SONG FACTS
“Question” 
- The Moody Blues
Album: A Question Of Balance
Released 1970
The Moody Blues guitarist/vocalist Justin Hayward wrote
“Question”
which reflected the thoughts of many young people who were questioning the war in Vietnam. He told Songfacts:
“We'd achieved great success in the United States and we were playing a lot of student venues and colleges, and the student audience was our audience. We were mixing with these people and seeing how different the problems were for them and the issues in being a member of the greatest nation on earth:
The United States. How different they were from British people. I was just expressing my frustration around that, around the problems of anti-war and things that really concerned them, and for their own future that they may be conscripted. How that would morally be a dilemma for them and that kind of stuff. So it did really come out of that.
And my own particular anger at what was happening. After a decade of peace and love, it still seemed we hadn't made a difference in 1970. I suppose that was the theme of the song. And then the slow part of the song is really a reflection of that and not feeling defeated, but almost a quiet reflection of it, and mixing with a bit of a love song, as well.”
This was the opening track on the “A Question Of Balance (album)”, and at one point it was going to be the title track. The song was recorded several months earlier than the other tracks on the album and its title was shortened from “Question Of Balance” to “"Question”.
In the liner notes of the 1997 remastered CD, Justin Hayward wrote:
“Sometime before we taped the album, we (documented) ‘Question’, which was a song that I didn't have on Friday night for a session (the next day). But, by the morning, I had it and it was recorded very quickly.” Hayward adds that it was “Recorded live, with no overdubbing or double-tracking, just a bit of echo.&rdquo
In the UK, this became the group's biggest hit for their classic lineup. Before John Lodge and Justin Hayward joined the group in 1966, they had a #1 UK hit with
“Go Now” "."
“Question”
is a concert mainstay of The Moody Blues, which is fine with Justin Hayward, who tells us he never loses the emotion for it when he performs the tune. It's also a song that has remained relevant. Says Hayward:
“There's no doubt that it still resonates, the lyrics reflect whichever generation you're in. Whatever time you're in, people are experiencing those emotions. And I find that people identify with it at any age.”
Many of the songs Justin Hayward wrote for The Moody Blues don't have obvious titles -
“The Voice” ,
for instance. This song is another one without a natural title where he chose a word from the lyrics to represent it.
Fish, who is the ex-lead singer of the UK rock group Marillion, recorded
“Question”
on his 1995 LP Songs From The Mirror.
