The Moody Blues | Take It Easy

This week Jim has asked us to play something for Song Lyric Sunday by a band with a colour in their name, as you can see in his post Power Of Color (sic). He gives us a long list of possible candidates – talk about being spoilt for choice! I settled on one colour and three songs: here are my blue bands for you. And Jim only mentioned two of them!

I’m leading with the one at the top of my list, the first one I thought of:

And its lyrics:

All our times have come
Here but now they’re gone
Seasons don’t fear the reaper
Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain
We can be like they are

Come on, baby (don’t fear the reaper)
Baby, take my hand (don’t fear the reaper)
We’ll be able to fly (don’t fear the reaper)
Baby, I’m your man

La, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la

Valentine is done
Here but now they’re gone
Romeo and Juliet
Are together in eternity (Romeo and Juliet)
40,000 men and women everyday (like Romeo and Juliet)
40,000 men and women everyday (redefine happiness)
Another 40,000 coming everyday (we can be like they are)

Come on, baby (don’t fear the reaper)
Baby, take my hand (don’t fear the reaper)
We’ll be able to fly (don’t fear the reaper)
Baby, I’m your man

La, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la

Love of two is one
Here but now they’re gone
Came the last night of sadness
And it was clear she couldn’t go on

Then the door was open and the wind appeared
The candles blew and then disappeared
The curtains flew and then he appeared
Saying don’t be afraid

Come on, baby (and she had no fear)
And she ran to him (then they started to fly)
They looked backward and said goodbye (she had become like they are)
She had taken his hand (she had become like they are)
Come on, baby (don’t fear the reaper)

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Donald Roeser

Blue Öyster Cult were originally formed in 1967, as Soft White Underbelly, and changed their name in 1971 – they seem to have a thing for colours! (Don’t Fear) The Reaper was a track on their fourth album, Agents Of Fortune, which was released in May 1976 and peaked at #29 in the US Albums chart and at #26 in the UK. The song was released as a single in July of that year, and got to #12 in the US and #16 in the UK. I was a little surprised to see that it only got that far: that year saw the second of two successive long hot summers here and my memory is that the song could be heard everywhere whenever we were out and about. They are still together, though only two of the original members remain. Over their fifty years they have sold more than 25m records worldwide, 7m of those in the US: not massive but pretty respectable for a band described (no doubt tongue in cheek) by Wikipedia as having developed a cult following. Their most recent album was released in October 2020, and last autumn they were the support band for Deep Purple on five arena gigs here in the UK – a rock music pensioners’ day out! This song still sounds as fresh to me as when I first heard it, and I always enjoy playing it again.

The same could be said of my second ‘blue’ band. They have long been a favourite of mine, and became hugely successful as a prog rock band from the late Sixties onwards. But before then they had one massive hit single in the pop charts. This one:

Go Now was written by Larry Banks and Milton Bennett, and was first recorded by Banks’ wife Bessie, whose version was released in January 1964 and reached #40 in the US. The Moody Blues’ version came out later that year – in November 1964 – and enjoyed much greater success. It topped the UK singles chart and reached #10 in the US and #2 in Canada. Three of the later version of the band can be seen on that video: Ray Pinder on piano, Graeme Edge on drums, and Ray Thomas on tambourine and backing vocals (no need for his flute playing on this one!). The lead vocalist on this was Denny Laine, who later joined Paul McCartney in his band Wings. He was replaced in the Moodies by Justin Hayward and the rest, as they say, is history.

After giving you two songs which I think it would be fair to say are classics of their genres, my final tune for today is a bit of light relief. I don’t think it qualifies for that title, but I’ve always liked it:

Deep Blue Something first released Breakfast at Tiffanys on their debut album, 11th Song, in October 1993. The album sank without trace but, undaunted, they re-recorded the song for their second album, Home, which came out in late 1994 and was re-released in 1995 on a new record label. They were rewarded for their persistence by chart placings of #24 in the UK and #46 in the US, largely driven by the success of this track as a single. It was released in July 1995 and reached #5 in the US, but got to #1 here in the UK. They had one more minor hit in both countries – with different songs – so I think they can fairly safely be termed ‘one-hit wonders.’ Not exactly up there with the two classics, but a fun song and video for your Sunday.

That’s all for today, and as usual I hope you enjoyed them. I’ll see you again for Tuesday Tunes, which *may* be calendar-related. Have a great Sunday 😊