# Your Vote: Electric Light Orchestra vs. The Moody Blues



## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

For me, it depends on the day. But I'll give the slight edge to the Moody Blues.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Jeff Lynne is without doubt a very talented tunesmith but sadly ELO were one of those groups that seemed determined to annoy the hell out of me - the white flairs/shirts with long pointy collars/aviator shades ensemble (I know they weren't the only ones to wear dodgy clobber like this during the 70s but it seemed to be almost a uniform for the band well into the 80s), a horrendously stodgy drum sound, more staccato piano than a thousand Paul McCartney overdubs and...well, IMO ELO were just a wee bit naff at times, really...

As for the Moodies, when they were hot they were fantastic but far too often the music fluctuated between the bombastic and the twee (sometimes within the same song) but, man, could they SING - harmonies to die for....In Search of the Lost Chord is one of THE great late 60s records and I don't think any of the subsequent albums from their heyday quite matched it.


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

Days of Future Passed is better.  And yeah Electric Light Orchestra can be annoying at times. Almost too catchy.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

neoshredder said:


> Days of Future Passed is better.  And yeah Electric Light Orchestra can be annoying at times. Almost too catchy.


That's very sporting of you to award a 'like' seeing I've criticised a group that I assume you are fond of - no offence originally meant, of course!

DoFP was a daring step bearing in mind the fallow period and personnel shake-up the MB's had after 'Go Now' - it almost had a whiff of 'last chance saloon' about it - all or nothing. Although it's not a favourite of mine it was still without doubt the bravest album they ever made - had it stiffed then it may well have become one of the Great Noble Failures of the Late 60s (like the Kinks' Village Green or either of Kaleidoscope's albums), Nights in White Satin a cult classic rather than an eventual massive hit and the MB's a mere footnote of Britbeat history.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

ELO all the way.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Moody Blues for the early stuff. I've got no use for the rest, or ELO.


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

Moody Blues all the way.


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## etkearne (Sep 28, 2012)

The first four or five Moody Blues albums are unbelievably advanced for popular music in terms of harmonic structure. Not so much the later stuff, but the Moodies win this one for sure. Just listen to the haunting beauty of "Dawn: Dawn Is A Feeling" or "The Afternoon (Tuesday)" and tell me they were not doing novel things for a popular music band.


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## Guest (Oct 2, 2012)

I'm curious...why pit these two random groups against each other? Why not Max Bygraves v The Dead Kennedys?


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

Cause they are 2 pop bands that like to use Orchestra in their music and have multiple successful albums during their time.


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## Guest (Oct 2, 2012)

neoshredder said:


> Cause they are 2 pop bands that like to use Orchestra in their music and have multiple successful albums during their time.


Fair enough.

I suppose I'd vote for ELO, given that they were the first band I splashed out for two albums (_On The Third Day_ and _El Dorado)_ and I never purchased a Moody Blues record of any description. I no longer have the albums, though I do still have a 45 - _Turn to Stone_, but was never likely to pursue the Moody Blues either after Justin Hayward turned his hand to the execrable _War of the Worlds._


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## Kevin Pearson (Aug 14, 2009)

I think that the Moody Blues up to Seventh Sojourn win over anything ELO did, even though I enjoy ELO. The Moodies also had a decent comeback in the late 80s with The Other Side of Life and Sur La Mer but their earliest stuff is almost unsurpassed.

Kevin


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## Cnote11 (Jul 17, 2010)

Moody Blues, definitely.


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

No love for Electric Light Orchestra? Out of the Blue and Time are great albums. New World Record and El Dorado are quite good as well.


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

I like more work by The Moody Blues moreso than ELO. I think they both produced great music though. Out of the Blue is brilliant, Days of Future Past is amazing.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

I vote for Roy Wood's The Move.


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## Kevin Pearson (Aug 14, 2009)

bigshot said:


> I vote for Roy Wood's The Move.


The move was a fine band but they never really hit it big outside of the UK and even there they were not all that popular. In some ways Roy Wood may have even been more gifted musically than Jeff Lynne but ELO far surpassed the Move. You have to wonder what ELO might have been like if Roy Wood had remained a part of it but when you think of Roy Wood's Wizzard you can see it would not have been a good fit. Nor do I think ELO would have had the string of hits they had if Jeff Lynne was not center stage. It's good to look back at the roots and origins but this poll is not about the Move it's about the Moody Blues VS ELO and so far the Moodies are taking the lead. Probably because they were innovators in symphonic rock stylings and ELO built on what groups like the Moodies and the Beatles had done and polished it up a bit and successfully commercialized it.

Kevin


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

I was a big fan of ELO when I was a kid. Especially the first few albums before they went Disco. As I dug deeper into their roots, I found that the elements of the band that I liked were all from Roy Wood. Jeff Lynne was bubble gum in comparison. A perfect example of what each of them brought to the table is the albums they each did just before the first Electric Light Orchestra album. The Idle Race was a very, very bad Beatles impression. The Move's Shazaam was a prototype for what was best about ELO. It even had "Do Ya" in a much better version. The first ELO album is one of the few blends of classical music and rock that actually works, because it doesn't sacrifice one for the other the way ELP and Rick Wakeman did. The only problem with The Move is that it didn't last long enough. And the problem with ELO is that it lasted WAY too long.


