The Moody Blues: Days of Future Passed Live

I was a big fan of the Moody Blues and when the PBS host/pitchman (for contributions to support Public TV) recalled listening over & over to their classic album in his dorm room I had the same experience. This documentary of a 50th Anniversary concert in Toronto is nostalgia at its best, giving the armchair viewer a chance to relive those glorious sounds, and to vicariously experience the inclusion of a live symphony orchestra, integral to the album's original concept.

I had seen the Moodies live over the years in Cleveland and Philadelphia, with Mike Pinder providing an orchestral sound via the mellotron, but this was something different. The three principal members of the group still living were impressive if visual reminders that none of us are getting any younger and as fellow septuagenarians models of how to continue in your chosen profession to produce so many decades after one's "peak".

Norda Mullen was terrific as Ray Thomas's successor on flute with the band, and besides Thomas it was unfortunate that Pinder was no longer performing with the group. Lead singer Justin Hayward's falsetto effect, almost sounding like a yodel to my ears, was distracting on such familiar songs as "Tuesday Afternoon" but his soaring vocal on "Nights in White Satin" remained as powerful and emotionally moving as it was for so many of us fans worldwide back in 1967.