Question

This was really two separate songs combined to make Question. the first part you can tell had to do with everyone in the usa questioning the war in vietnam and the second the quentessential meanining of love and to finding the balance of love in our lives. 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. I'm looking for someone to change my life I'm looking for a miracle in my life. ahhhhhh how beautiful is that!!!!!! romantic sigh!!!!
- gigi, st. louis, MO

That middle section "It's not the way.." IMHO the most memorable part sounds tacked a la "Layla". BTW I did a weird edit down take on this on Windows Movie Maker under AMERICAN CHEERLEADER cover images. [Now how's that for a good use for a current teen girls magazine, merge it with a Moody Blues 1970s song! And that is what I did.]
- Steve, Whittier, CA

The actual instrument that was used on this song that gave that amazing sound was Mike Pinder on the Mellotron not the Moog Synthesizer as some may believe. Some may think the two different parts of the song are incongruous but really they are not incongruous. Given that our quest and desire in life is to understand the motives of why people do the things they do both corporately or individually - the Question remains...Why do you do that????? Why do you go to war, why do you cause death, why do you personally treat me this way? All are The Question...how people can do these harmful things to one another.
- Elaine Medina, Loveland, CO

All the songs were remixed to some degree on This Is... This particular tune displays (as did many of their songs) fantastic usage of the then fairly new Moog synthesizer. It made its way into many of their biggest hits. The Moodies were just privy to mix it in there and use it as an INSTRUMENT and NOT an effect. Synth-haters often rip on bands that use them but don't really realize that synthesizers were used in hundreds of hit songs of the '60s, '70s and '80s, and beyond. The Moodies made a believer out of me!
- Jesse, Madison, WI

I believe the single version can be found on the 1974 double album compilation "This Is the Moody Blues" (but I can only speak for the vinyl, never heard it on CD). Also, there's an alternate version on the 2006 SACD release of "A Question of Balance" which sounds a lot like the single version, but it goes back into the quiet part again, and then ends haphazardly.
- Steve, Coralville, IA

The song was released as a single a few months before the album came out. The single mix was a little different from the album mix. Apparently, the feeling was that the mix on the album was the "final product", and so radio stations stopped playing the original single mix. That's why the version you hear now is different from that on the 45. Frankly, I remember liking the single version better.
- Danny, Bronx, NY

Crystal is correct. Justin also said more or less the same thing in Guitar Player magazine. To be specific, the key is not only "C", but the guitar is tuned in "Open C". From low to high that's CGCGCE. The G and high E strings are untouched. The B is tuned up to C. The three lower strings are tuned down to CGC. The chords are straightforward and easy in this tuning. The strumming takes some practice.
- Donald, Louisville, KY

Does anybody know why there are two different versions? One has a double echo towards the end of the song on the big brass section. It wasn't on the original 45 released in the 70's, but I constantly hear this different 'echo' version on the radio. It's almost like somebody at the record company decided to add it in or something years later to put more energy into the song. (failed miserably and totally destroyed the best part of the song)
- Schmange, Sheffield, United Kingdom

May I offer a different opinion as to the meaning of the verses that open and close this Moodies masterpiece? At the great risk of sounding like I'm proselytizing (which, I promise, I never do) it sounds to me like someone trying to explain why God (and man) never seem to answer all the questions of youth. I refer to the lines "Why do we never get an answer" and "with a thousand million questions about hate and death and war?" The line goes on to state that there is really nothing in life that (most) of us really need; rather most "needs" are merely wants. It goes on to mention a world burning in greed, which explains why many in this world do not have their true needs met. At least that's my opinion.
- Michael, Kissimmee, FL

Going over the lyrics, I have to wonder: Is this song about mourning for someone who has died?
- John, Manchester, NH

Justin and John and Graeme's version of the moodies still goes strong! they are great live!
- janice, nyc, United States

Hey, I'm trying to put a few Moody Blues CD cover pictures on my screen saver @ work. I'm very incompetent when it comes to working with computer usage. Please email me if you know what to do; fergusonjo@palmbeach.k12.fl.us

