Sometimes, songs take a while to click with fans. Take The Zombies’ all-time classic, “Time of the Season.” It was recorded in 1967, but didn’t become a hit (No. 3 here) until two years later … two years after the band initially broke up.
However, that’s nothing when compared with one of The Moody Blues’ all-time classics, in fact, their best-known hit, “Nights in White Satin.”
As the band’s main songwriter, Justin Hayward, explained during a taped showcase in the 200-seat Clive Davis Theater at the Grammy Museum at L.A. Live in a discussion with the museum’s executive director Scott Goldman, the song didn’t become a hit until five years after it was first released.
It was the first single released by the newly revamped Moodies since the departure of frontman Denny Laine and the recruitment of new members Hayward, a singer-guitarist-songwriter and singer-bassist-songwriter John Lodge. The old Moodies were a blues and R&B-based rock band, while the new outfit became pioneers of far more refined English pop and rock infused with classical music, and a short time later, with interesting strains of psychedelia.
In America, the song initially didn’t resonate. While early so-called “underground” pioneer FM rock radio stations played “Nights in White Satin,” the single barely caused a ripple on the Billboard chart, not even reaching its Hot 100 pop singles chart, peaking at No. 103.
However, over the succeeding years, fans kept requesting it so radio stations kept playing it. Finally Decca Records was pretty much forced to re-released it five years later, in 1972, even though that meant delaying the band’s new single, Lodge’s “I’m Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band),” from the group’s current LP, “Seventh Sojourn” until 1973.
It turned out that both 45s benefitted as Hayward’s “Nights” hit No. 2 on the Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Cashbox singles chart, while “I’m Just a Singer” made it to No. 12 on the Hot 100 and No. 8 on the Cashbox chart.
Most the discussion surrounded “Days of Future Passed” and the fact that the band is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
The Moodies will open the Hollywood Bowl’s summer season on Saturday by performing the album with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and YOLA (the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles) and of course, fireworks. For tickets: www.hollywoodbowl.com.
Hayward told how he wrote “Tuesday Afternoon,” the second single from the “Days” album, in 10 minutes: “I was at my parents’ home in Swindon (almost 100 miles west of London). I smoked a joint and lay down in a field and it all came to me.”
Hayward also discussed his influences, first Buddy Holly and then The Beatles. He recalled, “After hearing The Beatles’ ‘Love Me Do’ in 1962, I instantly knew that my life was going to be different.”
Hayward told of how in late 1966 he sent some unsolicited demo tapes to The Animals singer Eric Burdon. He’d never met Burdon and didn’t hear back from him. However, a short time later he received a call from The Moody Blues keyboardist Mike Pinder. Burdon didn’t use any of the songs but he nonetheless liked them and passed them on to his friend Pinder. Hayward and Pinder hit it off immediately … and the rest has been history.
After the hour-long discussion, the 70-year-old Hayward performed a four-song set that kicked off with “Nights in White Satin” expertly utilizing his instantly recognizable voice that has remained unchanged through the decades.
“Who Are You Now” is a Hayward composition from Hayward & Lodge’s 1975 non-Moodies LP, “Blue Jays.” The song is similar in theme to Hayward’s 1986 smash, “Your Wildest Dreams,” reflecting on his first love.
The Moodie’s deep cut, “Out and In,” was written by Pinder and Lodge and appeared in 1969’s “To Our Children’s Children’s Children” and Hayward brought in backup vocalist Julie Ragins, who he utilizes on his solo tours. The song is the Moody Blues collaboration between Pinder and Lodge.
He closed the evening with perhaps the song that resonates with listeners more than any in his Moodies or solo catalog, “Your Wildest Dreams,” The Moody Blues big comeback hit from 1986 that hit No. 9 on the Hot 100 but also made it to the top of the softer adult contemporary pop chart and No. 2 on the other end of the musical spectrum, the mainstream rock chart.
“Your Wildest Dreams” is a simply wondrous romantic song of a first love, a past love, perhaps the love of your live, the one who got away so many years before. How can anyone not relate to its wistful, questioning lyrics, “I wonder where you are/I wonder if you think about me/Once upon a time/In your wildest dreams.”
REVIEW: THE YARDBIRDS IN HUNTINGTON BEACH
Legendary British Invasion band The Yardbirds played the intimate club before house full of fans at Don the Beachcomber’s in Huntington Beach before a house full of fans on Thursday night.
The band’s gig at the Simi Valley Cajun and Blues Festival was reviewed in this column recently, however, it must be noted that, while both events are terrific and wonderful in their own right, they are vastly different.
The atmosphere in a small club packed to the rafters with a couple hundred fans surrounding the stage is not the same as a laid back outdoor festival atmosphere where the band played on a stage in a green field before several thousand festival-goers who are casually enjoying the afternoon while relaxing in their beach chairs, who were there to casually enjoy several acts that day.
