The Voice

"...understand the voice within, and feel the change already beginning..."

I suppose that everyone has a band, or bands, from their earlier days that hold a special place in their heart. For me, more than any other by far, the Moody Blues are the soundtrack of my adolescence. I was reminded of this over the last few days. The same long car ride that spawned the "Living Life" post also touched on people you would most like to meet (hey, we were driving for 9 hours!...I could blog the rest of the year on subjects we talked about...and just may do so). Thinking about it briefly, in the musical celebrity (still living) category, my answer was Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues. My response was pretty much met with a blank stare. Clearly someone's musical upbringing had deficiencies that I would need to address. But I digress...

I bought a brand new PC recently, and have an obscenely large hard drive, so I downloaded the iTunes app and am uploading CDs. With the Moody Blues conversation fresh in my memory, my first uploads were the collected works of the Moodies, with the intent of burning a CD of some of my favorites to share with my under-educated friend. With a healthy dose of missionary zeal, I began poking through the catalog to create a playlist that would fit on one CD. Sounds simple enough. What I didn't count on was getting caught up in a slow stroll down memory lane. And fitting a life's memories on one CD isn't that easy.

Circa 1982. Moody Blues at the Spectrum. Opening act - Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble. My first Moodies show. I have two primary memories from this show. One - my heroes on stage live and in person and me at the ripe old age of sixteen right there in the audience - woo hoo! Two - holy mackerel!, who is this Stevie Ray Vaughn guy! And can he really play behind his back like that!? Channeling Hendrix or something. Brother Dave's blog has a reminiscence of his Aerosmith concert, a seminal event in his musical life. Mine was similar, but without the bottle throwing and show cancelling...sorry Dave! (Actually, my first concert was a John Denver show at the Spectrum with my Dad, but that is a story for a different day...thanks Dad). This tour is for the Long Distance Voyager album, which contains The Voice, one of my favorite songs, and the song that has lent its title to this post.

Circa 1983-1984. High school junior/senior. Intermittent girl troubles (what else?). Doing the angst-ridden teenager thing and closeting myself in my room at times, playing certain songs and albums to death (yes, vinyl albums - past 8-tracks but before CDs). Justin Hayward songs tend to be good for that sort of thing. This was back in the day when you could actually grind an album into dust, and oh how I tried. Teenagers today don't know what they are missing - no amount of angst can grind a CD into dust. To this day, there are vinyl albums in a cabinet in my old room at my parents' house that probably wouldn't play because the grooves are worn out.

Work away today
Work away tomorrow
Never comes the day
For my love and me
I feel her gently sighing
As the evening slips away
If only you knew what's inside of me now
You wouldn't want to know me somehow
But...you will love me tonight
We alone will be alright
In the end

Circa 1984(?). Moodies at the Spectrum again. The tour for the album "The Present". The beginning of the period that could best be described as "synthesizers gone wild", and I don't necessarily mean that in a good way. Opening the show with "Sitting at the Wheel", and thinking, gee that's odd, John Lodge can't seem to remember the words to the new song he just wrote. This while sitting in a blue haze of second-hand pot smoke (yes, second hand)...hmm...couldn't help wondering if some of that smoke was originating FROM the stage? It got much better after that. Saw this show with my best friends from high school senior year. We had a Genesis guy, a Yes guy... I was the Moody Blues guy. I remember a highlight of this show as Justin with a keyboard doing a solo version of Running Water. I've always been a sucker for the sappy romantic stuff. Still am.

Time hurries on
Look and it's gone
The changing of the autumn tide
The hopes that live
The dreams that die
If I could have you by my side
I'd give it all away

Circa 1984 and again in '86. Moodies at the Mann Music Center in Fairmount Park. "Nights in White Satin" on a warm summer evening in a semi-outdoor amphitheater under a full moon in the company of good friends. 'Nuff said. One of the great lyric lines ever..."letters I've written, never meaning to send".

1986. The Other Side of Life album comes out and contains "Your Wildest Dreams", which became the Moodies biggest hit ever. Go figure. Nice song but way pop. Can't ever hear this song and not think of a particular someone. I know you are not reading this blog, but you know who you are.

Late 1980's through the 1990's. The days of selling out stadiums have passed and I have the chance to see them a number of times at smaller venues like the Tower Theater. Good trade off.

2000+. The nostalgia years. Most local shows now are at Atlantic City casinos. I remember a show at one of the Trump properties in Atlantic City where I was in the 5th row. I've never been closer at a show. Honestly, some of these shows aren't that great musically, but they do make me feel like a teenager again, and when they get to some of the classic songs, autopilot kicks in and they sound young again too. Having played The Story in Your Eyes and Ride My Seesaw a few thousand times, I'm sure they could do these in their sleep. Maybe they are.

Nights in white satin
Never reaching the end
Letters I've written
Never meaning to send
Beauty I'd always missed
With these eyes before
Just what the truth is
I can't say anymore
'Cos I love you

2009. The Great Regret. I had tickets to see them in August 2009 at the Borgata, but didn't really have someone to go with me and ended up eating the tickets. I spent the couple of days after the show checking out YouTube videos of shows from this tour and realized that (a) they sounded really good, (b) they were mixing in some old songs that they hadn't done in years, and (c) I should have checked out YouTube a few days BEFORE the show! Well into their 60's, I shouldn't be passing up chances to see them while they are still touring.

Anyway, the 19 songs that made it onto the first CD only get me about half way there, so my friend should be expecting another CD, or two, or three...

Nothing changes
And nothing stays the same
And life is still
A simple game.