Moody Blues – "Nights in White Satin" (1967)

Letters I’ve written

Never meaning to send

What am I missing?  Why would you write a letter that you had no intention of sending?

According to Julia McCutcheon – who describes herself as an “intuitively inspired transformational coach” – writing a letter to a specific person with no intention of actually sending it “enables you to express your thoughts and feelings without holding yourself back and in a way that may not have been possible with the person concerned.”

“Unsent letters are powerful because they’re for your eyes only so you’re genuinely able to express all that lies unexpressed in your heart,” McCutcheon goes on to say.  “As a result, they tend to inspire helpful insights into patterns and relationships, and trigger an immediate and extremely welcome sense of relief.”

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I don’t recall ever writing a letter that I never meant to send.

I’ve failed to write and send letters that I should have written and sent.

But my more common error has been to write and send letters – including e-mails – that I should never have sent.

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I first wrote about “Nights in White Satin” in 2010.  That post focused on “Late Lament” – the poem that is read (not sung) at the end of that track:

Breath deep the gathering gloom

Watch lights fade from every room

Bedsitter people look back and lament

Another day's useless penny is spent

Impassioned lovers wrestle as one 

Lonely man cries for love and has none

New mother picks up and suckles her son

Senior citizens wish they were young

Coldhearted orb that rules the night

Removes the colors from our sight

Red is gray and yellow, white

But we decide which is right 

And which is an illusion

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I was in a crappy mood the day I wrote that post, and I took it out on “Late Lament” – which is an extremely deserving target:

These lines are nonsense.  They are an embarrassment.  Every single one of you who took these lines seriously – and please note I'm saying "you" and not "us" because I swear to you this crap never fooled me – should hang your head in shame.

My sophomore-year roommate had this record, and whenever this part came on, he would stand up and mouth the words dramatically, like he was Sir Laurence Olivier doing Hamlet or Othello or whatever – "Breathe deep," etc., etc., etc.  

The Moody Blues

He was insufferably annoying, as all my other friends told me he would be – I should have listened.  I should have known the first time I saw him do his little dramatic reading of these lines.

Lines like "New mother picks up and suckles her son/Senior citizens wish they were young" are just banal.  But what are we to make of this gibberish?  “Red is gray, and yellow [is] white/But we decide which is right/And which is an illusion.”

(Say whut?)

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Click here to listen to “Nights in White Satin” and “Late Lament.”

Click here to buy “Nights in White Satin” without “Late Lament” from Amazon – 'cause who in the hell wants to have to listen to that nonsense again?