I created this project and three part video series to show how music from The Moody Blues stands up as some of the best of their time and since.
And for comparison, there is no better band to place alongside them than The Beatles.
As someone who likes both bands, but feels that The Moody Blues are sorely neglected in our world of materialistic music, I think people should be made aware of the greatness of the music the Moodies made.
Are one of these bands the best? Are The Beatles the absolutely best band in the world? Some or many might think that. There should be no doubt that both bands are absolutely brilliant, even if some might disagree about The Beatles. And most people would be unfamiliar with The Moody Blues, beyond a few hits.
This video is a great way to be introduced to The Moody Blues, a contemporary from 1964, which went on to make more great albums after The Beatles split up.
The format here is to have one song each by both bands, back to back all the way through. It sounds awkward, but hear the results first!
What I am doing here is taking content by both bands from a two year period when they were most creative. For an adequate comparison a similar time period has been chosen, the mid to late 60s featuring two years from their careers: 1966-67 for The Beatles, and 1967-1968 for The Moody Blues.
This covers three albums by each band plus singles and rarities:
Beatles: Revolver, Magical Mystery Tour, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band, plus singles and b-sides.
Moody Blues: Days of Future Passed, In Search of the Lost Chord, Caught Live + 5, plus singles, b-sides and rarities.
Caught Live has five studio songs from 67-68 which are included here. There were other songs unreleased until recent.
One of the striking things I’ve noticed while making this is that much of the time, the Moody Blues complements the Beatles, rather than being jarring or a reaction to what The Beatles did. And incredibly while The Beatles are maybe one of the most prolific bands, The Moody Blues have as many songs out in a similar period (!) with no compromise to quality.
Even previously I have felt that the Moodies were like The Beatles taking things to a deeper place. Though in terms of breadth the latter are probably the more successful. The 66-67 period is also when The Beatles were the most psychedelic, thus coming the closest to the Moody Blues popular sound.
The videos will be posted over a few days time in June 2020.
Update: Anthology 3 is uploaded on Nov 25 2021.
There is a fourth video of “extras” leftover from both bands.
– Coltrane Taylor
The Moody Beatles Anthology 1
The Moody Beatles Anthology 2
The Moody Beatles Anthology 3
This is where you can support my channel:
The Thinking Man's Music 
Leave a comment