This is a series of posts about the music I play while writing. This time we move on to The Moody Blues and their song, “Nights in White Satin.” Written by Justin Hayward, this song first appeared on the 1967 album Days of Future Passed. The orchestral music along with the simple poetry of the song create a thoughtful meditative state in my mind so it comes early in my play list. Of course, the best version of the track includes the spoken word poem at the end, Late Lament, just tops off the feeling I get from this piece.
Listening to this song also brings back memories. The song was rereleased when I was 12 and I heard it on a local radio station. It made it to number two on the Billboard 100 list and was getting good air play even though it is a long song. That year I had also just gotten my first regular yard job with the elderly lady who lived next door. Actually I inherited the job from my older brother who went off to college that same year. Mostly I just went over every week to mow the lawn, water and put the trash out. I didn’t get paid by the hour, but rather by the job. I never really understood the formula Mrs. Beaty used to calculate want I got, but each week I got between three and five dollars – a lot of money for a 12 year old in 1972.
My mother made sure that I put some in a savings account but I was allowed to spend most of the money on whatever I wanted. I was interested in electronics and stereos and such. Our family owned a TV and a small record player, but not good quality sound equipment. There was no way I could afford to buy a fancy stereo system, but there was an ad for a decent clock radio with a cassette player at the local Radio Shack. I think it was something like $90 and for reasons I never understood myself, I decided I just had to have that radio so I saved my gardening money.
Also I started getting random yard jobs from members of our church, things like pulling weeds, mowing lawns, digging soil in a new bed. Seems like one elderly lady called the church office one day asking if there was a nice Christian boy she could hire for some yard work. My mother was in the office that day and I had nice little summer business going riding my bike around town doing odd jobs. My mother was my agent and she’d tell me where and when to go. She also negotiated payment terms. It wasn’t a bad deal, most places I’d get money, lunch and all the ice cold drinks I wanted —sometimes they’d even drive me home. It didn’t take long and I had my money for the radio.
I went to Radio Shack with the ad and my cash and bought it. I got home and read every page of the manual, plugged it in and set the time. I spent several hours checking out all the stations I could get and eventually found a station I liked. One of the songs they played was Nights in White Satin. One of the features on the clock radio was an integrated cassette recorder/player which could record directly off the air. Well, I liked Nights in White Satin so much that I waited a few hours until they played it again and I recorded it. I knew I could have bought the album, but I never felt the urge to spend my money on records. In fact, it wasn’t until CDs came out that I started buying music.
I played the song endlessly, but eventually tired of it. Somewhere over the years I lost the tape with the song, but I kept that clock radio for decades and used it as my daily alarm clock. It finally stopped working in about 1998 and I replaced it with a cheep $20 thing that I’m still using today. The clock radio manufactures never made much money out of me.
Over the years I’d hear the song from time to time, but it wasn’t until YouTube and Spotify that I renewed my listening to it. Like many people, I confused the title with “Knights” rather than “Nights” and was a little surprised when my search for “Knights in White Satin,” returned, “Nights in White Satin.” At its heart it just a love song. There’s love, loss of love, regret and so on. It is a “moody” song. The poem at the end of the song, Late Lament, is sometimes omitted when played. You can find edits of the song that include or omit the poem. In later releases of the album, Late Lament is sometimes listed as a separate track. It’s that way on Spotify, and on YouTube I found this video that includes the poem as I remember it from 1972:
As much as I like the overall song, it is Late Lament that really draws me to this. It is the kind of poetry that I wish I could write. It just has some great lines like, “Bedsitter people / Look back and lament” and … well just all of it. Go look it up and read it. You’ll see what I mean and know why it’s on my list.
Andrew's View of the Week 
I ‘discovered’ the Moody Blues in my VH1 days, when I was in my 20’s. The video from “Your Wildest Dreams” hooked me and caused me to explore them as a band. I did this a lot with music, as my mom was more for Tom Jones on Saturday night and before that an Elvis fan. I was born in 1961, so most of my music discovery didn’t happen until the mid-70s besides some pop stuff I heard on the radio growing up. While “Nights in White Satin” may have been too deep for me at the age I was when it was released, I learned to appreciate it much better when I was older. Music is like that, isn’t it? We sometimes grow into it. Great song and an awesome band in general. 🙂
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I had brothers who where 8 and 9 years older than me so I was exposed all the pop music of the 60s and early 70s. I didn’t understand all I heard and in some cases it wasn’t until my later teens that I really appreciated what I was hearing.
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Great song, Andrew, and we are big fans of The Moody Blues. We saw them once in concert and it was magical.
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I would have loved to see them in concert.
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I’m a big Moody Blues fan and have the album you referenced. I was in high school when I first heard this particular song and it’s possible that it alone is what propelled me into exploring more of their music. I bought the album from another collector just a few years ago. I didn’t previously own the album, but just always loved the music. I enjoyed reading how music is woven into your youth and memories, too! Nicely written, Andrew.
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I just love their music.
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Yes!
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This was the song, along with The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life,” that made me a progressive rock fan (before the term even existed yet), particularly when I was young. I loved epic “meaning of life” stuff!
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Both were big influences on me. When I was younger I was obsessed with finding the “meaning of life”.
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Wow, there’s a blast from the past. Love it! 🙂
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Always one of my favorites!
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I can almost sing that song, Andrew (well, the title). I didn’t realize it was 9 minutes long.
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I never really timed it before and was surprised how long it was as I did my research for this post. Just shows how good the song is that we don’t notice how long it plays.
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“Watch lights fade from every room…” – first line that came back to me, Andrew. I almost forgot about “Late Lament” and didn’t realize it had its own title. But the entire song gets in your head and never leaves; an addicting wail even its message was never very clear to me. I’d say “Nights…” and “Land of Make Believe” tie for my favorite Moody songs.
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I didn’t know it had its own title until I started to do a little research for this post. It’s the kind of song that just sticks in your brain.
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Nights in White Satin is another song I remember very well. Of course, I was older than you in 1972, the year I graduated from high school, so I listened to radio and purchased records all the time. Your post reminded me that when I was 12, I received a transistor radio as a gift. I hung it on my bike handlebar and “cruised” our country neighborhood blaring my radio. Then I would use my Dad’s tape recorder and tape songs from that radio. Oh, the fun memories!
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I had friends with transistor radios. My brother had one that we’d listen to in the garage while working on his HO gage train setup. Good times.
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I too thought that the song was “Knights in White Satin” because many of the richest medieval knights used to wear such fabrics over their armour.
The single I bought for my future wife to prove my undying love for her. It must have helped my cause because we celebrated 43 years of happy matrimony this year!
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That’s a great story too! Congratulations on 43 years.
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Thank you!
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HI Andrew, your mother did a great thing for you by giving you the ability to earn money independently. I just cannot listen to any sort of music when I write. I’ve tried, but it gets on my nerves.
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Sometimes it does get on my nerves, but most often I just tune it out.
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Superb choice Andrew. Hugs
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Thanks!
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Ha. I, too, always thought it was “knights.”
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A lot of us did!
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Great post! I have fond memories of that song too! We used to do a YF youth group drop-in at Good Sam UMC on Fridays from 7-10pm. Part of that was playing a mix tape “reel-to-reel” through a speaker system in the fellowship hall with all the lights off for mood (no hanky panky – it was supervised). Nights in White Satin was a popular song – sounded great loud in the hall!
“Cold hearted orb that rules the night….”
Thanks for the memories!
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Great memories. I remember using a reel-to-reel tape system back then.
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