Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Sixties birthdays today

Today is the birthday of Ray Thomas, founding member of the Moody Blues and retired from that band just a few years ago. Not many bands stay around long enough for band members to be able to retire from them. Ray is best known for his baritone singing voice and his flute-playing. Here's a sixties video of the song he's best known for, "Legend of a Mind," which you might think of as "Timothy Leary's Dead".

A friend of mine (someone I have traveled and shared rooms with while going to the Moodies' shows) got married to Ray during the past year, and I am tickled pink for the both of them. (Should that be "tickled blue"?)

Ray shares a birthday with sixties rock icon, Marianne Faithfull. I read her autobiography, and enjoyed what seemed to be a great level of honesty and frankness in it. I rate it above some other rocker memoirs that I've read. Here is a fairly recent interview with her:

And this is part 1 of a BBC documentary about Marianne Faithfull. Fascinating stuff if you are interested in 60s pop culture.

Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

1 comment:

yellowdoggranny said...

ahh, moody blues..the music to drop acid to..and i did..many many many times...and timmothy leary's dead is one of my favorite songs..
congrat's to your friend and ray.