The Moody Blues - Look Out! (1966)

The Moody Blues released their debut album, The Magnificent Moodies, in July 1965 through Decca Records. The very first record by this Birmingham band, it was also their only LP to feature their original founding lineup of Denny Laine, Mike Pinder, Ray Thomas, Clint Warwick, and Graeme Edge. In addition to featuring a very different lineup to the so-called classic era of the group, their sound was very different as well, a Merseybeat sound with strong Rn'B influences, a good example of which is "Go Now", this lineup's sole hit single, which then-band leader and chief songwriter Denny Laine still sings on concert up to this day. The album itself was a bit of a rushed affair, and neither Laine nor Mike Pinder, the other chief songwriter of the band, were very satisfied with it, feeling their music was still underdeveloped. Despite the considerable success of the "Go Now" single, the band struggled when it came to releasing a second hit single, and the possibility of becoming a one-hit-wonder loomed large. The Magnificent Moodies album did well commercially, mostly because of the success of the single, and the band toured non-stop throughout 1965 and early 1966 to promote the record, and the band changed considerably during this short period of time, and in more ways than one.

The first of these changes was related to personnel. Founding bass player Clint Warwick quit the band in early 1966 and was replaced by Rod Clark, who in turn only lasted for another few months before being replaced by John Lodge. But besides that, the Moodies were developing into a more mature band, leaving their now outdated Merseybeat sound behind for a more mature, folkier, and more baroque pop sound, which also put the Laine-Pinder songwriting duo in the forefront, with the pair contributing the majority of songwriting for the band from this point onward. And so, in April 1966 with Denny Cordell again in the producer's chair, the Moody Blues started work on their second LP, provisionally titled Look Out. Throughout September, the band recorded on an on-and-off schedule, allowing for touring commitments in-between sessions. In order to test the waters, their label released singles with the material, with none of them being particularly successful. Dissatisfied with the fact that the band seemed unable to replicate the success of their first hit and with the band's internal issues following Clint Warwick's departure, Denny Laine left the group to try for a solo career in October 1966, leaving the Moodies' proposed second album unfinished and the band to reinvent themselves in the years to come, essentially becoming a completely different band with Justin Hayward and John Lodge.

That leads us to wonder: what if the quintet of Laine, Pinder, Thomas, Edge, and Clark had gotten to release the album they were working on throughout most of 1966? We'll have an easier time answering that than we do with most of our reconstructions, as the band only recorded roughly an LP's worth of material that year, leaving us only with the task of organizing the recording sessions into a cohesive album. No hard choices about which songs to include or not to include, just putting together a solid tracklist that highlights what they had up their sleeve. Still, it's only fair we should explain that we'll be using exclusively material from those 1966 sessions with Denny Cordell as the producer, excluding any outtakes from their first record or miscellaneous singles from earlier on in their career from making the record. Also, nothing from the Hayward/Lodge lineup of the group or by Denny Laine solo will be included, for obvious reasons. Even though the band, as did most British bands at the time, had the habit of releasing non-album singles, the dearth of material we're dealing with means we'll be using every track we have available on the album, singles notwithstanding. Not to extend myself any further, here's what I think The Moody Blues' Look Out! would have looked like:

Boulevard De La Madeleine (The Magnificent Moodies)

Hang on to a Dream (The Magnificent Moodies)

Jago & Jilly (The Magnificent Moodies)

Sad Song (The Magnificent Moodies)

We're Broken (The Magnificent Moodies)

This is My House, But Nobody Calls (The Magnificent Moodies)

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Life's Not Life (The Magnificent Moodies)

Red Wine (The Magnificent Moodies)

He Can Win (The Magnificent Moodies)

Send The People Away (The Magnificent Moodies)

I Really Haven't Got the Time (The Magnificent Moodies)

Download link:
The Moody Blues - Look Out! (1966)

Laine, Warwick, Thomas, Edge, and Pinder, sometime in early 1966.

Side one starts off with what can be described as one of the highlights of the album, Pinder and Laine's magnificent "Boulevard de La Madeleine", an exercise in baroque pop that was released as a single in late 1966, making for a more than adequate opener. Following is the only non-original in the album, a very well-arranged and performed cover of Tim Hardin's "Hang on to a Dream", where we use the superior remake from July 15, 1966, with Rod Clark on bass. It's followed in turn by "Jago and Jilly", another Pinder/Laine original, this time a very pretty waltz with some clever lyrics. Another highlight of the album which goes to show how far they'd come from their R'n'B roots. The only song on the album to feature Clint Warwick, "Sad Song" was also the first song recorded for the project in April 1966, featuring some great flute playing by Ray Thomas. Easily the heaviest song in this reconstruction, "We're Broken"'s arrangement features some great fuzz guitar courtesy of Denny, as well as some very inventive drumming by Graeme Edge. Side one ends with another album highlight, the September 1966 remake of "This is My House (But Nobody Calls)", far superior to the April version recorded while Warwick was still in the band, ending a whole side of melancholic songs in a similarly gloomy way.

Side two similarly starts off with a song that was released as a single, "Life's Not Life". The only difference is that it was released in January 1967, when the band's future was uncertain and Laine had already left. The band did seem to hold it dearly though, including the song in their live repertoire before the guitarist's departure. Another song that was performed on stage is "Red Wine", itself a rarity with Ray Thomas providing lead vocals, something he didn't seem to do very often. Up next is the b-side to the aforementioned "Life's Not Life" single, "He Can Win", is another very good song that goes to show the songwriting maturity Pinder and Laine were achieving in 1966. The second to last song in the album is "Send the People Away (People Gotta Go)", a song that was notoriously hard to get before the release of the 50th Anniversary Edition of the Moodies' debut, only available on a French EP from late 1966. The final track on the album is "I Really Haven't Got the Time", the missing link between the Laine and Hayward lineups of the band. I say that due to the fact that the song was recorded with Laine for the Look Out! album and re-recorded with Hayward for the b-side of the "Fly Me High" single. And it's only fair we should end the album with a sign of things to come, right?

Clocking in at a paltry thirty minutes, the fact that side two is a song and three minutes shorter than side one was not lost on me. Unfortunately, these eleven songs are everything we have available, all that was recorded before the band splintered. I would have liked an additional song to make this a standard 12-track album, as was the norm in the 60s, but this album is pretty good as it stands. The switch from R'n'B to baroque-influenced pop, heavily focused on original songwriting, suited the band's strengths very well, as the quality of this album clearly shows. As for the cover, I quickly came up with this as they didn't seem to make one at the time. Maybe they didn't get that far along with it. It's a painting of the Boulevard de la Madeleine in Paris, in homage to the leadoff track on the album, and I'm honestly pretty satisfied with how it turned out. It suits the artsier quality of the material. When listening to this, it's hard not to be both impressed with how the band involved during this short span of time, as well as sorry that this particular lineup of the band didn't manage to go forward. Some kind of compromise between the work Laine did with the Electric String Band and the orchestral direction the Moodies went into with Days of Future Passed would have been fantastic, it's a shame they didn't have the time.

Sources:

- Brumbeat - In Search of the Lost Moody Blues Album

- The Moody Blues - The Magnificent Moodies (50th Anniversary Edition)