On November 10, 1967, The Moody Blues, with the newly minted classic line-up that added Justin Hayward and John Lodge, released their classic first album Days of Future Passed. It did well, eventually, it did VERY WELL.
Though released in 1967, it is my Moody Blues lore understanding that in 1972 a DJ in Seattle was turned on to the Moodies’ sound (well into their 7th album), and played the whole 7 minutes-plus version of Nights in White Satin on FM radio. This long song, that included Graeme Edge’s poem Late Lament at the end of the tune, gave the DJ a break compared to other songs. He had time to smoke or call a friend or eat a midnight hamburger. If this is true, I really don’t know. Better still, I don’t care.
As I typed these words, I just heard Ray Thomas sing Twighlight Time and we are now into Justin Hayward’s Nights in White Satin. Nights is the Moodies’ most recognizable song. I heard Justin Hayward sing it last month in Nashville.
Here he is with Mike Dawes, Karmen Gould, and my friend Julie Ragins.
When I was in high school, there was a stereo in the locker room. It was in the football coach’s office. When we were all in the locker room, the coach, my Dad, would let us choose the station and then there would be one speaker sitting outside the coach’s office door. It was blaring always.
One day, when I may have been thirteen, I remember hearing The Moody Blues singing Nights in White Satin. I was taken by it. Then….wait for it…there was a poem at the end! That was in this old Southern Indiana country boy’s wheelhouse. No one else understood my attraction to this surreal stuff. Best thing I can say about that is that I did not care. It was my music to enjoy.
Not far from that locker room in late February 1983, I walked into a weight room with an ice cold back, having just jogged four miles on a frozen cross country course with my friend Pete Rutherford. After our run (in the freezing cold…), I went into the weight room. I looked across the room and saw guys removing weights from the squat rack. I told them to hold it. I needed that weight. So, me and my ice cold back went under the squat rack. The weights on the bar and I went down. We didn’t come back up.
There was a high profile Sports Medicine Doc in Louisville. When Denny Crum was coaching the Louisville Cardinals college basketball team he always had Dr. End of the Bench. I will never say a bad word about the man. He misdiagnosed me. The cortisone shots only helped what was not a strained sacroiliac so much. When a CAT scan was ordered the truth came out. He ordered the scans. He had a tear in his eye when he told me the results. He knew when he had earlier sent me out the door with my cortisone shots, the EXERCISES he thought would help were only making things worse. I had disc problems at the L-4 and L-5. That was a whole different ballgame.
I was referred to a neurosurgeon. After one of my visits to this doctor, on my 15th birthday, March 18, 1983, my mother and I stopped at a department store that in four short years I would be employed by. I was looking around. I saw this cassette tape on an endcap that one day I would know well.
I looked at the cassette. What interesting artwork, I thought. I picked it up. I read the following words:
Including NIGHTS IN WHITE SATIN.
Done.
That is where my Moody Blues musical journey began.
MANY years later, I heard Justin Hayward, the man who wrote NIGHTS IN WHITE SATIN, say that Moodies fans had a tendency to discover the band for themselves.
I did just that.
My friends didn’t get it in 1983 as I was listening to DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED and a bootleg copy of a friend of mine’s old ON THE THRESHOLD OF A DREAM from 1969 that belonged to his Dad. That was it.
In the Spring of 1986, I seemed “with it” when The Moody Blues were hitting the Top Ten in my senior year of high school with the single YOUR WILDEST DREAMS from the album titled THE OTHER SIDE OF LIFE.
The years pass quickly.
The first concert I saw The Moody Blues play was in 1986. I heard YOUR WILDEST DREAMS IN PERSON. I never dreamed I would hear Justin Hayward sing this song again in 2021 in Nashville. I did. It was special.
I could go on. My dear wife, Carrie, and I saw our last THE MOODY BLUES concert at The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville in July 2017. They were playing DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED in its entirety, as it was the 50th Anniversary of the album’s release.
It was a great time.
IT WAS ALWAYS A GREAT TIME…except for one clunker we saw in 2005.
