I don’t think the Moodies have ever quite been rehabilitated, unlike most of their contemporaries. There is still a reluctance in the music press to give them their due. But I don’t care, their music is simply beautiful and timeless, yet OF its time. A spiritual experience.
My favorite album by the MBs. It does often center around being lonely or isolated in the passage of time or distance, but somehow has an optimism at its core. That could be what drew me to this release especially, out of all of their great albums...this was before The Cure...or The Smiths were around to fill that void. I never considered the fact that this might have been the worst selling album of the heavenly 7. But that makes sense...this one didn't have the big, big hits...which never mattered to me. It was an album to listen to, from start to finish...it's a near-perfect journey into the cosmos, but ultimately about the individual.
Thank you for doing this, my dad use to play Floating when I was a child, it brings a flood of memorys back hearing this album, and how much I miss my dad.
Definitely my favourite album of theirs, had a real effect on me when I heard it, so haunting and beautiful, and not really so much about the moon landing, more about the individual quest towards meaning. I must get this.
In 1971 my very hip aunt counseled me that there were two albums I needed to listen to, one of which was To Our Children's Children's Children. I was 15 and she was maybe 26-27 and I'm still grateful she pointed me down that musical path I may have missed otherwise.
As a teen back in 1981 I found an original pressing of the album in a bargain bin at my local record store and fell in love with it. It remains my favourite Moodies album. Thanks for your positive review of this new issue. I will certainly be getting a copy.
Moody Blues Core 7 records. Have Enjoyed them for years. This Album ranks up there within the Classics. Watching and Waiting is Beautiful . Ray Thimas and Mike Pider brought the Dynamics to this Band. They were not the same without them.
People always thought the Moodies had the answer. So they replied with 'I am just a singer in a Rock and Roll Band' and one of them said 'We just ask the questions in an appealing way. We do not claim to have the answers.'
My copy has finally arrived. Magnificent box, lavish packaging, sweet sounds and a gorgeous booklet! I wish this item as much public as possible. Sadly, there are no advertisements to find. Seems like a hidden treasure to me ?!
Thank you so much for reviewing and sharing this box set. Children's Children is such a magical album and I'm so pleased such a beautiful boxed set including the 1969 RAH concert has been produced now!
I actually performed in "The Thundering Gypsy" I just came too soon and had a stunt look alike finish the scene.I still have the socks I wore to this day.
A lot of people can't comprehend how _big_ the Moodies were in the day. Before Arena rock, they were selling the largest venues out there. Just as Progressive music was becoming a thing, they were throwing in the towel.
This is my favorite album of all time. I am really excited about this set (which I preordered a few weeks ago) but I am not blown away by the three remixed tracks I've heard so far. What you said about Candle of Life sums up my feelings: I think the new mix has kinda "ruined the atmosphere" of the album. I may change my mind once I hear it in full, but right now my expectations are tempered.
I'd certainly be interested if they did a vinyl version, but the last thing I really need is another CD set that doesn't fit on anything but a bookshelf. I'm also strictly a 2 channel guy, so any 5.1's are useless to me. I bought all of the SACD versions in 2006 when Justin remastered the core 7 (also with 5.1 mixes). Those all had some different versions, singles and demos, but not quite as "completist" as this. I'd be interested to hear what differences or possible improvements there might be compared to the ones Justin did, I'm thinking it would require some pretty side-by-side comparison to discern any. I also keep the hype stickers - put them in the record sleeves.
One of my top 3 MB albums! It's probably the album that surprised me the most on first listening. I had no idea there were deluxe editions coming, but I'm generally out of the loop on these things, which is why I'm subscribed to you! Justin is performing in my neck of the woods this month.
