The Moody Blues - Look Out (1966)

The Moody Blues formed in 1964 in Erdington, a suburb of Birmingham, and started as a trio called El Riot And The Rebels, consisting of Ray Thomas, a young John Lodge and (occasionally) Mike Pinder. They disbanded when Lodge went to technical college and Pinder joined the army, but after his spell in the forces, Pinder rejoined Thomas to form the Krew Cats, who played the Hamburg circuit, not altogether successfully. Back from this disappointing spell in Hamburg, the pair recruited guitarist/vocalist Denny Laine and band manager-turned-drummer Graeme Edge, with John Lodge being approached to be the bassist, which he declined as he was still in college. They instead recruited bassist Clint Warwick, and this five-piece appeared as The Moody Blues for the first time in Birmingham in 1964. The band soon obtained a London-based management company, 'Ridgepride', formed by Alex Murray (Alex Wharton), who had been in the A&R division of Decca Records, and they signed a recording contract in the spring of 1964 with Ridgepride, which then leased their recordings to Decca. They released 'Steal Your Heart Away' as a single, and appeared on the cult TV programme 'Ready Steady Go!' singing the uptempo b-side 'Lose Your Money (But Don't Lose your Mind)'. It was their second single, however, that launched their career, with 'Go Now' becoming a hit in Britain, where it remains their only No. 1 single, and also in the United States, where it reached No. 10. The band encountered management problems after the chart-topping hit and subsequently signed to Decca Records in the UK (London Records in the US) directly as recording artists, and a four-track EP was released which featured both sides of their first two Decca singles. 

Their debut album 'The Magnificent Moodies', produced by Denny Cordell, was released on Decca in mono only in 1965, and contained the hit single together with one side of classic R&B covers, and a second side that including four Laine-Pinder originals. The band followed the album with a series of relatively unsuccessful singles, although they did enjoy a minor British hit with a cover of 'I Don't Want To Go On Without You' in February 1965, while the Pinder/Laine original 'From the Bottom Of My Heart (I Love You)' was issued as a UK single in May 1965 and did a little better at No. 22. In June 1966, Warwick retired from the group and the music business, and was briefly replaced by Rod Clark, but in early October Denny Laine also left the band, prompting Decca to release 'Boulevard de la Madeleine' a few days later, as The Moody Blues seemed to be disintegrating. In the November 1966 issue of Hit Week, Dutch interviewers Hans van Rij and Emie Havers reported that The Moody Blues had been in the process of recording their second album 'Look Out', and under the direction of their producer Denny Cordell at least ten tracks were completed before the sessions were abandoned and the album was shelved, never to be released. The band's contract with Decca required them to record enough songs for a minimum number of singles and albums, and despite unpredictable changes taking place within the group by the summer of 1966, they were still bound by this contract. 

Obviously hoping to get some return from their investment, Decca issued a few of the Cordell recordings as singles between 1966 and 1967, with others on the flips. Mike Pinder and Denny Laine could be considered the "Lennon and McCartney" of the group by this time with all the original titles composed by them, with a track like 'Sad Song' being a wonderful composition featuring Laine's characteristic mournful lead vocal and tasteful flute playing from Ray Thomas. The band recorded one cover, of Tim Hardin's 'How Can We Hang On To A Dream', making two attempts to get it right, and another great Pinder/Laine recording from the summer 1966 sessions is 'Jago & Jilly', which is based around a waltz tempo - seemingly popular with the group at the time. Lyrically, it's a love song sung by Laine who does a fine job on the vocal as well as supplying intricate guitar work. 'We're Broken' is distinctive for its distorted 'fuzz' guitar sound similar to what The Spencer Davis Group used for 'Keep On Running', and two of the songs recorded at the final recording session became the single 'Lfe's Not Life'/'He Can Win'. Mike Pinder takes the lead on his own composition 'I Really Haven't Got The Time', and the version here is the first known recording, and pre-dates the one most fans will be familiar with. The songs from these sessions have finally been unearthed and added to a recent re-issue of 'The Magnificent Moodies', and so with the addition of the non-album single 'Leave This Man Alone' / 'Love And Beauty', we can finally hear what their actual second album could have sounded like if Decca hadn't shelved it for what they no doubt considered a valid reason at the time.    

Track listing

01 Sad Song
02 This Is My House (But Nobody Calls)
03 How Can We Hang On To A Dream
04 Jago & Jilly
05 We're Broken
06 Send The People Away (People Gotta Go)
07 Life's Not Life
08 He Can Win
09 Boulevard de la Madeleine
10 Red Wine
11 I Really Haven't Got The Time
12 Love And Beauty
13 Leave This Man Alone