We had a greatest hits album from this band that played A LOT in the car on road trips into New Jersey to see family. Particularly from the time before I can remember up until maybe the late 90s. Before I got my own cd player and started buying my own music. A lot of Bruce Springsteen, Billy Idol and Chicago as well.
Now that I’m much older, I understand a lot more of Springsteen and I certainly respect him as a musician. Although I’d be ok if I never had to hear “born to run” ever again— sonically, I am just not a fan of it and I’ve heard it more than enough times in my life. I feel the same about “25 or 6 to 4” by Chicago. Heard too many times. Although I could expand “Born to Run” into a thesis with the exception of its message because it’s a good one. Certainly relatable to anyone who grew up in New Jersey or any place they’d give anything to escape from.
The moody blues- I don’t think we’d played this disc since my uncle passed away in late 1999. At least once my folks went to see them live with him and my aunt and I think it was in Atlantic City. I’m sure I’ll be corrected once this post goes up.
We visited their house a lot and this disc almost always came with us.
Since then… I can’t remember the last time we played it. Springsteen, Billy idol and Moody Blues later got replaced with Enya and Vanessa Mae (my dad got a lot of her music from his overseas travels). Then cars stopped coming with CD players in them and we listen to 70s and 80s music on Sirius.
So the real reason I’m here…
How I feel about this music is hard to explain. It’s not like it makes me sad because it reminds me of a deceased loved one.
One theory I have, and the only one I’m going to post on a public webpage: their songs just sound weird and conjure up strange images my young mind couldn’t comprehend.
I’m tempted to use the term “nightmare fuel” but I don’t have anything concrete to describe it. Ok, maybe two examples.
Before going into these 12 songs, I’ve found some interesting stuff just from Google and Wikipedia. Heck, the fact there’s a Reddit thread on their most famous song was kinda mind blowing. As do a lot of times I find people talking about things I thought only my neck of the woods was aware of.
First off, I’ve always thought all of these songs were older than me. And I’ve read and heard comments how this was a band associated with acid trips or they were around during the peak of those times. Not sure how true these rumors are but I don’t care enough about them to pursue answers.
In actuality, 5 of the songs were 80s songs. I still can’t wrap my head around that- and I say this with a genuine smile on my face. It’s just further proof how my favorite decade of music is the best because it has the most variety. And for all of my talk of putting distance between myself and these songs, I have fond feelings for at least 2 of these songs.
And before I proceed further, I still haven’t heard the majority of these songs in years. So I’m recollecting all this from memory and the melodies are still very vivid in my brain despite the years that’ve passed.
“Nights in white satin” is easily their most famous. It’s also a personal favorite of someone in my family but I can’t remember who. Maybe it’s several people.
Having this and “isn’t it strange” in sequence makes for a bizarre section in the middle of the disc.
The one thing that probably screwed the most with my perception- I don’t know what the hell they’re singing about in any of these songs. At the time, I’d just gotten tubes in my ears and I was getting used to really hearing and understanding sounds for the first time. So I could only go from the feel of the music a lot of the time and it’s very strange music at face value.
I still don’t know what “isn’t it strange” is about to this day so I guess I gotta do some googling later.
Both also feature an orchestra. Specifically the London Festival Orchestra. And it’s that component alone that kinda drove in that wedge for me. It’s not the type of thing I’m used to hearing in pop music so it’s hard to process. I don’t want to say I’m opposed to orchestral arrangements in pop music- Prince did it with Clare Fischer and his arrangements brought his music to another level. But this orchestra, it’s more like Stravinsky’s Firebird than Vivaldi’s Spring. The level of intensity they bring is slightly off putting for my tastes. I much prefer melodic music over the dramatic edge in these works in particular.
The other odd thing about “nights in white satin” is the spoken section. You think the song is about to end but then there’s a poem that comes out of nowhere.
So all I ever thought this song was about was sadness and pain. And there’s a funeral sermon at the end, like the person in the song died or something.
Now that I’m older, I can get it’s more about unrequited love. One person joked that the guy was drunk and raving as a result. And I looked it up- “late lament” is the poem and it’s a band original. Talking about bleakness in the world, dreams not realized and days wasted, but there’s a small glimmer of hope that always exists in the start of a new day.
And the operatic drama of the orchestra returns once more and suddenly it ends.
One fascinating thing I read- depending on the version you hear, the song sometimes doesn’t end with the gong. The gong is actually meant to end Side A of the album the song is from, not the song itself. That kinda blew my mind cuz I can’t imagine the song ending without it.
Probably the most fascinating fact I came across- “wildest dreams” and “I know you’re out there somewhere” are part of the same story. Other people more observant than I am have noted how they complement each other. Heck, I saw one quote from a band member saying they wanted to recapture the “wildest dreams” sound because it worked so well for them the first time. And the other song, two years later, uses the same instruments. I never noticed that. But as soon as I read this and tried to recall the songs from memory, I was seeing a lot of overlap and I couldn’t separate the two, haha
I always associated “somewhere” with “the other side of life” since they’re back to back on the disc but they’re sonically very different.
