I'm Just A Singer (In A Rock And Roll Band)

Album

Seventh Sojourn

Label

Threshold Records

Genre

Progressive Rock

Composer(s)

JOHN CHARLES LODGE

Entered Chart

Feb 3, 1973

Peak Date

Mar 17, 1973

Released

19 January 1973

Recorded

3 August 1972

Catalog #

Threshold 67012

B-Side

For My Lady

Moody Blues bass player John Lodge wrote this song. It deals with how, at the time, some people looked to rock stars for answers to the world's problems. His response is contained in this song: he had no answers. John Lennon expressed similar sentiments when he was in The Beatles. "Glass Onion" is a good example. Various events in society and politics informed the lyrics. The "riots by the people for the people" are about riots that were spreading around Europe, and the "person who is frightened by the people who are scorching this earth" is the terrified young girl in a famous photo running in the street after being burned by Napalm during the Vietnam War. The Moody Blues formed in 1964 and landed a UK #1 hit with their debut single, "Go Now," that same year. By the time they went to work on their 1972 album Seventh Sojourn, they were really famous, and it got overwhelming. "When we started there was just five of us and a roadie, and by the time Seventh Sojourn came around we had our own touring company, our own publishing company, a string of record shops, and we had lots of people working for us," John Lodge told Songwriting magazine. After returning from a tour, Lodge came home to find a group of fans camped in his garden, awaiting him like he was some kind of guru. He had no interest in being a messiah, so he wrote this song to make his position clear. This song has loads of energy, with four of the five band members singing all the way through (drummer Graeme Edge is the odd man out). By ganging up the vocals, producer Tony Clarke could mix the music loud and make it feel like the band was shouting to be heard. The music for the song was written first, with Lodge instigating with a bass riff. Justin Hayward added guitar, and Mike Pinder played a Chamberlin, which is an organ-like electric keyboard. Lodge added the lyrics once the track was composed. "I'm Just A Singer (In A Rock And Roll Band)" was the follow-up single to the re-release of "Nights in White Satin," a song first issued in 1967 that found a wider audience in 1972. In America, "Satin" climbed all the way to #2, paving the way for "I'm Just A Singer."

I'm just a wandering on the face of this earth
Meeting so many people
Who are trying to be free
And while I'm traveling I hear so many words

Language barriers broken
Now we've found the key
And if you want the wind of change
To blow about you
And you're the only other person to know, don't tell me
I'm just a singer in a rock and roll band

A thousand pictures can be drawn from one word
Only who is the artist
We got to agree
A thousand miles can lead so many ways

Just to know who is driving
What a help it would be
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

How can we understand
Riots by the people for the people
Who are only destroying themselves
And when you see a frightened
Person who is frightened by the
People who are scorching this earth

I'm just a wandering on the face of this earth
Meeting so many people
Who are trying to be free
And while I'm traveling I hear so many words

Language barriers broken
Now we've found the key
And if you want the wind of change
To blow about you
And you're the only other person to know, don't tell me
I'm just a singer in a rock and roll band

How can we understand
Riots by the people for the people
Who are only destroying themselves
And when you see a frightened
Person who is frightened by the
People who are scorching this earth

Music is the traveler crossing our world
Meeting so many people bridging the seas
I'm just a singer in a rock and roll band.
We're just the singers in a rock and roll band
I'm just a singer in a rock and roll band...