There are few things more exhilarating than see a band you love tearing it up in a club with the band & their crowd in sync with everyone dancing, rocking out, all hot and sweaty and singing or shouting along to during the verses (or during the yells of “hey” during their 1966 Top 15 hit, “Over Under Sideways Down”) – and loving every minute.
I’ve seen quite a few of these classic club shows, including former Mott the Hoople leader Ian Hunter at the Key Club (formerly Gazzarri’s on the Strip); Foghat at the Strand in Redondo Beach, several Oingo Boingo Dance Party gigs, and The Standells at the Satellite in LA’s Silver Lake district.
Thursday, The Yardbirds brought the house to that level.
Among the highlights were such blues stompers as their noted take on Howlin’ Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightening,” their reworking of the standard “Rollin’ and Tumblin’ that they titled “Drinkin’ Muddy Water, as well as their own “The Nazz are Blue.”
Other fan fave moments were the band’s extended take on the minor 1967 hit, “Little Games” and the psychedelic masterpiece, “Happenings Ten Years Time Ago,” also from 1967 and one of only a couple Yardbirds songs featuring the brief dual-lead guitar teaming of the outgoing Jeff Beck and the incoming Jimmy Page that current lead guitarist Johnny A. and singer-rhythm guitarist John Idan ripped on as they were surrounded by enraptured concertgoers.
FARM AID SET
The annual Farm Aid concert that benefits family farmers will be held Sept. 16 at the 23,000-capacity KeyBank Pavilion, an amphitheater outside Pittsburgh, organizers announced.
Joining Farm Aid directors Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Willie Nelson and Dave Matthews, other performers will include perennial supporter Jack Johnson, Sheryl Crow, The Avett Brothers, Southern country rockers Blackberry Smoke, country performer Jamey Johnson, and Willie’s son Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real, that has backed up Young on his tours the past couple years.
Since the first star-studded Farm Aid concert, the organization has raised more than $50 million to assist family farmer in danger of losing their farms to mortgage debt.
The concert is expected to be televised nationally, with details coming.
STONES WOOD’S LUNG SURGERY
A week before his 70th birthday, Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood successfully underwent a procedure to remove a lesion on his lung, reports the Associated Press.
The procedure is called “keyhole surgery” and is as noninvasive as possible. The lesion was discovered when Wood, who joined The Stones in 1975 after a successful career with Rod Stewart and Faces and before that with The Jeff Beck Group (as that band’s bass player), underwent a routine physical exam.
The guitarist has recovered and said, “I’m so grateful for modern screening, which picked this up so early, and would like to thank all the doctors who treated me.” He says he’ll be ready when the band tours Europe in September.
In fact, he was fit apparently fit as a fiddle a week later at the 70th birthday bash staged by his wife Sally at their west London mansion. Well wishers who reportedly celebrated into the early hours of the morning included fellow Stone Keith Richards and his wife Patti Hanson, former Stones bassist Bill Wyman, activist and Boomtown Rats leader Bob Geldof, and Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, aka Ginger Spice.
SPICE GIRL RECORDS MICHAEL TRIBUTE
Geri Halliwell, formerly known as Ginger Spice, has recorded a solo tribute song in honor of her friend, George Michael, who died last Christmas Day at age 53, reports Billboard.
The song, “Angel in Chains,” is the 44-year-old Halliwell’s first global music release in 12 years. The song will be available June 24, two days before what would have been Michael’s 54th birthday. The single features several members of Michael’s band as well as his backup singers.
She describes the song as, “a heartfelt ballad … colored with lyrical references” to some of her favorite Michael songs. When she first heard of his death, she didn’t know what to do with her feelings, so, she says, “I put it in a song.” She says she intends “Angels in Chains” to be “a beautiful, healing message to anyone who has experienced that loss of a loved one.”
MORISSETTE-INSPIRED MUSICAL DUE
A musical inspired by Alanis Morissette’s smash LP, “Jagged Little Pill,” will premiere at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts next May before heading to Broadway, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Academy Award-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody (“Juno”) makes her Broadway debut with this project, to be directed by Tony Award-winner Diane Paulus.
The musical is a modern story centering on a multigenerational family dealing with gender identity and race issues, and will also feature several other songs from throughout Morissette’s career.
The album, released in 1995, went on to sell nearly 35 million copies and spawned the Top 10 singles “You Oughta Know” and “Ironic,” won five Grammys, including Album of the Year. In 2003, it was listed at No. 327 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest albums of All Time.
COVERDALE FEELS SORRY FOR PAGE
Whitesnake singer David Coverdale feels sorry for his one-time collaborator, former Yardbird and Led Zeppelin mastermind Jimmy Page.
