The Moody Blues - Question (1970)

In 1964, they were making R&B cover hits on both sides of the Atlantic. By 1967 they were heavily fusing psychedelic rock with classical music on albums such as Days of Future Passed. By 1970, they were heavily defining the emerging genre of progressive rock, which at that time was referred to as art rock. By the time they split up in 1974, this group had been considered a dominant force in music for a full decade. Then, to top it all off, they got back together again in 1977 to continue recording and touring to this very day.

This song, with its anti-Vietnam chorus, comes from the band’s first progressive rock album, A Question of Balance. The group was looking to create an album that could be played in concert and chose to lead off the album with this nearly six-minute track. It featured no dubbing, no double-tracking, and was recorded in one take.



The Moody Blues - Question (1970)

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Lyrics:

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 when we stop and look around us
There is nothing that we need
In a world of persecution
That is burning in its 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 we’ll 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
Lose 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 gray 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 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 we’ll 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 when we stop and look around us
There is nothing that we need
In a world of persecution
That is burning in its greed

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