# Moody Blue's Ray Thomas dies

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moody-blues-ray-thomas-dies/806072>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [January 7, 2018, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moody-blues-ray-thomas-dies/806072 "2018-01-07T21:22:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moody-blues-ray-thomas-dies/806072/21 "2018-01-10T17:42:16Z")

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> [@drad\_dog](#):
>
> 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.

Oh, I am NOT claiming the Moodies never did drugs. Justin has said he was high nonstop from 1967 until about 1985.

All I say is that Ray claims he’d never used acid and didn’t really know much about Timothy Leary **when he first wrote the song** in 1968. Leary seems to have grasped that fact immediately, and found it amusing. In retrospect, Thomas found it amusing too.

Did Thomas SUBSEQUENTLY try acid and/or explore Eastern mysticism? Probably. In the video for “Your Wildest Dreams,” the Moodies made fun of their Sixties selves, and there’s a hilarious bit showing hippie Ray following an Indian guru.

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**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2018, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moody-blues-ray-thomas-dies/806072/22 "2018-01-10T18:43:19Z")

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> [@astorian](#):
>
> Oh, I am NOT claiming the Moodies never did drugs. Justin has said he was high nonstop from 1967 until about 1985.
> 
> All I say is that Ray claims he’d never used acid and didn’t really know much about Timothy Leary **when he first wrote the song** in 1968. Leary seems to have grasped that fact immediately, and found it amusing. In retrospect, Thomas found it amusing too.
> 
> Did Thomas SUBSEQUENTLY try acid and/or explore Eastern mysticism? Probably. In the video for “Your Wildest Dreams,” the Moodies made fun of their Sixties selves, and there’s a hilarious bit showing hippie Ray following an Indian guru.

Oh I totally believe that about Ray.

The moodies keep “appearing” in drug stories I read. There is a picture of them in Up and Down with the Rolling Stones, by Tony Sanchez, implying something. And I just read that Lennon used to go to a regular Saturday night party at the moodies house to meet chicks etc, probably back before moodies mach 2 became very successful.

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