Good to see the Box format following in line with Lost Chord. Let's hope Days of Future Passed will eventually follow suit with a potential 60th Anniversary Edition where it would be lovely to hear that album in Dolby Atmos not to mention a new stereo mix if Stephen W. Tayler gets the chance. Looking forward to my copy of TOCCC in the meantime... :)
I recently bought the Isle of Wight DVD, it is excellent. It is a mix of concert clips and interviews with band members (except Ray Thomas who had already died at the time the DVD was produced). Good sound and video quality considering the primitive time (1970) it was recorded.
This album took a while to grow on me, but for the past 40 years now it has been my favorite Moody Blues album, even just ahead of _Seventh Sojourn_ which was previously my favorite. This album really needs to be played from beginning to end every time. Now that being said, I'm surprised you skipped over "Beyond." Although that was always my least favorite track, but still you did skip it over. Overall, of course, I really liked this video. I can talk about the Moodies all day.
In my opinion this was the best of a run of stellar albums that was hinted at with 'Days of Future Past' but actually started in full with 'In Search of The Lost Chord' and ended with 'Seventh Sojourn'. I'm still waiting for my copy from CDJapan...
Bugger! Wish I'd ordered my copy from CDJapan too like I did with the Beatles Deluxe Sets so far. Be good to have the SHM-CD format. Ah well, I'll make sure to pick up the rest from now on.
New to your channel so decided to give it a go with this MB review. I do wonder with all this high tech remastered music can be noticed by people like me with cheap and cheerful music systems?
Those Moody box sets are insanely pricey over here in the States. Hard pass. TOCCC is perhaps my favorite Moody album though. I've got two different pressings on vinyl and two different CD remasters. That ought to be enough.
Interesting (i.e. disappointing) that there's no vinyl release of this SDE, a format that many of us first heard the original on and would have welcomed hearing again, with enhancements. Let's be thankful it exists though. I loved, and love, their suite of classic albums from DOFP to TOCCC.
Many thancks !!!! I did hesitate to buy it ,in this box ,i have vynils stereo + mono ,plus near 5 # cds and the unique japan s SHM cd, but sering it all i'm gonna buy it zgain even if i rather prefer any live show than 12 ,69 ...there were plenty with " children's" tracks ....
I must admit it is my favorite of the Big 7. And everyone I know agrees. So right off the bat you say it's considered the weakest of the bunch. Don't know where that comes from, probably music critics who don't know squat.
This was the 1st ever album on vinyl I ever got in my record collection for my 13th birthday. It's still my favourite album of all time today over 50 years later. I bought the vinyl again 10 years later after wearing out my copy, and then in 2006 I bought a 2 disc Deluxe Special Edition, remastered, which I believe is now unavailable....so this is ...another Deluxe Edition ? Do I really need this ? ... I see Live at the Royal Albert Hall is available separately, so I would guess this is a better option. I have an excellent sound system I bought in the 70's and never needed to change. They don't make these systems like that anymore .. built to last. My 2nd vinyl of this I bought in 1980 is still in perfect condition and the 2006 cd Deluxe is excellent. Nice review but another remix I don't think I need, and I have enough bonus tracks from the Deluxe cds I have.
Yes I am shocked by the high prices of these box sets . Also I am not in the least interested in all the printed matter ; booklets, posters , tour programs etc and would rather just have the music
I'd really love to get this but I'm really not prepared to pay the asking price, it's just absolute corporate greed for fairly minimal effort on existing material. IMHO the book looks really crappy, I'd expect hardback for this price and you can see the edge of the pics disappear into the binding which is pretty standard and annoying even on better quality productions like the Tull boxsets. The Marillion Season's End boxset is just about at the limit of what I feel is a reasonable price for these things.
Really wish I could afford this..or a proper system to play it on. Used to manage a few records stores back in the 90's and grabbed every box set, remaster, gold disc released in the period. Of course the tech was miles behind today's and to listen to them I would have to just plug them into my old tower PC....or the disc player in my truck. .....but I did burn everything back in the early 2000's,,,and all of that is on sd's in my PC and truck. Come to think of it, I doubt I could really hear much difference in fidelity because...to many concerts..too close to the stage. Including a Moody concert back in the 90's with a full symphony backing. One of the best shows ever.
