I Dreamed Last Night - Justin Hayward & John Lodge, studio track, 1975 + Justin, solo, acoustic, 2004

[highplainsdem]

[George McGovern]

1. I'd never heard this beautiful song before. Reflective, evocative lyrics. Thanks highplainsdem for both videos!

[B.See]

2. Hayward and Lodge

released this album sometime back under the title Blue Jays.

[highplainsdem]

3. You're welcome! I'd wondered if you'd heard this, after seeing your earlier posts about the Moodies.

This was the album Justin and John did during the Moodies' five-year hiatus in the '70s, and they did solo albums then as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Jays_(album)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Hayward

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lodge_(musician)

[George McGovern]

4. I had not highplainsdem. After Seventh Sojourn I kinda "tuned out" to the band for a long while. Thanks!

[highplainsdem]

5. The autumn of '72, when Seventh Sojourn came out, was when I first spent a lot of time listening to

the Moodies, because I fell in love with a Moodies fan, and Jim listened to almost nothing but their music.

My favorite music is usually blues rock. I thought the Beatles were cute and liked their music and even loved some of it - https://www.democraticunderground.com/103465451 - but I listened more to the Animals, the Stones, Yardbirds, Spencer Davis, Cream, Traffic, Clapton, Free, and so on.

It was an abrupt switch to mostly Moodies, because I remember the summer of 1972, I was listening mostly to the Stones, especially Sticky Fingers and Get Yer Ya-Yas Out (such great albums, with Mick Taylor). Making a career decision, which for some reason called for blues rock. And then I fell in love with a Moodies fan with blond hair and beautiful green eyes.

I'd heard the Moodies before that, of course. But I'd never listened to them so much. Jim would have their music playing all the time. If we were out at our favorite hippie bar, I'd head for the jukebox and play Clapton (I could listen to Layla forever), the Grateful Dead, the Kinks, Rod Stewart, but not the Moodies.

I left Jim the next year, had decided I was too addicted to someone who used more drugs than anyone else I'd ever been involved with. Left the state to make sure it wouldn't be easy to get involved with him again. Heard from him occasionally for years, even after he got married (and later divorced).

Didn't particularly want to listen to the Moodies for a while, but gradually went back to listening to them. I still have their early albums too linked to that relationship, since I can never hear any tracks from the albums without remembering Jim.

It was from Jim that I first heard about some Moodies fans being quite strange - convinced the Moodies were time travelers or aliens who were here to enlighten us. (Jim had done a lot of drugs and loved the Moodies but wasn't that crazy.) Years later I met some Moodies fans online, and most just liked their music, but some did view the band as spiritual teachers. Later met somone who knew them and heard from him about some particularly weird fan beliefs and behavior. Certifiably crazy.

From interviews I've read and heard, the Moodies were/are perfectly normal, nice Englishmen who did nothing to encourage their weirder fans. But people were doing a lot of drugs back then...

[George McGovern]

6. Hi highplainsdem -- I just read your reply for the second time through.

But I cannot answer back just yet on account of it's dinnertime and replying is going to take me more than a minute or two. I have long ago memories of the group, one of which involves "Lovely to See You Again". — or is it Again."— I ask your patience therefore.
— Allan

[George McGovern]

7. What stories you tell!

Wow! I just did a third reading. You have retained some intriguing stories involving the Moody Blues! Thanks for sharing your memories! My main Moody Blues memory centers on their album "On the Threshold of a Dream." In particular the song "Lovely to See You" by Justin Hayward. It was my favorite track. Still is. A couple of years after the LPs release I was a freshman at Central Connecticut State College in 1971 and fell hard for a girl named Jan. We became good friends, played ping pong in the dorm to games of one hundred. Listened to the Moody Blues together. Alas she returned home for summer break to her longtime boyfriend and ended up marrying him. And broke my heart. And I never told her. Didn't see the point and suffered in silence. You are, in fact, the only person I've told. Thanks for "listening." — Allan

Speaking still of the Moodies —

Wikipedia has a long retrospective article on "Things We Said Today" — search Wikipedia for Things We Said Today.

Have you ever heard The Beatles - Live at Hollywood bowl? My wife was there! Said she could hardly hear the music beneath the crowd screaming!

On youtube search for: The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl — on youtube click on the blue album on the right. Let me know please if it works out . . .

[highplainsdem]

8. "Lovely To See You" has always been one of my favorite Moodies songs, too. I posted it earlier

this month, but have also posted it in other threads here. A couple of them:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/103478312

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1034107568

What a sweet, and sad, story about the girl you fell for and shared that time with later marrying someone else. But for the best for you, since your marriage has worked out so well.

Thanks for the tip re that Beatles concert!

It's really fun seeing you rediscovering the Moodies. And I'm glad I didn't offend you by mentioning that some Moodies fans are strange. I don't think any of their fans here are like the stranger fans I encountered or heard about.

Btw, there is another subset of Moodies fans I found a bit odd - the ones who loved the Moodies' early albums but didn't like their later albums, especially the ones produced by Tony Visconti, who gave the band the sound they wanted and the hits they needed in the 1980s. I read somewhere that some of those fans staged a walkout at one concert to show their disapproval of the new music, then realized outside the venue just how stupid they'd been, and the Moodies had no sympathy for them acting that way. Justin has made it clear over the years just how much he likes and admires Tony Visconti, and any music fan who knew what a wide range of artists Tony worked with (including the Strawbs) should have known Tony would have produced whatever sound the Moodies wanted. But I've met Moodies fans who think one of the band's biggest hits was more like sacrilege.

[George McGovern]

9. Your posting of Your Wildest Dreams coincides with memories of that long ago gal called Jan. Serendipitous.

I've always loved the juxtaposition of . . ."Once when you were mine I remember skies Reflected in your eyes"
and subsequently . . .
"Once when you were mine I remember skies Mirrored in your eyes"

and of course the sentimentality — "I wonder if you care I wonder if you still remember Once upon a time
In your wildest dreams."

Thank You again so much.

Allan

P.S. What's your given name? Where are your high plains? Thanks

[highplainsdem]

10. Again, you're welcome. I love Justin's songs.

Re your PS - I try not to post anything at all identifiable and easily searchable here after having told some relatives who were getting into nasty political fights on Facebook that I was glad I post here anonymously. A mistake to refer to DU specifically (so glad I didn't tell them my DU name), and I honestly hope they've forgotten the board's name, but I'm not sure they have. Some of them are Trump supporters now. My family can manage get-togethers only by avoiding discussing politics (which is why discussing politics on FB has been disastrous for them). I'm not worried that I can't win arguments with them. I just don't want to have them finding my old posts here and thinking they HAVE to respond. Which with two of them could even mean late-night calls starting, "How the hell could you have said..."

There's a lot to be said for message boards vs Facebook.

But you still have to be careful. Years ago I knew someone who was complaining on another board about some relatives, and they didn't find her posts...till she mentioned a pet with a very unusual, searchable name. And they found what she'd written about them.

Anyway, highplainsdem or HPD is fine. I remember the Magistrate (whom I wish was still with us) called me Sir for a while till I explained that was wrong.

[George McGovern]

11. Of course. Wasn't thinking . . .Thanks.