The Moody Blues - 'Live At The Isle Of Wight Festival'

It was 1970. There had been music festivals the two previous years on the tiny Isle of Wight, just off England's southern coast. But this year's festival was destined to be different. This one would go down in the record books as the largest rock festival of the era, with its organizers just as surprised as Woodstock's were when that festival set the previous record a year earlier.

The Moody Blues were one of more than 50 A-listers -- The Who, The Doors, and Hendrix were a few of the others -- who performed that weekend.

By the time they played Isle of Wight in 1970, the Moodies had released six albums. The then-newest, A Question Of Balance was already #1 on the UK album chart, following on the #1 success of On The Threshold Of A Dream and the #2 showing of To Our Children's Children.

If they were surprised by the success of their albums, they were even more surprised that three songs from those albums -- "Question," "Ride My See Saw" and "Nights In White Satin" -- had become hit singles, given that they were very much a concept album-oriented band.

The Moodies were (and still are) a hugely talented live band, no small feat considering the circumstances: the complexity of both their vocal harmonies and their instrumentation, and the fact that the electronic gadgetry they pioneered was still in its infancy, and demanded first-take perfection when performing live.

In spite of the challenges of pulling off complicated music in front of 600,000 people, the band seems relaxed and comfortable in this performance. Even when the vocals get a little out of sync at one point, they shake it off with a laugh and a quick one-liner and keep moving.

The 14 tracks on this CD are a good cross-section of the band's stylistic diversity and musicality.

"Gypsy (Of A Strange And Distant Time)" is a Justin Hayward-penned song from To Our Children's Children. The Mellotron was working that night, and Mike Pinder's playing adds that slightly mystic quality that marked the band's music.

"The Sunset," one of Pinder's lyrical contributions to Days Of Future Passed, uses flute and strings to create the imagery suggested by the song title.

One of the surprise hit singles from that album, "Tuesday Afternoon" gets some nice acoustic guitar touches that were absent from the recorded version.

John Lodge's "Minstrel's Song" is the first song in the set from their then-new album, A Question Of Balance. Apparently they haven't done it in concert much at this point, as the vocal harmonies are a little tentative.

"Never Comes The Day" was the A-side of the only single from On The Threshold Of A Dream. It's blending of acoustic ballad and power rock is infectious.

"Tortoise And The Hare" is the one where the wheels come off the tracks a little on the vocal harmonies. No worries. They don't seem to mind, and I didn't either.

Admittedly one of my favorite Moody Blues songs is "Question" and I enjoyed it as much (if not more) in this live version as on the original studio track from A Question Of Balance. Remember, it was 1970, and a line like "... a thousand million questions about hate and death and war" resonated sharply, just as it does in the present day.

It takes flute and strings to create just the right mood for "Melancholy Man," yet another Moody tune that appeals to both the intellect and the emotions.

It's not hard to peg "Are You Sitting Comfortably?" as a signature tune of the band's psychedelic period. It is from their third consecutive concept album, On The Threshold Of A Dream, and even if you aren't now and never have been high, it can still make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

"The Dream" comes next, both in the live set and on the Threshold album. It is Edge's surrealistic strings-and-spoken-word interlude that serves as a bridge to Pinder's "Have You Heard (Parts 1 and 2)" from the album that was the band's first #1 in the UK and first in the Top 20 in the U.S.

As many times as I was force-fed "Nights In White Satin" during my radio career, it still succeeds in raising a few goosebumps with its haunting melody and emotional lyrics. Hayward ratchets up the ending a few notches in this performance.

Ray Thomas wrote, sang, and plays flute on "Legend Of A Mind," which is about Timothy Leary and his well known advocacy of LSD as a recreational drug. You have to pay attention to follow the lyrics, but you can also just let them slide by and enjoy the music.

The live set ends with what was then one of their biggest singles success, "Ride My See Saw." They almost seem as if they're tired of performing it, but add enough vocal and instrumental twists to make it fun.

These days, Graeme Edge likes to joke during Moody concerts that they're doing songs "from when our hair was brown and our teeth were white." Although they still deliver some great performances nearly 40 years later, it's fun to revisit the youthful energy and exuberance that come through strongly on The Moody Blues Live At The Isle Of Wight Festival.

Album release date: August 26, 2008