Post #232067 by tiki mick on Mon, May 15, 2006 12:54 PM

On 2006-05-13 17:19, donhonyc wrote:

But, in my opinion a lot of the prog rock bands seemed to copy each other.

I hear alot of Moody Blues-esque melodies and general Moodys sounds on the 'Court of the
Crimson King' album. I don't think of the Moody Blues as 'Prog' exactly, but I guess they do have Prog qualities when you really think about it. I'm not up on my Moodys history or the exact dates of their record releases, so I'm not sure who influenced who. Was it Crimson to Moodys or the other way around? I'd like to think Crimson was first. Just for the record, the Moodys never struck me as a band with any kind of amazing credibility, although 'Tuesday Afternoon' is one of my fave 60s pop tunes as well as that song they do about Timothy Leary called 'Legend of the Mind'. I like Fripp's use of the Mellotron on 'The Court of..." album. Another band from that era, though not Prog,that used alot of Mellotron were The Zombies on the album 'Odyssey and Oracle'.

I think the Court of the crimson king could easily have been a Moody Blues album, with the exception of 1 0r 2 songs. It's probably the mellotron that makes me see a resemblence. Funny how that particular instrument was not really used by any other genre except prog rock and art rock. it just has that old, creepy sound that instantly sounds vintage. I personally like the sound, but see little use for it in anything modern.

Pat Moraz was the keyboardist for the Moody Blues, and he also played with YES, so there is a tie-in right there.

I am going to have to check out the Zombies. They sound interesting. One other band that used the mellotron on early albums was Tangerine Dream. of course there is always led zep's "rain song", probably the most famous use of this instrument!