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Paul A. Harris is a free-lance writer. Moody Blues/St. Louis Symphony Where: Riverport Amphitheatre, Earth City Expressway at I-70 When: 8 p.m. Sunday How much: $25-$35, reserved seats; $20, lawn seating Information: 968-1800
MORE THAN a quarter of a century ago, the Moody Blues pioneered the symphonic rock sound in their landmark album "Days of Future Passed." But the truth of the matter, admits guitarist John Lodge, is that the whole thing came about almost by coincidence . . . with the help of a little chicanery on the part of the Moodies.
This summer, the Moody Blues are reviving that facet of their music in a series of live performances with symphony orchestras. Sunday night, they'll appear at Riverport Amphitheatre armed with new orchestral arrangements of such Moody Blues classics as "Tuesday Afternoon" and "Ride My See-Saw," which they'll perform with the St. Louis Symphony.
Paul A. Harris is a free-lance writer. Moody Blues/St. Louis Symphony Where: Riverport Amphitheatre, Earth City Expressway at I-70 When: 8 p.m. Sunday How much: $25-$35, reserved seats; $20, lawn seating Information: 968-1800
MORE THAN a quarter of a century ago, the Moody Blues pioneered the symphonic rock sound in their landmark album "Days of Future Passed." But the truth of the matter, admits guitarist John Lodge, is that the whole thing came about almost by coincidence . . . with the help of a little chicanery on the part of the Moodies.
This summer, the Moody Blues are reviving that facet of their music in a series of live performances with symphony orchestras. Sunday night, they'll appear at Riverport Amphitheatre armed with new orchestral arrangements of such Moody Blues classics as "Tuesday Afternoon" and "Ride My See-Saw," which they'll perform with the St. Louis Symphony.
According to Lodge, the primary thrust for the 1967 collaboration between the Moodies and the London Festival Orchestra (under the late arranger/conductor Peter Knight) came from their record company - whose interests were totally commercial.
"We had written a stage show," Lodge recalled, "and within that stage show were the songs of `Days of Future Passed.' It was something very new at the time. All our tunes, previously, were really covers of American songs - rock 'n' roll, of course, was American. But we had decided just to perform our own songs, and we wrote all the songs that became `Days of Future Passed.'
"Just after we started performing those on stage, the record company - Decca Records, in the United Kingdom - wanted to do a sampler album, combining what they called `a pop group' with an orchestra, to demonstrate the new sound medium, which was stereophonic.
"I think they looked around to find out who they had - to find out who was probably the cheapest, or perhaps the most creative. Who knows?"
The new stereo sound that Decca had begun to parade, primarily for its classical titles, was called the Deram Sound System. And Decca did not intend to expend it - or the London Festival Orchestra - on the untried songs of a relatively obscure band.
"They wanted us to write lyrics, basically, to the New World Symphony (Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, by Czech composer Antonin Dvorak)," Lodge said. "We said to them, `Well, if we can go into the studio for a week and have the orchestra, we'll do it.'
"So we went in and just recorded our own album, `Days of Future Passed.' They didn't know what to do with it afterwards, by the way."
In fact, when the Moodies delivered their own songs instead of the music that Decca had told them to record, they received only stern and disbelieving glares from their superiors. To those Decca executives, the songs on "Days of Future Passed" didn't even seem like legitimate pop songs. The way they understood it, pop songs were meant to have vigorous tempos, which British teen-agers could use to thrash about the dance floor. Much of the Moody Blues' album, on the other hand, was ballads, done with symphonic backing, no less.
"At that particular time, everybody wanted to dance," Lodge acknowledged. "But we kept to our own guns. We just kept to what we believed.
"We started spending a lot of money on our P.A. systems, so that the audience could actually hear all the lyrics and all the melodies. And we were trying to get as near perfection as we could, with the equipment at the time.
"It's true people couldn't dance to it. But suddenly people stopped dancing and started to listen. And as soon as people started listening to us, we began to really pursue highlighting parts of songs, like flute solos and very high harmonies. And we began putting the melodies and the words of the songs over."
Just as commercial interests brought the Moody Blues into an artistic alliance with the London Festival Orchestra, back in '67, so have similar interests played a part in the St. Louis Symphony's decision to collaborate with the band in the Riverport concert.
According to Bruce Coppock, the Symphony's executive director, the Riverport engagement is a chance to expose the orchestra to an audience largely of people who don't normally listen to classical music.
"I would say that is a strategic decision," Coppock said. "I think it's also very important, in that it demonstrates, very quickly, that the gulf between rock music and symphonic music is not so great as people might have thought.
"Here, it's mostly due to the fact that the Moody Blues had the presence of mind to create symphony charts, that we were able to bridge that gulf rather quickly and dramatically. The fact that 13,000 people already have bought tickets (to the Riverport concert) is testament to what a great strategic move it was on their part, too.
"I think what's interesting about this is that, historically, so-called classical music has always derived a lot of its material from popular culture. In a certain sense, what we're seeing now, with the Moody Blues, is the natural intermingling of popular culture and so-called high brow, or symphonic culture. We understand that Emerson, Lake and Palmer now have symphony charts as well.
"What we're seeing is something that has actually taken place for many years. It's just, I think, that it's a little more noticeable, now."
The pairing of the Moody Blues and the Symphony represents an emerging trend known as the "crossover" sound - music that involves two or more distinct and apparently separate musical styles.
Last season, the Symphony, along with principal conductor and music director Leonard Slatkin, probed this area by commissioning a trumpet concerto from West Coast jazz trumpeter and film composer Mark Isham, who performed here as soloist in the world premiere of the work.
In the coming season, the Symphony will present several events that have crossover aspects, including a concerto commissioned from former jazz composer-in-residence Donal Fox. It will also screen Sergei Eisenstein's 1938 film "Alexander Nevsky" in Powell Hall, with the orchestra performing Sergey Prokofiev's accompanying score.
Coppock stops short of characterizing these events - or the Moody Blues concert, for that matter - as representing any rethinking of the Symphony's mission.
"Our mission," he said, "remains to provide great concert experiences for the general public. The Moody Blues concert reflects an increasing awareness on our part that it's a good thing for us to get outside of Powell Hall and to be involved in performing other kinds of popular music.
"We're very excited about this. I think it's been a long time since 13,000 tickets have leapt out the Powell Hall ticket window for a Symphony event. We think that's just great."
PHOTO; Caption: Photo - The Moody Blues, clockwise from lower left: John Lodge, Graeme Edge, Ray Thomas and Justin Hayward.
Copyright Pulitzer Publishing Company Jul 25, 1993