But “somewhere” is my favorite- makes me kinda sad when it ends, though. There’s a whirligig sound that begins and ends it and when it comes back at the end, I don’t know… it’s like you’re saying goodbye to the person in the song. And yeah, I hate goodbyes when I really enjoy something like this. I think this is the one time I’d prefer a fade out to an exact end so I can at least believe the two people in the song find each other again.
The quote I read also mentions how these songs are about a first love, wanting to see them again but in the end you’re better off leaving it in the past.
Still can’t believe these songs are my age and younger.
“Wildest dreams” we’ve heard on Sirius 80s channel and the grocery store so it’s still as relevant as it was then. It’s a great opening to the disc.
I didn’t know what “the other side of life” was about. I read earlier how it’s about the club scene in London and wanting to investigate what you’re missing out on.
I’ve always liked the sound of it and it’s probably a bunch of 80s nuances I hadn’t connected with the decade until now.
The final minute is really neat. The music repeats and goes on. Then something like the tornado in wizard of oz happens, the keyboards oscillate back and forth, there’s a bird chirp and it decrescendos and ends. Unresolved but in a very intriguing way. Unlike the unsettled “nights in white satin” type of unresolution.
“Story in your eyes” is really cool but it conjures up some spooky imagery. I can only describe it as a hellish bonfire. Like something I might have seen on Looney Tunes or “night on bald mountain” in Fantasia. But it also makes me think of a Native American ritual… or something from Indiana Jones where a sacrifice is about to be made by the natives. And most of this I just get from the final 30 seconds of the song. Although the chorus conjures up a fiery tornado in my mind.
I do like this song but it brings up a lot of strange things in my mind and I’m not entirely sure how they got there. There’s mention of a fire that’s burning but that’s all I remember. And “the sunshine we’d been waiting for turned to rain”.
“Tuesday afternoon,” I’ll have to look up cuz I don’t know what that’s about either. It’s one of several of their songs that has a strange juxtaposition somewhere in the middle. It’s one song for a bit, then there’s a breakdown section. The song comes back and it brings down again, but this time without words. And it kinda has a Fantasia type ending with harps and pretty but sad melodies. But I’m not sure why- what sort of message that leaves the song with.
“The voice”- also a mystery but from memory alone, it’s one of my favorite melodies from them. There’s also a fun guitar solo somewhere in the middle.
“Gemini dream”- another 80s song but one of their stranger ones. It’s about life on the road but also could be about a relationship. Wikipedia mentioned its harmonies being comparable to Hall and Oates and yeah, I can hear that now.
The music is the odd part for me because of its dynamics are all over the place. For the final minute or so, it follows the melody, kinda falls down a staircase in slow motion, builds up again, falls down the stairs again and it ends with opposing notes clashing.
Maybe once I look up the lyrics I’ll come back to it and it’ll become one of my favorites. Stranger things have happened. Prince and Depeche Mode have also had music I found off-putting and bizarre at first and then on repeated listens, I enjoy them a lot more.
“See-saw” and “I”m just a singer in a rock n roll band” I also put together because they’re back to back. And I sometimes have trouble untangling them from my memory cuz they have a lot of overlap. They’re among the older songs so they’re sonically different from everything else.
Looking back, yeah they’re strange and not what I’m used to listening to, but they’re the good kind of different.
Ok, this might be more towards “rock n roll band.” See-saw, it just makes me think of when I used to play on them and it’s kinda funny hearing adults sing about it. Unless they’re using it as a metaphor… hmmm… I’m barely remembering now it had a fade-out at the end.
“Rock n roll band” is fun because it has that live concert feel. Or a tribal ritual but without the human sacrifice part. Don’t know what they’re singing cuz their voices are distorted from overexertion and all that. But in this case, it makes no difference.
I probably didn’t notice this as a kid but as an adult, I think I get why I like this one in retrospect.
It has that perfect ending. I think there’s even cheering but it slowly winds down until it stops. Give it a few seconds of silence, then BAM! Final note in the perfect spot.
“The Question”… this was probably the most fun song to read about. I never understood it and to this day, I still don’t. First off, all of these Wikipedia articles on the songs would mention how certain writers ranked them in the scheme of Moody Blues songs. When I saw that this one was considered in someone’s top 3 or top 5, I couldn’t help but laugh. Once or twice when we’ve played it, my dad just skips over this song entirely, completely dismissive of it. And we’ve all kinda felt the same way about it.
I also read that it was two songs that were put together. More of that juxtaposition, but that makes a lot more sense. There’s the main melody section talking about questions, people not wanting to answer and so on. It also brings up some heavy things like war. Meanwhile the other section is slow and melodic and calm… and it’s about a relationship of some kind.
I’m having trouble recalling exactly how this song ends, except that it builds, slowly falls off. There’s a crescendo just in the middle songs on the disc, but it ends with a trumphiant orchestral note played by several instruments at once. Sort of like a “ta-da” type of moment- the only way I could think to describe it.
With several things lately, I feel like I’ve been doing a lot of reminiscing and reliving and finding closure with things I spent a lot of time avoiding for whatever reason. Maybe this is something else I’ll do that with. Actually listen to these songs with lyrics in front of me so I have a better idea of what it’s all about. But that’s another post and another day.
The Musings of DreamyPopRoyalty 