From 1991-1993, the 65-year-old singer and the 73-year-old guitar legend teamed up as Coverdale-Page, releasing one LP, a self-titled album that hit No. 4 in their native Britain and No. 5 here, being certified platinum in the U.S. After a brief Japanese tour, the duo went their separate ways, but they remained good friends.
“The saddest thing for me and my dear, dear, dear beloved friend Jimmy Page (is that) I think one of the reasons he’s explored the Zeppelin catalog so significantly is because he can’t get the guys (Zep’s bassist John Paul Jones and singer Robert Plant) to commit to making a new record or touring,” he told Sweden Rock.
“Zeppelin’s his baby, as Whitesnake is mine. But I’m very happy to say I have a fabulous fresh chapter of Whitesnake. I’m still a recording entity and I’m still a touring entity.”
Since the one-off Led Zeppelin reunion concert at London’s 20,000-seat O2 Arena, Page hasn’t released any new songs and has only appeared in concert as a guest for a song here and there a mere handful of times.
Coverdale feels he has a solution that could get his friend recording and playing shows again without resorting completely to his past catalog. “I’ve recommended to him for years to do what Carlos Santana did with ‘Supernatural’ (the 1999 15x platinum album that included guests such as Matchbox Twenty’s Rob Thomas and Eric Clapton and which revitalized his career, selling 30 million copies worldwide). At least you’re playing.”
Coverdale continued, lamenting his friend’s inactivity: “It breaks my heart, ‘cause he’s such a f***ing valuable musician. With what he’s already given us, he doesn’t owe us anything, but I just know that he’s valid and relevant and can still play amazing guitar and write amazing songs, (but) where do you go after f***ing Led Zeppelin, dude? Where do you go?”
HENDRIX PARK TO OPEN
Jimi Hendrix Park will open in Seattle on Saturday, the city announced.
The 2.5-acre park is located next door to the Northwest African American Museum in the city’s Central District. A press release says, the park features, “a grand entrance and stairway adorned with Jimi’s signature.” In addition, a walkway toward the central plaza incorporates a timeline of the legendary guitarist’s life and career embedded in the pavement.
His sister Janie will officiate at the ribbon cutting ceremony that is open to the public. Numerous local performers will play Hendrix songs at the ceremony. The event is sponsored by the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods.
A Seattle native, Hendrix, who inspired and influences countless of musicians with his guitar wizardry, died in London in 1970 at age 27.
AFTER FALL, COLLINS RETURNS TO COMEBACK TOUR
Phil Collins returned to his “Not Dead Yet “ comeback tour, a week after falling in his London hotel room and suffering a severe cut on his head that required his overnight hospitalization, reports Britain’s Sun.
The singer hit his head on a chair after awakening and getting up out of bed in the middle of the night. The deep cut required stiches and he was kept overnight at a nearby hospital for observation.
The former drummer for prog-rock pioneers Genesis was forced to postpone final two nights of his five-night stand at London’s historic Royal Albert Hall. Those shows were rescheduled for Nov. 26 and 27.
The 66-year-old, who has battled numerous health problems in recent years, performed the first of his five-night residency at the 18,000-seat Laxness Arena in Cologne, Germany, on Sunday night.
As he did at the Albert Hall gigs, Collins walked onstage with the use of a cane and he performed the entire concert while seated.
His 22-song set was loaded with his solo hits such as “Another Day in Paradise” and “In the Air Tonight” as well as Genesis biggies, including “Follow You Follow Me” and “Invisible Touch,” that were recorded after original singer Peter Gabriel and lead guitarist Steve Hackett quit the group and Collins led the remaining trio that also included keyboardist Tony Banks and bassist-guitarist Mike Rutherford into the world of mainstream pop and gold records galore.
By all accounts, his return to the stage was a hit with fans. One attendee in Cologne tweeted, “Thank you very, very much Mr. Collins. This concert was one of the most beautiful moments of my life. Thank you.” Another tweet read, “Thanks a bunch for this magnificent performance.”
BACKSTREET BOYS EXTEND VEGAS RESIDENCY
Vocal band heartthrobs The Backstreet Boys extended their Las Vegas residency at the Planet Hollywood Hotel and Casino’s AXIS Theater through next February.
The guys: Nick Carter, Brian Littrell, Howie Dorough, AJ McLean and Kevin Richardson, formed in 1993.
They opted to remain in Vegas because, as Richardson tells People magazine, “We’re all fathers now. It’s just really convenient for us to be with our families. We’re doing three shows a week. We’re not on a plane or a bus every day going to a new city, a new arena, to another hotel, to another airport. It’s just a lot easier, and (it’s) so fun for us.”
The five singers donate $1 from every ticket sold to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada.
Steve Smith writes a new Classic Pop, Rock and Country Music News column every week. It can be read in its entirety on www.presstelegram.com. Like, recommend or share the column on Facebook. Contact him by email at Classicpopmusicnews@gmail.com.
