John Lodge, still a singer in a rock and roll band

Interviewed John Lodge of the Moody Blues, one of four rock groups from the 60s I can name still out there touring with mostly the same members as when they hit it big. The others: the Stones (Mick, Keith, Woody, Charlie Watts), Yes (Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Alan White, and throw in Rick Wakeman's son Oliver on keyboards), and the Who (Daltrey and Townshend). Maybe you can include Jethro Tull, with Ian Anderson and Martin Barre, but that's about it.

Lodge said the Moodies still enjoy touring and performing for their fans. To that end, he says the two favorite songs that he wrote for the group are "I'm Just a Singer (in a Rock and Roll Band)" and "Isn't Life Strange." "That's what I am," he said of the former. "And that's what life is." Lodge is grateful for the band's longevity and success, though it seems to have come at a price. He says the group tries to always play the songs just like they were on the albums, "because otherwise the fans let us know." Seems like a bit of a constraint, or at least the key difference between rock and jazz. Reminds me of the dichotomy between Bill Bruford and Allan Holdsworth, the so-called jazz half of UK, and John Wetton and Eddie Jobson. Jobson wanted Holdsworth to play his solos the same way every night on tour, and Holdsworth couldn't and wouldn't. Bruford said the jazz half of the band was willing to compromise, and the rock half wasn't. The predictable result was a split after the group's debut album and tour, much to the chagrin of prog/fusion fans everywhere.