Wasn’t he just on the road?

Is that how this works? You’re alive and fresh, kicking as Simple Minds would say, and then one day you’re just gone? I mean 82 years old. You can’t say that he was ripped-off. But he was vital, and now he’s not here anymore. And another slice of my musical history falls off the cliff.

We all knew “Go Now,” a great moody ballad from before John Lodge, never mind Justin Hayward, was even in the Moody Blues.

But then Denny Laine exited, and the band’s bass player too, and there ensued a new act with the same moniker that was completely different. They recorded “Days of Future Passed” with the so-called London Festival Orchestra, that didn’t really exist, and…

You heard “Tuesday Afternoon” on FM radio. At least I did. I taped it on my Norelco from WDRC in Hartford. I’d gone to Radio Shack to buy a cable to connect it to my stereo and…

That was a thing we did back then, hunt for new FM stations. We got all the ones from New York, but there was one in New Haven and one on Long Island and even the University of Bridgeport had one. Seems quaint today, but it was cutting edge back then.

So when I just read in an obituary that “Tuesday Afternoon” had little impact upon release, that had me scratching my head, because I loved it…once again, not only the mood, but the sweet vocal. Back before music had to be in your face, back before it was just special sauce for a good time, it was something more…truly its own art form. The Beatles exploded the old singles paradigm and a bunch of groups followed them into albumsville. You wanted to make a statement. There didn’t have to be a concept or a story, but the music had to hang together, it had to be representative of who you were, and even though there were some legendary producers who worked on multiple albums, the records all sounded different, especially those of the Moody Blues. As a matter of fact, it was when they started to have hit singles that the magic disappeared. There were songs that hit the airwaves, but the albums didn’t hang together like they had previously.

I started with “Days of Future Passed.” I distinctly remember my parents driving me to my first semester in college and playing it on that same Norelco deck. This was the one and only rock record my father didn’t insist on immediately turning off, he even came to like it.

And after I bought “Days of Future Passed,” I bought “On the Threshold of a Dream,” which had a gatefold cover when that was not assured, when it was only for the biggest and most special of acts. And inside there was a multi-page booklet with lyrics and that first side… “Lovely to See You” to “Dear Diary” to “Send Me No Wine”… That was a murderer’s row of music. You didn’t cherry-pick cuts, you let them play through, and John Lodge wrote “Send Me No Wine.”

Now you’ve got to know, the Moody Blues (referred to in the press as the “Moodies,” but we never called them that) were a relatively faceless band. The act was not on the album cover and no one was the obvious lead singer…it was an ensemble. Meaning, just being a member of the group was enough. I could single out the songs Lodge wrote, the chart success of said, but that would be missing the point. When you talk about album acts, the Moody Blues represented the apotheosis. You were either in or you were out. And for a long time it was a cult. Like I referenced above, when they had a hit with “A Question of Balance” more people knew them, but the albums were a step down from what had come before.

And I didn’t know all that had come before. But when I was a freshman in college we all hung in Dave McCormick’s room on the second floor of Hepburn Hall during Winter Term and… It would be cold and snowy out, but inside…we’d light the zilch and listen to “Layla,” “Idlewild South” and…

“In Search of the Lost Chord” and “To Our Children’s Children’s Children.” They were new to me then, now I know them by heart.

“Timothy…Leary.”

I think “In Search of the Lost Chord” would blow the minds of the younger generation. Because it was sui generis, and it was out there. This was not music made for Top Forty radio, not by a long shot, this was an excursion into a realm that could not be conceived, they concocted a whole world based on mind expansion and you could be sitting at home listening and go on more of a trip than if you actually flew to Africa and looked for Dr. Livingstone.

As for “To Our Children’s Children’s Children”… Before I bought the LP I wasn’t sure how many “Children” were actually in the title.

Anyway, we used to start this album on the second side. With “Gypsy (Of a Strange and Distant Time)” and “Eternity Road,” and then the best song on the album, Lodge’s “Candle of Life.”

