Symphonic and Space: The Moody Blues and Pink Floyd

 

            Who’d think of combining rock music with symphony into one package? The boys from Birmingham, England who called themselves The Moody Blues thought that one up. Who’s laying down those crazy keyboards and guitars while the vocalist sings about topics that are out of the ordinary? Well that’s London’s very own Pink Floyd. The beginning is always different than the overall picture, and this can be said for both bands. The Moody Blues started off as your typical R&B band, something that was very popular on the other side of the Atlantic at the time. Pink Floyd really was playing their own brand from the get go. Both groups definitely evolved in the true progressive vein, and found their stride come the late 1960’s.  Looking back, these two bands proved to be true pioneers in the psychedelic/progressive rock movement, yet they had considerably different sounds.

                1964 saw these two bands arrive on the music scene. The Moody Blue’s first album, “The Magnificent Moodies”, came out the next year.  This album has almost no relation to what is to follow in their discography. The album was the standard R&B tunes they’d been playing live for over a year, but it did feature some vocal harmony that later led them to their acclaimed sound. The songs were a mix of covers and originals. Though this is the least spoken of release in their line-up, it had a hit that shot to number one in the UK, and number ten in the US. This song was the crooning “Go Now”.  At this point, Pink Floyd was touring the underground venues frequently, but had yet to record an album. Nonetheless, they were gaining attention.

Talk of new music such as psychedelic and experimental rock music hit music headlines, and The Moodies and Floyd explored such music in their respective studios.   1967 was a defining year in music and in the world. Vietnam was in full bore.  Aside from marijuana, LSD had taken its role in the music scene. The Moody Blues were being considered one-hit wonders at the time, and they knew something had to give.  All that changed when they recorded a full blown concept album based on the life of an everyday man called “Days of Future Passed”.  Each song represented a part of the day, and the song “Nights in White Satin” was a huge hit. The release was one of the first concept albums in rock, and a watermark in the progressive movement. The album was a terrific meld of orchestration and rock. Moody Blues keyboardist Mike Pinder played a keyboard called the Mellotron. This instrument replicated orchestrated sounds, and went on to define the group’s sound.  That same year, Pink Floyd finally released their first studio album, “Piper at the Gates of Dawn”.  Syd Barret’s childlike lyrics along with spaced-out instrumentation and strange studio effects proved to be the perfect concoction for a psychedelic rock album. These two bands were putting this underground British music movement on the map.

            Likewise, both groups’ efforts from 1967 had many people taking interest in these new forms of rock music.  The Moody Blues had number one hits in the album and singles categories. “Nights in White Satin” really boosted this band’s fan base. They now had their own record label, Threshold Records (Progarchives).  Pink Floyd, on the other hand, were not quite as popular. Their spaced-out sound simply wasn’t as radio friendly. Main songwriter, Syd Barret, had been released from the band due to his increasing mental illness due to a copious intake of LSD. Regardless, they were releasing albums year-in, year-out, just like The Moody Blues. Forward a few years. The Moody Blues continued having success with their lush, symphonic concept albums. Pink Floyd started work on what was become their commercial breakthrough, “Dark Side of the Moon”. Gone were the whimsical lyrics and erratic, strange sounds. The band had opted for a mellower, constructed sound, with bits of hard rock thrown in. Psychedelic rock was fading with the times. Progressive rock artists were springing up all over the place, but especially in the United Kingdom. The Moody Blues and Pink Floyd had both started in the psychedelic mold, and eventually progressed. They were among the top-selling acts in the same genre, yet they sounded unalike. That’s progressive rock.

            When looking at how these two groups played, there’s quite a contrast.  The Moody Blues placed more emphasis on vocal harmony, and symphony. They had a knack for making loose concept albums, all lush and on the mellow side. Four of the five members sang, so vocals were very much a part of their sound. In Pink Floyd, the vocals weren’t always an integral part of the music. They did a number of instrumentals. Pink Floyd tended to play longer songs, where the main structure of each eventually developed. They were also a little more guitar heavy. I really think Floyd guitarist David Gilmour has a sound unlike any other. Possibly the biggest similarity in these two groups’ sound is their heavy use of keyboards, and the soundscapes their songs often had. Pink Floyd used synthesizers often, where The Moodies had the Mellotron.  Among the many reasons why I love The Moody Blues, it might be the use of the Mellotron that gets me the most.  These bands had an experimental edge that critics often lauded as being “bombast” or “pretentious”. These words are pretty much tags for the genre both groups helped propel. Both emerged and prospered around the same time, just as they both took heavy hits with the arrival of the punk scene in the late 1970’s. Pink Floyd called it quits in 1994, when they released their last studio album, “The Division Bell” (Progarchives). The Moody Blues continue to tour today, and show no signs of stopping. The Moodies and Floyd have made their mark in modern rock, and will not go away as long as there are fans of the genres they fueled.

 

WORKS CITED

Progarchives.com. 8 Dec. 2008 < http://www.progarchives.com/>.

 

 

 

 

Advertisement