'Future Passed': Moody Blues classic album wasn't the ‘New World' the record company ordered

The Moody Blues album "Days of Future Passed" is one of the most iconic discs in rock. The 1967 release marked the first time a rock band had recorded a full album with an orchestra, but Moody Blues member John Lodge says the disc was not exactly the band's idea.

"It was one of those beautiful accidents," says Lodge from his home in Barbados. "The Decca record company wanted an album because they were launching stereo music and they wanted a band that could actually perform with an orchestra. Basically, they wanted Dvorak's 'New World Symphony' and to show the quality of their sound reproduction on a vinyl record. To be honest, I think we were the cheapest band they had!"

Lodge says the company wanted the group to take the themes to the "New World Symphony" and write words to it, but the band had other ideas.

"We thought it was the perfect opportunity to record all our own songs with a symphony," says Lodge. "Then Graeme (Edge) wrote the poetry that held it all together. The Beatles had just made a song 'A Day in the Life,' and this was a day in our lives, but it was our collective day. It was a Moody Blues day. It was different, because we all contributed to it."

The group began in 1964 as an R&B-influenced British Invasion group. While the band had a hit with the song "Go Now" (featuring then lead singer and future Paul McCartney and Wings member Denny Laine), it wasn't until 1966, when Laine left and Lodge and Justin Hayward joined the group, that the Moody Blues found the sound that made them famous.

The band - bassist Lodge, guitarist Hayward, keyboardist Mike Pinder, flutist Ray Thomas and drummer Graeme Edge - all wrote material for the group and, says Lodge, the Moody Blues were a democratic unit.

"If someone really didn't feel something then we wouldn't do it," he says.

He says that while the group members all worked hard on "Days of Future Passed," they weren't really prepared when they first heard the completed mix.

"At first it was wonderment," says Lodge. "I remember listening to the playback, sitting in the studio with two huge speakers, family and friends, couple of record people. There was total silence when it finished because, to be honest, I don't think we knew what we'd done."

Neither did the group's record company.

"They didn't turn it down, but they walked away from it," says Lodge. "They didn't think it was going to work. But we were very fortunate. We had two people who really believed in it."

One was Hugh Mendl, the head of classical music at Decca Records, and the other was Walt McGuire, the president of London Records in the United States. Each championed the album in their respective countries. However, it was then-emerging FM radio that turned the album into a hit. The disc wasn't a collection of singles, but a creation that was meant to be played one full side at a time. That was perfect for FM stations distancing themselves from the idea of 2 1/2 minute singles. And the disc's "Nights In White Satin" was unlike anything else on the radio.

Lodge says the group was stung by charges the album was only successful because of the symphony and decided to play all the instruments on the next albums themselves.

In fact, the band went on to far greater success. Lodge is particularly proud of the band's success in the late 1970s (when punk was at its height) after a three-year hiatus. The group also became unlikely MTV favorites in the 1980s. Pinder left the band to concentrate on solo material in 1977. Thomas retired from the group in 2002.

The group's most recent release is the Chirstmas album "December," and Lodge says the band hopes to begin recording new music soon.

"If not this year, maybe next."

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