DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED

When I was first married, my wife and I would watch the 1pm movie many a day and the theme song was absolutely beautiful. I had never heard it before that and I really wanted to find out where I could get it. About 2 years later, I had the money to get "Days of Future Past," and I bought it because "Nights in White Satin" was one of my favorite songs to play on the guitar. More than one person regarded it as my signature song. While I was playing the first side, the song that I had been wanting to get suddenly started playing. It was the intro on "Lunch Break, Peak Hour." I couldn't believe my ears! I never thought that a rock band would make such beautiful orchestra music.

This album is something else. The entire thing is one theme, with different parts. I kind of believe the Moodies were headed in the same direction with their music as I wanted prog to go in, but they were definitely ahead of many other proto prog bands.

The album starts off with a big gong and then the orchestra comes in to amaze the ear. Near the end, a thought provoking poem is spoken by Ray Thomas I think.(Correct me if I'm wrong.) This guy has the best voice for the spoken word! The orchestra really emphasizes what he is saying to make it a special event. Then "Dawn is a Feeling" breaks upon the ears.

Throughout the album the orchestra plays some of the finest classical music I have ever heard, then the band plays the rock. This is somewhat of a drawback. I think they really weren't sure how exactly to go about mixing the 2 together and they felt this was the best way to do it. Just a year later bands like Blood, Sweat, & Tears, and Chicago would blend the rock with the orchestra just right to make it a great sound.

Now comes the down side. The orchestra plays so much better than the band, that it hurts the album as a whole. I got to the point where I would rather just listen to the orchestra parts. With that said, There are enough good tunes by the Moodies to make it worthwhile to get this. Don't get me wrong, The Moody Blues have a lot of good pop rock to hear, but it just isn't AS GOOD as the orchestra stuff.

The standouts on this are "Tuesday Afternoon," "Dawn is a Feeling," "Twilight Time," and of course,"Nights in White Satin."

Given the time they made this and the high quality of the music itself, this is a must have. It gets 5 stars.