01 Fly Me High (single 1967)
02 (Really Haven't) Got The Time (b-side to 'Fly Me High')
03 Love And Beauty (single 1967)
04 Leave This Man Alone (b-side to 'Love And Beauty')
05 Cities (b-side to 'Nights In White Satin')
06 Kings And Queens (out-take 1968)
07 Long Summer Days (out-take 1967)
08 Please Think About It (out-take 1967)
09 Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood (un-released BBC recording)
10 Mike's Number One (out-take 1970)
11 The Dreamer (out-take 1971)
12 Island (out-take 1972)
It's nice to hear the progression of the band, starting with those two singles, through to tracks recorded in the 'Days...' sessions and never used, and ending up with a couple of fine recordings from their later period which didn't see the light of day until remastered editions of the albums started to appear.
Greetings! Followed you over here from Soniclovenoize's exquisite and I-hope-ain't-dead blog!
ReplyDeleteAh yeah, the Moodies. I knew about their two post-Denny Laine singles and other rarities from their Mellotron period for quite a long time now. It's really odd because there's really not a whole lot written on these songs. They've trickled out of the vaults over the years (1977's Caught Live +5, 1987's Prelude, and some didn't get released until the mid-2000's deluxe releases of their Mellotron albums) but to this day, I still don't know the full stories behind them. Between that, the lack of Moodies bootlegs, and the lack of demo/early take type of goodies, I Question the Balance here. Somebody doesn't really want us studying the Moodies too close...
Anyway, near as I can figure, here's my theories on these tracks (based on a lot of research and a little speculation):
Fly Me High
I Really Haven't Got The Time
Love And Beauty
Leave This Man Alone
Long Summer Days
Please Think About It
Cities
All recorded shortly before or during the Days of Future Passed sessions. It's interesting that "Long Summer Days", "Please Think About It", and "Cities" have all appeared in stereo over the years, but not the others. I wonder if the master tapes of the first four "Mark Two" Moody singles still exist (the others obviously survived) and it's just a matter of somebody begging Justin Hayward enough...
I wonder if some of these were intended for Days of Future Passed... before the "record a beat-pop Dvorak at Decca" opportunity came. You can't tell me their early Days show only consisted of 8 songs...
Give Me A Little Something
King and Queen
What Am I Doing Here?
A Simple Game
These four (you should check out the others if you haven't heard of them) I think were meant for the original follow up of "In Search of the Lost Chord", late in 1968. They put down four tracks (maybe more), then *something happened* (so little written on these chaps) and they went on hold and/or tour until they recorded "On The Threshold of a Dream" (which they recorded in about three weeks, crazily enough). The information is really sketchy, though. We just don't know what happened...
Mike's Number One
I'm assuming that's what was written on the tape box: written by Mike Pinder and maybe they felt it would be a #1 single. Maybe it actually had a title, maybe not. An outtake from "A Question of Balance" by all indications.
The Dreamer
An outtake from "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour", co-written between Justin Hayward and Ray Thomas. I suspect they went instead with "Nice To Be Here" to make the album slightly less pessimistic.
Island
This one's actually from 1973. Apparently, the Moodies started work on a follow-up to "Seventh Sojourn" but stopped, possibly because they weren't satisfied with their work. This song apparently is the only one they completed... but one wonders what lies unfinished in the vaults...
Thank you!
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