Two weeks ago we began a look at the Moody Blues’ last eight studio albums, continuing a series begun a couple of months before. Last week I interrupted that with a music post about a Russian group Cedar Sanderson recommended, but this week I’d like to complete the series.
The Moody Blues’ thirteenth studio album, “Sur La Mer“, came out in 1988. From it, here’s “Want To Be With You”.
They followed that album with 1991’s “Keys of the Kingdom“. My favorite track from it is “Bless the Wings (That Bring You Back)”.
By now the Moody Blues had begun to decline in the charts, after well over two decades of popularity. Younger audiences with different tastes had embraced new forms of pop music. Nevertheless, the group remained popular with its long-standing fans, and continued to issue music.
Its popularity was underlined with the release of a live album, “A Night at Red Rocks with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra“, in 1992, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the issue of the group’s second album (and first with a symphony orchestra, and still perhaps their most famous), “Days of Future Passed“, in 1967. The entire performance is available on YouTube. Even though this series is about the Moody Blues’ studio albums, I can’t resist the temptation to insert one track from this live recording. It’s “Question”, from the group’s sixth (1970) album “A Question of Balance“.
The group released its fifteenth album, “Strange Times“, in 1999. From it, here’s “Sooner or Later (Walkin’ on Air)”.
The group’s sixteenth and final studio album, “December“, was issued in 2003. It’s themed around the Christmas celebration, and was their first to issue covers of others’ songs as well as their own. Here’s how the Moody Blues interpreted Bach in “The Quiet Of Christmas Morning”.
The Moody Blues are still performing, but haven’t released a new album since 2003. Their annual cruises, accompanied by other supporting acts, have become very popular with their fans.
It’s strange to think that I remember “Days of Future Passed” when it came out in 1967, to become an immediate smash hit all over the world. That was 54 years ago! Sometimes I feel old . . . However, like the Moody Blues, I’m still chuggin’ along.
Peter
Hey Peter;
their "Greatest Hits" is still a favorite of mine, it exposed me to their earlier stuff, I knew them from "Knights in White Satin" from the disco era and of course the "Your Wildest Dreams" that was so popular while I was in AIT, so while I was in Germany i bought the CD and burned it onto a cassette and wore that thing oout on the autobahns for 5 years. I still have the tape upstairs in my bonus room along with my cassette players, And they still work! Go Old School.
'67 was when I entered the AF for Officer Training. I had 8 years as a mole man, and all my 33 missile sites, but two have been destroyed; they are now open for visitation,the bigger one is https://titanmissilemuseum.org/ in Arizona, though one (Minuteman-Modernized) is on/below Whiteman AFB, MO.