“Something you can’t hide

Says you’re lonely”

Absolutely!

The older you get, the happier you are. But when you’re a kid, you’re part of a family obeying rules you may not agree with and you’re looking for acceptance and understanding and I found it in records.

Let’s be clear, these acts were rich. And they were Gods. But they were very different from today’s stars. First, there was no access, and very little news. All we could do was speculate, maybe go to a show…but I actually never saw the Moody Blues…they never toured near me during their heyday. And, the question was, how were they going to reproduce those sounds on stage? They didn’t have the samples and hard drives of today, this was before the synthesizer, all there was was the legendarily unreliable Mellotron.

“Hidden deep inside

Of  you only”

We were singular. Not like the younger generations who needed to be members of the group. I only wish there was an internet back then so I could have connected with like-minded people.

So…

The band broke up, Lodge and Hayward, the seeming essence of the group, made a record together, and ultimately the band got back together, and by that time I was aware, paying attention, but I no longer bought the records. Times had changed. The free-for-all, the experimentation of the late sixties and early seventies, was history. Now it became about maintaining the lifestyle.

But there was a day…

I wanted to do a podcast with John Lodge, I did one with Justin Hayward, the timing was bad the last time he was in town and…

Now he’s gone.

Sure, the records remain, but something bigger has been lost.

First and foremost, only one Moody Blues member survives, Justin Hayward, the rest of them are dead. But we knew them when they were in their twenties, not that much older than us, but an entire lifetime apart.

And every single member of the Band is gone. EVERY SINGLE ONE!

How do we square this?

The classic rockers are too old to die young. You can’t say they were cut down before their time and sure, some people live to be a hundred, but not everybody.

When is it going to end?

And how do you live, how do you pass the time?

Do you marinate in the past or continue to push the envelope of the future, wasting so much time in the process.

Speaking of wasting time… We went to bars in the hope, in the HOPE, of meeting a member of the opposite sex. And how often did this happen? ALMOST NEVER! But we had to get out there, because you couldn’t meet anybody staying at home, but you did have your records…and they were better company, better friends, than what you usually found out and about.

Incels may be pissed they can’t get a date, but back in the day…you’d be stunned how many guys NEVER went on a date. It’s one thing to be rejected on Tinder, quite another for there to be no Tinder!

Never mind social media.

Our records were all we had. And the radio that played them. We got turned on to stuff and we played this music INCESSANTLY! Eventually with cassettes you could take it with you, but the Walkman really didn’t break through until the eighties. But at home, a record was always on, ALWAYS!

And the Moody Blues were one of the acts that I spun. Like Howard Stern, I thought they belonged in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame WAY before than they were inducted.

But the Moody Blues never filled a slot. The long-hair, motorcycle jacket rock critic type, the punk, they had no interest in the Moody Blues, the music was too smooth and intellectual for them. Thank god there are no gatekeepers today.

But there are no acts as good as the Moody Blues. And the Moody Blues weren’t the only ones!

82… Robert Redford lived until 89. Now if you live that long, we expect you to make it into your nineties, to essentially fall apart, not be cut down before.

Because if you’re vulnerable in your eighties…where does that leave Paul and Ringo?

And J.D. Souther had all his faculties, and BOOM!

An obituary does not do these people justice. They were part of the fabric, part of our everyday world, they influenced our thinking…you can’t see it in chart numbers, they weren’t worried about breaking records, no one needed an award, a Grammy was a joke, but…

The acts represented so much more back then.

And one of them was the Moody Blues.

And John Lodge was a member of the Moody Blues. I know it like I know my own name.

So I sit here and can’t say John Lodge got died before his time. And this makes me think of the nature of life. It’s a cycle. And when you’re young you think the world revolves around you and when you’re old you know it doesn’t and then you’re gone.

Then again, the Moody Blues left their mark, unlike the boys accumulating toys to impress…exactly who?

