Question The Moody Blues

Question Album: Question Of Balance (1970)
by The Moody Blues

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 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 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."

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."

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 a cover version on his 1995 LP Songs From The Mirror.

Col. Kurtz from Apocalypse Now was hiding in the Golden Triangle... look how far leadership like Lindsey Graham, Nikki Haley, Joe Biden and Donald Trump who also famously uses Casinos as part of the "Family" Business.

Zhao Wei (Chinese: 赵伟; pinyin: Zhào Wěi) is a Chinese businessman and the founder of Hong Kong registered company Kings Romans Group (formed in 2007), which owns the Kings Romans casino franchise. The United States Treasury Department imposed sanctions on what they designated the Zhao Wei Transnational Criminal Organization (Zhao Wei TCO) in 2018 for its alleged involvement in laundering money and assisting in the storage and distribution of heroin, methamphetamine, and other narcotics for illicit networks, including the United Wa State Army which operates in Myanmar. Based in Laos in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (GTSEZ), Zhao Wei is also reported to engage in human trafficking, bribery, wildlife trafficking, and other forms of transnational organized crime. Much of this illicit activity is allegedly conducted through the Kings Romans casino organisation in the GTSEZ.

Soon after the travel ban was imposed, Zhao was invited by the government of Laos to invest in Bokeo Province. In 2007, Zhao negotiated and struck a 99-year lease to establish and operate the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in the same province. In early October 2020, a US$50 million dollar investment to build a port in the Laotian town of Ban Mom, directly north of the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone, was made by Osiano Trading Sole Co., a partner or front company of Zhao Wei and his organization. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has raised concerns about Laos being used by organized crime to traffic drugs, precursor chemicals, and other illicit commodities, and that the purchase of the Ban Mom port is representative of organized crime infiltrating infrastructure in the region. The Ban Mom port is on a remote stretch of the Mekong which has been confirmed as a smuggling route for trafficking drugs and precursor chemicals into and out of the Golden Triangle.

The Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone is located along the Mekong River in the Golden Triangle area where Laos, Myanmar and Thailand meet.  The zone is midway (20.361150, 100.099807) between Houay Xay, the capital of Laos' Bokeo Province, and Tachileik, Myanmar. The Thai village of Ban Sop Ruak near Chiang Saen town, Chiang Rai Province lies directly across the Mekong River from the zone.