I never tire of thinking about the music of Spring and Summer of 1986. The Outfield was singing about Josey being on a vacation far away.  The Bangles were singing about a Manic Monday.  All Mike and the Mechanics needed was a Miracle. Bob Seger was in the midst of an American Storm.  And one song, well, one song made this senior in high school at the time look as though he was on to something after all.

The story is worn about me happening on the cassette of The Moody Blues landmark album Days of Future Passed on my 15th birthday in 1983.  I took it home and that was that.  This was my Ed Sullivan moment.  On a musical island in Southern Indiana, I listened to every Moodies album I could get my hands on.  That was an easier thing to do in 1986.  The album was called The Other Side of Life.  Released on April 9th that year, The Moody Blues were on the charts again.

The single that was a top ten hit 37 years ago this week was a tune called Your Wildest Dreams written by Justin Hayward.

This signed vinyl promo copy still sounds pretty darn good.

Thank you, Moody Blues.  Heads were nodding and toes were tapping to a song that made folks around me ask, “Isn’t that the band you always listen to?”   That was more than enough.

Looking at the calendar, looking at my head full of white hair, listening to a song that hasn’t changed.  I think that is what music gives us.  I know Justin Hayward of The Moodies and now a great solo artist says there is something special about hanging on to the music of your youth.  I hear exactly that today, listening to this song with purpose this many years on.

The first Moody Blues concert I attended was in 1986.  When they walked across the stage my simple 18 year-old mind was thinking I was glad I got there when I did.  These guys look old.  The Days of Future Passed thing is nearly 20 years old is what I told myself.  I wasn’t alone.

Steve Wine wrote an album review of The Other Side of Life for the Associated Press in 1986.  A couple lines from Steve were “Kids are buying records by men who look like their grandfathers-check out gray-haired drummer Graeme Edge on the jacket of The Other Side of Life (Polydor), which has climber the charts as rapidly as any album the Moody Blues have released in their 21-year career.”

Steve’s last line said, “Grandparents never sounded so good.”  To Justin Hayward’s defense, he was only 39 when the album was released.

I got there in 1986 and heard that radio hit of a song Your Wildest Dreams live. The wild dream joke was on me.  I didn’t get there just in time like that teenager thought.  The music may have been great in the 80s.  That did not mean it made us very smart or forgiving at the time.

In the end, I was fortunate enough to witness nearly 60 Moody Blues concerts from 1986 to 2017.  Last year I heard Justin Hayward sing this song once again during one of his shows.

I’m not the only one who subscribes to the hanging on to the music of one’s youth philosophy.

A few days ago I was at my parents’ house and we were listening to these long players.  Pat Boone sounded great too.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson