It's tragic that this is the extent of early Moodies live stuff that has been released. And they probably could have found a better show than this random, short 1969 set. But the fact that it's the only official early live stuff available is what makes it such a must for any Moodies collection.
The "+5", in case you don't know, is 5 songs from their classic period that for some reason or another didn't make it onto an album. They are all awesome; "King and Queen" and "What Am I Doing Here" are masterpieces.
As for the live stuff, it's awesome too. The highlight is a live rendition of the final third of "On the Threshold of a Dream," which consists of "Are You Sitting Comfortably," "The Dream" and the "Have You Heard" trilogy. It's wonderful to hear "Have You Heard" live, as it is such a masterpiece, and "Are You Sitting Comfortably" is mystical and achingly beautiful here... Ray's flute work is amazing! Far superior to the album cut! Other highlights include "Legend of a Mind," "Nights in White Satin" and "Peak Hour." There are a few weak performances, but even those are fascinating. The banter in between songs, with Mike Pinder doing most of the talking, is also awesome. I agree with an earlier reviewer that liked the raw sound of this album in contrast to the carefully orchestrated "Red Rocks" tracks. I have seen the Moodies perform with and without the orchestra, and I will always prefer them without, because their instruments are in the spotlight all the time.
It's a unique and very cool concept to get a live show and studio rarities on one cd. It's really a great deal!
If you listen to most "live" recordings since the seventies, you will notice that the audience applause is edited to allow for more music. Any ramblings of the group is also edited except for the most important announcements. That does not happen here. The listener hears Ray Thomas banter on as if he forgot what song was next and the clapping between songs is real - that is, far too long for a recording. To make it worse, this concert was recorded in 1968 (this album was releasd in 1977) when live recordings were very difficult. The sound quality is simply poor and sadly, no one went back to redigitize this. It is a shame, as the Moody Blues perform fantastic concerts wherever they go.
The 5 great things about this album are the five studio songs at the end. They are classic late sixties Moodies songs and make up for the live recording. This was a clever move on the marketers part, who were given less than enough material for four sides of the original double album (yes, this is a single CD). They added these last five songs to further the purchase appeal. It worked.
The "Red Rocks" concert is far superior. Buy this for the five songs and "Red Rocks" for the live quality.
To start off, what a topnotch remastering job on this splendid release! :)
I was so glad when "Caught Live + 5" was finally released on CD, back in 1996! When I had a copy of the album on cassette, and compared it to the vinyl release, I was shocked at how much material was edited out of the cassette version ... I guess it was a matter of fitting the entire album onto the cassette, but thank goodness the CD featured the unedited full versions of the live songs, as heard on the vinyl release. I was also impressed that all of the material between the two original records fit on a single CD!
For the live portion of the album, "Gypsy" was a great way to open up the act, and it really rocked ... Both the mellotron and lead guitar really grab the listener's attention, here!
"The Sunset" sounded awesome on this release, and since the mellotron was really powerful, on this occasion, I call this the "To Our Children's Children's Children" rendition of the song! :) Notice that, on this track (and also on "The Dream"), Mike Pinder's voice is more audible on the left stereo channel, within the stereo field ... This reminded me of the stereo trick used on the earlier recordings of The Beatles (Ex: "Day Tripper"/"We Can Work It Out"), where the voices were offset to one of the stereo channels!
On "Dr. Livingstone, I Presume," you can hear some amusing screams, here and there, probably by John Lodge!
Both "Never Comes The Day" and "The Voyage" feature magnificent mellotron solos from Mike, near the end of each track. On the latter composition, the mellotron replaced the pianos from the original version, but the piece was played just as well, here!
The harmonies of John Lodge and Ray Thomas are great, as they sing the bridge to "Peak Hour" twice. Mike's mellotron solo is outstanding, once again.
The Moodies really rock well on both the bridge and ending of "Tuesday Afternoon!"
"Are You Sitting Comfortably?" features some well-done flute and mellotron solos.
Mike delivers Graeme Edge's poem, "The Dream," in an enthusiastic way, and I love the way he recreates the wailing sounds of the mellotron for the backdrop, sounding much like the original version!
On both parts of "Have You Heard," I liked the "gust of air" effects in-between the individual lines in the song, as well as the group effort of each of The Moodies chanting in their own way, in unison, near the end of Part Two.
