Graeme Charles Edge was born March 30, 1941, in Rochester, Staffordshire. He grew up to be a musician, songwriter, and poet, co-founding the Moody Blues in 1964. He would play the drums alongside guitarist/vocals Denny Laine, bassist/vocals Clint Warwick, Keyboardist/vocals Mike Pinder and flautist/vocals Ray Thomas.
After Laine and Warwick left in 1966, guitarist/vocals Justin Hayward and bassist/vocals John Lodge joined the band. Graeme was the poet for the band writing “Morning Glory” and “Late Lament” (both narrated by Pinder) from the album “Days of Future Passed” in 1967. He would read his own poem “Departure” to open the LP “In Search of the Lost Chord” in 1968, with Pinder reciting Edge’s “The Word” later on the album.
When Graeme told me he was retiring I knew that without him it couldn’t be the Moody Blues anymore, and that’s what happened. It’s true to say that he kept the group together throughout all the years, because he loved it.
Justin Hayward
Other poems were “In the Beginning” (co-narrated by Hayward, Edge, and Pinder in turn) and “The Dream” (spoken by Pinder), both for the 1969 album “On the Threshold of a Dream”. Edge once said that the reason he liked Pinder to recite his work was that he smoked so many cigarettes and drank so much whisky that he had the best voice for it. In 1960, the Moody Blues launched their own label “Threshold” and Graeme would start contributing songs also.
I didn’t [listen to] that album, because I was going through a divorce at the same time and so it was very, very painful for me. Once it was finished, I didn’t play it for years and years and years. Never played it. Not that I play our stuff very much anyway, but I never ever played that one. And I hadn’t really heard it apart from the [singles] from it, until [2007 when] it came out first time on CD and I had to listen to it digitalised just to sort of say “Yeah, that’s fine by me.” And I thought, “Well actually, that’s not too bad an album!” That’s the closest I’ll ever be to hearing a Moodies album for the first time
Graeme Edge (talking about their 1972 “Seventh Sojourn” album)
His song “Higher and Higher” has Pinder doing a spoken lyric over a rocket blast off started the album “To Our Children’s Children’s Children” which also had his instrumental “Beyond”. In 1970 “A Question of Balance” has his song “Don’t You Feel Small” on which Graeme whispers the lyrics and band sung vocals. He also co-wrote “Procession” and “After You Came” for the LP “Every Good Boy Deserves Favour”.
To me he was the White Eagle of the North with his beautiful poetry,” he said. “His friendship, his love of life and his ‘unique’ style of drumming that was the engine room of the Moody Blues. … I will miss you Graeme.
John Lodge
During the Moody Blues hiatus in 1974 Edge would form his own band the “Graeme Edge Band” featuring guitarist/vocals Adrian Gurvitz and Paul Gurvitz. They had a second LP in 1977 called “Paradise Ballroom”. After the reunion of the Moody Blues in 1978, he contributed “I’ll Be Level With You”, “22,000 Days” for “Long Distance Voyager”, and “Going Nowhere” for “The Present” in 1983. Edge was the last original member to perform with the band.
Graeme Edge used DW drums, Zildjian cymbals, Remo heads, and Regal Tip drumsticks, namely their 5A model. He died on November 11, 2021, in Sarasota, Florida at the age of 80.