So I’m not devastated that John Lodge died. I was a bit shocked that it happened now. But they’re dropping like flies, it’s to be expected.

And I’d say that we’re next, but no one wants to admit it. Everybody thinks they’ve got years ahead. But one day you’re going to end up like Justin Hayward, the only member of your group still here.

And then you’ll be gone too.

Tune in Saturday October 11th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

Phone #: 844-686-5863

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz

Lead singer of St. Paul & the Broken Bones.

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/paul-janeway/id1316200737?i=1000730966531

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/44aa011d-ce08-436d-8a46-b472ebecc3de/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-paul-janeway

“The 250 Greatest Songs of the 21st Century So Far”: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-songs-of-the-21st-century-1235410452/train-drops-of-jupiter-1235414778/

1

Clickbait.

The only thing all these songs have in common is they were listened to by the arbiters of this list, and probably ONLY by the arbiters of this list.

Let’s be clear here, I’m taking the bait, by commenting. Yet I’m not going to quibble with the choices, BUT THE ENTIRE CONCEPT!

Which is rooted in a paradigm that’s long gone.

Hell, I’d find it more interesting if it was a list of the 250 most listened songs from the 20th century! Seeing what survives!

Anyway, in the sixties, AM radio ruled. A hit was a hit, and if you were a fan of popular music, you knew them all, they were all on your local AM Top Forty station.

And then along came album rock and FM. Suddenly it wasn’t about the single, but the entire body of work. What an act stood for, what they had to say. And in the sixties, the album rockers were still one step removed, off to the side.

But in the seventies, the script flipped. AM became a backwater. Cracks me up when people reference Top Forty hits from the seventies. All the action was on the FM dial, with AOR, which dominated. And so much money came raining down… Because albums cost more than singles and if you were a fan of the album, you were much more likely to buy a ticket to see the act, and then…

Corporate rock and disco came along and imploded the entire marketplace. Let’s be clear, Boston was never corporate rock, and that initial album stands up to this day. But there became a formula, repeated endlessly with little artistic merit. Ditto on disco. There were some great early disco tracks, but then everybody got into the market and released tripe and…

Everything was moribund until MTV came along in the eighties to save the recording industry. It was about single hits once again. Which you could only get by buying the entire album.

The roots of the music took a back seat to how you looked, how good your video was. Those were the price of admission, and if you didn’t tick those boxes, good luck.

And the labels LOVED this system. Because it was clearly defined. If you got on MTV you had a hit, and the new Top Forty stations on the FM dial took their playlist from MTV and with the introduction of the expensive CD, cash was plentiful. That’s an understatement, the labels were rolling in dough, getting the acts to take low royalties on CDs to grow the format and never raising them.

And as rock started to become stale, with the hair bands, hip-hop came along to usurp the crown, being much more earthy and honest than the rock music of the day.

But in the nineties… Rock had a resurgence with indie labels. And this is where the action with rock remains… Off the radar screen. Acts who have an audience, can sell some tickets, but use their records as a blueprint at most. They don’t focus on singles because they know there’s nowhere for them in the singles marketplace. Which was terrestrial radio and is now the Spotify Top 50. Where you’ve got to appeal to a large group, the younger and more undeveloped the better, who will stream your tracks ad infinitum and give the impression that everybody is listening to them.

But they’re not.

2

Now this “Rolling Stone” list does a halfway decent job of cherry-picking from all genres, although there are a lot of touring acts, mostly playing rock-based music, that are not represented. However, unless you’re a fan of the Spotify Top 50, which the major labels are, which the press is, because it’s comprehensible, you’re going to read this list and get PISSED! Because the other genres are only paid lip-service, the listings are far from comprehensive.

If you’re a fan of country music, which is bigger than ever, and has always focused on careers, you’re going to be scratching your head wondering where all your favorites are. Yes, there’s a track by Jason Isbell, more Americana than regular country, and Eric Church…good, but I don’t see any Luke Bryan… “Play It Again” is a better song than at least half of the list, a lot of which is rhythm based, sans melody. But that’s too mainstream for these wanker rankers.

