The Moody Blues' Long Distance Voyager Revitalized Their Career

[Splicer]

During the MB's 6 year break from 72-78

Nowadays that's just the time between albums.

[yesstiles]

The next one "The Present" was also very good. But that was the end.

[luvyesmusic]

Too young for the old, classic Moodies. Pretty much through as a band, they were dead, relegated to oldes best of song complications with bits of black and white videos on late night t.v., and older/old fans. Sorry, but that's the facts for someone my age at the time.

Than something uterly amazing comes out, in correlation with a recipe for success with a brand new generational fanbase, in addition to a new album with the amazing Patrick Moraz with a great mixing and production, in addition ti fantastically sung and orchestrated ( not really- but you catch my jist ) songs. What would that amazing thing be that not only resurrected not only the Moody Blues, but also YES, also with a new great, different direction album, and a new person on stage, and on the album? Yes, Mike Nesmith may have been credited for being ahead of the curve for making music videos, but it was the one and only MTv ( not even availabke in my area of the country- I had to record hours of MTv visiting relatives in Massachusetts, to bring home to Virginia, long befire it arrived on cable here. Mtv brought you bands, and their songs in a new light. They also brought fashion. But more importantly, Mtv, great bands, great.albums and songs, great videos, brought me into Moody Blues and Buggles fandom. And who would thought after all these years seeing a guy on t.v. playing keyboards in The Buggles, and ASIA would be calling me by name. Pretty much impossibke without the intruction of Mtv, when actual music videos were being played. It was an amaxing time, amazing music, and being exposed to so much music, I ended up loving, buying , and seeing shows, buying merch, and living the fashionable lifestyle. Fun times, and plenty young women. Fun times.

[luvyesmusic]

Reminds me of 8th grade. "Gemini Dream" is awful close to 80s ELO, isn't it? "The Voice" is one of their greatest tunes.

That's what I love about seeing YES, so many other great, classic bands I woukd never have seen, otherwise, The last tour, A Royal Affair had John Lodge on board, and while no Justin on stage, it was a true highlight hearing and seeing John and company perform Gemini Dream right in front and above me. I was right back in high school. John Lodge is a true rockstar; still.

[Tangram]

I was a little too young for the Big 7 albums when they were released, but I did know of the hits when I got into high school. I was a big fan of John Hayward’s voice so I ended up getting all 7 at one time. I have to admit that with repeated playing, I found them overrated with some of the lyrics being cringeworthy.

I skipped Octave but did pick up Long Distance Voyager. I played the heck out of this album. Talking Out of Turn, The Voice, Gemini Dream, while they might have the 80’s production polish are all very good songs. The final 3 songs by Ray Thomas were a welcome surprise.

Long Distance Coyager is my favorite Moodies album.

[Piskie]

I was a big Moodies fan in the mid 70s, but by the time this one came out I was listening to bands like the Jam. I've caught up with this and most of their later albums since and agree with the comments about the 80s production - the tunes are good but they have lost their edge- particularly in the lyrics which are becoming formulaic.

[happytheman]

Yikes. I’m glad to see the positivity for this era of The Moody Blues however, my take on this timeline is radically different.

The day they hooked up with Patrick Moraz was not a good day. Long Distance Voyager was a poor effort compared to everything before, the songs were cheesy and slapped together. The effort to create hits was over the top from a production and engineering standpoint. Moraz’ contributions were annoying and his patches weren’t his best work, I don’t think they were working together and felt to me it was 4 vs 1 right off the bat.

That didn’t stop me from supporting the tour as I saw 3 shows. I don’t have anything nice to say about the quality of performance and actually, the only thing memorable about the shows were the fans all around me bitching about the same stuff I was thinking. Every band has an off night and it’s happened to me numerous times but from top to bottom, the LDV experience was very disappointing for me.
The critics liked it and this release did give them a deserved rebirth. For this I am happy. Unfortunately, the package went over my head.

Patrick Moraz. I own Refugee and to me, this is his best work but that’s it. He was uninterested with Yes. His efforts with the Moodies was lazy. Seems to be a common theme.

This nature of this subject is touchy to me, I’m new to the community and I don’t want to cross the line with my music criticism. Maybe it’s not the correct place to call it as I saw it and apologize if this is the case. And as always, I could be mistaken. Let’s see where it goes!