"To Our Children's, Children's, Children" is simply the best concept album ever (the next best, in my mind is Al Stewart's Past, Present and Future, but totally different genre of music) and therefor, maybe the best album ever. Each song is more than good, and most are great. Also, the album has an alternating pace, hard rock, soft rock, tongue-in-cheek rock, hard rock again. I love "Out and In" its a new age version of the prodigal son parable. The album was inspired by the Moon landing. It is about what it means to be human in an advanced time with advanced technology and materialism. And the issue is, of course, what it means to be human in that context. And it comes down to dealing with loneliness. Here we are today in a deeply dystopic dysfunctional era, post covid dealing with the issues of isolation and overcomeing them. One thing they didn't anticipate was the concentration of wealth and power in the West, especially the United States, which began shortly afterwards, in 1972-3, which was a real inflection point that has damaged our society. The concept of the concept album began with the Beatle's Sgt Pepper, but as Lennon said, setting aside the opening and the closing of the album with the album's concept, its just another Beatle's album with a collection of songs on it. The Moody Blues took the hand off of the concept album that very year, and so Day in the life goes to Life in a Day (Days of Future Passed). This is a figment of the 2nd half of the 1960s, and it culminates in 1969 in this album. Psychedelia closes shortly after 1972 with Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973). (My humble opinion).
Don't like these type of boxes, much prefer the booklet type that Tull and Marillion use. The cost is ridiculous. I've got the sacd set that has the surround sound and Hayward's remaster which doesn't lose any of the original atmosphere of the album, so I'll stick with that personally. Their best album but the format of this release offers nothing to persuade me to replace the sacd I've got. The high price is an extra put off.
Good album, I always loved Ray Thomas contributions to be honest. I have around 11 Moodies albums and always loved Long Distance Voyager but could never get into Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, just couldn't connect with that record at all.
I am often attracted to box sets but have no interest in all the included ephemera ; colour booklets , posters, tour programs etc. Just want to listen to the music !
Funny how no one talks about the drugs they used while listening to Moody Blues. In the sixties and seventies it was almost compulsory. Mushrooms and acid (the real stuff) went hand in hand with this type of music.
If the stereo panning has been yanked from "Beyond" then this version is literally of zero interest to me. Would be like removing the panning from "On the Run".
If you have already, forgive, but I’d love you to rank the albums from (2) great singer’s bands, Foreigner and Journey. I think I would enjoy your take on these.
The Moody Blues never get their due sadly, a fantastic band, they were making music about ecology and the environment long before it was popular. Glad the stereo pans gone though. 😉
I have on vynil,nothing really important and mostly it's a shame " mono" for thé moodies because they did recorded their lps in studio one at decca ,reserved for .....classicals and orchestra ,and Varnals & Clarke Always looked to thé best ,rich sound they could brought , mono IS useless ...
The 5.1 mix is terribly flawed. I fixed the LFE channel for the entire mix but Higher and Higher is just FUBAR. If you can't hear it, get your hearing checked. Why are voices and other instruments coming out of my subwoofer? Anyone else hear that? Rip the audio and check out the LFE channel...what a disgrace. I believe all the engineer had to work with were the quad tracks and the LFE and center channel were extracted from those files but anyone with a modicum of audio editing skills would have done a better job on the LFE. Oh yeah, the echo was probably added with audio editing software...And this is my favorite Moodies album and since I fixed what I could, it is now listenable.
Not aa huge fan of this band, I liked a couple of their tracks, 'Ride my seesaw' stands out, plus the oddly titled song about Timothy Leary, yes he is really dead! there may be a couple more, but that is it!, however for me' I still enthuse and listen to Genesis, 'Cinema show' is a track I never tire of, but they made so many masterpieces! and then the Pop kicked in which was awful! but we still have Steve Hackett to keep the 'real' Genesis alive
