♫ Nights In White Satin ♫ (Redux)

Posted on by under music

happy-sadTonight, I am … not sure what I am.  I’m pleased that the majority of the people in this nation chose sanity over chaos, but disgusted and disappointed by the machinations of the losers.  I’m like one of those happy/sad faces … I don’t know which to be.  And so, a mellow song, a slow one that gives us a chance to feel the music without thinking.  And thus it happens that I am reduxing one from about a year-and-a-half ago.

Band member Justin Hayward wrote and composed the song at age 19 in Swindon, and titled the song after a girlfriend gave him a gift of satin bedsheets. The song itself was a tale of a yearning love from afar, which leads many aficionados to term it as a tale of unrequited love endured by Hayward. Hayward said of the song, “It was just another song I was writing and I thought it was very powerful. It was a very personal song and every note, every word in it means something to me and I found that a lot of other people have felt that very same way about it.”

In the late 1990s, the UK magazine Record Collector printed a claim that Nights in White Satin had not been written by Justin Hayward at all, but that in fact the Moody Blues’ management had simply bought the song outright in 1966 from an Italian group called “Les Jelly Roll” and taken credit for it. This claim seems to have arisen from the discovery of a 7″ single by the Jelly Roll which carries the words “This is the original version of Nights in White Satin” on the label.

“Les Jelly Roll” was a French band who did a cover version of the Moody Blues song, and had the opportunity to release it in Italy on Ricordi (an Italian record label), a few months before the original was released there. As a joke, they put the now-famous sentence on the cover.

The poem at the end was recorded separately. It is called Late Lament and was written by their drummer, Graeme Edge. The poem was read by keyboard player Mike Pinder.

Nights in White Satin (The Night)
The Moody Blues

Nights in white satin
Never reaching the end
Letters I’ve written
Never meaning to send

Beauty I’d always missed
With these eyes before
Just what the truth is
I can’t say any more

‘Cause I love you
Yes I love you
Oh how I love you

Gazing at people, some hand in hand
Just what I’m going through they can’t understand
Some try to tell me, thoughts they cannot defend
Just what you want to be, you will be in the end

And I love you
Yes I love you
Oh how I love you
Oh how I love you

Nights in white satin
Never reaching the end
Letters I’ve written
Never meaning to send

Beauty I’ve always missed
With these eyes before
Just what the truth is
I can’t say any more

‘Cause I love you
Yes I love you
Oh how I love you
Oh how I love you
‘Cause I love you
Yes I love you
Oh how I love you
Oh how I love you

Songwriters: Justin Hayward
Nights in White Satin (The Night) lyrics © T.R.O. Inc.

32 thoughts on “♫ Nights In White Satin ♫ (Redux)”

  2. Ahhhh..bliss.
    I still have the album purchased in 1969. The whole is a real treat as the tracks merge one into the other as the portrait of a day.
    As fellow ‘Brummies’ (Birmingham UK) Sheila has a very soft spot for this band, went to one of their shows when they supported the Beatles on their last UK tour and she also met Ray Thomas a couple of years later.
    At the height of their popularity in the USA they were rather concerned to find that people with disabilities were being brought to their concerts as the friends had convinced them the vibrations from Moody Blues music would cure their ills.

    Liked by 1 person

  3. My comment posted earlier, I thought, either never arrived or totally disappeared. It was a bit of history about the band, from its 1st big hit, Go Now, through a period of almost total failures, to Days of Future Passed, their first themed album which was not a big hit at first, but became a huge hit a few years later. In North America, Tuesday Afternoon was the hit single, and it did okay, but it was after A Question of Balance and Threshold of a Dream were released that fans went back and rediscovered Future in a big way. I was one of them. Now it’s hard to remember Future didn’t make it big first, but really it didn’t…

    Liked by 1 person

    • I didn’t see any previous comment from you on this, and I just went back to double check … nada. Cyberspace must have eaten your previous comment.

      I never knew much of the background of the Moody Blues … and haven’t heard of the songs you mention … or, I should probably say, I don’t remember them offhand. I’m glad you liked this one, though!

      Like

  4. Time has shown this is one of the most talented groups in the world. Some of the most memorable works ever and so many to love but it all harks back to this. One of the most uplifting pieces of music I know and most recognisable, with fantastic words sung in the most believable way. You’ve made my night.
    Cwtch

    Liked by 2 people

  5. Pingback: ♫ Nights In White Satin ♫ (Redux) | The Inglorius Padre Steve's World

  11. recently, there was an interview with Justin Hayword about this song that you guys might be interested in. If you’d like, I’ll try to find it and post the link. I don’t know if it has captions for the heard of hearing but I can ask about that.

    Liked by 2 people

Comments are closed.