Love The Moody Blues

Moody Blues - Candle of Life 1970

Where do I begin? I first heard the Moody Blues played on the radio - no doubt about that. But my first meaningful introduction came from my older sister. She was very impressed with them, and showed me her album. I was old enough to understand the lyrics, and read along while the music played. I didn't really think much of them for a few years. Until..,

The drugs.

Somehow listening to music stoned changes the perception of music. I suspect it slows the brain waves down (studies concur) and increases dopamine levels which increase association. That and the euphoria, and relaxed state all open music up to a new level.

I don't feel I would want to listen to rap music while high as I'd get depressed, and paranoid, but music like the Moody Blues certainly guided a generation during their junkets to higher levels of contemplation.

Aside from the drugs the Moody Blues experience certainly was grounded in the Hippie movement, in sharing, and love. There was a optimism, certainly a deep funk too, but an optimism which says - we matter - and very much.

As the years pass I wonder often where youngsters in their twenties could conjure up such wisdom. Some suggest that artist, writers, and musicians tap into an "old soul", and listening to the Moody Blues seems to drive home that that may in fact be possible.


Moody Blues - Question - 1970

Lyrics, dedication to a higher purpose, and fine music craft make the Moody Blues one of the best recorded musical groups in the last Century.

Sometimes in my deepest secret moments I wonder what kind of world it would have been if the Hippies had won the day, and if the world were somehow persuaded to live in peace. I wonder what kind of world it could be - instead of the horrors we see unfold each day.

I don't know if mankind will ever allow itself the option of knowing peace, we are such a perverted race, but listening to the Moody Blues gives me a sense of hope that maybe, just maybe people could get along long enough to create a world based upon mutual respect, understanding, and love.

And I'm not even high.

Here's some lyrics to consider.

Moody Blues
Question

Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door?
With a thousand million questions
About hate and death and war.

It's where we stop and look around us
There is nothing that we need.
In a world of persecution
That is burning in it's greed.

Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door?
Because the truth is hard to swallow
That's what the wall of love is for.

It's not the way that you say it
When you do those things to me.
It's more the way that you mean it
When you tell me what will be.

And when you stop and think about it
You won't believe it's true.
That all the love you've been giving
Has all been meant for you.

I'm looking for someone to change my life.
I'm looking for a miracle in my life.
And if you could see what it's done to me
To lose the the love I knew
Could safely lead me through.

Between the silence of the mountains
And the crashing of the sea
There lies a land I once lived in
And she's waiting there for me.

But in the grey of the morning
My mind becomes confused
Between the dead and the sleeping
And the road that I must choose.

I'm looking for someone to change my life.
I'm looking for a miracle in my life.
And if you could see what it's done to me
To lose the the love I knew
Could safely lead me to
The land that I once knew.
To learn as we grow old
The secrets of our souls.

It's not the way that you say it
When you do those things to me.
It's more the way you really mean it
When you tell me what will be.

Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door?
With a thousand million questions
About hate and death and war.

It's where we stop and look around us
There is nothing that we need.
In a world of persecution
That is burning in it's greed.

Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door?