A$# 036 Moody Blues | Seventh Sojourn

Seventh Sojourn, released in 1972, is my favourite Moody Blues album from their cosmic era.

It was their seventh disc since 1967, and they were really in top form. But the stresses of recording, touring, business and being rock stars were taking their toll - after recording Seventh Sojourn and touring to support it, the Moody Blues would take a hiatus of more than five years.

Perhaps it was that adversity that brought out the best in the five musicians - what a fantastic disc this is. It's just eight songs, but they cover a lot of ground in exploring life and existence in the universe.

Mike Pinder's Lost In A Lost World opens the album. To me, Mike's songs always presented a darker insight onto the world. Here, he laments the sorry state of the world, with so much death and destruction. But he outlines a recipe for harmony in When You're A Free Man.

Ray Thomas makes a fine contribution with his moving and gentle For My Lady. It's a great romantic number that should be played at more weddings.

Guitarist and leader Justin Hayward wrote New Horizons and The Land Of Make-Believe; he also co-wrote You And Me with drummer Graeme Edge.

Justin has always been the romantic / idealist of the group. You And Me is a spiritual number with religious elements. In New Horizons, Justin explores the happiness, wonder and awe of the birth of his daughter, but tinged with the sadness of the death of his own father, and still find hope for the future. The Land Of Make-Believe is an idealistic wish, almost as moving as John Lennon's Imagine:

Open all the shutters on your windows
Unlock all the locks upon your doors
Brush away the cobwebs from your day-dreams
No secrets come between us anymore
Oh, say it's true
Only love can see you through
You know our love can't hurt you

We're living in a land of make believe
And trying no to let it show...
Maybe in that land of make believe
Heartaches can turn into joy

The two tracks that really propelled the album to the top of the charts (it reached no. 5 in the UK and No. 1 in the USA) are the two John Lodge songs, Isn't Life Strange and I'm Just A Singer (In A Rock And Roll Band).

Isn't Life Strange is a great song - philosophical treatise, expression of love and catchy pop song all rolled into one. As John said in the liner notes from the 1997 remaster:

I was having dinner one night with some friends and I heard "Isn't Life Strange" in my head while I was eating. I went straight to the piano and within fifteen minutes, I'd got roughly the whole song finished - except every line was "Isn't Life Strange"! It didn't have any other lyric. Isn't Life Strange is about when you try and analyse your life and somethings always seem the same. And so you're asking that question: can you really expect it to be not the same in yourself? So many people just think that, because life goes on, it should get better, but it's something you have to put in that makes it better. Also, on top of that, it's a collective idea, that when you're looking one way, suddenly what's really going to happen comes from the other way. At the end of the day, isn't life strange?

Just A Singer is a much heavier piece of rock than most Moody Blues songs; but it makes the perfect album closer. A semi-autobiographical piece, it reminds the listener that the Moodies, even though they examine great questions of the cosmos, karma and life, they're just ordinary guys, making great music.

Seventh Sojourn featured the great musicianship and artistry that had gone into the previous six albums - but it was a difficult and painful experience for them to make. They would need a few years of rest, and producing solo albums (and in the case of Justin and John, a duo album together), before their reunion.

But Seventh Sojourn stands as a milestone in the career of the Moody Blues.

Track listing:

1. Lost In A Lost World
2. New Horizons
3. For My Lady
4. Isn't Life Strange
5. You And Me
6. Land Of Make-Believe
7. When You're A Free Man
8. I'm Just a Singer (In A Rock And Roll Band)