Has anyone found a good quality Moody Blues CD.  I love the group and most of the early stuff, but most is recorded badly.  They do have some SACD's but not of the early stuff.

Anyone have some good suggestions???  or point me in the proper direction.

Thanks

CB

Have you obtained any of their live dvd's?

I've probably seen them, heck, I'd speculate maybe 20 times over the years?  Sometimes fantastic, sometimes suck  lol.  I am partial to live dvd's and they have one/two on blue ray (Lovely to see you?)

Also...  Justin Hayward has live in Capastrano.  Although I would not suggest this is an out of the world recording, he's got some good stuff on there.

Neil Diamond (someone I've also seen many many many times) put out a live cd.  I think it was a 5 disk set, consisting of single songs from many concerts.  In a sense, he was bringing a wider song choice to the cd's than you might hear in a single show.

I wish the Moody Blues would do the same.  Do a live tour and throughout the tour, start with their old songs and during the tour, move to their newer stuff such that by the time the tour is over, they'd have everything recorded live.

I guess it doesn't hurt to dream

 There is a box set of every album track, I'll check but it may be remastered. Title is something like 'Time Traveller'.

4 cd's plus bonus CD of live and unreleased tracks 1994 Polygram- no mention of remixing or remastering other than 'mastered by...'

I can appreciate the problem.

In college times, Days of Future Past was a big favorite.

I have the MFSL gold CD.  See http://mfslcds.com/moodybluesmfsl/days-of-future-past-mfsl-cd/82

The authors must have envisionsed a seamless transition from classical to rock in the tracks. That doesn't quite work.  In my view the mixing is a large part of the problem. The rock comes on too strong at the transitions.

Nonetheless, DoFP is the second best seminal prog rock album of those years  . .  Sgt Pepper's. being the absolute best.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moody_Blues 

Wm McD

Mr. McD, I just purchased the Moody Blues MFSL on eBay, I hope it's in English and not some foreign stuff.  Is the SGT Peppers a MFSL also??

Can't seen to find that one.

Thanks for the good tip

CB

CB,

No one can say for sure what is in the mail to you but my guess is that what you're getting is the genuine MFSL gold CD of DoFP.  The recording exists, for sure -- since I have one.

To my hearing, the classical sections are excellent.  The rock is muddy in comparison but that maybe the contrast between a nice clean relatively unprocessed orchestra and more processed rock. 

I've never seen any reference to Sgt. Peppers on MFSL CD.  I certainly would have purchased it . . . in the day.  There is no reference to it on the MFSL link.

That may be listing what is available from the currently.  For example. there is a MFSL CD of Tommy (not on that site).  I also have it.  My recall is that the MFSL version came from one of the guy's (Peter's?) personal copy of the "master" tape which has a slightly different version of Acid Queen.

Looking around the web, I see that MFSL had vinyl of most of the Beatles.  Reports are that there are bootleg CDs which are just recordings off of the vinyl.

Again, look around for yourself.  Look at Amazon. Some of the Beatles collection in remastered form will be coming out before the end of the year.  (Will Jackson's death get in the way?).  Yellow Submarine was remixed a few years ago and it really caught my attention. But Sgt Pepper on Amazon does not show a new version of Sgt Peppers.  My hope is that it is in the works and is delayed because it is a more complex project.

If you need something in the meantime, the "Love" remix is very clever.  It may show just how many of the songs are in the same key and similar in form.

Wm McD

Try Elusive Disc, CD Universe, etc., last fall I bought set of the first 6 or 7 Moody Blues SACDs, ran around $175 as a "group", not a boxed set.  The discs all appear to be gold CDs, most are made in Germany.  Some of the 5 channel surroundmixes are better than others but overall it's a complete collection of the albums I wanted.  Also stereo non-SACD tracks so you can rip to media player.

Well, today I recieved of the CD I purchased, The Moody Blues - Days of Future Passed with the London Festuval Orchestra.   The CD is the MFSL Gold which is supposed to be about as good as iot gets for a CD.  Well I runs downstairs and put it in the CD player,  fire up the MC275, it is now pushing my recently modified KHorns (I enclosed the backs, thread to soon follow).

The first track was The Day Begins, it starts out with the orchestra and continues with the orchestra for the entire cut.  I'm disappointed, althought the sound was very good, it was not what I expected.  I guess my expectations were too high, I thought this thing would blow my nickers off,  I wanted to hear the Moody Blues singing and playing their songs with great sound reproduction.  The CD had 7 tracks and the Moody Blues only sang on two or three of them.  I really did not hear anything that was truely outstanding about the CD.  It may have been a CD that someone just sprayed the thing Gold.

Anyway, not what I expected, I have some XRCD's that sound twice as good.  Sometimes I don't have very good luck.

CB   

Gee, CB, I really am a little distressed that you're disappointed, particularly because I talked up the MFSL recording.

 I think the MBs sing on four of the tracks, BTW, but if you want more singing, I can understand the issue.

The subject CD has the same content as the original vinyl from what I recall, and it is much better than what I heard in the late '60's and early '70s.  That was on a respectable playback system of the day. 

You can look at Amazon for the SACD, and other digital versions and the very, very many reviews of different versions.  The deluxe edition has many extras.  I've not heard them.  In my experience sometimes there are nuggets. One guy's nugget maybe other man's lump of coal.

Wm McD

Not to worry, I am a glutton for punishment, I just ordered the MFSL In Search of the Lost Chord.  I guess I expected this crystal clear, very dynamic, kick you in the chest kind of sound.

We just keep looking for the best there is, sometimes we find it, sometimes we don't.

The search will continue.

CB

Best wishes on your search. 

Please cogitate on the matter that the best source would be analog tape recordings from almost 40 years ago.  It looks like some of the originals are lost. 

Wm McD

Thanks to Mr. McD, he turned me on the the MFSL type CD's.  They are the best I have ever heard.  I got a couple of the Moody Blues and the sound wonderful, since then I have gotten a Neil Diamond, Roy Orbitson and a Mistic Moods.

If you want a real treat, get a few of these.

CigarBum