From Justin: My Version of the Moody Blues Story
Posted on 03/01/2005March, 2005
Just when I’m beginning to believe Spring might be on its way, I
find myself talking with friends in Australia who are getting ready for
Winter which will begin to arrive around the same time we do. The last
time we were “down under” was in February/March of 1987, and in the last
few years I thought our chance of returning had gone forever. No
Promoter in the intervening years has been bold enough to make an offer
of a few gigs, but this time the approach came from New Zealand, where
we have never played before, and the enthusiasm of the local Promoter
inspired us to actively encourage a return to Australia. I know our trip
in April will be an adventure. Every time I visit the Southern
Hemisphere of this beautiful world I meet up with old pals and make new
ones, as well as being reminded that our music can take us anywhere and
everywhere. At the moment I’m trying to go via South Africa to see a
good friend, and also to make a small break in what I remember as being a
long, hard journey whichever way you go. If only they had persevered
with Concorde!
This coming weekend I’m spending three days with yet another film
crew and an informed (I hope) interviewer, trying to explain my version
of the Moody Blues Story. This is for a BBC Series which looks like its
becoming a DVD release as well. I say ‘my version’ because when I see
the other guys being interviewed I usually find myself thinking ‘I don’t
remember that bit at all!’
Why is there a seemingly endless fascination with what happened in
the late 60′s and early 70′s? For me, as I write this, there is only the
now and what I’m listening to, the guitar I’m playing and the way it
makes me feel in the moment. I’m so glad that in those days we mostly
resisted doing in depth interviews and’ through the keyhole’ stuff and
concentrated on the music.
But, the reason people are obsessed with those times is
occasionally brought home to me in a powerful and moving way. Because
Universal are soon to release a collection of our first seven studio
albums, along with previously unreleased songs and out-takes, as well as
alternate versions of tracks, I was asked by them to approve the 5.1
surround sound parts ,which have been mastered using the original quad
mixes done by Tony Clarke and Derek Varnals in the early 70′s. I was
absolutely stunned listening to them, I was suddenly right back in the
centre of the studio floor where we had spent days and nights, had
magical, mind blowing experiences, at the same time working very hard to
make it all sound and feel right.
To hear backing tracks and vocal sessions separated and truly
surrounding me was something I was unprepared for. Within a couple of
minutes of the opening bars of Days of Future Passed I was unable to
judge the sonic quality of the masters because my emotions had taken
over. I don’t feel that I, or any of us, should change anything from
those mixes. If anyone really wants to know what the Moodies were about,
just listen.
With regard to this release though, next week I’m going to
Alberto’s to hear the original stereo masters of the early albums and to
master, properly, the unreleased tracks and out-takes which are in
their original, unmixed state. I recently realised how poor the
mastering was on the versions of the first seven albums re-released on
C.D. in the late 90′s, and I would encourage anyone interested to seek
out the C.D. versions released by Decca in the 1980′s which were much
truer to the original records as well as having the proper sleeves. The
90′s re-masters were bad re-masters of re-masters of copy masters. Why
weren’t we paying attention to the quality at the time? Hopefully the
new Universal collection will become the definitive, true CD
representation of those recordings.
It seems that we will be on the road quite a bit this year. Maybe
we will run into a record executive who is more interested in the future
than the past. Now that would be something!
I regret it’s taking so long to release and send out the
Monaco/Nice fan DVD. It should be coming along soon. The US tour I have
just got home from was very enjoyable with some really good gigs, from
my side of the stage at least .
Thank you for the support and strength you give.
With love and warm wishes,
Justin
Picasso once said ” You mustn’t always believe what I say.
Questions tempt you to tell lies, particularly when there is no answer.”
He also said “Everyone wants to understand art. Why not try to
understand the song of a bird? Why does one love the night, flowers,
everything around one, without trying to understand them?”
