Photo: By Michael Borkson [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
The Moody Blues released their first album in 1965 entitled The Magnificent Moodies . However, it was their second album released in 1967 entitled Days of Future Passed that catapulted the band into the spotlight. From that point on, The Moody Blues release an cannon of brilliant albums such as In Search of the Lost Chord (1968), On the Threshold of a Dream (1969),To Our Children’s Children’s Children (1969), A Question of Balance (1970), Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (1971) and Seventh Sojourn (1972). Those seven albums alone should have easily had the band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. However, the band continued on up until the year 2003 releasing eight more albums.
While progressive rock became a dominant force in the rock and roll world during the 1960s and 70’s, The Moody Blues took the genre even further in the way they utilized an instrument called the Mellotron. The band’s orchestral arrangements and beautifully written melodies and lyrics were bathed in lush orchestrations that set them apart from all the other progressive rock groups of the era. Rock fans fell in love with the Moody Blues. No other band sounded anything like the Moody Blues. Not only did they utilize strings in such beautiful ways, the musicianship of the band was outstanding. The songs were brilliantly written and arranged. Their vocals and spoken word introductions to some of their classic were of another world. This was a band for the ages, and bands for the ages should always be enshrined forever.
There have been many bands ignored and still ignored by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that have made us shake our heads to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s ignorance. The failure to notice the Moody Blues has made us shake our heads the hardest.