Remembering 2024’s Music Losses: Mike Pinder

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Wow, Bob Uecker died. We’re just 16 days into this year and I already have a top ten music and non-music entry for next January’s list. Thanks for the laughs, Mr. Baseball. As for last year, here’s another musician that said farewell in 2024…another name you don’t know but a band you do. Mike Pinder This is the third time on the list I have featured the final original member of a name band who passed away. Joining Duke Fakir of the Four Tops and Henry Fambrough of the Spinners, we bid farewell to the final original member of the Moody Blues, Mike Pinder. While the two “biggest names” of the Moodies — John Lodge and Justin Hayward — are still living, neither was with the Moodies originally. My brother’s favorite band (as I always like to mention whenever I mention the Moody Blues), and what is not to like. The Moodies had the perfect blend of “prog rock” (“progressive” rock) and commercial appeal to make them legends. Pinder was the keyboardist from the band’s inception until 1978. I’ve told this before, but it will explain a lot about the popularity and impact of the Moodies: one morning, when I was stationed in Norfolk, we had an “office meeting.” The subject of the meeting was our supervisor telling us about the Moody Blues concert she’d gone to the night before at Hampton Coliseum. Yesterday I mentioned the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s embarrassment of having to induct Richard Perry posthumously now. The fact that they let the Moodies go as long as they did without induction speaks volumes to their ineptitude. Mike Pinder Born Michael Thomas Pinder, December 27, 1941, Erdington, Birmingham Died April 24, 2024, California (dementia) (age 82) HALL OF FAME: Rock and Roll The classic “Questions,” with Mike Pinder introducing the song: