Why my missionary and devout parents introduced me to a bunch of drug music, I’ll never know 🙂 –except that the band was really good.
First, of course, Nights in White Satin. Yes there were other videos I could have posted, but this uh stood out.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/9muzyOd4Lh8" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
This next was probably my favorite (funny that no matter how much they say “I’m just a..” being a “rock and roll singer” comes across as messianically important).
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/y-ZcBFeF1a0" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
Another favorite (video done more recently but the song goes back):
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/zRa_Mnp1JNY" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
Older (I think):
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/9OlEkOjmUXE" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
Here’s a salute to amateur production values and the award for “song least understandable apart from recreational drug use” (in the culture, not the listener).
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/GJETHtCN-zk" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
And here we have their mid-eighties comeback. The fact that the survivors stayed in such great shape leads me to suspect they were wiser than their musical culture may have been.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/mP6-j9pxTGI" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
Quite frankly, they fit rather well into the eighties vibe. And looking at the theme related video, the primary drug being pushed was melodrama.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZAhGERg5iPg" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
And then from earlier eighties while I was still in high school I think. If the speech by Justin was his idea and was included in the video, then he is more full of himself than I thought.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/-KdSMMfUiaw" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
My reaction to theses videos (I was born in 1965), I know, is purely visceral but man I loved the songs where they had shorter hair and looked less, ummm… drugy? The difference between the first video and the second was disturbing to me.
al sends
Good stuff. I like the last one with Patrick Moraz on keyboards. Great musician. My friend from music school, Peter Mayer, who did a record with Warner Brothers in 1987 did his first tour supporting the Moody’s. They were very nice to Peter and his group. Moraz was particularly interested and offered to help out in any way if they needed it. Besides doing his own stuff, Peter plays lead guitar for Jimmy Buffet these days. But his music sounds completely different than Buffet so don’t let that fool you.
Dad says I should put the blame squarely on his shoulders. He first listened to Moody Blues on the U. of South Carolina radio station during the year we were at Columbia Bible College (1972) before going to Liberia. I don’t think we owned any of the music until we returned to the States, but I know I loved it. I had no idea of any drug message until several years later — but I still enjoy their sound like I did back then.
Well hopefully I’m exaggerating anyway. They did seem to clean up well in the eighties.
It’s funny, my youngest son called me from college (he’s a sophomore at Oklahoma State) just yesterday asking what the name of the album was that had “Nights in White Satin” and “Tuesday Afternoon” on it. I told him “Days of Future Passed.” He’d heard it so much as a little kid (in a pastor’s home, no less!) that it made him relax and he thought it would make great music to study by. I agree.