Caught Live + 5 (1977)

WARNING!!

These reviews are given in the spirit of a personal editorial and of personal opinion. If you would find yourself offended by these views and criticisms within the body of these reviews, please do not read further. It is not our intention to offend or injure someone's views on their favourite band. We wrote these as one-time fans who now, after many years, revisited these albums and wanted to write fair and unbiased reviews of The Moody Blues' material. If indeed, a member of The Moody Blues does happen to read these reviews, please take into consideration that these are simply opinions. These reviews present an alternate perspective.
Thank You,
Shawn and Andrew Dow,
March, 2007

Album Review by Andrew Dow

Album Review by Shawn Dow

Album Review by Andrew Dow

As more Moody Blues solo albums began surfacing during the 1972-1978 hiatus period (namely Songwriter, Natural Avenue, even Edge's Paradise Ballroom) London felt it was time to cash in a bit on The Moody success and released a live recording of The Moody Blues at The Royal Albert Hall in December of 1969, with it's final side consisting of previously unreleased material from the '67, and '68 sessions at Deram. The Moody Blues protested the release of this album simply because the live performance itself was not strong. And strong it is not. Word is it that the Moodies were too stoned that night to really play effectively, but that sounds like an easy excuse. A live act is a live act and these guys have shown, even on bootlegs of their live stuff, that they just didn't have chops enough to support themselves on stage. Their heavy reliance on electronic sounds, especially the mellotron and extensive over-dubbing and multi-tracking, makes most of their material impossible. Why not simply be an album-recording band like Steely Dan was after its release of Katy Lied, or even the Beatles? One word, money. So, here it is in all of its oozing badness, Caught Live +5.

Gypsy: Hayward's electric guitar starts off the tune and the band chimes in after 4 beats. The song chugs away with Edge repeating the same drum roll time and time again. Then they move into the falsetto chorus and this is where the song comes off as hilarious. Then the mellron takes over with Edge and just playing the same roll over and over almost ever repeat, with a terribly executed 32nd roll. The song simply wails and moans, and the ending is horrendous with the drums, mellotron and flute playing off each other with accents and ends together. Not a well executed tune and the audience is awfully quite.

Sunset: After a brief opening by Thomas, they roll into Sunset, backed by Lodge's bass and Edge trying to re-create the tympani effect. Pinder's mellotron rolls in to create the symphonic effect and Hayward's guitar is terribly out of place here. Pinder's vocals almost have a spoken quality to them. His vocals are terribly pigeonholed to the left. For the tunes' middle 8, Pinder sounds really tripped out. The song then crashes itself out for dramatic effect. If the flute and guitar were not in the background, they may have had some effect here. The song then simply repeats itself, of course. For the final repeat, they really try to bash it out, with Edge's almost off-time floor-tom smashing, only to peter out it's ending. The audience seemed to like this one.

Dr. Livingston, I Presume: Pinder announces the opening of Thomas' song, which comes off as a terrible hoe-down, with God-awful mellotron squelches announcing the main theme and even some sung out "dah-dah-dah", and out-right yelling by the band to create some enthusiasm. Thomas' voice is pigeonholed to the left here as well. Hayward's solo is okay, if not too countrified. The ending rock-out is awful in it's off key vocal delivery and ends quickly with its piping mellotron tooting.

Never Comes The Day: Thomas announces this one, and something very odd occurs here where Thomas says, "It requires a bit of a tuning", then you hear the band getting silly with Hayward responding "No he has not", all this to a little vocal melody, and Pinder announcing with his mellotron, "stop it". The band then move into it's attempt at this power-ballad. Hayward's vocals here sound very hoarse and off. The song rolls along smoothly enough until Hayward starts to climax his voice, just showing how tired his voice is, then the chorus. The ill-placed harmonica and the crashing drums, the terrible vocal chorus sounds like four stoned guys trying to sing. Lodge completes it all with his girlish falsetto. The song then simply repeats itself, showing just how safe the band liked to play it, in recording as well as live. Thomas goes from harmonica to tambourine so easily. Someone should have told him that both are out of place in this tune. The vocals by all the members of the band at the end just sound like the band going through its paces. Then the slow, lethargic ending. Someone get me some coffee, quick! Then the audience responds politely.

Peak Hour: Thomas introduces this tune, where it sounds like Thomas is the lead singer, and Lodge gives us nothing but falsetto. I guess he felt that it was more important to sing the falsetto part than the song. The song bangs it's way out easily enough, this being a tune they did BEFORE all the multi-tracking and over-dubbing. The hilarious middle section with its vocal/mellotron moment of Thomas doing falsetto and Lodge sounding bored out of his tree. Edge then comes in to really kick the song in the ass. His terribly executed rolls sounds like an overexcited teenager playing drums for the first time! The song then moves into its rock out, sounding like the band is really together for once tonight. Then the tune lumbers into the middle section with more wretched vocals and more overexcited drumming from Edge. The rolls are uneven to say the least. Then we're back to the opening rock-out, complete with a blaring mellotron that sounds more like a guitar than I thought humanly possible. Then the tune simply dies out quietly.

Tuesday Afternoon: More tired vocals from Hayward, where he is really off pitch here, complete with that little snarl in his delivery that doesn't fit. The song is moving alright in its second repeat until we get to the "Ahs", and the white-swing section that is really smashed out by Edge and Pinder. This section isn't so bad really, but still druggy and slow feeling. Of course, the song repeats itself all over again. This is really stultifying. I would have been running to the box office demanding a refund by this point in the concert. More dull "Ahs" and the tune ends out with a flute solo repeating the vocal line, and the song ends out slowly, with a whimper I guess. Pinder then has about a minute where he introduces the entire end of side two from "On The Threshold of a Dream". When Pinder says "poem", is really funny. Sounds like the dope is getting to him by this point.

