Ray Thomas RIP

[MaxQ]

Well, don't see a posting yet, so I'll do it.
Glad they finally made it in to the R n R hall if fame this year, after being kept out for so long.
Too bad Ray won't be there for it.

https://www.foxnews.com/entertainme...dies-before-hall-fame-induction-ceremony.html

 

[cerving]

Very sad. Reminds me of Yes' Chris Squire, he didn't make it for their induction either.

 

[samb]

Yep, alot of firsts for these boys. When you're in the mood (pun intended) nothin's better !

Supply your own lava lamp.

[video=youtube;WcS-z3pqVEM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcS-z3pqVEM[/video]

 

[fyrwrxz]

Nights in White Satin was a seminal, haunting melody from my past holding sweet and bittersweet memories. One, by one, the Icons fall to make way for new ones, but the mark they left was indelible. Thank you, Ray, for an everlasting bookmark to my younger days when the world was fresh and nothing was impossible.

 

[Nathan]

Gazing past the planets
Looking for total view
I've been laying here for hours
You gotta make the journey out and in

 

[MaxQ]

Gazing past the planets
Looking for total view
I've been laying here for hours
You gotta make the journey out and in

Yep - That was one of my favorite tracks from TOCCC. The sound was ...serene, and stratospheric.
Came out in the late fall after the moon landing...remember sitting in a 67 Mustang at night when FM radio premiered that album.

I was fortunate enough to have seen these guys back in '72 with the original line up...with Ray on flute and Mike Pinder, on the Mellotron.

[video=youtube;5hfYEoKn7kA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hfYEoKn7kA[/video]

 

[MaxQ]

Yep, alot of firsts for these boys. When you're in the mood (pun intended) nothin's better !

Supply your own lava lamp.

[video=youtube;WcS-z3pqVEM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcS-z3pqVEM[/video]

Thanks for the post...hadn't seen that live track...Ray having some fun on the flute solo , and Mike...well, ...that Mellotron was in his own words, like riding a rocket...or astral plane. : )

(48 years ago...before digital/string synthesizers..... )

 

[Nathan]

Yep - That was one of my favorite tracks from TOCCC. The sound was ...serene, and stratospheric.
Came out in the late fall after the moon landing...remember sitting in a 67 Mustang at night when FM radio premiered that album.

I was fortunate enough to have seen these guys back in '72 with the original line up...with Ray on flute and Mike Pinder, on the Mellotron.

If I had to pick my favorite album of all time it would probably be a toss up between TOCCC and Close To The Edge.

 

[MaxQ]

If I had to pick my favorite album of all time it would probably be a toss up between TOCCC and Close To The Edge.

I'm with you on that.......maybe Dark Side of the Moon is a contender as well...

 

[MaxQ]

Probably his last performance, Albert Hall - I was in London and just missed it.

The last night before we left, I was walking around looking for Lord Nelson's monument, and there was the Albert Hall, renovated and all lit up, with a Moody Blues poster on the door. I had to leave the next morning...and as the plane went down the runway at Heathrow, I had the headphones on - and one of their new songs "English Sunset" came on...weird...
Kinda sad the look in his eye at the end of the song, his health had let him down and the touring stopped.
Norda is real good on the flute, but Ray's songs are, well, Rays songs, and they don't do them anymore.
[video=youtube;3jz1dVjIe7E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jz1dVjIe7E[/video]


[video=youtube;PY8RCe3QKQ8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY8RCe3QKQ8[/video]

 

[Bat-mite]

I always liked Ray's song "Nice to Be Here." So much of rock music is filled with angst, but this is a simple, happy, feel-good song.

Nice to be here hope you agree
Lying in the sun
Lovely weather, must climb a tree
The show has just begun

All the leaves start swaying
To the breeze that's playing
On a thousand violins
And the bees are humming
To a frog sat strumming
On a guitar with only one string

I can see them they can't see me
I feel out of sight
I can see them they can't see me
Much to my delight

And it seems worth noting
Water rats were boating
As a lark began to sing
The sounds kept coming
With Jack Rabbit loudly drumming
On the side of a biscuit tin

I can see them they can't see me
I feel out of sight
I can see them they can't see me
Much to my delight

Silver minnows were devising
Water ballet so surprising
A mouse played a daffodil
A mole came up blinking
Underneath an owl who's thinking
How he came to be sat on a hill

I can see them they can't see me
I feel out of sight
I can see them they can't see me
Much to my delight

I know you won't believe me
But I'm certain that I did see
A mouse playing daffodil
All the band was really jumping
With Jack Rabbit in there thumping
I found that I couldn't sit still

I just had to make it with them
Cause they played my kind of rhythm
And the bees hummed in harmony
And the owl played his oboe
Then the frog's guitar solo
It was all just too much for me

I know you won't believe me
But I'm certain that I did see
A mouse playing daffodil
All the band was really jumping
With Jack Rabbit in there thumping
I found that I couldn't sit still

 

[MaxQ]

I always liked Ray's song "Nice to Be Here." So much of rock music is filled with angst, but this is a simple, happy, feel-good song.

Ray had an ear for the whimsical....as demonstrated by that song on EGBDF and others, "Floating" on TOCCC and "The Morning: Another Morning" on DOFP.

But they could rock, and Justin H could make some noise with that Strat...at 03:25

[video=youtube;GXHMTuoK060]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXHMTuoK060[/video]

 

[LW Bercini]

Oh man! Sail on by Mr. Thomas.

A little bit of my history has gone quiet

 

[Winston]

I like their early stuff, more like the symphonic Emerson, Lake and Palmer which I also enjoy. What is missed in individual cuts is that on the albums the individual songs often merged into the next, just as with ELP.

[video=youtube;i6MguVvu3sI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6MguVvu3sI[/video]

[video=youtube;GdMWvYKN2ew]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdMWvYKN2ew[/video]

[video=youtube;5xvb9Udzc6M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xvb9Udzc6M[/video]

 

[MaxQ]

Ray : Being funny and whimsical, that haunting flute, his look at deary day to day existence in the sixties...
That slight distortion on the vocal track kinda of lends itself well.
"Somebody exploded an H-Bomb today, ...but it wasn't anybody I knew...........

[video=youtube;ItM9qqGAXjM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItM9qqGAXjM[/video]