Search - Moody Blues :: The Magnificent Moodies

All 26 tracks....great music, but not the best sounding tape

B. Margolis | Minneapolis, MN United States | 08/11/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I have been eagerly awaiting Repertoire's new updated "Magnificent Moodies" (REP-5077), which arrived today.



Tracks are:

1.I'll Go Crazy

2.Something You Got

3.Go Now!

4.Can't Nobody Love You

5.I Don't Mind

6.I've Got A Dream

7.Let Me Go

8.Stop

9.Thank You Baby

10.It Ain't Necessarily So

11.True Story

12.Bye Bye Burd

13.People Gotta Go

14.Steal Your Heart Away

15.Lose Your Money (But Don't Lose Your Mind)

16.It's Easy Child

17.I Don't Want To Go On Without You

18.Time It On My Side

19.From The Bottom of My Heart (I Love You)

20.And My Baby's Gone

21.Everyday

22.You Don't (All The Time)

23.Boulevard De La Madeleine

24.This Is My House (But Nobody Calls)

25.Life's Not Life

26.He Can Win



The original Moody Blues recordings have always sounded murky and second (or third) generation, and unfortunately, although they DID make some sonic improvements, they still sound pretty awful. (I read somewhere that Mike Pinder, an original member was quoted as saying that these sides were professionally recorded on multi-track and he doesn't know why they don't sound better....)



Here's what they fixed:



"I've Got A Dream" - brighter than other reissues...more like other tracks.

"Stop", "Everyday" and "You Don't" - they got rid of most of the tape hiss.

"People Gotta Go" - a rare track only issued on a 1966 French E.P. It was recorded at the final Laine session.



Here's what they HAVEN'T fixed:



"Boulevard De La Madaleine" - I believe that is the correct spelling...not Madelaine and this track NEVER faded in (taking nearly 20 second to get up to the proper audio level....only after John Tracy did the original Decca/London anthology in 1988. BEFORE that reissue, the UK single, the US single and the rechanneled track on "World Of" LP did NOT fade in.)



John Tracy's late 1980's reissues, besides containing silly liner notes, had an engineer that enjoyed fading in tracks that started at full volume. (This is occured on "Something Better" by Marianne Faithfull and "Laughing Fit To Cry" by The Fortunes.)



So....their reissue is about the best I've heard on CD, and contains all 26 tracks The Denny Laine-era Moody Blues recorded...but not the sparkling quality I've come to expect from Repertoire.



Pity....a major disappointment for me....The Denny Laine Moody Blues sessions are among my favorite 1960's UK recordings....BUT STILL WORTHWHILE BUYING.

"

The Moody Blues First Album Reissued!!!

Louie Bourland | Garden Grove CA | 08/01/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Before the mellotrons, concept albums and psychedelic imagery, The Moody Blues were a rock-solid Mersey Beat band that found their initial success during the British Invasion with their first hit single "Go Now".

"The Magnificent Moodies" was the only album that The Moody Blues released during this period along with a handful of singles that mostly went nowhere. Looking back, although this has somewhat become an underrated and not so talked about period in the band's history, "The Magnificent Moodies" is still a solid release and ranks up there with anything by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who.

The latest reissue "The Magnificent Moodies" features all 12 tracks from the original mono album along with 14 bonus tracks from the same period. It basically includes everything that was released by the original band and essentially offers a complete history of the music of the early Moody Blues.

In addition, the remastered sound is amazing which makes all other reissues redundant. If you've never owned or heard the original Moody Blues and/or if you thought the band's history started with "Days Of Future Passed", this latest reissue of "The Magnificent Moodies" is the ideal place to start.

After the release of this album as well as several flopped singles, both Denny Laine and bassist Clint Warwick left the band to be replaced by Justin Hayward and John Lodge who paved the way for The Moody Blues as we know them today. This early period of the band quietly slipped into obscurity."

The best place to get this music -- if you really want it, t

R. Josef | New Haven, CT United States | 01/09/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"The original Moody Blues -- guitarist and principal vocalist Denny Laine, pianist/vocalist Mike Pinder, drummer Graeme Edge, bassist Clint Warwick and Ray Thomas (wind instruments, vocals) -- had only one hit single in 1965. That song, a cover of Bessie Banks'"Go Now", would prove impossible to follow up. Neither the following singles or the LP "Magnificent Moodies" would come close to reaching the top 40 in the US or the UK.



Repetoire has now reissued the 12 track album on this CD, along with 14 other tracks that had been released only on singles, many only in Europe -- all the songs recorded by the first lineup. This reissue is the first to contain the French EP track, "People Gotta Go", by far the rarest Moodies track. It's pretty typical British Invasion music, with the primary distinction being that the sound is centered more on Pinder's piano than guitar.



When listening to this stuff, it's understandable why this version of the group never really made it -- they weren't all that good. Laine was a very soulful vocalist and Pinder an OK pianist, but the guys, even for the era, were very limited musicians. Some of the covers sound pretty thin, and Laine/Pinder weren't exactly Lennon/McCartney in the songwriting department. Besides the wonderful "Go Now", there are only three other tracks that rank up there as classics. "Time Is On My Side" is a more upbeat version than that by the Stones; "From the Bottom of My Heart" is a haunting acoustic number; and "Boulevard de la Madeleine", their next to the last single, is a gorgeous ballad. This is the only track here that hints at any progression or sophistication from the band. By the time it came out, though, Laine and Warwick had left, resulting in two key replacements that would eventually catapult the group to a new level of sucess.



Moodies hardcores will want this CD. Otherwise, very few Moody Blues fans would consider it worth the effort, even though there are a few gems here.











"