Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Moody Blues, The
Label: Polydor Records
Release: 1967
Length: 41:34
Rating: 5/5
“Days of Future Past” is one of those monumental sixties albums that deserve a spot in every household. With it, the British symphonic prog legends The Moody Blues created a pioneering work of early progressive and symphonic rock. Still their most beloved and recognizable album today, it was one of the first fusions of rock and classical music and the first known collaboration between a rock band and a classical orchestra, which got them written into history as leading pioneers of prog rock and experimental music for all time. On top of that, “Days of Future Past” is one of the first concept albums in the history of rock. The concept is wonderfully simple: it follows the course of a single day in a human life, from morning to evening.
As so often happens with studio milestones in the history of popular music, “Days of Future Passed” earned its revolutionary status through a string of lucky accidents. Until the arrival of the excellent singer and guitarist Justin Hayward and his equally gifted instrumentalist, vocalist and songwriting partner, bassist John Lodge, The Moody Blues were a fairly average r’n’b band that had scored a few hits in the first half of the ’60s but mostly played other bands’ covers. After their thoroughly average debut “The Magnificent Moodies” (1966), which was a pile of r’n’b covers alongside a handful of originals, it looked like the Moodies would sink into obscurity once the so-called British Invasion faded.
Hayward and Lodge turned out to be the saving move, since from this album on, their songwriting and playing were key to shaping the band’s signature symphonic sound. The three original members had already been craving a big stylistic change before recording the new album, something that would let them carve out a sound of their own. Keyboardist Mike Pinder had discovered the Mellotron, a revolutionary keyboard instrument for the time that could simulate the sound of an orchestra in all kinds of ways, while Roy Thomas had learned to play the flute, adding a touch of folk to their new symphonic sound. With that combination they could conjure up romantic, pastoral moods with remarkable effectiveness.
But the near-decisive role in shaping the sound of “Days of Future Passed”, and in inventing their unique fusion of symphonic music and early psychedelic rock, was played by an offer from their label at the time, Deram, which suggested they record a rock version of Dvořák’s “New World Symphony” to show off the capabilities of the latest recording technology. The Moodies accepted, but behind the label’s back they built the album on entirely original compositions, for which they also wrote their own orchestral arrangements. These were performed by the London Festival Orchestra under conductor Peter Knight. For the time, this was an incredibly bold, almost radical move, since plenty of classical music purists found a hybrid of classical and rock unthinkable, if not downright blasphemous.
Compared to the later, far more complex and ambitious prog masterpieces, the musical and lyrical concept of “Days of Future Past” seems pretty naive today, but for its time it was more than revolutionary. You have to remember that this was the first attempt at a collaboration between a rock band and an orchestra, which meant exploring a completely new territory. Despite plenty of logistical headaches and distrust, they pulled off a fascinating achievement that hasn’t lost its sonic and conceptual charge or its message even now. Its dreamy, psychedelic archaism, paired with majestic orchestral arrangements, gentle pastoral melodies and spoken words from Mike Pinder (which neatly frame the story of a human day in the intro and the outro, from waking up in the morning to jumping into bed), sounds like some film soundtrack dripping with romance. Out of the seventeen pieces, two evergreen hit singles stand out, ranking among their best and most recognizable work: “Tuesday Afternoon” and “Nights in White Satin”. The latter is still their most beloved song, one that even people who’ve never heard the rest of their output usually know. As good as they are, though, those two are far from the only interesting tracks on the album, which, like most concept albums, is best listened to in full if you want to really feel its romantic atmosphere and sink easily into the palette of psychedelic colors on its cover.
On the orchestral intro “The Day Begins”, the London Festival Orchestra shows off in all its splendor under conductor Peter Knight. The opening pompous motif is followed by a bouncy, almost childlike melody that announces an album of many constantly shifting moods. Pinder uses a spoken-word passage to announce the birth of morning before sunrise, followed by a description of the sun’s triumph over the night. His dramatic words are backed by lavish, romantic orchestral arrangements. Luckily, the Moodies don’t overdo the recitals, which only appear at the start and the end of the album. The band joins the orchestra for the first time on the mysterious “Dawn is a Feeling”, where melancholic Mellotron arrangements paint the break of a new day. This is also where Hawyard’s excellent vocals first appear, and in my opinion, with his sensitive delivery of incredible melancholy, he has one of the most beautiful voices among classic and prog rock singers.
