John Lodge was good, but Justin Hayward WAS the Moody Blues.
“Justin Hayward WAS the Moody Blues”
Justin wrote most of what I think of as the major songs. So there is a lot of truth to what you say.
Another huge contributor to the Moody Blues sound was Mike Pinder and his mellotron sounds/strings. Justin said the mellotron made his songs work.
On Days of Future Passed the strings you hear during Nights in White Satin is Pinder’s mellotron not the orchestra which only played in the segments between the album tracks. Orchestra was an adder after the moodies recorded their stuff.
On the other albums through Seventh Sojourn all the strings were done by Pinder.