Agree on both points.. but why did the guys bring Moraz on board..there were plenty of keyboardist available at the time. Personally I took the album for what it was.. pleasant listen, very of it's "time".. Bravo the '80's

[arturs]

Patrick Moraz. I own Refugee and to me, this is his best work but that’s it. He was uninterested with Yes. His efforts with the Moodies was lazy. Seems to be a common theme.

Boy do I disagree with this one. IMHO Patrick is one of prog's true geniuses. Happy to elaborate if anyone wants to go there. And Psilo I'll tell you we're a pretty friendly group. So feel free to raise sincere controversial perspectives. As long as it is done reasonably politely (we're no hoity toity country club!) it's what makes PE fun.

[Dan Roth]

Patrick Moraz. I own Refugee and to me, this is his best work but that’s it. He was uninterested with Yes. His efforts with the Moodies was lazy. Seems to be a common theme.

I disagree with your take on his work with Yes, and many of his solo albums really strike a chord with me. Regarding his work being "lazy" with the Moodies, I would say by his own admission that he was restricted a bit of what he could contribute. I enjoyed what he brought to the band that freshened their sound quite a bit, but clearly his time with them was some of the least challenging work that he has done in his career.

From the infamous 1991 Keyboard Magazine Interview:

"I've stayed with the Moodies for many reasons", Patrick muses. "They have good songs. They're a good band live. We've had some fun. But nowadays, they seem to be stagnant. They don't offer any musical challenge whatsoever to me. For example, in 13 years with them, I've written, like, half a song with the drummer. That's been my allowance. And it takes many months to come from gestation to finished product with the Moodies. When I played that little Minimoog part on "In MY World" the fourth number on Long Distance Voyager, I did it in one take; it took everyone else about 6 weeks to record their parts."

"Everybody wants to play keyboards now", he fumes "because it's become so easy. Everybody plays pads and so on. In the Moodies, everybody wants to sequence. The producer doesn't even like to play with musicians anymore, he wants to sequence everything himself, note for note. In a way, I've been caught in my own game."

"Up to last year, the show with the Moody Blues was devised to give the listener both old nostalgic material and new, emotionally charged songs. This allowed me to have pre-programmed, pre-sequenced songs onstage, which were triggered by the drummer's system. But if I'm going to play my own music in front on an audience, I'm going to take the risk of playing half of the concert every night alone with my keyboards, doing instant composition."

[Mister Triscuits]

But I’d also say I didn’t think Octave was that dreadful.

I was unaware until this thread that Octave was so poorly regarded. I've never owned it (or any of the post-Sojourn albums for that matter) but I remember really liking "I'll Be Level with You" and thinking "Steppin' in a Slide Zone" was a trifle off-brand but a pleasant enough chug. What little I heard from The Present, now that was dreadful.

[Progatron]

What little I heard from The Present, now that was dreadful.

I love the opening track Blue World!

[Dan Roth]

What little I heard from The Present, now that was dreadful.

I love the opening track Blue World!

I really enjoy Blue World and the Ray Thomas contributions of I Am/Sorry (love the lyrics - "Sorry is a word that only ever means "Forgive my yesterdays"). Sitting at the Wheel was the single and got considerable airplay at least on Philly radio at the time, but I thought that was a pretty weak, though catchy, track.

[Trane]

I disagree with your take on his work with Yes, and many of his solo albums really strike a chord with me. Regarding his work being "lazy" with the Moodies, I would say by his own admission that he was restricted a bit of what he could contribute. I enjoyed what he brought to the band that freshened their sound quite a bit, but clearly his time with them was some of the least challenging work that he has done in his career.

From the infamous 1991 Keyboard Magazine Interview:

"I've stayed with the Moodies for many reasons", Patrick muses. "They have good songs. They're a good band live. We've had some fun. But nowadays, they seem to be stagnant. They don't offer any musical challenge whatsoever to me. For example, in 13 years with them, I've written, like, half a song with the drummer. That's been my allowance. And it takes many months to come from gestation to finished product with the Moodies. When I played that little Minimoog part on "In MY World" the fourth number on Long Distance Voyager, I did it in one take; it took everyone else about 6 weeks to record their parts."

