Review of The Moody Blues' In Search Of The Lost Chord

Released 1968

"Timothy Leary's dead. No, no, no, no, He's outside looking in. Timothy Leary's dead. No, no, no, no, He's outside looking in. He'll fly his astral plane, Takes you trips around the bay, Brings you back the same day, Timothy Leary. Timothy Leary".

This is another album which, although I first encountered it a couple of years before, I didn't fully appreciate until it it was on one side of a C90, (I think the flip side was On The Threshold Of A Dream) and playing in the background whilst studying in Glasgow.

Before fully falling under the spell of The Moodies, I was hooked on their sleeve designs. I've mentioned in previous postings that I was long term caretaker to a friends box of vinyl. This contained an almost complete set of the 'classic' era ie: prior to Patrick Moraz joining them, fresh from Yes. There were very few of their contemporaries who could out prog The Moody Blues during this period. On many levels, they were in a league of their own when it came to full-blown concept albums; terrific artwork, lyrics that rivalled Jon Anderson's in terms of outright unintelligibility, scope of ambition and in terms of progression in its truest form. Although often scoffed at by many, The Moody Blues did a huge amount to actually 'progress' the pop/rock music form between 1967 and 1972/3 in particular. Certainly more than they are usually given credit for.

I consider the artwork for this record to be one of the defining icons of the classic psychedelic prog era. Anyone dabbling in Eastern Philosophies or transcendental meditation for it's own sake - and that accounts for a significant number of students, especially in the late sixties and early seventies will have been drawn both by the artwork and the sentiment expressed by the album's cunning title. It may all be seriously daft and utterly up itself, but why not? If it's accomplished, which I believe it is, then ultimately it will stand the test of time and gain respect, at least amongst us sad prog rock musos.

Like several of The Moodies albums of this era, it kicks off with a manic spoken passage. In this case, there is the brief strumming of a harp, a sustained mellotron chord growing more aggressive as the narrator speech descends into diabolical laughter. Ride My See Saw is played by the band in concert to this day, 200 years later. Taken by itself, it could be mistaken for a classic single by any of their contemporaries. I personally hear a lot of The Yardbirds in this. As with the rest of the album - and many from The Moodies collection - the production on the vocal is horribly dated and takes some getting used to.

This morphs into Dr Livingstone, I Presume. The esteemed Doctor-explorer is used figuratively: after all the album is about searching in all its manifest ways. Grand harmonies, very Ringo-like drumming (that's a compliment, by the why). The guitar solo is very Roger McGuinn; again another compliment. So far, largely pop orientated.

House Of Four Doors, Part 1, is the album's first real high point with the mellotron taking a more important role. The tapping tambourine ties it back firmly to the sixties, while the use of sound effects, the flute passages, the numerous changes in tempo and the lush harpsichord, all lean firmly towards a very progressive new decade. The emphatic orchestral break at around three minutes in, is as effective a progressive interlude as anything Yes or early King Crimson achieved a year or two later.

Legend Of A Mind 'borrows' very heavily from George Harrison eastern influence on The Beatles. Justin Hayward plays the sitar, mimics Lennon's vocal delivery whilst espousing the virtues of every one's favourite pharmacist, Timothy Leary.

The gorgeous second part of the last but one track, remains bewitchingly beautiful. As a quick aside, listening to an album whilst reviewing it is not to be recommended. I am an unashamed sentimentalist who often wells up when confronted with much of the masterful moments I am proud to listen to.

Voices In The Sky may be a (relatively) well known pop single, but both as part of the album and as a stand alone track, it is one of the earliest examples of The Moodies excellent knack for a simple timeless classic.

Again, The Best Way To Travel owes a large debt to The Beatles, although, and this may be somewhat contentious, it succeeds for me as pure prog, where John, Paul, George and Ringo, in my humble opinion held back in this regard.

The last four tracks of the album up the prog anti further, with more flute, layer upon layer of mellotron, harps, sitars and more sound effects. It would be very difficult for Barclay James Harvest - the eternally tagged 'Poor Man's Moody Blues' - to defend their protestations that they weren't blatantly copying harmonic structures and mellotron motifs wholesale from TMB on the basis of this side of vinyl.

The Word (unsurprisingly, perhaps) is another spoken word passage is straight out of the book of pretentious album structures. Not a track you'd listen to in the company of anyone who owns anything by Dido, Coldplay or Travis, for sure.

Om is pretty much what you'd expect from a late sixties album by The Moody Blues. It does fall apart in the middle and it is the only part of the record where you'd be forgiven for looking at your watch or peering over your shoulder in shame. Bless them.

As a whole, it is a really very good record. I am willing to forgive them the odd indulgence. Or three.