Lines of Communication

Are you scared of the future?
Yes, a lot
Yes, a little
No, not really
No, not at all Days of Future Paassed. The Moody Blues. Deram (subsidiary of Decca records). Original vinyl catalogue number not known.As a previous post pointed to the fact that I was for ever mired in the early to mid 70s in terms of my music collection - the term obscure and unknown springs to mind when listing bands who released LPs in 1971:

Airto Moreira - Seeds on the Ground
Bread, Love and Dreams - Amaryllus (no not "Bread")
Caravan - In The Land of Grey and Pink
Cochise - Swallow Tales
Cressida - Assylum
Dando Shaft - Dando Shaft
Dark - Round the Edges (extremely rare on vinyl, it would set you back a few thousand pounds)
Fresh Maggots - Fresh Maggots
Gravy Train - (Ballard of) A Peaceful Man
Jackie McAuley - Jackie McAuley (ex. Them)
Jade Warrior - Jade Warrior
Jan Dukes de Grey - Mice and Rats in the Loft
Leo Kottke - Mudlark
Made In Germany - Made in Germany
Magna Carta - Songs From the Wasties Orchard
Mainhorse - Mainhorse
New Lords - New Lords
Orpheus - Orpheus (the one issued on the Bell label, not to be confused with the one they released in 1969 under the same title)
Sugarloaf - Sugarloaf
The Moody Blues - Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
Tudor Lodge - Tudor Lodge
Unicorn - Uphill All The Way

As you can see, a list of practically unheard of LPs. I would be quite surprised if any female had these in their collection.I'd seriously like to go into one of those tin-pot local commercial radio station, rip up their play list, kick them out of the studio and play some decent music for a change instead of the processed cheese that currently passes for "popular music"It may well indicate the fact that I am "stuck in the past" and laugh at my choice of musical listening. Honestly, really, you just don't get music of that quality these days - given the proviso of the James Blunts and Jack Johnsons who I actually like due to the fact that they are acoustic. So I am not as Australopithicine as you presume (they being even earlier than Neanderthals in time period).Of course everyone assumes (wrongly) that Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen was the first video but alas not. The Moody Blues beat them by ten years when "Go Now" , produced and directed by Alex Murray (aka Alex Wharton) was the first ever purpose made promo film.Denny Lane, Michael Pinnder, Ray Thomas, Graeme Edge and Clint Walker (the "sixth" Moody). Laine of course went on to better things when he joined Paul McCartney's "Wings" for Band on the Run. John Lodge and Justin Hayward replaced them. The original line up had recorded material amounting to 24 songs, released as "The Magnificent Moodies". During the hiatus The Moody Blues, signed to the Decca label were attempting to do a rock version of Dvorak's New World Symphony. Hayward had other ideas. In the meantime they recorded some studio material, which until 1987 was previously unavailable. Of course with Peter Knight and the LSO the song "Nights in White Satin" became an instant classic and the album "Days of Future Passed" flew very high indeed.Perhaps that's why the Moodies recoreded a song called "Fly Me High" on 30th March 1967. The very first musical composition by the "new" lineup.

I'm up to the eyes n' I love everyone
Today I could cry I could reach for the sun
I'm walking on air 'n' I'm here 'n' I'm there
I travel the sky but for what I don't care

Fly me straight and fly me high
Fly me straight and fly me high

I'm up 'n' I'm down 'n' I'm gone, I'm around
I'm driving along with no wheels on the ground
Hang on to me tight 'cause it doesn't last long
A few hours more and it'll be gone

Fly me straight and fly me high
Fly me straight and fly me high

I leave you behind on the streets in the gloom
I'm up here alone and there's plenty of room
You won't see me, I'll see you, I'm too fast
Whoops! Here I come, Now I'm gone. Now I'm past

Fly me straight and fly me high
Fly me straight and fly me high

I'm up to the eyes and I love ev'ryone
Today I could cry I could reach for the sun
I'm walking on air 'n' I'm here 'n' I'm there
I travel the sky but for what I don't care

Fly me straight and fly me high
Fly me straight and fly me high
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Days of Future Passed is a symbolic meaning. I tried (and probably failed) to explain the structure and meaning of the song and album titles of the Moody Blues in a blog entitled "The Long, Twilight Struggle"

Here:http://tinyurl.co.uk/dppk

It was noted of humans:"They fight, they argue, they are ruled by passions and fears.""Yes, and that is their strength. They do not seek conformity. They do not surrender. Out of their differences comes symmetry, the unique capacity to fight against impossible odds. Hurt them .. and they only come back stronger. The passions we deplore have taken them to their place in the stars and will propel them to a great destiny. Their only weakness is that they do not recognize their own greatness. They forget that they have come to this place through two million years of evolution, struggle and blood. That they are better than they think, and nobler than they know. They carry within them the capacity to walk among the stars, like giants. They are the future."["Babylon Squared", Babylon 5]

The dying Centaur Emperor laments thus:"The past tempts us, the present confuses us, and the future frightens us. And our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast terrible inbetween." ["The Coming of Shadows", Babylon 5]

or

"'There is a greater darkness than the one we fight. It is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities, it is against chaos and despair. Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope, the death of dreams. Against this peril we can never surrender. The future is all around us, waiting in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future, or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain" - G'Kar quoting G'Quan ["Z'Ha'Dum", Babylon 5]

I told you.....

"My words are inadequate to the burden of my heart"

Zathras warned but, oh no, no one listened to poor Zathras, no. ["Babylon Squared", Babylon 5]

and again

"Zathras warned, but no one listen to Zathras, no." ["War Without End, Part 1", Babylon 5]

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Who do you think was smartest on this list?
Einstein
Shakespeare
Mozart
Jesus A very interesting choice of options here.Albert Einstein. Theory of Relativity. He's a very smart scientist.Although he was smart enough to say: "I don't know what weapons WW3 will be fought with, but I know that WW4 will be fought with clubs and rocks."William Shakespere. Author and Playwright. Second most quoted author behind the Bible."What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!" [Hamlet, Act II, Scene II]Although I do have a soft spot for the character "Byron" in Babylon 5 as he says some amazing things.Is Shakespere smart or a phrophet. Vir Cotto said: "Prophecy is a guess that comes true. When it doesn't, it's a metaphor." ["The Very Long Night of Londo Mollari", Babylon 5]. I suppose if one were to presume that you could presumably derive a Shakespere quote for ANY situation or ocassion, only becasue he wrote more or less about real life situations of his era. Things don't change much. In answer to the question "Havn't we outgrown violence" Dr. Franklin replies: "It's gonna take a lot more than a hundred years to evolve a better human." ["The Long Dark", Babylon 5]Of course we'll leave prophecy for the final choice.Mozart. According to most sources a child prodigy and musical genuis. But smart? Hmm..I think I'll discount him, not becasue I don't like Mozart but becasue I am irrevocably trapped in early 1970s music - especially The Moody Blues. Therefore I consider Justin Hayward to have written some of the best lyrics - but I digress.Jesus. Just throw in the obligitory religious figureghead. Well I suppose it could just as well be Muhammed, Allah or any number of other names. As long as you don't go round killing in whoever it is's name then that's fine by me. I won't descent into some turgid religious debate about right or wrong. There's no way to prove it in either case - existance of or non-existance of. But it comes back to the question as to whether or not Jesus was smart. I guess that there could well have been better ways to get one's message across - but what the hey - I suppose if you realise it's your destiny to get nailed to a cross ther really is very little you can do about it. Have we learned anything in the interceding 2000 years?Maybe I should let you decide that...as for who's the samrtest on the list...I'll take the cowards way out and pass on that as well.