Days of Future Passed
Days of Future Passed is the second album and first concept album by English prog rock band The Moody Blues, released in November 1967 by Deram Records. With its fusion of orchestral and rock elements, it has been cited as one of the first examples of progressive rock. The album was recorded at a time when the Moody Blues were suffering financial difficulties and lack of critical and commercial success. Their parent label, Decca Records offered them a chance to record a stereo LP that combined their music with orchestral interludes. They decided to compose a  suite of songs about the life of everyday man, with the group and orchestra mostly playing separately and mixed together. It was a moderate success upon release, but following steady radio airplay, particularly of the hit single "Nights in White Satin", it became a top ten US hit in 1972. It has since been listed among the most important albums of 1967 by "Rolling Stone". Background and recording. The Moody Blues had started out as a rhythm and blues band, but by late 1966, they had run into financial difficulties and personnel changes. The new singer and guitarist Justin Hayward  said "we had no money, nothing". According to the group, in September 1967 they were asked by their record company, Decca to record an adaptation of Antonín Dvořák's "Symphony No. 9" for Decca's newly formed Deram Records division in order to demonstrate their latest recording techniques, which were named "Deramic Sound". However, recording engineer Derek Varnals disputes this story, claiming that even at the start of the sessions in 1967 there was no intent to record a Dvořák album and that talk of this project did not emerge until the mid-1970s. Decca had experimented with stereophonic sound for  classical recordings, and hoped to capture the pop market in the same way, by interweaving classical recordings with the group's interpretation of the same music. Instead, the band (initially without the label's knowledge) decided to focus on an album based on an original stage show that they'd been working on, and mix that with classical arrangements of those songs. Keyboardist Mike Pinder had purchased a Mellotron, a tape replay keyboard, and written a song, "Dawn Is a Feeling" as a starting point for a concept piece about a day in the life of everyday man. Hayward wrote  Nights in White Satin about the changes between one relationship and another, using bedsheets as a metaphor. When Pinder added a string line on the Mellotron to accompany Hayward's basic song framework, the group realised they had written something notable and a suitable ending for the song cycle. Recording sessions for the album took place at Decca Studios in West Hampstead, London between 9 May and 3 November 1967. The band worked with record producer Tony Clarke, engineer Derek Varnals, and conductor Peter Knight. The group recorded and mixed their sessions first, then passed the finished tapes over to  Knight for arranging and recording the orchestral interludes. Content. The album's music features psychedelic rock ballads by Hayward, Pinder, Lodge, and Thomas and orchestral interludes by the London Festival Orchestra. The band and the orchestra only actually play together during the last part of "Nights In White Satin." Music writers cite the album as an early example of progressive rock music. Bill Holdship of Yahoo! Music remarks that the band "created an entire genre here." David Fricke cites it as one of the essential albums of 1967 and finds it "closer to high-art pomp than psychedelia. But there  is a sharp pop discretion to the writing and a trippy romanticism in the mirroring effect of the strings and Mike Pinder's Mellotron." Will Hermes cites the album as an essential progressive rock record and opines that its use of the Mellotron, a tape replay keyboard, made it a "signature" element of the genre. An influential work of the counterculture period, AllMusic editor Bruce Eder calls the album "one of the defining documents of the blossoming psychedelic era, and one of the most enduringly popular albums of its era". Original and later mixes. In July 1978, it was discovered  that the UK master tapes for "Days of Future Passed" had deteriorated. As a result of this, the album was remixed in its entirety in August 1978, which was used for reissues between 1978 and 2017. Some compilations, however, continued to use the original 1967 stereo mix for certain songs. The album's original mix was eventually released in its entirety on Compact Disc in November 2017. The ways in which the later mix departs most noticeably from the original are: Release. The Moody Blues did not play any of the music to Decca executives until it was complete. Upon  the first play, they were disappointed with the result as it was not the Dvorak arrangements they expected. Walt Maguire, representative for London Records (Decca's North American arm), however, thought it would be a strong seller in the US, so it was agreed to release the album as recorded. "Days of Future Passed" was released on 10 November 1967 in the UK and 11 November in the US. It reached number 27 in the UK Albums Chart. In the US, it was a steady seller in the late 1960s, helped by FM radio play of "Nights in White Satin , and eventually peaked at number 2 on the US Billboard" chart in 1972. Upon its release, "Rolling Stone" gave the album an unenthusiastic review, writing "The Moody Blues [...] have matured considerably since 'Go Now', but their music is constantly marred by one of the most startlingly saccharine conceptions of 'beauty' and 'mysticism' that any rock group has ever affected." "New York" magazine dismissed it as "a ponderous mound of thought-jello." The album has since received acclaim; for example, "Spin" cited it as a classic of progressive rock. By 2007, "Rolling Stone", which had originally described "Days of Future Passed  as an English rock group strangling itself in conceptual goo" included it in its list of the essential albums of 1967. "Days of Future Passed" was issued as a discrete Quadraphonic open-reel tape in 1977. This master was also used for a 2001 dts 5.1 channel audio CD release and again for a two-disc Deluxe Edition SACD release in 2006. On 17 November 2017 this original mix was made available for the first time on CD as "Days of Future Passed 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition". Also released "The Moody Blues Days of Future Past Live" that was recorded  live in Toronto on 13 July 2017 with a full orchestra backup. Track listing. All compositions originally credited to "Redwave-Knight", except "Dawn Is a Feeling", "Forever Afternoon (Tuesday)", "The Sunset" and "Nights in White Satin". 2017 Days Of Future Passed (50th Anniversary Edition) Additional: