Moody Blues- Long Distance Voyager 45th Anniversary- Justin Hayward, the late John Lodge

To fill in the missing piece of the puzzle of their #1-selling album Long Distance Voyager forty-five years ago, Moody Blues lifers Justin Hayward and the late John Lodge were my guests here In the Studio. After scoring a worldwide #1 seller with Seventh Sojourn in 1972, then spending the next two years mounting the largest concert tour in history at the time, the Moody Blues as a collective baffled everyone by taking practically the rest of the Seventies off. “We didn’t break up,” a frustrated Justin Hayward asserts in my classic rock interview. “We just didn’t do anything. It’s hard to have a band when one person just doesn’t want to do it anymore.”

Officially the Moody Blues franchise may have been sidelined for the mid-Seventies, but that doesn’t mean great music wasn’t being made by various members. You’ll hear “This Morning” from the  tasty Justin Hayward/John Lodge 1975 album Blue Jays, the first complete album recorded at the Moody Blues’ own state-of-the-art studio;  Justin Hayward’s sublime “Forever Autumn” from the ambitious Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds  in 1978; plus the Octave  album that year,  which was the last straw for original keyboard player the late Mike Pinder; the strong #1 selling comeback in 1981, Long Distance Voyager;  the Top 10 seller The Other Side of Life  in 1986; and Sur La Mer  from 1988, with the thrilling Justin Hayward composition, “I Know You’re Out There Somewhere”.  –Redbeard