I’m guessing a great many people on this site know at least one song by the 60s/70s/80s band The Moody Blues. That would be Nights in White Satin. In the middle of the record, there is a flute interlude, which probably many of you could hum right now. That’s how much a part of the radio world “Nights” was back during its first and second trips up the charts, in the days of album rock, and how much that flute solo, by Ray Thomas, was part of the magic of the song. Ray Thomas played flute and tambourine, and sang lead on his own, many song contributions, and harmony on the others, for the Moody Blues. Ray had objectively the best voice in the band — a rich, very strong baritone that absolutely rang out when he sang his epic "Timothy Leary’s Dead” (officially, Legend of a Mind — video below), which consistently earned a standing ovation at their recent shows. I always imagined Ray would retire to the English countryside and sing in the local pub on Friday nights for the fun of it.
Ray Thomas was a founding member of the Moody Blues, from its inception with the original, “Go Now” lineup. Originals Mike Pinder and Graeme Edge remained; Denny Laine and Clint Warwick were replaced by Justin Hayward — lead guitarist who wrote and sang Nights in White Satin and most of the band’s best-known songs — and John Lodge, on bass and vocals. Lodge had been in El Riot and the Rebels with Ray Thomas, and had they had known each other since they were 14. You can count that up as well as I can — they were friends for 62 years.
Ray left long before this year’s tour, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of the album Days of Future Passed, one of the first (I think it was second, a few months after Sgt. Pepper) “concept albums” where the entire album tells a single story. The Moody Blues were elected to this year’s “class” in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and there was some hope among fans that both Pinder, who left the band in 1978, and Thomas, who stayed till 2002, might rejoin the group for the induction concert. Alas, there will never, now, be a reunion of the full Moody Blues.
Wikipedia on Ray Thomas: en.wikipedia.org/…
Ed Tracey made a mention of Ray’s passing in his "Odds and Ends” column this morning:
www.dailykos.com/…
Probably Ray’s most famous contribution to the Moodies’ repertoire is Legend of a Mind, which most people call “Timothy Leary’s Dead.” (“TOSORR” is Moody fanspeak for The Other Side of Red Rocks — an outstanding backstage look at the concert that brought the band back to the consciousness of a lot of us old fans on PBS in 1994):