Sad news.
Mike Pinder, a great musician, an outstanding keyboardist and founder of The Moody Blues, has died, the last living member of the original lineup, who in the early 60s performed simple, but very nice songs in the style of “big beat” and ” rhythm and blues” and then switched to early psychedelia, quickly developing and expanding its forms to the framework of melodic progressive rock, which the talented musicians of the group successfully embodied in their best albums of the 70s. Mike Pinder played one of the main roles in the development of the team’s creativity and musical style. And first of all, as an innovator who was the first to introduce and widely use the Mellotron keyboard instrument in rock music, not only as a musician, but also as an engineer who was directly involved in modifying the early version of the MK1 Mellotron at the factory for their production, having worked there for 18 months, in As a result, a special model MK2 was manufactured with a two-row keyboard to extract magical and outlandish sounds that vividly enriched the musical landscape of The Moody Blues compositions.
And not only.
It was Mike’s mellotron that The Beatles used in the legendary song Strawberry Fields Forever and in their other works of the late period.
Soon, many groups at the turn of the late 60s and early 70s began to actively include this fashionable device in the list of studio tools when recording their works to give them a unique palette of sound and build a stage of large-scale scope. The Mellotron then became so popular that many people jokingly called it “Pindertron”.))
Mike Pinder was also a great philosopher, which was reflected in his songs; he was a kind of secret weapon of The Moody Blues, decorating their albums with monumental compositions filled with deep meaning and inner strength of incredible beauty. Each of their records included one or two of his songs. But what kind of things they were! These were genuine pearls and true masterpieces of melodic prog rock, such opuses as Melancholy Man or When You Are’re Free Man… they hit the heart and you can’t stop admiring them no matter how many times you press play.
PS This may be too emotional, but I adore the classic albums of The Moody Blues, and especially appreciate Mike as a wonderful person and a great musician – a true Mellotron genius for all time.
RIP Forever! Mr. Mellotron!
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