The closing sequence of the live set was nice, featuring "Nights In White Satin" (More great harmonies from John and Ray on the "Oh, how I love you," parts), "Legend of a Mind" (An amusing mellotron track during the "Along the coast..." part of the song), and "Ride My See-Saw" (Featuring powerful drums from Graeme in the intro, as well as an amusing count-in, sounding more like "Fee... Fo... Fee... Fee," rather than "One... Two... Three... Four!").
To me, the "+5" tracks are just as enjoyable as any of the material from the "Classic 7" albums. :)
"Gimmie a Little Somethin'" sounds like it was recorded during the same recording sessions as "Dr. Livingstone, I Presume" or "House of Four Doors." There are some nice flute tracks in-between the verses, and I like the ascending notes on the piano and mellotron during the chorus ... Great stereo mix with excellent separation of the different instruments and vocals, too (Best experienced through headphones)!
Both "Please Think About It" and "Long Summer Days" feature wonderful harmonies and piano tracks.
"King and Queen" has a similar rhythm track to "Legend of a Mind," once the chorus kicks in. I enjoy this Justin Hayward track as much as "Voices In The Sky" and "The Actor" ... The acoustic guitars and mellotrons really stand out on this track, as well as Graeme's drumming on the chorus and during the fadeout!
"What Am I Doing Here?" features a lot of layered soaring mellotron tracks, making it sound like a selection from "Children's Children!" I like the piano and additional mellotron pieces during the fadeout, plus Graeme's thunderous drumming, especially near the end of the track, is outstanding!
To finish up, I enjoyed "Caught Live + 5" just as much as the "Classic 7" albums ... That's why I gave it the nickname "Classic 8" in my review title! The album was like an addition to the other amazing albums from the same time period. :) Thanks for reading! God Bless... :)
This was originally released in 1977-much to the original bands displeasure rumor has it-probably to keep interest in the band as their solo years were wrapping up and a reunion was imminent. This captures the band in a December 1969 Albert Hall concert and accurately recaptures the sound of the band live in concert at that time period. Upon listening to this it was a deja vu experience- I saw the band in October 1970 at the Cincinnati Gardens- they played basically the same set list-except the 1970 concert had three Question of Balance track. I also recall a film crew was at the Gardens concert- excerpts of concert performance appeared at the end of the video- Legend of a Band-perhaps more footage from this time period will appear someday. Personally I wish the record company would have chosen a 1973 concert performance-the set list was much more challenging-but this is fine in its own right-with some cool live versions of "Gypsy" and the Threshold of a Dream suite. The mix is identical to the stage set up- Thomas and Pinder to the the left-Hayward and Lodge to the right. Note how Edge's drummming fills each song-much needed when these songs are performed out of the studio. Also included are 5 studio tracks-Two of the earlier ones. "Think About it" and "Long Summer Days" sound like an abandoned 45 attempt- the B and A side respectively. These were recorded prior to acquistion to the mellotron and sound similar to the "Fly Me High" period. The other three tracks sound like album tracks from the "Lost Chord" period that didn't make it on lp since they didn't exactly fit into a particular album concept. All are winners and "Gimme Little Something" would have made a nice summer of 1968 single. The track "What Am I doing here" is a great Moody Blues song-typifying all the aspects of the group that made them so unique. An interesting note- original posters advertising the Woodstock festival had the Moody Blues listed. Justin Hayward stated in an interview that a coin toss determined that the Moodies would play free concert in France instead on that date. Well if they would have played Woodstock and had appeared on the LP- this is what it would have sounded like.
Review # 32. I've been wanting this CD for ages. Recorded at the Royal Albert Hall on December 12, 1969. 'Caught Live + 5' just shows us how far ahead of their time the Moody Blues actually were. So many fantastic art rock, progressive (whatever you wish to call it) vintage tunes here - several I simply do not remember. It was great hearing the beautifully played "Dr. Livingston, I Presume", the catchy "Never Comes The Day", the inventive "Peak Hour", "Tuesday Afternoon", "Are You Sitting Comfortably?" {great flute playing}, "Nights In White Satin", the trippy "Legend Of A Mind" and "Ride My See Saw". Plus, the five extra studio cuts are nice as well - liked "Please Think About It" and the well played "Long Summer Days" the best. A must have.
