Great piece, Dan! Pinder was a huge inspiration to me and the warbly-yet-strangely-Hi-Fi Mellotron is still one of my favorite instruments. "Tuesday Afternoon" and "Nights in White Satin" both feature some of Mike's best Mellotron work. Yes, the London Symphony Orchestra is featured on that album, but the main countermelodies (the wobbly trumpet-ish line at the top of "Tuesday", and the early, creeping violins on "Nights") are Mellotrons. On "Nights" the full orchestra comes in later to accompany Pinder's 'trons, which for me is a very cool musical moment. But mostly the orchestra is there on the interlude pieces. On the band tunes, there are more Mellotrons on that record than you think!
Thanks, Allen - I'll clearly need to go back and give Days another listen; I suspect that some of my aversion to those songs also stems from their over saturation via both oldies and classic rock radio.
Days has some killer songs that never get played on the radio. Peak Hour and Twilight Time are songs for the ages. Days starts off a little weak, but Peak Hour through the end of side 2 are as good as anything we have from the 1960s.
I was at a session for "King and Queen" in Feb 1968. Mike , a gopher for the Moodys took me along to Decca at West Hampstead. It was quite late at night and Tony Clarke was tearing his hair out and complaining that the band had been working on the song for two solid days... The Moodys were lying on the studio floor completely out of it. They only had the haunting backing track. I was surprised that it remained unreleased for so long .......
Thanks for this post on Mike Pinder. The type of work he did tends to get forgotten a bit. And I have to agree with that quote from Justin Hayward about "Go Now" being the greatest piano single. A great song with a great Denny Laine vocal that kind of gets lost in the Moody Blues catalogue because of the change in direction the band took afterwards.
"Cold hearted orb that rules the night/Remove the colors from our sight/Black is grey, and yellow white/But we decide which is right/And which is an illusion."
Thanks for this tribute Dan, I didn't know how deep Pinder's roots went with the Mellotron. The Moody's were unique and had some of the most cosmic acid-inspired album artwork out there.
The mellotron on some of the tracks on Question of Balance, in particular, is out of this world. We all have our fave Moodies songs. "How is It We Are Here" on Question of Balance - Pinder's mellotron sounds like the clouds opening up after a rainstorm.
Great piece, Dan! Pinder was a huge inspiration to me and the warbly-yet-strangely-Hi-Fi Mellotron is still one of my favorite instruments. "Tuesday Afternoon" and "Nights in White Satin" both feature some of Mike's best Mellotron work. Yes, the London Symphony Orchestra is featured on that album, but the main countermelodies (the wobbly trumpet-ish line at the top of "Tuesday", and the early, creeping violins on "Nights") are Mellotrons. On "Nights" the full orchestra comes in later to accompany Pinder's 'trons, which for me is a very cool musical moment. But mostly the orchestra is there on the interlude pieces. On the band tunes, there are more Mellotrons on that record than you think!
Thanks, Allen - I'll clearly need to go back and give Days another listen; I suspect that some of my aversion to those songs also stems from their over saturation via both oldies and classic rock radio.
Days has some killer songs that never get played on the radio. Peak Hour and Twilight Time are songs for the ages. Days starts off a little weak, but Peak Hour through the end of side 2 are as good as anything we have from the 1960s.
Peak Hour’s a solid tune, but I always wish it would rock a little harder than it actually does.
I was at a session for "King and Queen" in Feb 1968. Mike , a gopher for the Moodys took me along to Decca at West Hampstead. It was quite late at night and Tony Clarke was tearing his hair out and complaining that the band had been working on the song for two solid days... The Moodys were lying on the studio floor completely out of it. They only had the haunting backing track. I was surprised that it remained unreleased for so long .......
That's amazing, Max! Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for this post on Mike Pinder. The type of work he did tends to get forgotten a bit. And I have to agree with that quote from Justin Hayward about "Go Now" being the greatest piano single. A great song with a great Denny Laine vocal that kind of gets lost in the Moody Blues catalogue because of the change in direction the band took afterwards.
"Cold hearted orb that rules the night/Remove the colors from our sight/Black is grey, and yellow white/But we decide which is right/And which is an illusion."
Rest in peace, Mr. Pinder.
"King and Queen," while a Hayward tune, is a wonderful example of Pinder's Mellotron work. And what a breathtakingly beautiful production it is!
Felt.
I mean, what kind of an asshole do you have to be to not like the moody blues?? Too much effort. Cheers ~
I was definitely that kind of asshole for awhile! 😝
Moodies trivia: Mike Pinder and Ray Thomas are in the background of "I Am the Walrus" singing the "Everybody's got one / Everybody smoke pot" bit!
I did not know that! (But I hope Ray was wearing his bowtie!)
Thanks for this tribute Dan, I didn't know how deep Pinder's roots went with the Mellotron. The Moody's were unique and had some of the most cosmic acid-inspired album artwork out there.
Gorgeous!
The mellotron on some of the tracks on Question of Balance, in particular, is out of this world. We all have our fave Moodies songs. "How is It We Are Here" on Question of Balance - Pinder's mellotron sounds like the clouds opening up after a rainstorm.