Ray Thomas (76) -The Moody Blues- was born in Stourport-on-Severn, England on December 29, 1941.
His father taught him at the age of nine to play harmonica, and this sparked his interest in music. He joined the school choir a year later. He quit schooling at the age of 14, and briefly left music to work as a toolmaking trainee at Lemarks. By the age of 16 he had embarked on a search for a music band, and within two years had left his trade to pursue a career in music.
In the 1960s, Thomas joined the Birmingham Youth Choir then began singing with various Birmingham blues and soul groups including The Saints and Sinners and The Ramblers. Thomas began his true musical career with El Riot and the Rebels where he met future Moody Blues bandmate John Lodge. Mike Pinder also joined a couple of years later. On Easter Monday 1963 they opened for the Beatles at the Bridge Hotel, Tenbury Wells.
The band however broke up when Lodge went to college and Pinder entered the army. After his release, Thomas and Pinder began playing together again in the Krew Kuts, eventually bringing in Denny Laine, Graeme Edge and Clint Warwick to form the Moody Blues.
This original version of the band had an international monster hit in 1965 with their second single “Go Now” and followed with their debut album, The Magnificent Moodies but subsequent releases did not do well and, when Warwick retired from music and Laine left the group, they effectively disbanded.
In November 1966, a second version of the Moody Blues formed with the addition of Lodge and Justin Hayward and the head of Decca Records charged them with recording a rock version of Dvorak’s New World Symphony. While that project was never completed, it did set the band on the road to orchestral accompanied rock which came to fruition with their album Days of Future Passed.
Thomas began writing music for the band around this time with the new album including his songs “Another Morning” and “Twilight Time”. He would go on to write other group favorites including “Legend of a Mind”, “Dr. Livingstone, I Presume”, “Dear Diary”, “Are You Sitting Comfortably?” and “For My Lady”.
Between 1967 and 1972, the Moody Blues released seven albums that have gone on to become classics of progressive and orchestral rock including In Search of the Lost Chord, A Question of Balance, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour and Seventh Sojourn but, in 1974, they broke up, allowing Thomas to test the solo waters with the albums From Mighty Oaks (1975) and Hopes, Wishes and Dreams (1976).
The Moody Blues reformed in 1977 and continued to release albums but Thomas’ contributions began to diminish as they moved to a more modern sound in the 80’s. Ray did contribute to their albums during the 90’s but, due to failing health, Thomas stopped touring around the millennium and he left the band in 2002. Hayward and Lodge continued along with Edge, but somehow the magic’s been lost, if only the Moody Blues had all died in a plane crash, they’d be legendary today, living to old age kills your career.
But the Moodys not only had a long run, they also started their own genre, which could be labeled, “symphonic rock,” “art rock,” “classical rock”? They were not limited by trends, so they went their own way, and won. In spite of the fact that they could not be pigeonholed. The band could not be categorized. The band was not destroying hotel rooms. There was little personal mystery, few shenanigans, only music.
Ray Thomas’ contributions were overshadowed by the giants Justin Hayward and John Lodge became. Still he was the dignified guy who played the flute… But in hindsight, he was an integral member of the Moody Blues, and provided leavening no other member could, his compositions were not only for royalties, they added flavor.
Although Thomas most commonly played flute, he was a multi-instrumentalist, who also played piccolo, oboe, harmonica, saxophone, and, on the album In Search of the Lost Chord, the French horn. He frequently played tambourine and also shook maracas during the group’s R&B phase. The 1972 video for “I’m Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band)” features Thomas playing the baritone saxophone, but it is unclear if he actually did play on the recording.
In October 2013, Thomas announced that he had been diagnosed with inoperable prostate cancer and was being treated with an experimental drug.
It is not sure if the Moody Blues will ever have a renaissance, they really haven’t even gotten their victory lap, but if you were a fan, and they were legion, the band holds a special place in your heart, there was no competition, they set your mind free, took you on an adventure, AND IT ALL SOUNDED SO GOOD!
Ray Thomas was not a footnote. The Moody Blues were not an also-ran. They were part of the fabric when music drove the culture and ruled the world. And in the eyes and ears of those who were there…
Ray Thomas, the singer and multi-instrumentalist for the Moody Blues, died from a heart attack on Thursday January 4, 2018 after a multi-year battle with prostate cancer. He was 76. He was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as a member of the Moody Blues, just a few months after his death.
