The Day Begins –

The Night: Nights in White Satin –

Well, since I mentioned it last week…

Days of Future Passed (1967), The Moody Blues with The London Festival Orchestra conducted by Peter Knight. An album not to confused with the popular X-Men story Days of Future Past. A fascinating bridge between pop and classical, this album really challenged the notion of what popular music could be and almost completely began a new genre all by itself. Progressive rock, the playground of talented bands like Yes, Rush, Pink Floyd, and many others.

One of the funny things about Days of Future Passed is that even though it was based around the notion of bringing an orchestra and a rock band together, all the material was recorded separately (all except one song…). All of the songs by The Moody Blues were done in a recording studio and the orchestra, lead and composed by Knight, was recorded elsewhere. Even the album keeps the two separate with songs by the band being featured and interludes between the songs by the orchestra. However the last song “Nights in White Satin” is the only one to feature both playing together, and even then they were still recorded separately.

It’s interesting that the band that would finally come up with this popular notion of mixing classical and rock/pop was The Moody Blues. A band that two years earlier had released their less than successful R&B debut album and a slightly successful single “Go Now.” While the Beatles had used an orchestra earlier the same year for “A Day In the Life” (the ending track for Sgt. Peppers), the idea was still extremely new to the industry. Mike Pinder’s heavy use of the Mellotron on this album also had a significant impact upon what would become the Progressive rock industry as well as the then blooming Psychedelic genre.

I tried really hard on this LP choice to go with something other than just another “first and last song on album” (which if you haven’t noticed yet, is a fairly common choice on my Monday LPs…), but both of these songs complemented one another so well. From the melody of “Nights in White Satin” being teased by the orchestra in “The Day Begins” to the first and second half of the poem (spoken by Pinder) being split between the two songs. While the lyrics of “Nights in White Satin” may border on the cliche of their pop influence, the song’s (and album’s) unique sound and psychedelic imagery definitely paved the way for a new world of music.