Great memories of taking my loved ones to see The Moody Blues. My dear wife, Carrie, my boys, my parents, my siblings, my granny, my niece and nephew, and so many dear old friends. Granny saw The Moodies twice.
This week I talked to some of my students about things that make us glad and sad at the same time.
I heard so many good examples. I was proud of the kids sharing stories of their grandparents and their pets and their personal endeavors…and so on. It was refreshing to hear good times and bittersweet times.
I hemmed and hawed. I spoke up.
Justin Hayward has been quoted about the significance of holding on to the MUSIC OF YOUR YOUTH. I think I have done that. More than most.
I then told the class that 25 years ago I had a young lady in my class draft a letter to Justin Hayward to let him know they were enjoying his new solo album THE VIEW FROM THE HILL. The young lady had twenty-five classmates sign it, unbeknownst to me. They were 7th and 8th graders
The student who drafted the letter asked if I knew the address to send it to Justin Hayward. I told her I did know the address to Moody Blues headquarters in Cobham, Surrey England. I assured her I would send it across the pond.
Eventually, Justin got it. He responded like I never imagined, in my wildest dreams, he would.
Justin Hayward wrote me a personal letter of thanks. It is in the middle of this frame.
Earlier this week, I was talking to one of my classes about things that were important to them. We talked about grandparents here and gone. I joined in that conversation! How I loved my Granny!
Eventually, I told them the story of the student in that class who penned the letter to let Justin know that they, like I, enjoyed his new solo album, THE VIEW FROM THE HILL.
I told my current students I kept Justin’s letter to me on a shelf out of sight for twenty-four years. I told them that as long as I kept it out of mind and out of sight, I felt like it was an acknowledgement that I didn’t care that much about it as I did the next show I was going to where I could hear the guy sing. That, to me, is what was most important.
When I put the images VERY PROPERLY framed on the wall of my home office, I knew it was not a good thing for me. It was over. I liked that letter more when it was not on display. I’d rather look forward to another show. I don’t think I will be doing that again. No offense, Justin.
All these years on.
Yes, that cassette in this photo is where it all started.
It was worth it.
I was 18 when I saw my first Moody Blues concert and I was 49 when I saw my last. This past October I was 53 as Carrie and I listened to Justin Hayward sing so many Moody Blues classics.
I smiled and chuckled to myself. When you have spent most of your lifetime seeing your favorite music group, you know something went right. I am a blessed man.
All I know for sure is that I still listen to the music of The Moody Blues with the same old optimism that I did when I was a teenager; this music feels good. In 2021, now more than ever, we need to feel good!
Some time ago, I reached out to Justin to go back and forth with a few questions. He was in the midst of a tour and I was told Justin told me he was not doing any press at the time.
Yes, I will press onward and keep on listening to The Moody Blues…be it CD, LP, Video or youtube.
And I hope to heck one day Justin Hayward will respond to my interview request. I have some heavy questions about Buddy Holly.
Over the years I have been asked if my music was influenced by The Moody Blues. My answer has always been, do I sound like a British guy twenty-five years older than me? I don’t. When I have been wrapped up in my own album projects those are the times I have listened to The Moody Blues the least.
I started recording at age 31. Had I had an early start, had I known at age 14 that I have the ability to pick up a guitar and a piece of paper and a pen and find songwriting as simple as it for me, I never would have heard of The Moody Blues.
I credit the Moody Blues for helping me become a singer. I have travelled a great deal on the road all alone and singing my heart out along with The Moody Blues.
I can report that after a recording session of my material flowed like warm cheese whiz out of a water hose, I was void of more material. Everyone, we had a full band, was still juiced and ready to keep going. I hit an E-minor and told them to join in. “Nights in White Satin…Never Reaching the End…”. It was the only time I ever sang a song into a recording mic that I had no part in creating. Our rendition is something we did finish and I am proud of it, even though it will never see the light of day.
Hey! Take care of each other and if need be, speak the rights!
Danny Johnson
