Long Distance Voyagers the Story of the Moody Blues Marc Cushman

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· 24 ratings · 7 reviews

Start your review of Long Distance Voyagers: The Story of the Moody Blues 1965-1979

This is the first serious attempt at a biography of The Moody Blues so I awaited its release impatiently and pre-ordered a copy as soon as it was available. An extremely influential band which helped invent progressive rock through their espousing of the mellotron, use of an orchestra and ecletic instruments and release of concept albums, the Moodies "Classic Seven" albums released between 1967/72 have ensured their enduring place in the rock canon.

It is an impressive book in its hardback versio

It is an impressive book in its hardback version, with the look and feel of a proper analytical biography rather than the mixture of hagiography and scandalmongering tomes which constitute many standard books about rock artists. Packed with references and appendices this promised to be a tasty read.

And it is indeed an engrossing read - if you are a Moody Blues fan. There are, however, problems with this book which made my rating gradually retreat from the "5" I thought it would be to a "3". Some of these are beyond the author's ability to influence: for example the fact that they were basically nice, quite well-behaved guys so, apart a little dabbling with drugs early on, there are no scandals here. However the amount of mistakes - spelling and factual - ends up leaving the reader very frustrated and precludes this from being a biography of record. The excessive use of record reviews, chart positions throughout the world and, particularly, fairly meaningless lists of concerts with no further comment, gives this book an enormous amount of padding. Some of this information is more properly the realm of the appendix, some maybe shouldn't even be in the book.

The author has not been helped by the refusal of three-fifths of the classic line-up, (Justin Hayward, John Lodge, Graeme Edge - the three guys still performing as The Moody Blues) to talk to him. Only the two members no longer in the band - mellotron master Mike Pinder and the sadly recently deceased flute player Ray Thomas - spoke to Cushman and their contributions are amongst the most enlightening moments.

So there are no major revelations, not much authorial commentary and a desperate need of a proof-reader. Cushman has done an excellent job in presenting a time-line of the Moodies' greatest years, he has carried out a huge amount of research but the book's faults drag it down.

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I have been waiting my whole life for a good biography of my favorite band. This is not it.

First: It is full of errors. At one point Clint Warwick is called Clint Walker; several song titles are miscredited ("Fly Me Away" instead of "Fly Me High," "Lost in a Lost Land" instead of "Lost in a Lost World," etc.); and at various times people's names are misspelled. There are typos galore, and at one point a strange find-and-replace situation must have happened, because I found about half a dozen pl

I have been waiting my whole life for a good biography of my favorite band. This is not it.

Second: About two-thirds of the content is simple regurgitation of primary sources. After we get through the Denny Laine period, the book is arranged album by album, which is a perfectly sensible way to go. However, after an interesting and informative section on the genesis of each album with a song-by-song breakdown of how it was recorded, we get dozens of pages of contemporary reviews of each album, followed by exhaustive lists of tour dates punctuated by concert reviews reprinted in their entirety. Most of this would have been better off in an appendix, or left out altogether.

Third: The editor of this book did a terrible job. I think if Cushman had had a better editor on his side, this could have been greatly improved. Aside from the issues I mentioned above, there are places where references are made to previous events that were never discussed in the book, as well as other times where the same event is described in multiple places with no awareness of the other times it was mentioned, a few things are placed out of order, and the writing could have been tightened up considerably.

It wasn't entirely useless, though, which I realize is not exactly a ringing endorsement (but I think you all realize I wouldn't recommend this). It was a very helpful research tool that I used while preparing for an episode of my podcast (discordpod.com) and had a lot of information on the band's history that I didn't know before. I have a feeling that Cushman is trying to recreate Tune In, which is an admirable goal, but that was a mistake. We can't all be Mark Lewisohn and it's foolish to try.

Here's hoping the second volume improves.

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Jun 26, 2018 Richard West rated it really liked it

This is the ultimate book - or at least Volume 1 - for the die-hard Moody Blues fan - the greatest group in rock and roll history. It is also 795 pages long, of which 720 are text with the remainder being the most exhaustive Bibliography one could ever hope to see, not to mention a Discogaphy listing every album, every single, every EP, seemingly every legitimate release.

Volume 1 covers 1965 - 1979 with Volume 2 presumably set to cover 1979 up to the year of publication.

A bit oversized, it isn'

Volume 1 covers 1965 - 1979 with Volume 2 presumably set to cover 1979 up to the year of publication.

A bit oversized, it isn't a coffee table book, nor is it the standard size for a book - a wee bit larger. Shrink it down to normal book size and you've probably got about 900 pages, it is exhaustive! In addition to everything mentioned, it is also profusely illustrated with a lot of photos (sadly, all in black and white) that not even the most die-hard fan of the group has ever seen.

