The Mellotron Group

I find myself in agreement  with this assessment of the Moodies overall and a 
large part of their appeal for  me was their use of the Mellotron (the 
introduction to The Mellotron  Book goes into this a bit more).  It's difficult for 
me to listen to  their earlier post-"Go Now" tracks and/or outtakes sans  
Mellotron.  It gave them a sound that no one else was even trying to  emulate, 
albeit bands like King Crimson put their own indelible stamp on  music with their 
'different' use of the Mellotron.  As someone else alluded  to in another 
post, part of it was the era that enhanced the appeal of their  music.  The only 
other band to overshadow them and influence my teenage  musical mind at that 
time was, of course, The Beatles.  The addition of  Moraz post-Classic-7 did 
infuse a little of the Yes influence as far as more  daring keyboard use, but 
they never were going to be Yes or prog in any way,  shape, or form, besides the 
songwriting taking a sharp nose-dive.  Pinder's  arrangements were largely 
responsible for their success, along with Hayward's  writing, but even Mike 
himself said on the Classic Artists DVD that there were  songs circa Octave that 
even Mellotron Violins couldn't save.  The  Moodies insistence that they carry 
on makes it apparent they never heard or  heeded Neil Young's line, "It's 
better to burn out than to fade away."   ...but would that have meant that we 
would have to suffer through...excuse  me...endure a present day Moodies reunion 
tour a la Genesis, The Police, Van  Halen and Led Zeppelin?
 
Frank  Samagaio
 
 
In a message dated 1/6/2008 4:17:53 P.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
astroboy@cinci.rr.com writes:

 
 
 
Jason, I've encountered this a number of times in recent years and never  
cease to be surprised by it, but there seems to be this tendency to try  
and classify the Moodies as prog and lump them into a comparison with  
Crimson and Yes. I don't remember anyone doing this when all this stuff  
was contemporary back in the early '70s. Yes and Crimson were  
considered much heavier and meatier bands by just about everyone I knew  
and the Moodies were sort of a folky pop group that had evolved into  
something slightly more.

I've never thought of the Moodies as  anything other than a very melodic 
pop outfit that I happen to like.  They've done some beautiful things 
and some absolute dreck - all on those  core seven albums. I happen to 
think that Tuesday Afternoon and Watching A  Waiting are two of the most 
beautiful songs ever recorded, and that a  large percentage of Question 
of Balance and EGBDF are absolute crap. I  happen to think that Hayward 
has a beautiful singing voice and that Pinder  was the creative soul of 
the band, and that his Mellotron playing put them  where they were. By 
the same token, if you want to hear some absolutely  dreadful 
songwriting, just listen to the stuff that Denny Lane and Mike  Pinder 
were writing in the band's original incarnation.

At the end  of the day, I find early Crimson as being much closer to the 
Moodies  (musically Crimson were far superior, but melodically closer) 
than to much  of the material that Yes was putting out. Just my opinion 
and your mileage  may vary.
best
johnb

Jason Locke wrote:
> The  instrumentation doesn't seem to weave in and out like a Yes or a 
> King  Crimson piece would. Maybe that isn't the goal, though, so 
> again,  it's a preference. Nothing hits me in the gut, though. What 
> am I not  getting, because I want to understand! What aspects of their 
> music do  the fans here appreciate and enjoy?
> 
> Jason 
>
>  *//*


 




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