Question

A lot of people are thinking this is about a romantic relationship. I don't think so. Especially in the context of the album. He's using love in the same sense as in 1 Corinthians 13. The line, "All the love you've been giving has all been meant for you" is similar to the Beatles, "In the end the love you take is equal to the love you make". He's trying to come to grips with what seems like chaos in the world and embracing love. But he also implies that he's experienced this before, "You'd safely lead me to the land that I once knew". He's implying that this chaos is an illusion and we're on a path to rediscovering something that's always been here with us, unconditional love.

Moody Blues guitarist/vocalist Justin Hayward wrote this song, which reflected the thoughts of many young people who were questioning the war in Vietnam. He told us: "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." (Here's the full Justin Hayward interview.)

This was the opening track on the Question Of Balance album, and was going to be the title track. It 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."

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."

The song 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."

Fish, who is the ex-lead singer of the UK rock group Marillion, recorded a cover version on his 1995 LP Songs From The Mirror.

Why not let Justin Hayward tell you what it means - because - ummm - he wrote it?

songfacts.com/blog/interviews/justin_hayward_of_the_moody_blues/

Am i the only one who feels this is from the perspective of a soldier on the battlefront thinking about his life and lovelife in general and all the chaos surrounding him?

I think his lover died, and she is waiting for him on the other side. And he is angry at this ugly world because he has to stay here without her. He doesn't want to. He doesn't understand why. He is looking for an answer, desperate for someone to change his life, a miracle in his life.

if a song is titled "the question," it sure stands without the requirement of an answer. There may be many answers, the answers may change over time... an eternal question?

Why do we never get an answer When we're knocking at the door With a thousand million questions About hate and death and war? 'Cos when we stop and look around us, There is nothing that we need, In a world of persecution that is burning in its greed. Why do we never get an answer When we're knocking at the door Because the truth is hard to swallow That's what the war of love is for.

the truth is hard to swallow but it is the truth that sets you free and allows universal love for its eternity, beyond individual, materialistic reality... there is the war for love, perpetual, beyond time or singular, individuals' experience. This is shared, even for a moment, but it is hard to be in this awareness all the time... but it is a shared moment for those who have glimpsed the "truth"... it is nevertheless a struggle...

It's not the way that you say it When you say those things to me It's more the way that you mean it When you tell me what will be.

the "way" alleged, "caring" style of how things are said may be nearly obsolete, maybe a cliche... it is "more", not necessarily exactly, the way you mean it since it is a conversation between two souls, and that in this realm, it is not of this world but of a world to be, dreamed and perhaps realised...if possible... BUT: And when you stop and think about it You won't believe it's true -- if, out of the conversation, as a single person's hindsight, the dream is... well, ungrounded and void. the realm is a shared deal only available to two souls dwelling in the same shared awareness beyond logic and public/commonality...

That all the love you've been giving Has all been meant for you.

a mutual thing... an each other state... tha's luv...

I'm looking for someone to change my life, I'm looking for a miracle in my life, And if you could see what it's done to me, To lose the love I knew Could safely lead me through.

multiple interpretations open here, but one i may dwell on is that, having arrived at an understanding, with a sentient soul, the mission now is to radiate the "higher love" as a spreading of sharing that love to an otherwise, unfamiliar world... maybe... like grasping that truth, now is the thing that must be the device that reveals to more sentients that it is this war of love that must endure... blablabla let's move on...

To learn as we grow old, The secrets of our soul.

let's keep the line open and ponder what we, united have learned (not a break up song) time, immaterial... only aging...

Between the silence of the mountains, And the crashing of the sea, There lies a land I once lived in, And she's waiting there for me, But in the grey of the morning, My mind becomes confused, Between the dead and the sleeping, And the road that I must chose.

In solitary awareness is the open line for communion despite vast space time distance... with faith that she is there ... where "they" started... but waking alone, empirical reality is... a test for the mind and options are with those that may not respond and those that may wake up to... his voice... and the road continues to lead to that miracle he may find... you?

Hmm, a break-up song, eh? I never quite thought of it that way, but I can see how others might.

I think it's maybe a little different that that. I think it's about living in the real world (which is fast, hectic, sometimes violent, etc.) but WANTING to slow things down to appreciate the love of another. Possibly the song is about the search for that time/place (i.e. utopia) but never being able to find it.

Musically the song takes that same journey. Real life rushing by... finally some time for love (when the songs slows down).... then the hectic real life comes crashing back again.

Basically the whole Question of Balance Album is about how people rush through life too fast, forgetting to stop and smell the proverbial roses, forgetting to love. I don't see why this song should be any different.

Hayward said it's a Vietnam War protest song, similar to I'm Just A Singer (In A Rock And Roll Band). It's about the British government purposefully leaving the British people in ignorance about what was going on.

tl;dr it's a vietnam protest song.

Falling in love. I love this song. I listened to it a lot when I was planning my wedding--it relieves the stress of being in love.