Thursday, April 14th, 2016

Artist: The Moody Blues

Track: “The Morning“

Whereas King Crimson seems to corner the market when it comes to being the pioneers of prog, there was actually a band that King Crimson’s producer, Tony Clark, worked with years before In The Court Of The Crimson King was even conceived.  The name of that band?  Well, The Moody Blues of course! And it was for no other album than their crowning achievement Days Of Future Passed.  The album is famous among casual classic rock fans for the beautiful, eerie hit “Nights In White Satin” – but any prog enthusiast who has investigated the album further knows that it is brilliant from beginning to end.  Fully orchestrated and dream-like, it’s almost impossible to select one song worth highlighting.

Although I wholeheartedly recommend giving the entire record a dedicated listen, today’s Throwback Thursday installment will focus on one snippet of what the gorgeous experience entails.  “The Morning”, is a single track that exudes the raw beauty of the orchestra fueling Days Of Future Passed‘s creativity.  Gliding in on waves of awe-inspiring strings, subtle piano, and magisterial horns, it progresses to a rhythmic and undeniably catchy verse before culminating in a forlorn, wise-sounding chorus: “time seems to stand quite still…in a child’s world it always will.”  The way the song weaves between pop sensibility and orchestral ambition is a thing of beauty, and it manages to be all at once familiar, progressive, and aurally stunning.  The best part about it is that “The Morning” is not some sort of choice cut…no, this is just The Moody Blues doing what they do.  The entire album continues to twist, tumble, and turn its way through some of the most absolutely beautiful melodies of 1960’s prog-rock, and its an experience that is still deserving of high praise nearly 50 years after its debut.

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