Thanks
- Jay, Boca Raton, FL

To Stefanie of Rock Hill, SC: Your comment is very interesting. I have always had the feeling that "Question" was two seperate songs. The "first" song consists of the first stanza and that excellent guitar work that opens the track. It's clearly about war, and, as Justin Hayward said, the questions people had about it. As such, it's one of the Moodies' edgier segments. But the "second" song seems to question a particular love relationship. The music becomes more expansive--rather winsome yet melancholy. But I'm not sure the two "songs" add up to a coherent piece. Also, this piece shares what, to me, is the Moody Blues' more exasperating qualities: The music has a kind of artistic/intellectual quality to it, sort of like what poet Arthur Rimbaud called "le derangement des senses." This practically begs for mind-expanding lyrics that leave the listener in a different state of mind from the one he or she brought to the song. The lyrics don't have to make linear sense: In fact, with this type of music, they shouldn't. But the two "songs" just don't add up to something complete, or at least whole. At least this song is, if not successful, at least interesting.
- MusicMama, New York, NY

Hayward states many places including Legend Of A Band that he was working on two songs that ended up fitting together. He mentioned as well that the lyrics in part were to do with the Vietnam war and the view of it by the American populas.

The band's name by the way according to Graeme Edge was originally the M and B 5 after Mitchell and Butler's brewery. But when the brewery didn't want to sponser them and they were finding success, they dropped the 5 and he suggested Moody Blues in keeping with th initals.
- Blue, Prunedale, CA

I'm 15 and I really like this song and this album. So far I have listened to this album, days of future passed and to our children's children's children. I'm planning on listening to "Every good boy deserves flavour." Those are the albums my parents have. Man if I had a band I could only wish to write a song like this. With the great harmonies and meaning...
- Johnny, Los Angeles, CA

By the mid-1990s, when the Moody Blues issued a definitive 'best of' collection, Justin Hayward could regularly be heard in interviews desribing this song as a 'morning after the sixties anthem'. Perhaps as well as being a statement about the Vietnam war, perhaps the theme is also looking back, questioning what happened to the age of affluence that preceded the era in which the song was recorded?
- Dave, Cardiff, Wales

When I was a kid this was one of my absolute favorite songs but I couldn't afford to buy records. When it came on the radio (not very often after the summer when it was a hit) I would go crazy. I remember once running to get my sister so she could listen to it with me. Later when I actually was old enough to make a little money my highest priorities were guitar strings and Moody Blues records. This song stays in my heart as one of the best ever by anyone. Some might be tempted to dis it for really just being a hodge-podge of two completely different songs, but I think that works because the two different songs so clearly show two facets of the same person, and are both sincere. I mean really, who goes through a whole day thinking about only one thing?
- Dennis, Anchorage, AK

Yeah, when I was in High School in the late 70's and early 80's(I graduated in 82) the 60's were retro so everyone was diggin up all these old 60's groups and one I discovered was The Moody Blues! I like their stuff!! GREAT harmonies in their songs too! Lots of "Awwwwww-Awwwwww-Awwwww-Awwwwww-Awwwwww-Awwwwwww-Awwwwww-Awwwww-Awwwwwww-Awwwww-- Ahhhhh--Ahhh-Ah Boo doo do doo doo doo doo doo do doo doo do doo doo doo doo doo doo..."(the boo doo's are the baseline:-) in "Question"
- Quintin, Norwalk, CT

Thanks Crystal that's what I thought.
- Stefanie magura, Rock Hill, SC

Question did start out as two separate songs, both in the key of "C". One very fast and up tempo and the other soft and slow. After not being able to complete either song, Justin Hayward merged the two songs into one for the album
I have attended about 25 Moody Blues concerts and this is the story Justin told himself on stage at one of the concerts.
- Crystal, Proctorville, OH

I think this song is about Two different things. One is the Vietnam war, the other is the question to go back to the one that he used to love and wether or not going back to her will be the right thing to do. It could either be the best thing he ever did or it could just end up a dissaster. But thats just what I get from the song.
- Kyle, St.Lois, MO

I always loved the Moody Blues. And their name. Now that's a cool band-name. I got turned onto their sound actually by my Dad. (Yes, I did have a life - just have a cool dad.) He had the Seventh Sojourn album and played it for me just after I had gotten really interested in the Beatles at around age 12, 13. This is one of the best and sincere progressive bands of all time. No pomp and pretense here. Early on they were quite an all-out r&b band too, typified by 1965's "Go Now."
- Brian, Meriden, CT

I heard that "Question" was actually two songs that werw put together to form one song.
- Stefanie magura, Rock Hill, SC

With the album A Question of Balance the band concentrated on songs that, unlike those on recent albums, were not too difficult to reproduce on tour.
- Charles, Charlotte, NC