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?

Doughboys -- "Tuesday Afternoon" (2010)

The trees are drawing me near 

I've got to find out why 

Those gentle voices I hear 

Explain it all with a sigh 

I had initially planned to feature the original Moody Blues version of "Tuesday Afternoon" in today's post.  But that was before I heard the Doughboys' cover of that song.

I always found it a little embarrassing to admit that I liked "Tuesday Afternoon" or just about any Moody Blues song.  I hope I'm never asked under oath what my true feelings about the Moody Blues are.  I wouldn't want to have to admit that I found some of their songs impossible to resist, despite the fact that their music is pretentious and pseudo-intellectual.  (Let the hate mail begin.)

"Tuesday Afternoon" is from the 1967 album, Days of Future Passed, which was one of those albums that I heard playing almost every day when I was in college.  It was a favorite of my sophomore-year roommate.

My friends told me that agreeing to room with him was a mistake, and they were right.  His predilection for Days of Future Passed should have been enough to warn me off, but I ignored that clear warning sign just like I ignored my friends.

The Doughboys were a New Jersey cover band in the mid-1960s when they won a "battle of the bands" contest and were given a recording contract.  They released two singles that failed to chart.

But the group -- which had begun to perform in World War I "doughboy" uniforms they had purchased at a vintage clothing store in the East Village -- had a devoted local following, and opened the New York City shows of a number of well-known bands.

The Doughboys

   One time they opened for the Beach Boys and the Buckinghams.  According to Wikipedia, that didn't work out so well:

The Doughboys had developed a grand finale for their shows that consisted of a rousing rendition of "Bo Diddley" where [drummer Richard] Heyman and [singer Myke] Scavone would set up floor toms at the front of the stage and play them ferociously using maracas instead of drumsticks. As the song reached it's climax, the two Doughboys would each pick up their floor tom and throw them together in mid-air for a dramatic end to the show.  


The day of the Beach Boys/Buckinghams show, the group realized that they had neglected to bring one of their floor toms along with them. After asking the Buckinghams to borrow a floor tom and being turned down, the group asked the Beach Boys, who agreed. 


During the Doughboys' finale, Beach Boy Dennis Wilson happened to spot his floor tom being ridden like a horse by Myke Scavone. Furious, Wilson rushed the stage, tackled Scavone, and the set ended with Scavone and Wilson trading punches in front of a shocked audience. Wilson later apologized, and admitted that he was upset because his brother, Carl, was about to be arrested for draft evasion.

(Apparently riding a floor tom like a horse WAS FROWNED ON IN THAT ESTABLISHMENT!)

The Doughboys broke up in 1968.  But in 2000, drummer Richard Heyman's wife organized a surprise Doughboys reunion for his birthday.  

The reunion went so well that four of the five original members decided to start playing shows again.  In 2007, they released a CD with a mix of covers and original songs.  In 2010, they released a second CD -- Act Your Rage -- which included their version of "Tuesday Afternoon."

The Doughboys today

I find the Doughboys saga to be very encouraging.  After all, they broke up in 1968 -- about the same time that the Rogues called it quits.  If they could get back together and be a success 30-odd years later, why can't we?

The Doughboys' cover of "Tuesday Afternoon" beats the hell out of the original.  It's not perfect -- I don't particularly like the reggae-ish bridges, and I think we could have done without the harmonica solo.  But overall it's a very strong cover version.

This brings "29 Posts in 29 Days" to a close -- I hope you enjoyed all 29.  And yes, I know it's only February 28, not February 29.  But in case you've forgotten, I did two posts on February 5 -- so this one is number 29 for the month.

God rested on the last day of the week, and 2 or 3 lines is going to rest on the last day of February.  We're back on our three-songs-a-week schedule until February 2013, when "28 Posts in 28 Days" returns -- and I already have the theme picked out for next year's version.   

Here's a video of the Doughboys cover of "Tuesday Afternoon":

Here's a link you can use to order the song from Amazon: