Day 114: A song that you love but rarely listen to.

“You And Me” – The Moody Blues

I have a second mom who’s going to be very upset by this.

You see, when I was in college I had a work-study job. It was office work, basically, nothing too strenuous. It just so happened that when I was a freshman, the secretary (admin, in today’s parlance) was new to the office, too, and we became a team of sorts. So throughout my four years of college, I had my “second mom” to look out for me.

Over the years we got to know each other fairly well. So, as you’d expect, talk of music inevitably arose. I shared my love of Genesis with her, and, in turn, I learned all about her favorite band: The Moody Blues.

Certainly, she wasn’t my introduction to the Moody Blues. They had way too many classic rock hits for me to get all the way to college without knowing about them, at least in passing. (I mean really, who hasn’t heard “Nights In White Satin”?) My brother had some of their albums. And one of my closest friends is named after Justin Hayward, so as you might expect, there was some discussion there, as well. But during those work-study years, I was exposed to The Moody Blues more than ever before.

I learned how Days Of Future Passed came about. I learned about Mike Pinder’s ignominious departure from the band. I learned why “I’m Just A Singer (In A Rock And Roll Band)” was written. I learned about their concert at the Isle of Wight. I also learned that Genesis bought their first Mellotron from The Moody Blues. (Granted, I learned that from somewhere else entirely, but since it adds to the fact list, I’m going with it.)

So to admit that I haven’t listened to The Moody Blues all that much lately feels… just… wrong.

Their album Seventh Sojourn is a classic. Today’s song comes from that album. And while “Isn’t Life Strange” and the aforementioned “I’m Just A Singer” were the singles, every song is quality. (This is in contrast to Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, which I actually bought first, but like much less.)  I even considered picking “New Horizons” or “For My Lady” as today’s song because there are just so many good songs, but after consideration, I had to go with “You And Me.”

It’s an anti-war song, but again, it’s one of those songs that I like for the music and the melody without paying close attention to the words. The song starts with a nice guitar riff interspersed with Mellotron. It then goes into very melodic verses before exploding into an upbeat, catchy chorus. My luck (or lack thereof) picking hits is legendary, but I really believe that it could have been a hit. But the music industry was different then. Artists recorded albums much more frequently and fewer singles were released from each, so it never got released as a 7 inch.

The good news about this challenge is that it makes me dig through my collection and come up with these things that may not have gotten a lot of attention recently. So, I think Seventh Sojourn will get some long overdue plays in the coming weeks.

And that should make “mom” happy.