Thomas was one of the founding members and was the group’s flutist and one of the composers and lead singers.
Here’s one of his songs: For My Lady
RIP, Ray. Loved your stuff. My second-favorite Moody, after Justin Hayward.
Oh man. I was thinking the other day about concerts I’d been to that were maybe not technically fantastic, but just plain fun, and the one time I saw the Moody Blues was near the top of the list. I always thought of them as “pop music for people who like prog”.
RIP.
I love the Moody Blues, I saw them live a few times. RIP
Here’s another Ray Thomas song, from Days of Future Passed:
RIP Ray
I really liked them when they first appeared on the scene. I think the last album I bought was “To Our Children’s Children’s Children”.
Shit. I was, and still am, a huge Moodies fan.
I got into them as a young teenager in the mid-70s. Their resurgence in the 80s was astounding. I had people in my car ask me “who’s that?” when I put on some of their tapes.
They seem to be a band only known for one song, but their catalogue is deep and filled with gems.
Thanks Ray.
IIRC he was the guy who did the spoken word sections too.
I’ve lately been getting back into them (childhood fave) in a big way.
If you want to hear the flutework, give Voices in the Sky a listen.
Breathe deep the gathering gloom.
Watch lights fade from every room.
Ray’s traveling eternity road. What will he find there?
(Yes, that’s one of his.)
Those were mostly Mike Pinder and Graeme Edge. Ray did some spoken on his song Veteran Cosmic Rocker, at least.
My brother is a big Moodies fan and discovered them at a young age. I’ve probably seen them about 8 times, all between the ages of 13 and 30. He even subscribed to their big glossy magazine, “Higher & Higher” and we had a VHS tape of their documentary Legend of a Band that got watched a lot.
So, oddly enough, Ray was a big part of my childhood here in Ohio, in the 90s. Weird stuff.
I’m glad he lived long enough to know of the RHOF induction but really bummed that he will miss the ceremony.
I guess Justin, John and Graeme are on a Moodies Cruise right now. Graeme couldn’t finish the set last night, he was too upset. What a thing!
RIP Ray.
In college in the '70’s. Their music was inescapable. As music, it was very good but as time elapsed the pseudo-profundity wore a little thin. Just my opinion there but I did have some good times to their “sound track”.
RIP Ray–thanks for the great music that’s been a part of my life for decades.
My first concert was The Moodies back in '71 and I saw them a couple of more times including the show that was recorded/filmed for Lovely To See You: Live. The seven albums from Days of Future Passed to Seventh Sojourn was as good run as any band could hope for.
I.e., the present day.
j/k 
This would be sad anyway, but I was really hoping to see Ray and Mike reunite with the band for Hall of Fame induction.
Damn.
Would you go so far as to say their catalogue is a concrete cave with iron doors?
Sad to hear the news, MBs really helped shape my personal moral code while I was growing up.
What can you say about a guy who was a dark horse but wrote the best song that his band ever did:
Legend of a Mind
[quote=“drad_dog, post:18, topic:806072”]
What can you say about a guy who was a dark horse but wrote the best song that his band ever did:
Legend of a Mind
[/QUOTE]Years ago, I read an interview in which Thomas explained laughingly that he’d never used acid, didn’t know much about Timothy Leary in 1968, and didn’t know anything about the words and phrases he was using in the lyrics.
He claimed that he vaguely thought the “Astral Plane” was sort of a psychedelic, multicolored propellor plane that flew people around San Francisco Bay. And when Thomas finally met Dr. Leary (whom he adored, as it turned out), he says Leary immediately smiled and said, “You don’t know anything at all about LSD, do you?”
The moodies as a group could be into substances as I recall. Mike Pinder, who wrote my other fave, The Best Way to Travel, I think had a bad trip and kind of withdrew.