Are You Sitting Comfortably: Now, since Hayward's voice is a bit tired, this tune comes off badly. Thomas' flute sound isn't too good here either, he is sharp and sputtering. An Ian Anderson or Ian MacDonald he is not! The song has so many gaps of flute that it almost sounds like the band stops playing altogether. The song then repeats itself and goes into a coma.

The Dream: Pinder, mellotron in one hand and ego in the other, recites the poem from "On The Threshold of A Dream", with his gravely delivery, lacking any spark at all.

Have You Heard (Part I): A dull rendition of "Have You Heard", with Pinder's pidgeon-holed left channel vocal. In place of the rising and falling hiss from the album, its replaced by the band member saying "Shh" into their mics! That's funny. This is the most slow, dull and lethargic stuff.

The Voyage: Put on your seatbelts. Its time for more pitch bending from that master of the mellotron, Pinder, only to quote Also Sprach! Complete with drum flourishes and everything! At one point, before the flute comes in, it feels like the band is almost too tired to continue. Ah, but no, we won't get off so lucky. Hayward, Lodge and Edge move in to try to give the song an Indian feel of sorts with it's country vocals and uneven drum rolls. Then we get some mellotron stings with no emotion put into it at all. Then the final melody by Thomas and Lodge sounds more like a detective song than "The Voyage." The main melody is kept up by the mellotron and Edge sounds like he's going die if he keeps up his final drum roll on the floor-toms much longer.

Have You Heard (Part II): Of course, the reprise sounding just like the first part. No energy, except from Pinder, who's just lapping up the gravy with his heavy vocals. Wow, what a head-trip man! The finale with its chorus of "ahs" from all members of the band are just sappy and bad. Pinder is funny at the end with his deep "Have You Heard?", just before the ending. This is one downer band man! The song sputters out its ending, sharp! Simply dreadful.

Nights In White Satin: Side Three starts off with what I can only say is the most dull sounding version of this song, what with Hayward's tired delivery and the band in a coma. I'm almost dead 30 seconds into the song. The chorus of "Ahs " supplied by the band and of course Lodge's disturbing falsetto, still make me wonder if he's actually a man. The song moves into its second verse unassuming enough, till we get to the "Ahs". The bells, the bells, no I mean, the wailing, the wailing! The solo is quite shrill and sharp at times and is drowned out by the cymbal smashing and mellotron, as well as Hayward's countrified guitar sound. By the full repeat of the main verse, I'm taking the needle off the record, but since I'm reviewing it here, I guess I have to hear that terrible "Ah" section again, and the horrendous build up to the finale, with that piping mellotron and sea of "Ahs"! Do these guys ever lighten up? The "yeahs'" by Hayward at the end are good for a laugh, then his guitar goes totally off! And they got a hand for that!?

Legend of A Mind: Thomas muses about the great Timothy Leary, victimized in America, and how he beats them, normally. The terrible backing vocals by Hayward and Lodge, complete with that pitch bending by Pinder on mellotron, give the song its overall smell of crap. Then the middle section with snare rolls and mellotron backing, make me hate that wretched instrument even more. Then Thomas' drawn out flute solo in the middle with the mellotron groaning and cymbal trills, trilling next to Thomas' flute by the way, pull me into an even deeper coma by this point on the album. I guess the only way to get off on this one is to be stoned out on something. The song finally gets back to the main section, but not without some screaming and yelling by the band members and some off-key mellotron parts that sound like Pinder isn't looking at his hands to play here. The playing at this section should not have been heard by human ears, let alone be released as an album! The song then ends with a huge climax, then pfft! Another hand, and of course, they walked off the stage at this point, cause they have to do an encore. The encore being...

Ride My See-Saw: The drums open this mellotron groove, with Lodge's falsetto peaking out next to Thomas' vocal. The song goes through its usual motions, but the mellotron is disgusting! Then Hayward's guitar comes out next to Thomas' tambourine shaking. Good solo, if a little country-ish. What were these guys thinking when they performed this number? The vocals are so bad, it's no wonder they had to multi-track and over-dub themselves! The song takes so long to end and is so terrible, it thankfully ends together! The concert ends with Pinder announcing "You've really been a party all the way. Beautiful, really beautiful."

Summary

Beautiful, this concert was not. All the Moodies had was the mellotron to keep them together, the band sounds obviously stoned and not caring what they sounded like to their audience, and the audience not caring what they sounded like either, apparently. They were all stoned! This is just an assumption, but it seems valid to me.

"Caught Live +5" was not a good idea for London to promote. I'm amazed it was released and this album quickly became the first Moody Blues album to go delete, next to "Octave", which is another awful story. I'm leaving out the reviews for the "+5" section till "Prelude", a 1989 release by Decca with other bits of The Moody Blues pre-Days history. As for the "Caught Live" they were caught all right, but lets just try to forget about that experience.

There's something I want to tell anyone reading this review: I honestly did not set out to try to burn this album the way I have. I deliberately tried to maintain an open and honest perspective. I tried to be fair and unbiased here, looking for stuff to praise where I could, but there simply wasn't anything to give this album any kind of merit. Avoid this album at all cost!

Star Rating (out of 5)

0 out of *****

Album Review by Shawn Dow

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