Justin Hayward in Tarrytown

Mike Dawes, Justin Hayward, Julie Ragins

photo by Tina Vozick

Tina and I saw and heard Justin Hayward at Tarrytown Music Hall earlier this evening.  The concert, in one word, was splendid.   But here's more:

I often say that The Moody Blues, of which Hayward is still very much a member, is my fourth favorite rock group of all time, behind, in descending order, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Beach Boys.  To be clear about what I mean by that:  I think the best of The Moody Blues songs - let's say "Nights in White Satin," "Tuesday Afternoon," "Question," "Isn't Life Strange," "I'm Just a Singer (In a Rock 'n' Roll Band)," "Your Wildest Dreams," "I Know You're Out There Somewhere," to name just just a few, in no particular order, and there are more - are as good as the best songs by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Beach Boys.  But I put these groups higher, because they have a lot more best songs - in the case of The Beatles, a lot lot more.

But The Moody Blues are up there, though not everyone agrees.  In 1992, after Tina and I saw The Moody Blues "Red Rocks" Concert on PBS, I queried Rolling Stone if they'd be interested in an assessment of The Moody Blues by me.  I received a snooty reply to the effect that no one was interested in The Moody Blues any more.  (Memo to young writers: That's why I decided to never again query an editor about a potential article.  My philosophy had usually been, before then, to write the article or story first, then shop it around. After 1992, my philosophy has always been that.)

But back The Moody Blues, Justin Hayward was always their stand-out member - being their best songwriter, singer, and guitarist all in one.   Of their songs I listed above, only two of them - "Isn't Life Strange" and "I'm Just A Singer" - were written by another group member, John Lodge.  Hayward has an ear for watercolor detail and an exquisite voice to match.  And he brought of all that to Tarrytown earlier tonight.

He indeed sang all of his songs listed above, and a fair number of new ones.  These were wonderful, too.  You can always tell what a performer is made of when you like his or her songs you never heard before.  I especially liked, among tonight's new ones, "In Your Blue Eyes" and "Western Sky" from Hayward's most recent Spirits of The Western Sky album.

He was joined tonight by Mike Dawes - a young maestro guitarist - and Julie Ragins on keyboards and fine backing vocals.   I suppose I would have rather been at a full Moody Blues concert, but not by an overwhelming margin.  That's because Justin Hayward captures the best of The Moody Blues, and a little something more, with a personal, honest, and charming repartee between numbers.

Moody Blues on PBS

Justin Hayward and John Lodge singing Nights in White Satin

My wife and I would've gone to see The Moody Blues and their 50th anniversary (of Days of Future Past) concert this past July at Jones Beach, but we'd just gotten back from Cape Cod the day before and were still unpacking.  Fortunately, PBS captured one of their concerts that summer (in Toronto), and we recently saw it.

We've loved the Moody Blues since the late 1960s.  We rediscovered them in the 1990s, when we saw them (on PBS) at their Red Rocks concert in 1992.  We heard then, for the first time, some of their newer material like "Wildest Dreams" and "I Know You're Out There Somewhere," and a lot more.  We've seen them in several concerts in the New York area, and thought they were superb.

For a variety of reasons that I've never understood, The Moody Blues are not held in universally highest regard.  They're now scheduled be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018, but that should have happened decades ago.  On a personal note, I submitted an article about The Moody Blues (I may still have it somewhere on a floppy disk or a faded print-out, I'm not sure) to Rolling Stone Magazine in the mid-1990s, and it was promptly turned down on the grounds that no one cared anymore about The Moody Blues.

But on another personal note, The Moody Blues have greatly influenced my own music - "Forever Friday" on Twice Upon A Rhyme wouldn't have been written without "Tuesday Afternoon" - and whatever poetry is in my writing, I attribute at least in part to inspiration from their lyrics.   If we're talking about top bands, no one compares with The Beatles (read Rob Sheffield's Dreaming the Beatles and listen to the Beatles Channel on Sirius XM if for some reason you need to know why).  And The Rolling Stones pretty much are undisputed for second place.  But as for the rest of my Top Five, I'd easily include The Moody Blues among them, and sometimes ahead of The Beachboys, The Who, and The Eagles.

Anyway - if you ever loved them, they're almost as good now.  Their guitar-playing is fine, Justin Hayward hits all of his notes well (as a comparison, a bit better than Paul McCartney now), John Lodge is ok (not as good vocally now as McCartney), and Graeme Edge is fine on drums.  The back up band is excellent.  The songs are as fresh and poetic and what I think of as watercolor beautiful as ever.