I'd also agree that one shouldn't compare his stay with Yes and TMB.
Even if he didn't fit in totally with Yes (cultural reasons probably interfering), he would've probably stayed with the band if he wasn't set aside with the return of Wankerman (and his few-selling albums of the times - the 6 Wives, Journey and Round Table days were over) who had the same manager as Yes did. Furthermore Yes was more used to accommodating newcomers the TMB were. After all the group had a stable line-up from 67 until his arrival.
So he definitely wasn't given his space as a songwriter and instrumentalist. I understand that the song selection on an album was always a bit of a tension moment, given that they were separately credited and all 5 members wanted their fair share. So the new Swiss guy was probably told not to meddle in.

That Classic Artists documentary had Edge calling Moraz 'the mad Swiss git'. (This documentary showed a few of these guys are not necessarily the 'peace and love' merchants their lyrics might suggest!)

That Polydor Years box cover with Moraz airbrushed out was shocking.

They certainly didn't dress like hippies (not that this is necessarily a bad thing), but you'd swear they raided their dad's wardrobes for promo pic sessions in their first golden era. Too lazy to check/investigate if the picture they put up front was realistic or just a show. (I'd rather let your diffetrent opinions on the subject)

As for the airbrush, yeah it shows how low they could stoop, but then again on Moraz's own admission, his part on the overall œuvre was minimal, so it's not like brushing out DDY on a Styx boxset.

[pb2015]

Agree on both points.. but why did the guys bring Moraz on board..there were plenty of keyboardist available at the time.

I suppose the Moodies wanted a "name" prog keyboardist and I'm not sure who else was available other than Moraz. FWIW I always liked Long Distance Voyager for the songs (Moraz's parts didn't make much of a difference for me one way or the other). I've only heard a bit of Octave so I may check that out sometime too to see if it compares poorly to their others.

[JJ88]

That Classic Artists documentary had Edge calling Moraz 'the mad Swiss git'. (This documentary showed a few of these guys are not necessarily the 'peace and love' merchants their lyrics might suggest!)

That Polydor Years box cover with Moraz airbrushed out was shocking.

[pb2015]

Robert (aka Bobby) Martin who played in Frank Zappa's band in the 80's played french horn on one track on Octave. He mentioned that the Moodies worked slowly so they were surprised when he did all his parts in one session.

[Staun]

Great album, great album cover. Who did it? Sort of reminds me of Storm Corrosion.

[Mister Triscuits]

Here's the original "Punch" by Thomas Webster, ca. 1840.

[Dave (in MA)]

That Polydor Years box cover with Moraz airbrushed out was shocking.

They took part of Edge's left arm and flipped it horizontally to reconstruct the part of Thomas' right arm that had been behind Moraz, and did something similar with the vegetation.

[Dave (in MA)]

The highlight of the '81 tour that sticks in my mind was the extended piano/drums/flute instrumental part in the middle of Legend of a Mind. If memory serves, Hayward and Lodge left the stage for that part. I recall some ladies at work the next day complaining that it didn't sound just like the record.

edit: I guess for a couple of minutes, it was a flute/piano improv.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LsF9HJpScA

[BravadoNJ]

wow 40 years! have to admit 1981 was a great year for rock bands!
Long Distance Voyager was a strong album (even John Lodge's songs were good)
Gemini Dream was my least favorite, but all the others were great.
In My World my favorite. and The Voice was incredible.
Patrick Moraz brought a lot of great Keys to their sound bringing them into the 80's.

[Koreabruce]

wow 40 years! have to admit 1981 was a great year for rock bands!
Long Distance Voyager was a strong album (even John Lodge's songs were good)
Gemini Dream was my least favorite, but all the others were great.
In My World my favorite. and The Voice was incredible.
Patrick Moraz brought a lot of great Keys to their sound bringing them into the 80's.

I totally agree with this.

[DrGoon]

It certainly changed the course of their career. They never had another UK top ten album or UK sales certification after this one, and most of their future success (and touring) came from the US and Canada. While I prefer their early work by a wide margin, you can't fault their career choices from an economic standing.

[happytheman]

They took part of Edge's left arm and flipped it horizontally to reconstruct the part of Thomas' right arm that had been behind Moraz, and did something similar with the vegetation.

boxset.jpg
That's cold..

[ThomasKDye]

Speaking of the Moodies taking a tip from ELO... "Running Water" from The Present makes me think of "Midnight Blue" from ELO's Discovery. They're not melodically the same but they definitely have the same energy.