An Introduction to the Moody Blues

As a band, the Moody Blues had two careers. There was the rockin' "Go Now!" Denny Laine-fronted version, and then there was the mystical easy listening/prog/psychedelia that came with Days of Future Passed and the Justin Hayward years. Obviously, the most influential and familiar Moody Blues work came from that later period (and the current band hardly acknowledges the earlier formative years), but there is merit in that early incarnation. Denny Laine had an amazing voice and a gutsy delivery that suited the Moodies' early bluesier material well, and the band was on par with that of any of the British Invasion groups of the time. Although Laine made his biggest mark during his long stint with Paul McCartney's Wings, his Moodies contributions deserve more than a mere backward glance, and there's probably no better place to get more of the story than Fuel's 2006 collection An Introduction to the Moody Blues. From the obvious inclusion of "Go Now!" to the not so obvious (and rare, rare, rare) Laine and Pinder-penned single "People Gotta Go," An Introduction offers up a complete picture of the pre-Days days and gives Laine a little more credit than the Moodies themselves currently do.