Moody Blues – The Voice

I remember in Jr High school in 1981 I bought Long Distant Voyager by the Moody Blues. The album received heavy play and peaked at #1 in the Billboard album charts. The album had two top twenty hits with The Voice and Gemini Dream. The Voice peaked at #15 in the Billboard 100.

With no clear title in the lyrics, Justin Hayward had no idea what to name this song. When the group’s engineer, Greg Jackman, asked him what to call it, Hayward replied, “I’ll think of that after.”

Jackman thought he said, “Fat Arthur,” and wrote that on the tape. That was the song’s name right up to the mastering process when Jackman pushed for a more sensible title before they turned it over to the label. Hayward went through the lyrics and picked out “The Voice,” which is what stuck.

Mike Pinder left after the previous album Octave and was replaced by Patrick Moraz.

From Songfacts

This was one of the songs that propelled The Moody Blues to a comeback in the early 1980s, and of their newer songs, it appealed the most strongly to fans of their original work. Written by Justin Hayward, the lyrics have the same philosophical tone of their songs in the late 1960s, and the song is alternately urgent and hopeful about the future. It seems to be telling listeners that they face major choices on how their world will turn out, and that there is great hope in it, but only if they make it happen of their own initiative. 

After the Moody Blues came to San Francisco and played their psychedelia-tinged songs in 1967, they’ve been perceived in some circles as a Flower Power band. They are certainly very introspective, but their music changed with the times, thanks in part to a shift in songwriting for Justin Hayward. By the ’80s, he no longer needed to be in just the right mood to write a song (like he was on one Tuesday Afternoon), but could compose in his music room on a regular schedule. Hayward cites this discipline for the band’s continued success in the ’80s.

Hayward did something different on this track, recording two guitars to a click track and then bringing that tape to the band to give them the tempo and feel of the song. This is the method he used on many songs throughout the decade.

The Voice

Won’t you take me back to school?
I need to learn the golden rule.
Won’t you lay it on the line?
I need to hear it just one more time.

Oh, won’t you tell me again?
Oh, can you feel it?
Oh, won’t you tell me again tonight?

Each and every heart it seems,
Is bounded by a world of dreams.
Each and every rising sun,
Is greeted by a lonely one.

Oh, won’t you tell me again?
Oh, can you feel it?
Oh, won’t you tell me again tonight?

Cause out on the ocean of life my love.
There a so many storms we must rise above.
Can you hear the spirit calling, as it’s carried across the waves?
You’re already falling it’s calling you back to face the music.
And the song that is coming through.
You’re already falling the one that it’s calling is you.

My a promise take a vow.
And trust your feelings it easy now.
Understand The Voice within.
And feel a change already beginning.

Oh, won’t you tell me again?
Oh, can you feel it?
Oh, won’t you tell me again tonight? Tonight?

Oh, won’t you tell me again?
Oh, can you feel it?
Oh, won’t you tell me again tonight?

And how many words have I got to say?
And how many times will it be this way?
With your arms around the future and your back up against the past.
You’re already falling it’s calling you on to face the music.
And the song that is coming through.
You’re already falling the one that it’s calling is you.

Each and every heart it seems,
Is bounded by a world of dreams.
Each and every rising sun,
Is greeted by, a lonely, lonely one.

Won’t you tell me again?
Oh, can you feel it?
Oh, won’t you tell me again tonight?