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

Moody Blues mainstay John Lodge has passed away at age 82 at his home in Florida.
To fill in the missing piece of the puzzle of their #1-selling album Long Distance Voyager, 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 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