"Visions of Paradise" is a 1968 song by the

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

band

the Moody Blues The Moody Blues were an English rock band formed in Birmingham in May 1964. The band initially consisted of Graeme Edge (drums), Denny Laine (guitar/vocals), Mike Pinder (keyboards/vocals), Ray Thomas (multi-instrumentalist/vocals) and Clint W ...

. First released on their album ''

In Search of the Lost Chord ''In Search of the Lost Chord'' is the third album by the Moody Blues, released in July 1968 on the Deram label. Background The success of the band's previous record, '' Days of Future Passed'', allowed the group additional studio time and cr ...

'', it was written jointly by band members

Justin Hayward David Justin Hayward (born 14 October 1946) is an English musician. He was the guitarist and frontman of the rock band the Moody Blues from 1966 until its dissolution in 2018. He became the group's principal vocalist and its most prolific son ...

and

Ray Thomas Raymond Thomas (29 December 1941 – 4 January 2018) was an English musician, singer and songwriter. He was best known as a founding member of the English progressive rock band the Moody Blues. His flute solo on the band's 1967 hit single " Ni ...

, and was the first of many collaborations between them. The song is primarily led by Justin Hayward's voice and Ray Thomas's flute, with the lyrics describing the writer's perception of

paradise In religion and folklore, paradise is a place of everlasting happiness, delight, and bliss. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical, eschatological, or both, often contrasted with the miseries of human ...

. The song has been described as ".. little else than Thomas’s flute riff and Hayward’s softly picked acoustic. Apparently resuming the drug-trip theme, this song may be even further "out there" than "The Best Way to Travel" with a surreal perception of paradise." Regarding the song, Hayward has explained:

You have to start with the
Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which causes a length of magnetic tape to contact a Capstan (tape recorder), capstan, which pulls i ...
that
Mike Pinder Michael Thomas Pinder (27 December 1941 – 24 April 2024) was an English rock musician. He was a founding member and the original keyboard player of the rock group the Moody Blues. He left the group following the recording of the band's nint ...
was playing. The way he got that sound was by bouncing between machines. We were only on 4-track machines, going up to 8-track for ''Lost Chord'', so he would bounce the whole thing across many times to get that layered sound. That would be very time consuming for him and
Derek Varnals George Derek Varnals (24 July 1935 – 9 September 2019) was a South African cricketer who played in three Test matches in the 1964–65 season. The South African cricket commentator Charles Fortune described him as "a compact and correct pla ...
, the engineer. They would work on it together. Meanwhile, other guys were writing in the studio going mitates a high-pitched, wavering Mellotronthrough a progression of chords. So Ray and I found this broom cupboard that was attached to the studio. I'd go there with my acoustic guitar and flute, and we would write those things. It had a sound-proofed door so that the cleaners didn't disturb us. It also had an entrance from the corridor that was also sound-proofed. It was a sealed little place. Everything that we wrote together – including "Visions of Paradise" – all of those things were written there.

In 2008 the band issued a "instrumental sitar mix" of the track as a bonus on their 2008 CD remastered reissue.

Personnel

– lead vocals, 6 and 12-string acoustic guitars,

sitar The sitar ( or ; ) is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form in 19th-century India. Khusrau K ...

* John Lodge – bass guitar,

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

Mike Pinder Michael Thomas Pinder (27 December 1941 – 24 April 2024) was an English rock musician. He was a founding member and the original keyboard player of the rock group the Moody Blues. He left the group following the recording of the band's nint ...

–

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which causes a length of magnetic tape to contact a Capstan (tape recorder), capstan, which pulls i ...

, tambura *

–

alto flute The alto flute is an instrument in the Western concert flute family, pitched below the standard C flute and the uncommon flûte d'amour. It is the third most common member of its family after the standard C flute and the piccolo. It is chara ...

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double-reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common type of oboe, the soprano oboe pitched in C, ...

Graeme Edge Graeme Charles Edge (30 March 1941 – 11 November 2021) was an English musician, songwriter and poet, best known as the co-founder and drummer of the English band the Moody Blues. In addition to his work with the Moody Blues, Edge worked as th ...

– percussion

References

External links

* {{Authority control The Moody Blues songs 1968 songs Songs written by Justin Hayward Songs written by Ray Thomas Song recordings produced by Tony Clarke