Mike Pinder, original keyboardist for The Moody Blues in both their original mid-1960s configuration as a pop/blues outfit and their better-known late-1960s/early-1970s gentle progressive rock quintet entity, died in his Northern California home on April 25, 2024, from an as-yet unstated cause. Pinder was 82.

 

Pinder first came to public attention in 1965, when alongside singer/vocalist Ray Thomas and guitarist/vocalist Denny Laine, he appeared on the first Moody Blues album, “The Magnificent Moodies.” The album contained the band's first hit, “Go Now,” written by Larry Banks and Milton Bennett. With Laine on lead vocal, the Moody Blues’ version reached #1 in England and #10 in the United States.

Follow-up success proved elusive, and Laine left the band in 1966 along with original bassist/vocalist Clint Warwick (Laine would later enjoy a lengthy stint with Paul McCartney in Wings). The remaining members — Pinder, Thomas, and drummer Graeme Edge — recruited guitarist/vocalist Justin Hayward plus bassist/vocalist John Lodge and soldiered on with little success until 1967, when Deram Records in the United Kingdom asked the band to record a rock version of Antonín Dvořák’s “New World Symphony” as a demonstration of the label’s freshly developed stereo processing. The band convinced the label to instead release a collection of original songs centered on a theme of events during an average day. Working with both a studio musicians collection dubbed the London Festival Orchestra and Pinder on the Mellotron, a predecessor to the synthesizer which created sound via tape loops of actual instruments triggered by a keyboard, the 1967 album featured two Hayward compositions which became hits: “Tuesday Afternoon (Forever Afternoon)” and “Nights in White Satin.”

The Moodies went from strength to strength throughout the remainder of the 1960s and into the early 1970s, racking up hits on both the singles and album charts as their brand of melodic progressive rock and lyrically mixing straightforward love songs with grander themes of searching for the ultimate truth deeply resonated with fans. All of the members contributed songs to each album, including Pinder, most noticeably his instrumental tour de force “The Voyage” from 1969’s “On the Threshold of a Dream” and “Melancholy Man” from 1970’s “A Question of Balance.”

Years of non-stop recording and touring wore on the band, and it went on hiatus after 1972’s “Seventh Sojourn.” The members spent the next few years working on solo and collaborative projects, Pinder releasing a solo album titled “The Promise” in 1976.

The Moody Blues reformed in 1978 to record “Octave” with Pinder’s participation. However, he decided he did not want to participate in a tour to support the album, and left the band. He spent his remaining decades mostly at home with his family.

While Justin Hayward wrote the bulk of the Moody Blues’ hits both during and after Pinder’s tenure, the latter’s contributions to the band were invaluable. Pinder’s lush keyboard backing gave the band its ethereal sound, and his songs were often the most socially and spiritually incisive. The Moody Blues flourished at a time when pop music was beginning to explore themes beyond moon/June/spoon. They reflected a search for meaning that permeated the '60s youth culture rebellion against accepted societal norms. In hindsight, it may seem like an exercise in terminal naïveté, but an examination of Pinder’s lyrics reveals truths still resonating.

I'm a melancholy man, that's what I am,
All the world surrounds me, and my feet are on the ground.
I'm a very lonely man, doing what I can,
All the world astounds me and I think I understand
That we're going to keep growing, wait and see.

Godspeed, Mike Pinder.