Mike Pinder, who was a founding member and the original keyboard player of The Moody Blues, died on Wednesday (24 April 2024) at age 82.
In a note to Bang a Gong, page fan Shane wrote that Mike’s era with the band marked its creative high point (he left The Moody Blues in 1978). “Mike himself was an integral part of rock history, having helped develop the early analogue synthesiser called the Mellotron and then introducing it to the Beatles for its subsequent use on Strawberry Fields Forever. Mike and The Moodies supported the Beatles on their last US tour in ’65 and also Cream on their final US tour in ’69.”
“Mike guested on two of John Lennon’s songs from the Imagine album and won the Ivor Novello Award for writing A Simple Game, which became a big hit for The Four Tops.”
MELANCHOLY MAN – Mike Pinder, songwriter and lead vocalist
Album:
The song is on A Question of Balance which entered the Kent album charts on 26 October 1970 and peaked at #4.
Songwriter:
Mike Pinder
Producer:
Tony Clarke
Record label of Australian release:
Threshold
Melancholy Man at the Isle Of Wight Festival in 1970, from Threshold of a Dream:
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Wikipedia:
Melancholy Man was written by Mike Pinder and released on the Moody Blues’ 1970 album A Question of Balance. Pinder also sang lead vocals on this song and, according to music journalist Geoffrey Freakes, he sounds more vulnerable than on any previous song.
Moody Blues drummer Graeme Edge said of the song: “It was an obvious, brilliant song. It was one of those that was so complete as a song…that you had to keep it simple. You knew straightaway that you didn’t need to do a lot to [it]. All you needed…was to reinforce the harmonies that were coming off the piano…without changing the chord sequences, the two different melody lines, and then the way the two melody lines intertwined. If you would have orchestrated it, it would have actually spoiled [the effect].”
Read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melancholy_Man
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