The morning idyll comes to life in “The Morning: Another Morning”. It’s a very pleasant, slightly cheeky little number with a childlike melody, full of psychedelic dreaminess and symphonic pomp too, especially toward the end. Flutist Ray Thomas stands out here with witty flute passages, and he also takes the lead vocals, while gentle acoustic guitar and Mellotron motifs create a distinctly pastoral mood. Lunchtime arrives with the spirited “Lunch Break: Peak Hour”, where the intro features hilariously clever orchestral arrangements before it unexpectedly morphs into a bouncy rock’n’roller with plenty of psychedelic garnish. Bassist John Lodge does a great job as lead vocalist here, and he’s also the song’s writer. The Moodies had a songwriting policy where whoever wrote a song also sang lead on it, although over time Hayward (logically) took over lead vocals on most tracks.
Next comes the classic “The Afternoon: Forever Afternoon” (better known by its single version name, “Tuesday Afternoon”), distinguished by Hawyard’s sensitive vocal performance over his acoustic guitar melody, with Pinder’s Mellotron flowing in the background. Thomas’s closing flute solo adds a nice experimental snack. After an orchestral transition into the contrasting “(Evening) Time to Get Away”, a more mysterious and slightly darker mood sets in for a short while, signaling that the day has peaked and night is slowly closing in. This section impresses again with its varied singing (especially the chorus) and excellent acoustic-orchestral arrangements. “Evening” then splits into two distinctly psychedelic sections tied together by orchestral arrangements: “The Sunset”, where slow rhythms and delicate flute flourishes herald the gradual setting of the sun, and the much more spirited “Twilight Time”, where drummer Graeme Edge is suddenly kept good and busy.
The grand finale and the triumph of the night come courtesy of their best-known classic, the nostalgic “The Night: Nights in White Satin”, which in my opinion is also the best thing on the entire album. This majestic fusion of symphonic, folk and psychedelic rock is at its core one of the most beautiful songs about unrequited love, which Hayward supposedly wrote at just 19. His heart-wrenching singing still stuns with its incredible melancholy after more than four decades, while Pinder’s lavish symphonic Mellotron arrangements went on to set plenty of standards for how the instrument was used in prog rock in the years that followed. It sounds downright unbelievable today that one of the most recognizable classic and prog rock songs didn’t catch on when it came out because it was too long, but in 1967 a song over seven minutes was still a kind of excess. It only got real recognition and fame five years later, when longer songs could finally get radio play.
“Days of Future Passed” is still the best achievement in the story of these legendary British pioneers of fusing rock and classical music, one of the most important albums in the development of prog rock, and one of the best albums of the second half of the sixties. Through their collaboration with an orchestra, The Moody Blues paved the way for other prog pioneers who started blending rock with symphonic arrangements. At the same time, “Days of Future Past” became the standard, and in a way a curse, for all their later albums, since none of them managed to match its adventurous ethereality. Although they went on to create some fine examples of early symphonic prog rock, they all stayed in the shadow of this monumental achievement. Beyond its priceless historical significance in the development of new forms of popular music, “Days of Future Passed” sounds just as majestic after more than four decades as it did on release, which members of some far more popular bands, for whom it served as a major creative inspiration in the years that followed, also acknowledge.
Lineup
Justin Hayward – acoustic and electric guitar, piano, keyboards, vocals
John Lodge – bass guitar, electric guitar, vocals
Mike Pinder – keyboards, Mellotron, piano, vocals (also spoken words)
Ray Thomas – flute, horns, percussion, keyboards, vocals
Graeme Edge – drums, percussion
Peter Knight – conductor, orchestral arrangements
The London Festival Orchestra – orchestral arrangements
Production
Tony Clarke
Tracklist
1. The day begins (5:49)
2. Dawn: Dawn is a feeling (3:49)
3. Morning: another Morning (3:40)
4. Lunch break: peak hour (5:16)
5. Tuesday afternoon (forever afternoon) (8:48)
6. Evening: the sun set: twilight time (6:14)
7. Night: nights in white satin (7:38)
8. Late Lament (1:35)
