On the Threshold of a Dream

Background

The album was recorded in January 1969 after concluding the group's first tour of North America. Released in April 1969, nine months after its predecessor, In Search of the Lost Chord and seven months before its successor, To Our Children's Children's Children, the album marked a busy time of rapid creative output from the band. Guitarist Justin Hayward remembers, "We were on a fast train in the '60s with our heads down, plowing away at this stuff, never really doing that much on the road. Just going back in the studio and moving forward."

Writing

Like its predecessors, On the Threshold of a Dream is a concept album, but carries a looser theme than Days of Future Passed and In Search of the Lost Chord. The album's title reflects the hopes of the flower power zeitgeist and Woodstock free-love era, and the hope that society was on the cusp of a new era of consciousness, a new enlightenment. The title was coined by Mike Pinder in conversation with his friend and BBC presenter David Symonds. Pinder remembers, "About halfway through making the album, when we were kicking some titles around, I remember talking about how here we are, we'd just come through '67 in kaftans; everybody was out in the street and it was a fun time, and flower power and all that kind of thing. So, we were thinking, 'Hey, we're on the brink of a new consciousness, a new way of looking at things.' And so we were talking about that, and it was like we were 'on the verge of a human dream, a dream of humanity', and Dave said 'threshold', and I came up with 'of a dream', and it was like perfect." Guitarist Justin Hayward continues, "We probably were [taking ourselves too seriously]. But quite rightly. To do what we were doing we had to believe in it. It was from the heart. But at the time we got the reputation for that. I felt I was speaking for a lot of other people in the late '60s. I wanted to write about our search for enlightenment, as simple as that. I'm still kind of doing it."

Bassist John Lodge remembers the band's creative process, how each member would bring ideas to the group related to the album's theme, and then work on the songs together as they produced the album: "Collectively we all had the same subject. But because we were all different people and we all played different things and would sound differently, every song was different even though the subject was the same." He continues, "When we came into the studio, we had a coffee table; we used to sit around there and talk about a song. If I had written a song I wanted on the album, I played it to the rest of the guys when we sat around that table, and everyone around that table would put their interpretation into that song. As soon as you played the song to the rest of the guys, it really became a Moody Blues song. You had total faith in the rest of the guys that they were going to be as creative as they can be in making that song work to its highest degree."

The album begins with a spoken word introduction inspired by René Descartes's philosophical argument Cogito, ergo sum, where the narrator questions and then confirms his own existence, and then questions the meaning of his existence. Written by drummer Graeme Edge, keyboardist Mike Pinder remembers the introduction's production being a collaborative effort among the group's members. "In the Beginning" features three characters, listed as "First Man", "Establishment" and "Inner Man" in the printed lyrics provided in the album gate-fold sleeve. Hayward takes the role of a slightly bemused lone person who confirms his own existence. Edge, a mocking establishment figure, confirms the first man's existence, but insists his purpose is to be a cog in a corporate machine. The first man sheepishly asserts that he thinks his existence is about more than that, finding encouragement from his "Inner Man, spoken by Pinder, who tells him to "keep cool" and "keep thinking free."

Recording

The album was recorded from 12 to 31 January 1969, once again at Decca's Studio One at their West Hampstead studio with producer Tony Clarke and engineer Derek Varnals, employing the studio's newly installed Sculley 8 track recording equipment. Final mixing on the album was completed on 3 and 4 February. The sessions typically ran from the afternoon until well into the night, with the creative team sequestering themselves inside of the studio. Producer Tony Clarke remembers, "We brought in carpets and lamps and ashtrays and recorded in the dark. It had to be comfortable and cozy. The sessions tended to go from midday until midnight."

Justin Hayward remembers, "It was certainly a time for me when I was sort of searching and seeking different religions, psychedelic experiences; it was a real time of discovery for me as a young man. So, I was getting stoned a lot and going deeper into music and things. I certainly saw it as a real chance at musical freedom on this record...a way to express the sort of searching, seeking things that we were doing in our lives."

Drummer Graeme Edge remembers the creative environment: "The album was our one where we actually concentrated on recording and weren't rushing off to do gigs here and there. As we'd just come off tour the music we created combined the knowledge of studio techniques that we had acquired recording In Search of the Lost Chord together with the craft we had learnt through performing on stage every night. That may explain the presence of On The Threshold Of A Dream of more instrumental parts."

The opening "In the Beginning" in particular offered much opportunity for the group plus Clarke and Varnals to express their studio creativity. The album begins and ends with "the sound of everything but also of nothing", created by producing high and low frequencies on the Mellotron combined with "pink noise": Varnals explains, "We chose the pitch and put lots of reverb on it to make it sound everywhere and nowhere, if you like. It worked and seemed quite atmospheric." To back up Graeme Edge's maniacal establishment-computer voice during the spoken section, the group placed everyone's ticking wristwatches and placed them inside a funnel with a microphone. The sound was combined with the sound of the clanking rotating spindle that made up the internal mechanics of a Mellotron. The overall effect intended to mimic machinery and the vibes a mad professor bent on domination.

Album cover

The album cover, like its predecessor, is designed by Phil Travers. For the first time, the album incorporates a gate-fold sleeve allowing a larger canvas for album artwork. The band would repeat this practice on their next several albums. Flautist Ray Thomas remembers negotiating with their record label, Decca, over the additional cost: "They were concerned that it would increase the cost of the sleeve by 2 pence an album. We were originally told by the head of production that if the album was as good as we said it was, it could be housed in a brown paper bag! Eventually, after a great deal of protest we managed to get our way." The additional space allowed for inclusion, for the first time, the album's lyrics, as well as an essay by composer Lionel Bart.

The imagery on the cover features "a metallic, robot-type entity clutching different, various life forms and squeezing tight representing freedom of thought and expression and creativity", explains Mike Pinder, as well as an image of Merlin casting a spell, Camelot, and a fleet of golden galleons on a crystal sea, images inspired by the lyrics to "Are You Sitting Comfortably". Bassist John Lodge recalls, "We would get our graphic artist, Phil Travers, in to the studio to listen to each track as it was completed. We also gave him the lyrics in order for him to get further ideas. Phil would then sketch out various rough sleeve designs and we would all sit around a coffee table and discuss what we wanted. We all felt that both the music and the album sleeve design had to be part of one special package and had to be right".

Release

On the Threshold of a Dream was released on 25 April 1969 in the UK and 30 May 1969 in the US. On the Threshold of a Dream provided the Moody Blues with their first British number-one album, and also boosted their American fortunes by becoming their first top-20 album there. It proved to be one of the group's more enduring records in the US, staying in the Billboard LPs chart for more than two and a half years.

The album, along with the subsequent To Our Children's Children's Children, was among the tapes carried by Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden to the moon.

In March 2006 the album was completely remastered into SACD format and repackaged with nine extra tracks. In 2008 a remaster for standard audio CD was issued with the same bonus tracks.

Personnel

Justin Hayward – vocals, guitars, cello, Mellotron (7)

John Lodge – vocals, bass guitar, cello, double bass

Ray Thomas – vocals, harmonica, flute, tambourine, oboe, piccolo, EMS VCS 3

Graeme Edge – drums, percussion, vocals, EMS VCS 3

Mike Pinder – vocals, Mellotron, Hammond organ, piano, acoustic guitar, cello

Additional personnel

Pete Jackson – triangle

Tony Clarke – producer

Derek Varnals – recording engineer

Adrian Martins – assistant engineer

Phil Travers – cover painting

David Wedgbury – inside front cover photographs

Terence Ibbott – inside back cover photographs

Lionel Bart, David Symonds – sleeve notes