what does the song Nights In White Satin by The Moody Blues mean?

Question

this song has always sounded ambigious to me. whats your interpretation? thanks.

Answer 1

Band member Justin Hayward wrote the song at age nineteen, and titled the song after a friend 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. The London Festival Orchestra (not a professional orchestra at all, but composed of well-regarded studio musicians) provided the musical accompaniment heard throughout, and which reached its climax before and after the song itself and the spoken-word poem. The band and orchestra makes use of the Mellotron keyboard device, which would come to define the "Moody Blues sound".

The spoken-word poem, which is heard near the six-minute mark in the song, is called Late Lament. It was written by drummer Graeme Edge and was read by keyboardist Mike Pinder. On Days of Future Passed, the poem's last five lines bracket the album, appearing also at the end of track 1 ("The Day Begins"). While "Late Lament" has been commonly known as part of "Nights In White Satin" with no separate credit on the original LP, it was given its own listing on the 2-LP compilation This Is The Moody Blues in 1974 and again in 1987 (without its parent song) on another compilation, Prelude. Both compilations feature the track in a slightly different form than on Days Of Future Passed. Both spoken and instrumental tracks are given an echo effect. The orchestral ending is kept intact, but the gong that closes the track from the original LP is completely edited out.

Answer 2

Nights In White Satin Lyrics

Answer 3

Knights In White Satin Lyrics

Answer 4

I have been listening to this song since I was very young. This song always makes me cry. It is definitely a song of unrequited love, of the confusion that comes with its ambiguity in reality, of the loneliness of feeling love, and others trying to give advice but they can never know what the singer feels because they are not him, and the clear reality that the singer is in love. Apparently he wrote it after being given a set of satin sheets.
"Late Lament", the poem matching the poem at the beginning of the album about dawn, is more of an anomaly. It was written by the drummer and recited by the keyboardist. It is about late night, but also about the end of life, as this whole album is about not only a day, but a life.
"Cold-hearted orb that rules the night, removes the colors from our sight, red is grey and yellow white, but we decide which is right, and which is an illusion." I wish they had written the meaning somewhere. The closest thing I can come up with as a meaning for this is the obvious one, that the moon removes the colors and replaces them with shades of grey, and the not-so-obvious one, that we decide the way that we perceive the world to be. We decide what we think and how we feel about things at the end of the day, and that we can take them at face value, we can be depressed or happy -- either way, we decide the hue of our reality.

Answer 5

Miss wcaroline .The other guy is somewhat correct.I have over 1000 lps from the 60's &70's.I just pulled 6 albums from the Moody Blues.This one is an original dated 1967,Decca Records,london.The name of the album is,DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED all in caps.THE MOODY BLUES with the LONDON FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA conducted by Peter Knght.Side two third track is called THE NIGHT.All caps .What I type are how they appear on the original album which I hold in my hand!!!,,,THE NIGHT:Nights In White Satin (7:41).In case someone questions that it'son DERAM records--zal-8079-bw 1967.If they look it up ...DES 18012..and they know what that means.If you would like a 40 year old copy I would give it to you for such a great question.And some great answeres [e-mail] -- Have A Great Day!

Answer 6

I think Nights in White Satin are letters that were written but never sent.

Answer 7

RE:
what does the song Nights In White Satin by The Moody Blues mean?
this song has always sounded ambigious to me. whats your interpretation? thanks.

Answer 8

never really heard it, but i know that it was written b/c the lead singer's wife bought satin sheets for his bed, and he liked the feeling so much, he wrote a song about them.

Answer 9

Whatever Justin Hayward & John Lodge want it to mean.

Answer 10

LOVE song