Sunday, February 05, 2006

The Moody Blues: Bye Bye Bird (London)


If you're used to the so-called "symphonic rock" sounds of this group, then a listen to this could come as quite a shock. This is the flipside to the follow-up ("Stop") of the Moodies' first big hit "Go Now" (which itself has a killer B called "Lose Your Money"). You'd never in a million years believe the Moody Blues could ever sound this wild.

That's probably because, with singer Denny Laine at the helm, the Moody Blues were a pop act with a blues base. "Bye Bye Bird" is a Willie Dixon composition which gets a particularly raucous workout here. Frantic keyboards, crazy harmonica, drums coming at you at warp speed and Laine's shrieking "Bye Bye Bird" all over the place are the elements that characterize the whomping you get in these grooves.

Soon after this, Laine left the group, two more members joined, they recorded the "Days of Future Passed" LP with a symphony orchestra and the rest is history. But let's not go there, shall we? Let's instead play this and speculate what the Moody Blues could've been had they not gone over to the dark side.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey brian...i just saw this old post of yours from garagepunk.com "The flip is of Nelda Price and the Moonglows doing "Let's Have A Party," which is the reason I originally bought this in the first place, having heard a sample of it on a dealer's site on eBay. But I like the instrumental "Sugar Booger" side a whole lot better. For the record, this is Ponca 45-101, in case you needed the number"...my dad was in the Skeptics and I have been looking for some 45's or anyone who can make me a disc of whatever music that they recorded. I would love to hear their songs and unfortunately I have had a really hard time finding anyone who owns any of it. by the way- bobby shivel just recently passed away in batlesville, ok. (where i was raised). my email address is blford@sbcglobal.net. thanks for any help.

Anonymous said...

07967996590 Dont forget to put 141 before this number. ha ha