Mellotron… and helped invent prog rock
-snip-
Profligate use of mind-expanding drugs produced more than a few casualties in the 60s, and the Moodies found themselves with some rather crazy and controversial followers, including infamous Manson (Charlie, not Marilyn) disciple Lynette ‘Squeaky’ Fromme.
“Squeaky was a big Moodies follower,” Hayward says. “I think there might have been a time when we almost went to have a look at the Manson ranch. She was, of course, later convicted of trying to wipe out the president who couldn’t chew gum and walk at the same time [Gerald Ford, in 1975]. We’ve always attracted a lot of very, very strange people as well as a lot of beautiful people.”
By Peter Makowski ( Classic Rock, Prog ) published 9 hours ago
The Moody Blues were just another British R&B band. Then they got into some old clothes, mind-expanding drugs and lashings of Mellotron… and helped invent prog rock
-snip-
Profligate use of mind-expanding drugs produced more than a few casualties in the 60s, and the Moodies found themselves with some rather crazy and controversial followers, including infamous Manson (Charlie, not Marilyn) disciple Lynette ‘Squeaky’ Fromme.
“Squeaky was a big Moodies follower,” Hayward says. “I think there might have been a time when we almost went to have a look at the Manson ranch. She was, of course, later convicted of trying to wipe out the president who couldn’t chew gum and walk at the same time [Gerald Ford, in 1975]. We’ve always attracted a lot of very, very strange people as well as a lot of beautiful people.”
This is the first I can recall hearing of any Moody connection to the Manson family (thank God they didn't get as close as Dennis Wilson did), though I've encountered some of their stranger fans online, and heard a lot about the woman I'd believed to be their strangest fan from someone close to the band.
About the period after Mike Pinder left the band and Tony Clarke stopped working as their producer:
Left to their own devices, some of the band succumbed to the excesses of rock’n’roll. A “disastrous” album (Hayward’s description), The Present, followed in 1983.
“This was the lowest point for us,” says Hayward. “The Present was a cocaine record – rubbish, really. One song took about seven weeks to do. It was insane. The drugs became a struggle for a couple of people in and around the band. It was a very uncomfortable and stupid time. The only good thing about it was that I met producer Tony Visconti [who produced their next album, 1986’s The Other Side Of Life]. Meeting him turned me around as a writer and a person. The success we had with him in the mid-80s is certainly the reason we are here now.”
“This was the lowest point for us,” says Hayward. “The Present was a cocaine record – rubbish, really. One song took about seven weeks to do. It was insane. The drugs became a struggle for a couple of people in and around the band. It was a very uncomfortable and stupid time. The only good thing about it was that I met producer Tony Visconti [who produced their next album, 1986’s The Other Side Of Life]. Meeting him turned me around as a writer and a person. The success we had with him in the mid-80s is certainly the reason we are here now.”
I didn't care for The Present, either, but this is the first time I saw it described this way.
Not the first time I've read something where Justin praised Tony Visconti (he has a high opinion of Tony that many Moodies fans don't share, blaming him for the 1980s change in the band's sound that they'd requested). But I don't recall seeing Justin say
Meeting him turned me around as a writer and a person.
anywhere else.
Anyway, it's an interesting read.
And I was sooo tempted to make the thread title "Article you might not have seen on the big woolly jumper of prog"...