The Moody Blues - BBC Sessions, Volume 4 (1969-1972)

Here's the fourth and final album in my series of the Moody Blues performing for the BBC.

This one is different from the others in that a lot of it doesn't actually come from the BBC. The Moody Blues played for the BBC on a regular basis through late 1969, then the suddenly stopped. This isn't too surprising. Once a musical artist got fairly big, it was common for them to stop their BBC sessions. Take for instance the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Both of them played for the BBC a lot until they stopped in 1965. But the Moody Blues are generally considered to have a golden era from 1967 to 1972 and I wanted this to cover that entire era. To make matters worse, the band didn't seem to promote their music on any other TV or radio shows that I could find, unless it was done with lip-syncing.

So I did two things to make up for the lack of BBC or other similar recordings from 1970 to 1972. First, I found a recording of a concert the band did in 1970 that had excellent sound quality. (It was included on the band's "Timeless Flight" box set, but only as a DVD feature.) So I used that to get performances of songs that appeared on the band's 1970 album "A Question of Balance." 

Unfortunately, after 1970, the situation becomes even more difficult. I couldn't find ANY bootlegs from 1971, 1972 or 1973 in worthy sound quality that would match the rest of this BBC series. But two of their biggest hits and best songs come from those years: "The Story in Your Eyes" and "Isn't Life Strange." It just so happens though that later releases of their 1971 and 1972 albums have bonus tracks that include an alternate version each of those two songs. So I've added those in, in lieu of anything that fits better. By doing this, this BBC series serves as kind of an alternate "best of" for their music from 1965 to 1972, though admittedly it's light on songs from their 1971 and 1972 albums.

01 Are You Sitting Comfortably (Moody Blues)
02 Poem- The Dream (Moody Blues)
03 Have You Heard, Part 1 - The Voyage - Have You Heard, Part 2 (Moody Blues)
04 Legend of a Mind (Moody Blues)
05 Nights In White Satin (Moody Blues)
06 Question (Moody Blues)
07 Tortoise and the Hare (Moody Blues)
08 Lazy Day (Moody Blues)
09 Candle of Life (Moody Blues)
10 Don't You Feel Small (Moody Blues)
11 The Story in Your Eyes [Alternate Version] (Moody Blues)
12 Isn't Life Strange [Alternate Version] (Moody Blues)

https://www72.zippyshare.com/v/q8UpKT0H/file.html

The cover art photo comes from an appearance on "The Top of the Pops" TV show in 1971. Ironically, that kind of appearance is exactly what I was looking for musically and couldn't find. I believe they lip-synced on that show, so I couldn't use it.