There is very little commentary - there is some, but not as much as you might expect - from the author with much of the text being direct quotes from the persons involved, newspaper reviews of concerts and albums/45's and the like. This is much better than someone doing almost no research and giving the reader a tabloid journalism view of the subject (think of a certain John Lennon book from a number of years ago which was gossipy as hell and didn't contain all that much of substance).

There's also some fill material. Too many listings of radio stations that hopped onto a record and it's chart position on a certain date makes for not only tedious reading, but is unnecessary, but it's there and you can skim through it rather quickly.

Every Moody Blues release gets a chapter. Every group member gets a chapter - at least one, and that goes all the way back to the group's beginnings as an R&B based combo in their native Birmingham. The Moody Blues most of us fans think of is the group that recorded the iconic "Days Of Future Passed" album, but you have to remember, there was the group before that which featured Denny Laine on vocals and had a rather large world-wide hit with "Go Now." (So glad I bought the original album when it came out in the mid-'60's!) Truthfully, the chapters covering the early years are most interesting, and in some cases more interesting than some of the chapters covering some of the albums. You get a true insight into what the group was all about and what it was going to become.

This isn't a book you're going to read in a day or two unless you're mastered speed-reading - I read rather fast and it took me 10 days! But, if you're a Moody Blues fan, you'll love every minute of it - mistakes and all and yes there are a number of them.

There are a number of typographical errors (United Stated for "United States" for example) as well as factual errors which a better editor would have caught. These range from the minor mistakes to major ones such as misidentifying people or getting song titles wrong.

All told - this is for the die-hard Moody Blues fan and not the person who has a "Greatest Hits' compilation they play once in a while. Let's hope Volume 2 features better proofreading and editing as well as cuts out some of the non-essential material. I wanted to give this 5 stars, but too many mistakes prevented my doing that. Still, overall, not a bad effort - just not the perfection some people would desire.

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This Book Itself Is a Long Distance Voyage

As a long-time Moody Blues fan, I was thirsty for this book. What it is, is an exhaustively researched and detailed reference book that tells everything I ever wanted to know about the Moody Blues... And more.

Disclaimer: I am personally acquainted with the author.

Some of the stories, about how the band formed, and reformed, and reformed again, I found fascinating. Where I learned to skim in this 700 page work were the detailed pages of concert dates. I a

This Book Itself Is a Long Distance Voyage

Disclaimer: I am personally acquainted with the author.

Some of the stories, about how the band formed, and reformed, and reformed again, I found fascinating. Where I learned to skim in this 700 page work were the detailed pages of concert dates. I also could have done with fewer album and concert reviews. Some reviewers loved the Moodies, and others wanted to rip them a new one to display their own cleverness and acerbic wit, or nearest facsimile thereof.

In some ways, despite the reams of interviews, lyrics, reviews, it is still hard to pin down what the band was thinking, as time went on. And it's fascinating the way people in the music world borrowed music from one another, cannabalized each other's music, and helped each other. The author does a good job inferring what the band might have been thinking or feeling, as this group of talented musicians became one of the most popu!ar bands in the world. If you love, or are curious about the Moody Blues, this book is a must-have.

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Nov 23, 2021 Michael D rated it really liked it

I was in late high school/undergrad school when the Moody Blues became very popular and enjoyed a lengthy period of great success. My first Moody Blues concert was in 1969, by which time they had a very large devoted following. There are fanatics, as well as critics, who simply hold diametrically opposed opinions of them. Rolling Stone magazine was especially harsh, even overly critical at times.

That being said, this book offers a lot, but in concurrence with some of the other opinions, it has

That being said, this book offers a lot, but in concurrence with some of the other opinions, it has its' faults

The good: The history and details relevant to their formation is very interesting. The line by line breakdown of portions of their lyrics was at times fascinating. The book also passes along glimpses of their personal lives, many of which were largely unknown to me. And, of course, one is inclined to queue up a lot of their music after reading about it …. never a terrible idea!

The bad: The book is too long when considering the time required to read it …. the level of detail regarding concert dates, LP chart positions for records, and record reviews became tedious early. Many of us were aware and semi-accepted how formulamatic their basic album structure was for a handful of records, and the Moodies admitted to it, but never apologized on their way to the bank! The chapters devoted to solo work are very involved, and only for the most devoted fans.

The author clearly loves his subject, and his familiarity with it is evident. But my recommendation to read this book would go only to the most devoted of fans.

I felt three stars was probably more accurate, but as I played Moody Blues records for a long time, and the book held my interest enough to finish it, four stars.

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