Pick any genre  you want… Metal, Latin… This smorgasbord pays lip service AT BEST! It’s a complete misrepresentation of today’s marketplace. Which is extremely diverse, and rarely comes together.

Morgan Wallen plays stadiums… What has he got in common with Taylor Swift or Beyoncé who plays the same places? NOTHING! Other than hit records in their formats. Sure, there are some people who like them all, but they’re more like the brain dead fans listening to AM hits in the late sixties and seventies when all the action was over on the FM dial.

Let’s go one step further… Today’s music market is INCOMPREHENSIBLE!

In the old, pre-internet days, those in the industry knew every record on the chart. Now that’s impossible, there’s just too much. And sure, a lot of it is crap, but not all of it.

Meanwhile, all this focus on the Spotify Top 50 is doing a disservice to the marketplace in general. Rüfüs Du Soul plays the Rose Bowl… It’d be more interesting if the press made non-fans aware of success in other genres. But it’s Spotify Top 50 all the time.

And the labels kind of like this, because they don’t know how to break a record. Best to have defined formats/genres, so they can aim only for the Spotify Top 50, working the acts signed to their labels and overpaying for that which breaks on social media.

The whole construct is broken. It’s a self-serving circle jerk. The major labels want it to be the way it always was, AND IT’S NOT! It’s kind of like Napster… Who’d want anything but a CD? Why download music? How did that work out! And as far as people not wanting to pay for music…that was because the labels couldn’t adjust their business model to offer what the customer wanted. Daniel Ek did this. And saved the recording industry.

Since we live in a Tower of Babel society, with all of us listening to different music, overriding enemies who touch everybody become the focus. Like Ticketmaster. Like Daniel Ek. As for those complaining that ticket prices are too high…only because everybody wants to pay the freight to go to the show! As for Daniel Ek… I’m still waiting for an explanation why those whose music isn’t listened to should make a living as a result of streaming. That’s a nonstarter… That’s like saying you make bespoke, overpriced potholders and you want to make as much as the mass producer. That doesn’t work in any other industry.

But I don’t want to lose the plot here.

Taylor Swift set a record…based on vinyl, but other than Taylor and her team, who is impressed? Those who don’t listen to her music?

That’s how far we’ve come. The press is for those who don’t care.

Where is all the K-pop on this list? That’s a huge market. You  may not want to listen to it, and that’s fine…but the soundtrack from “KPop Demon Hunters” dominated the marketplace and…

Lists like this do a disservice. They perpetuate a myth. That we’re one cohesive market. The question is how do we GROW the market, which depends on driving people to music in other genres they might enjoy that don’t get the press, are not focused on as we hear endlessly about the Spotify Top 50 and their brand extensions.

Then again, who in the hell is reading “Rolling Stone”? It’s a brand name and nothing more. Almost all of its content is behind a paywall, and most people are not paying.

Then again, that’s one thing Apple News+ (“Rolling Stone” is included) has taught us. That all of the old school media outlets are fighting for attention via clickbait headlines. There’s no there there.

I’d rather hear from TikTok users what their favorites are rather than these self-satisfied “writers.”

Movie critics no longer matter. Rock criticism is dead. What makes you think you can recapture a past glory when the world has changed and no one cares? If I want to take the pulse of America, I go to TikTok. You might not like it, but there’s more truth there than there is in almost all of the remnants of magazines from the last century.

There is good new music. The problem is not that it’s not making enough money, but that potential fans can’t find it.

Hell, you could look at this list and not only hate so much of the hit fodder, but not even recognize, never mind having heard, the entries!

That was impossible in the AM Top Forty mid-sixties and the MTV eighties, but that’s where we are today.

CAN WE AT LEAST ADMIT IT?