I awoke this morning to the very sad news that Ray Thomas, a founding member of The Moody Blues, had passed.                                                     Thomas, along with Mike Pinder, Denny Lane, Graeme Edge and Clint Warwick released their first album in 1965, The Magnificent Moodies. That effort yielded the first number one hit in the UK, “Go Now” (# 10 in the US). Clint Warwick and Denny Lane left shortly and were replaced with John Lodge, a earlier band mate of Pinder’s, and Justin Hayward. Ray didn’t start contributing on the writing until the Days of Future Passed album. He assisted with “Another Morning” and “Twilight Time”. One of his first solo writing attempts delivered “Legend of a Mind”, an ode to LSD guru Timothy Leary. On that same album, In Search of the Lost Chord, also featured his “Dr. Livingstone, I Presume”.

Ray Thomas and his bandmates escorted many of us on cosmic tours, traveling billions of miles, returning us to the physical plane where we started. Returning, we may have occupied the same space, but with a totally different spatial awareness. We were changed forever, in ways difficult to express, but easily felt, both in a tactile and spiritual way. Always for the better. Back where we began, but then again, not. Ready to embrace our somehow new surroundings.

The Moody Blues are to inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 14, 2018. An honor that is well overdue.

A true “Veteran Cosmic Rocker”, he will be greatly missed.