I feel strangely ashamed that I don't own this album, although I've heard it many times. It shall be my next acquisition, for I can still remember the wonderful mixture of enchantment and sweet-spirited perceptions contained in this excellent recording. I enjoy the whole album, though my favorites are the masterpiece "One More Time To Live", the sensitive "You Can Never Go Home Anymore", and the exotic, provocative Pinder gem "My Song". When I saw the Moodies for the first time, around l973, they did many songs from this album, including a great rendition of "One More Time To Live". I recommend this recording to those Moody Blues fans who feel that this very special band is at its best when creating magical music sprinkled with hope and innocence. I really must obtain a copy of it myself!
This is the first of the "post-concept" album releases of the fabulous group that had first put the vital and exciting new sound of synthesized music on the map and integrated it with such mastery with the wall of dreamy electric sound they are so famous for. After exhausting the field of concept albums with four or five in a row, commencing with "In Search Of The Lost Chord" and ending with "Question Of balance a few breathless years later, the group finally retired in the early 1970s to regain their energy and momentum, and eventually released this new album, which features a wide range of terrific songs written by each of the band members, but really lacking any unifying theme other than the interesting word play on the musical scale with the album's title of Every Good Boy Deserves Favor i.e., first letter of each of the words in the title works out to EGBDF, or the musical scale. Nothing like historical musical trivia to spark up a review!
There is a lot of good listening here, and a lot of musical virtuosity, especially with Mike Pinder on the Moog synthesizer, but also with great electric guitar and bass work by Justin Hayward and John Lodge, respectively, and also with terrific work by Graham Edge on drums and Ray Thomas on a variety of wind instruments. Of course, "The Story In Your Eyes" was the smash single driving the album up the charts, and every song from The Procession" to the final "My Song are quite good. My own personal favorites are "The Story In Your Eyes and a terrific song that never got any air time at all, "You Can Never Go Home Again" written and sung by Justin Hayward. By the way, Justin and John (Lodge) later released a interesting album called "Blue Jays" that I would love to see come out on CD. While it is an uneven album, there are four or five songs in it that truly deserve to see the light of day again, and unfortunately they never play any of them in concert. As far as this album is concerned, in my humble opinion it is a definite keeper. Enjoy!
The Mobile Fidelity gold-plated CD of "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour" faithfully reproduces the original analog recordings, Phil Travers' cover and gatefold artwork as well as the lyrics to this album. The only thing missing is the original record sleeve photo of the Moody Blues in concert.
As musicians, lyricists and singers, the Moody Blues were at their zenith in "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour". The idealistic message of peace and love is evident here amidst lyrics dealing with alienation, rejection, futility, compassion, creation and mysticism. Their trademark fusion of rock and classical music is prominent in their Moog synthesized orchestrations and strong vocal harmonies.
While the title "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour" is a direct reference to how one learns to remember the sonic scales (E, G, B , D, F) - a scale repeated throughout the album, using the Moog synthesizer - it is also an apt thesis that defines the lyrical content of the album. That is to say, humanity deserves better despite the trails and tribulations encountered in life.
The songs:
"Procession" is an instrumental piece that opens with a cosmic (Moog) whir, then dissolves to a wind blowing over a still, desolate atmosphere. Thunderclaps and rainfall break the silence, then yield to the sound of droning insects and chirping birdsong. The sonic scale played on piano, note for note, is layered on top of these sounds, effectively becoming the musical a priori imprinted in man's psyche; one that impels him to tap a succession of drumbeats and utter communicative grunts. On discovery of rhythm and vocal harmony, man's `procession' sees him structuring a melody with sitar, flute, harpsichord and organ - instruments which identify not periods in time but the musical ethnicity of India, China and Europe, and hence the universality of music. Essentially, it's "In Search Of The Lost Chord" rediscovered and found.
Building on the crescendo of "Procession", an electric guitar rips into "The Story In Your Eyes". A rousing and infectious Hayward rocker, the lyrics describe a bleak and uncertain future that was plausible in 1971, given the Vietnam War, street protests, over population, pollution and nuclear proliferation. Yet, amidst this angst-filled backdrop comes a hopeful note from the singer, "I can hide inside your sweet, sweet love for evermore".
"Our Guessing Game" is a reflective Thomas composition about dreams deferred, opportunities missed and the uncertainty of the consequence, all of which creates a sense of unhappiness and futility in life..."Our Guessing Game". Despite the quandary in life Thomas sings about, there lies a glimmer of optimism when juxtaposed against the Moody Blues' singing, "Bless the days when I'm feeling strong".
"Emily's Song" is a lullaby Lodge wrote for his newborn daughter (Emily). Strangely, if one were not aware of this fact, the song with its gentle melody could quite easily pass as an ordinary love song.
"After You Came" is a powerful percussion piece from drummer, Graeme Edge, expressing the ups and downs in life and learning to "laugh when it hurts so hard".
"One More Time To Live" evokes a dark and foreboding indictment of man and his "world passing by". Consider the cause-and-effect relationship of the lines, "Turn the earth to sand and still commit no crime / How one thought will live provide the others die." To drive the point home Lodge sings, "I have riches more than these", such as "degradation, pollution, population, illusion, annihilation, revolution, starvation". In spite of these environmental and socio-political ills, man can improve his condition with "contemplation, communication, compassion, salvation, elation, solution".
"Nice To Be Here" is a rather whimsical song, as if a nursery rhyme for a child, what with Thomas describing various animals harmonizing their voices and antics to create a symphony amidst a forest. It's a truly delightful song with an up temp and playful bass line.
"You Can Never Go Home" is very simply Hayward saying, to quote another song of his, "I believe what is lost is lost forever".
"My Song" is Pinder's plea for "a planet with one mind"..."before it's too late". The middle instrumental passage is `Cosmic Rock' at its best and very reminiscent of an earlier Pinder song, "The Voyage".
On the whole,
remains, after 30 years, the magnus opus of the Moody Blues.
EVERY GOOD BOY DESERVES FAVOUR, yet another great CD by the Moody Blues, is now even better, thanks to warm, thick remastering and two bonus cuts. The rocker "The Story In Your Eyes" is now clearer and more interesting, whereas "You Can Never Go Home" now inspires me even more to put looking good for pretty actresses as a higher priority than attending Thanksgiving Dinner at my old school for my 15th graduation anniversary, because the lyrics are easier to understand and the instrumentation carries them along even better than on the 1997 remastered version. This is one reissue you definitely should NOT pass up.
This is probably my favorite collection of Moody Blues songs, although it's the one that's gotten the most flack for its perhaps overly-ambitious approach. I think it's also the most innovative and adventurous of all their albums, with the song-cycle theme over-arching the great individual tracks and tying them all together into one organic whole. Some of the most beautiful Moody Blues songs are here--Procession, The Story in Your Eyes, and One More Time to Live. Whether it succeeds or not in its greater aspirations--such as the attempt to encapsulate the entire history of mankind in one 50-minute album--this is still a great collection of many of the Moody Blues' greatest songs.
