SEVENTH SOJOURN

Seventh Sojourn is yet another of the pivotal progressive albums of the 1970's. It came at the end of an incredibly productive five year period by the band that yielded seven brilliant and varied works. This was also the last album featuring the signature melancholy but somehow optimistic sound of the band that made it such an influential force on many progressive, folk, and pop groups of that period. The band would return to the studio sporadically in the years following Sojourn, but the music was more polished and commercially savvy, and lacked that elusive character that gave this one such an endearing blend of 60's innocence and 70's anxiety.

No song on the album demonstrates this better than "Lost in a Lost World", which was a deep soul sigh penned by Mike Pinder. At first listen it seems like a strange choice to open the album, with its depressing theme and gloomy sound. Pinder reveals a 60's flower-power connection with lyrics like -

"Grow, the seeds of evolution, Revolution never won; it's just another form of gun to do again what they have done, with all our brothers' youngest sons".

But it's not really an anti-war song, it's much more than that. We are after all "children from a family tree that's longer than a centipede, started long ago when you and I were only love". What an appealing and earnest thought, and one so unlike the angry and divisive rap and punk music that was lurking on the horizon. The music itself is characteristic Moody Blues, ethereal and brooding, but not melancholy. This is one of my favorite tracks on the album. I was still in elementary school when it was released and owned an 8-track copy of the album which I loved to listen to, but it would be years before I appreciated the grace of this song.

"New Horizons" is a bit more upbeat musically, very soft yet uplifting. Justin Hayward's lyrics are a somewhat cryptic, but the message is quite similar to that of groups like America and England Dan & John Ford Coley - namely, that peace of mind is just around the corner, and that the love of another, this "precious gift", will sustain us. This is a very pleasant song.

Ray Thomas contributed "For My Lady" to the album, a tune that very much reminds me of bands like Amazing Blondel and perhaps some of the tamer later works of Jethro Tull. The keyboards are very simple here, but effective in making this a uniquely Moody Blues rendition of a love song. This song probably could not have been recorded and made it onto a commercial album at any time other than the very early 70's. "For My Lady" ended up on the B-side of "I'm Just a Singer (in a Rock and Roll Band)", and as such was later sometimes compared thematically (though certainly not musically) to works like "Beth" from Kiss and "Lady" from Styx.

The fourth track, "Isn't Life Strange", came from the fourth band member to pen a song for the album, in this case bassist John Lodge. Despite this, it is remarkably consistent in tone and topic with the other songs on the album, offering lyrics like -

"Isn't love strange? A word we arrange, with no thought or care, maker of despair. Each breath that we breathe, with love we must weave, to make us as one - you know it makes me want to cry, cry, cry".

Here again the wistful sound of quiet guitars and Hayward's moaning voice are in perfect union with the message in the lyrics. One can't really tell whether the subject in the song is despairing or is simply coming to a point of acceptance, but in the overall theme of the record it is more peaceful than pedantic.

On "You and Me" the band kicks it up a little, with more prominent guitar work and drums. This could have very easily been sung by Peter, Paul & Mary a half-dozen years before as a folk song, but in the hands of the Moody Blues it could just as easily turned out to be a Coca-Cola commercial jingle ala "It's the Real Thing". Hayward seems to have stepped out of his introspective mood for a few minutes, and the song ends up with very much of an attempt to garner a radio-friendly single out of the album. One would come, but it would actually turn out to be "I'm Just a Singer (in a Rock and Roll Band)".

"The Land of Make Believe" is very much a throwback to the love-child songs of the later 60's ("So fly little bird up into the clear blue sky, and carry the word love's the only reason why"). There's nothing much to distinguish this song from anything else on the album, and it's likely that this was a later choice as filler to finish out the recording sessions.

"When You're a Free Man" is the closest thing to a progressive song on the entire album. The lyrics leave the listener unclear if they are about a lover, a god, or simply nirvana. Hayward adds a simple yet likeable guitar bridge in the middle, and the harmonizing voices are more distinct and pronounced, while the drums and keyboards take somewhat of a back seat. Again, nothing particularly special about this one, although it has the same musical and lyrical characteristics as most of the rest of the album, giving something of an impression (although a mistaken one) that there is a central story or theme to the album. This is also the longest track on the album, clocking in at over six minutes.

"I'm Just a Singer (in a Rock and Roll Band)" was clearly intended from the beginning to be the hit single for the record, and it turned out to be just that, along with "Isn't Life Strange". I'm not sure if the guys in the band actually do not take themselves all that seriously, or if Lodge was just looking for words that rhymed, but the lyrics "so if you want this world of yours to turn about you, and you can see exactly what to do, please tell me - I'm just a singer in a rock and roll band" are so perfectly poignant that they form an ideal ending to the album. For most bands this would probably have been the opening track, but it seems the Blues were content to deliver the obligatory hit for their management, while still retaining the integrity of the album as a whole by opening instead with "Lost in a Lost World". It was a great decision, as the songs simply seem to flow together much better this way. The only other change I would have made would have been to put "For My Lady" on the back-side of the vinyl release as well.

The Moody Blues were a band with one foot in the 60's and another big one in the 70's at the time of this recording. Their years of touring and pressures to deliver hits, combined frankly with their huge success at the time (in 1972 Seventh Sojourn was a #1 album, and this and Every Good Boy Deserves Favour co-inhabited the best-seller charts for several weeks), led to their regression to a part-time status for much of the rest of the 70's, returning from relative obscurity at the end of the decade to release the much more commercial "Octave". By this time most of us thought they had actually broken up, and the album didn't make much of an impression (although 1981's Long Distance Voyager was both a commercial and critical success). But in 1972 the band was winding down a relentless period of touring and studio productivity, and based on the somewhat introspective lyrics, were in definite need of some time off. Seventh Sojourn, however, is a very well- produced, cohesive work, and makes an excellent addition to any progressive collection. So, four stars.

peace