Thursday 4 August 2016

Poor Man's Moody Blues (Barclay James Harvest, 1977)

There's a funny story behind this beautiful melodic song by Barclay James Harvest. The specialised press never loved the band, as you may know, and a journalist went as far as to describe BJH "poor man's Moody Blues". Guitarist John Lees was vexed and wrote this song, arranging it as a Moody Blues' track, and even naming it after the reviewer's comparison. His reply is more convincing because of the beauty of the track.


"Gone to Earth" was the eighth studio album by BJH.


The pastoral melody is calm and deep, the arrangements quote MB's "Nights in White Satin" (also in this blog) with good taste and the instrumental sections are the proggest thing BJH made in "Gone to Earth" album. The symphonic finale is pleasant and slightly ironic. For sure, the entire song is a patent and proud display of what BJH were worth, beyond any high-brow prejudices. Useless to say, we still listen to this song while we forgot the arrogant reviewer's name.

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