"Ride My See-Saw"

From the Wikipedia entry:

"Ride My See-Saw" is a hit 1968 single by the English progressive rock band The Moody Blues. It was written by the band's bassist John Lodge, and was first released on the Moody Blues 1968 album In Search of the Lost Chord. It was the second of two singles from that album, the other being "Voices in the Sky." "Ride My See-Saw" is one of John Lodge's signature high-energy rock and roll songs, and is sometimes regarded as his most popular composition for the Moody Blues, along with "I'm Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band)."

The single was released later in October 1968, with Mike Pinder's "A Simple Game" on the B-side. As "Simple Game" the Four Tops recording of this song went to #3 in the UK charts in 1972.

The opening laughter from "Departure" was removed for the single release.

At most of the Moody Blues' concerts, "Ride My See-Saw" is the encore presentation at the end of the shows. When performed live, it is usually opened by a lengthy keyboard and drum duet as the band members make their way back out to the stage for the encore.

"Ride My See-Saw" was also another piece of recording history made by the Moody Blues. It was one of the first rock singles ever to be recorded on 8 track multi-track recording. While 8 track had been used on albums before (notably on the Moodies own AOR classic Days Of Future Passed) it was not really considered for a single until the time that See Saw was recorded.

Here they do a bang-up job of lip syncing on the September 1968 episode of Colour Me Pop, a British music TV show broadcast on BBC 2 from 1968-1969. I could be wrong about this, but with the first part of "Ride My See-Saw" ("Departure"), it would seem the Moody Blues had Pink Floyd (around 1:55) beat by about a year with the crazy, lunatic laughter/spoken word thing:



Hayward and Lodge