Tuesday, November 16, 2021

Justin Hayward - Acoustic - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland, OH, 6-21-2002

Graeme Edge of the Moody Blues died five days ago as I write this, on November 13, 2021. He was 80 years old. To mark his passing, I thought I'd post something by the Moody Blues. It turns out I didn't have anything ready to post by the band, per se. But I do have an interesting acoustic concert by the band's main singer and songwriter, Justin Hayward. So here it is.

The Moody Blues weren't inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame until 2018. But for some reason, in 2002, Justin Hayward gave an unusual acoustic concert at the Hall of Fame in Cleveland. I say unusual because it was part concert and part interview. An emcee questioned him on stage, and he spent most of the time talking. You can watch the whole thing on YouTube; it's about an hour and a half long in total. But from time to time, he would play a song relevant to what was being discussed.

Personally, I think the whole thing is interesting to listen to once, but it doesn't have much replay value since it mostly consists of talking. So what I did was select just the songs, plus some banter leading up to the songs. In this way, it would be just like a concert, at least the kind in which the performer usually talks a bit before each song. I made clear to edit out any stray comments by the emcee, so it sounds like it's just Hayward on stage.

One really nice thing is that the sound quality is excellent. This was professionally recorded for the video, I think, so it sounds as good as an officially released live album. The only snag is that it's rather short. It's 36 minutes in all, with about six of those minutes being talking. In some cases, he only plays parts of songs rather than the whole thing. But still, it's a really nice way to hear Moody Blues songs, vastly different than the highly produced studio album versions. Oh, and he does a nice cover version of a Buddy Holly song, "Heartbeat."

01 Your Wildest Dreams (Justin Hayward)
02 talk (Justin Hayward)
03 Heartbeat (Justin Hayward)
04 talk (Justin Hayward)
05 Tuesday Afternoon [Forever Afternoon] (Justin Hayward)
06 talk (Justin Hayward)
07 The Actor (Justin Hayward)
08 talk (Justin Hayward)
09 Voices in the Sky (Justin Hayward)
10 talk (Justin Hayward)
11 English Sunset (Justin Hayward)
12 talk (Justin Hayward)
13 Who Are You Now (Justin Hayward)
14 talk (Justin Hayward)
15 Never Comes the Day (Justin Hayward)
16 talk (Justin Hayward)
17 Forever Autumn (Justin Hayward)
18 talk (Justin Hayward)
19 Driftwood (Justin Hayward)
20 talk (Justin Hayward)
21 Nights in White Satin (Justin Hayward)
22 Question (Justin Hayward)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15847702/JustinHywrd_2002_AcoustcRckandRollHallofFmeClevelndOH__6-21-2002_atse.zip.html

The cover art comes from a screenshot I took of the YouTube video of this concert.

5 comments:


  1. Hi Paul, Awesome job as usual on this CLASSIC Joni show! Really appreciate the upgrade and all the work you did to clean it up! On a different note, I have a suggestion/challenge for you, should you choose to accept it. Apparently, a previously never before heard 1968 song from George Harrison and Ringo Starr just surfaced, entitled "Radhe Shaam". It is really quite nice with excellent guitar work and drumming from George and Ringo, respectively. Unfortunately, I personally don't care for the lyrics or the vocalist delivering them. I was wondering if you could use your software (Spleeter or x-Minus) to remove the vocal and create a lost Beatles instrumental??? The track can be found on Ultimate Classic Rock or YouTube. No worries if you are not a Beatles fan or interested in investing the time to do this, I just thought it would be really cool and you would be the guy to attempt it. Thanks in advance should you decide to take it on! I absolutely love your blog and your attention to detail with the editing you do. Two examples...ABB 'One More Ride' special edit (which you could probably boost the vocal even more on now! hint, hint...) and your recent JJ Cale show with Petty and Campbell. Had the original version of that and much prefer your boosted JJ vocal version now!!!) Keep it up Paul, you are AWESOME at this and there are a lot of audiophiles like me out there that really appreciate you! Your blog is a daily delight! - Eric

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    1. It’s an interesting track, but to be clear, Ringo does sing on it (at the end.). I do agree though that it would make for a killer lost Beatles instrumental

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    2. Also, http://webgrafikk.com/blog/news/newly-discovered-track-not-1968-after-all/

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