Moody Blues – “Days of Future Passed” (1967)

The reader with a good memory might remember a previous post on this blog on the topic of CDs in my collection I would like to have on vinyl. This record was one of them, apparently this wish is now fulfilled. A stroll around Quebec's stores for used records last week resulted in Days of Future Passed (amongst others). And for the price of 5 CDN, it was a bargain, if you ask me.

I must be honest and admit I don’t remember how I first discovered Moody Blues, but it was as an adult. This was the first of Moody's albums I bought and my collection quickly contained all of their "famous seven".

This was Moody Blues’ second album. According to legend, their record label Decca Records wanted to promote their new Deramic Stereo Sound (DSS) by recording a rockn’roll version of Dvorak's New World Symphony. Moody Blues, who owed the company a lot of money since their first recording, was chosen for this project. Among other things, their debt would be considered paid off as a consequence of this recording.

Moody Blues managed to get the artistic control over the recording and abandoned the original idea after a while. Instead they used their own material and with the help of Peter Knight, who had been hired for the original Dvorak project, they created their own mix of rockn’roll and classical music - Days of Future Passed. (It may be added that some people on Decca denies that there ever was an original Dvorak Project, this wasn’t to be until somewhere in the 70s, according to them). The band presented their "rockn’roll” songs for Peter Knight who subsequently wrote the classical parts that link the songs together. In this way, Peter Knight has perhaps just as much responsible as the band for the final result. On the vinyl album, credit is given for the compositions to Redwave-Knight, where Redwave is a fictitious name the band gave to themselves and Knight of course is Peter Knight.

London Festival Orchestra, which plays the classical parts on the album, consists of musicians from Decca who were given this name. "London" was added to the name to make it a bit more impressive.

I have always kept this LP as one of my absolute favorites, top 3. Firstly, I like Moody's "rockn’roll” songs on the album, they are all really good creations. Secondly, I like how smoothly the classical musical parts take over, and hand over to the "rockn’roll” parts. It is almost imperceptibly, suddenly you’re listening to classical music and don’t really know what happened and when the "rock’roll” song ended. I put the word "rockn’roll" in quotes because it’s not really rockn’roll, it’s more the psychedelic sounds of the 60's (whatever you call that music). The album is a concept album on the theme of a typical day, from morning to night and listening to it is to embark on a fascinating musical journey.

The record company was skeptical of the creation when it was finished as they felt it scared the fans of classical music with its rockn’roll content, at the same time the thought it frightened rockn’roll fans with its classical content. But they had no reason for their fears, the album sold really well, largely thanks to the hits Tuesday Afternoon and Nights in White Satin.

The record was remixed 1978 since the original mastertapes became increasingly degraded. This means that there are no CDs with the original mix. A lot of people find the early original mix not so good, nevertheless I'm glad I’m now an owner of both a CD and a vinyl (with the original mix).

I can’t do anything else than highly recommend this album, it’s fantastic from the moment the first sound is heard until the last chord dies out.

 

Tracklist

Side A

1 The Day Begins 5:45

2 Dawn: Dawn Is A Feeling 3:50

3 The Morning: Another Morning 3:40

4 Lunch Break: Peak Hour 5:21

Side B

1 The Afternoon: Forever Afternoon (Tuesday?) 8:25

2 Evening: The Sun Set: Twilight Time 6:39

3 The Night: Nights In White Satin 7:41