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

And Procol Harum were better than the Moody Blues.


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

Procol Harum is a good band. Not as good as the Moody Blues though. The albums just didn't have as many good songs and they went south after the first 2 albums. The Moody blues had a bunch of good songs on their first 7 albums! Another lesser known version of Procol Harum is a band called Aphrodite's Child. They had a couple big hits around the same time Procol Harum made their breakthrough. "Rain and Tears" and "It's Five O' Clock" are classics. They went Progressive Rock after that with their most popular album called 666,


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

"A Whiter Shade of Pale" is worth 10 good albums. Maybe I'm judging by something different. I'm not talking about quantity or popularity. I'm pointing at how high the peaks go.

I vaguely remember Aphrodite's Child. Have you ever heard of a band called Lucifer's Friend? I swear they were the band that Spinal Tap was based on.


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## Guest (Oct 4, 2012)

neoshredder said:


> Aphrodite's Child. They had a couple big hits around the same time Procol Harum made their breakthrough. "Rain and Tears" and "It's Five O' Clock" are classics. They went Progressive Rock after that with their most popular album called 666,


They split and became Demis Roussos and Vangelis, and enjoyed much more success!


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

bigshot said:


> "A Whiter Shade of Pale" is worth 10 good albums. Maybe I'm judging by something different. I'm not talking about quantity or popularity. I'm pointing at how high the peaks go.
> 
> I vaguely remember Aphrodite's Child. Have you ever heard of a band called Lucifer's Friend? I swear they were the band that Spinal Tap was based on.


Haven't heard of them. And I'm big fan of Spinal Tap. Flower People is my favorite of their early phase. :lol:


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## Kevin Pearson (Aug 14, 2009)

neoshredder said:


> Procol Harum is a good band. Not as good as the Moody Blues though. The albums just didn't have as many good songs and they went south after the first 2 albums. The Moody blues had a bunch of good songs on their first 7 albums! Another lesser known version of Procol Harum is a band called Aphrodite's Child. They had a couple big hits around the same time Procol Harum made their breakthrough. "Rain and Tears" and "It's Five O' Clock" are classics. They went Progressive Rock after that with their most popular album called 666,


Aphrodites Child as far as I know never had any big hits here. I don't know if "Rain and Tears" ever even charted on the U.S. charts. It's true that it was a successful song for them in Europe even though it was an incredibly bad reworking of the Pachebel Canon, but I can't recall ever hearing it played in the U.S. Their album " 666" was listened to by a lot of us freaks in the 70s who were into the more obscure bands but they remained generally unknown here in the U.S. Vangelis of course would go on to some success with his "New Age" music and the popularity of the film "Chariots of Fire". And even of his New Age material his best work was probably the things he did with Jon Anderson of YES fame and even that I would not classify as the greatest albums ever made. Certainly wouldn't get into a top 1000 list of mine any way.

Cool discussion though takes me back to my childhood.

Kevin


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## Kevin Pearson (Aug 14, 2009)

bigshot said:


> I was a big fan of ELO when I was a kid. Especially the first few albums before they went Disco. As I dug deeper into their roots, I found that the elements of the band that I liked were all from Roy Wood. Jeff Lynne was bubble gum in comparison. A perfect example of what each of them brought to the table is the albums they each did just before the first Electric Light Orchestra album. The Idle Race was a very, very bad Beatles impression. The Move's Shazaam was a prototype for what was best about ELO. It even had "Do Ya" in a much better version. The first ELO album is one of the few blends of classical music and rock that actually works, because it doesn't sacrifice one for the other the way ELP and Rick Wakeman did. The only problem with The Move is that it didn't last long enough. And the problem with ELO is that it lasted WAY too long.


Shazam was a fine rock and roll album but I don't remember "Do Ya" being on that album. I don't own any of those albums anymore so I can't verify that. The roots of what would become ELO can certainly be heard on Shazam but I don't think I could say they were better than ELO. I always thought of The Move as more of a garage band and certainly were influential in many ways on what would become progressive rock. I just don't think they had the polish that was necessary for them to ever make it big.

Kevin


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I loved the Move but especially the later post-Carl Wayne work - the Looking On and Message from the Country albums and the singles of the time: California Man, Brontosaurus, Chinatown, Tonight. I keep forgetting that they carried on until as late as 1972 before morphing into ELO. Former bassist Ace Kefford lives only a few miles away from here and I met Roy Wood in the mid-80s when was judging a local Battle of the Bands competition.


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## Arsakes (Feb 20, 2012)

I love Elvis songs, but if you mean early Jazz & Blues (40s ~ mid 60s) by The Moody Blues, I choose the Blues one ... or are they two bands and I don't know? :lol:


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Well well well - guess who's on BBC4 right now (live at Wembley Arena 1978)?


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