This, That, and the Other

My theme for this year’s A to Z Blogging Challenge is classic rock songs. Each day during the month (except for the first four Sundays, I will post a classic rock song: a video from YouTube, along with a brief bit of background about the song and the recording artist(s).

This is much more difficult than I thought it would be. For every letter of the alphabet there are dozens of fantastic classic rock songs to choose from and picking just one song for each letter is maddening. But this is what I signed up for.

My Q song is “Question” from The Moody Blues.

“Question” was a 1970 single by the English progressive rock band the Moody Blues. It was written by guitarist Justin Hayward, who provides lead vocals. “Question” was first released as a single in April 1970 and remains their second highest-charting song in the UK, reaching number 2 and staying on the chart for 12 weeks. The song reached number 21 on the Billboard Top 40 in the U.S. It was later featured as the lead track on the 1970 Moody Blues album, A Question of Balance.

“Question” is one of the Moody Blues’ most popular songs, and has been included in virtually all of their compilations and live albums. The song was actually pieced together by Hayward from two unfinished songs, which accounts for the change of pace in the middle of the song. It starts with an acoustic guitar introduction and then alters midway to become a brilliantly presented ballad in the band’s own tradition. The merging of two unfinished songs achieved a sense of emotional turbulence of the late 60s and early 70s.

Hayward said that the song, particularly the first part, reflected the thoughts of many young people at the time who were questioning the war in Vietnam. He said he was just expressing his frustration around the problems of what many at the time, including me, to be an unjust war. This was something really concerned the students and young adults who formed the band’s audience. They were concerned for their own future and how having to fight in that war, should they be drafted, would be a moral dilemma for them.

He was personally angry at what was happening. “After a decade of peace and love,” Hayward said, “it still seemed we hadn’t made a difference in 1970. I suppose that was the theme of the song. And then the slow part of the song is really a reflection of that and not feeling defeated, but almost a quiet reflection of it, and mixing with a bit of a love song, as well.”

Here are the lyrics to “Question.”

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?
'Cause 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 war 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 will 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
To 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 grey 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 soul
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 will 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?
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?

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