The Moody Blues: Nights in White Satin Meaning

Song Released: 1967

Nights in White Satin Lyrics

Nights in white satin, never reaching the end,
Letters I've written, never meaning to send.
Beauty I'd always missed with these eyes before.
Just what the truth is, I can't say anymore.

'Cos I love you, yes I love you, oh how I love...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Sep 14th 2014 !⃝

   My personal take on this beautiful song, after loosing the love of my life.
   
   Remembering those luxurious nights of love making when you could not allow yourself to sleep for fear that these euphoric feelings of love would end.
   After the relationship does end, yet for one the love still remains, the poignant love letters are written but as the communication is no longer there the writer is reluctant to send them, fearful of ridicule or rejection.
   When one is in love the eyes are open wide to many beautiful sights and feelings. Sharing makes things even more beautiful.
   Seeing others in love, hand in hand, brings back the memories of what has been lost and the heart aches.
   Some try to explain their reasons for falling out of love, it is generally a self serving decision.
   Just what the truth is, I can't say anymore.
2. anonymous

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   Nov 13th 2021 !⃝

   About same sex lovers who have broken up due to conflicts of one person/religious reasons. Memories of their romantic nights on white satin sheets,they hoped would never end.
   Tribute to Moody Blues drummer who passed today. Thank you
   
   
   
   Now when the beloved sees couples hand in hand, visions of her lost love flood her memory.
   
   Some try to tell her, it's for the better - she was not ready while others say get a man.
   
   She writes letters some angry, others tearful that can never be sent.
   
   She really loved her.
   
   
3. flowingwater

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   May 15th 2021 !⃝

   To me I've always felt (maybe immediately upon first hearing it but I don't recall that exact time now) this is spiritual/mystical and pertains to Nirvana - or people with knowledge of Self. The first thing that strikes me is "nights in white satin" "never reaching the end". Eternal mind, divine consciousness, dark night of the soul illuminated (white satin). A new kind of Love is born that is unlike mortal & physical love, which, however we want it to be permanent, is temporal in the end. With the birth of Self knowledge one suddenly sees as a young lover does, everything has beauty, once missed - and every person is beautiful. And one knows that Self and everyone are connected. Hence when he writes "I Love You", in the verses he is variously or both referring to his new love for human beings, and his love for Creator Consciousness that Self is in Union with (I might interpret it that from a mortal Consciousness perspective we feel Admiration as if from the Angels of Consciousness. Christians and Buddhists and Hindus might all experience these kinds of moments of Grace. There are those Christians who form a category of "Gnostic Christians" who believed in the heretical literature. In our earthly habitat everything is heretical to spirit. If you are seeking to learn Truth and Love then anyone who calls you a heretic is really the heretic. With their inner demons they cower and lament their failures to purely understand, as if from the deepest night to the most satiny white. "Letters I've written, never meaning to send" expresses the profound realization that our intentions are our communion with the Divine. This is one of those songs that refer to that Higher Entity which people can argue about about the name of; not having had some semblance of Nirvana or Grace or some union experience with what you may call by some name, it isn't important what you try and call this Higher Entity. Once you experience the Truth there is no longer a need to place a physical name for what is infinitely Higher than physical reality. Honor and Integrity well up in one, and a feeling of coming Home; as one stays at peace with the new Truth, gradually there blooms a new ability to love others selflessly; that becomes nearly infinite with time; and to forgive oneself; and to have perfect humility without degrading the Higher Being within one. These sound like contradictions to those living in the flesh.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
4. anonymous

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   Feb 27th 2020 !⃝

   How about this one? A lonely Mormon missionary wearing his satin garments. Sworn to celibacy for two years, seeming to never reach the end. Seeing lovers hand in hand. Unable to defend his thoughts or religion, or others unable to defend theirs. Sending letters (reports) to leaders never really meaning to send? Just what the truth is ... I can’t say anymore! Such a sad interpretation
5. anonymous

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   Jan 19th 2020 !⃝

   Have you not noticed it is NIGHTS in white satin, not KNIGHTS? Its about white satin sheets on a bed and the nights spent in the bed with the white satin sheets. It has nothing to do with knights on horseback!
6. anonymous

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   Oct 13th 2018 !⃝

   The lyrics speak many volumes! My dad passed away when I was 7 years old. I knew enough to understand that he was gone but not know enough to process my separation from him! I got married when I was 23 years young, to a guy that I thought I loved. It was in the 1990’s and the then husband and groomsmen wore white tuccidos. I chose this song because of that, not delving into the meaning of this song. Now that I look back, this song was chosen by my dad, through me as his words to my mom and myself. Without the love My parents had for each other, I would not be here.
7. anonymous

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   Jan 15th 2018 !⃝

   A hookup and separation. Knights wear armor to guard against being hurt. They (the lovers) traded their armor for white satin -- he was left defenseless -- his heart pierced. He re-lives those nights over and over. Unrequited love story.
8. anonymous

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   Aug 23rd 2017 !⃝

   Yearning for higher love in the depths of love severed. Depth of understanding only meant for the true poets!
9. anonymous

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   Aug 6th 2017 !⃝

   The Knights in white satin toe refers to the purer self they speak then of the illusions of daily life. The I love you parts are referring to one's love for oneself in the higher planes or channels towards the divine self. Nirvana for some. The short poem st the end is saying how the illusions are with us every second of every waking g day and we choose how to see reality. Passing by the illusions and love for oneself as the spirit nears the divine.
10. anonymous

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    Apr 20th 2017 !⃝

    Yo! This song is about angels.... and it happens before it begins... Saint Puscifer
11. anonymous

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    Feb 22nd 2017 !⃝

    When the flesh dies you only take the good of your acts, so as to be naked or be clothed in white satin.
12. anonymous

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    Oct 17th 2016 !⃝

    It is about how the when you lose the person you love and how each night never seems to end the letters ive written part is trying to rekindle this but they did not send them someone else did.
13. anonymous

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    Aug 5th 2016 !⃝

    This song seems to be about a person who is in love with a person that he could never have
    He writes letters to this person but does not send
    The person that loves that
    One he sings about does not love him back nor ever will
    She is beautiful and he is and in pain knowing the fact of the way life has turned put.
14. anonymous

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    May 10th 2016 !⃝

    Cocaine?!?? What a crock! It's a love song, pain and simple.
15. anonymous

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    Jan 19th 2016 !⃝

    I believe this song about someone's love who died by suicide and they still
    love them but don't understand why..... it is the raw wanting of that love to come back but the knowledge that it never can.
    They remember all the nights of love. That love keeps living...... they dream of their loved one but they never know the truth of the taking of their life.....the why. the remembrance of love lost and peoples BS options of the why they did it. the way we take our loved ones for granted. standing and defending their loves death..... very hard excellent song
16. anonymous

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    Oct 15th 2015 !⃝

    Here is another possibility.
    It is a love song to, and,
    about, the self. The self
    as understood in advaita vedanta. (refer
    to the Brhadaranyka Upanishad and the commentary on it by Shankara)
    Remember the -Ride My SeeSaw ? Remember the
    prelude to the song ? This in itself reveals
    the writers mystical bent.
    Back to Knights in White Satin.
    Gazing at people, some hand
    in hand; just what I 'am going through;
    they can't understand. Some try to tell me;
    thoughts they cannot defend. Just what you
    want too be, you'll be in the end-- because I
    love you----Of course, this hint of explanation, could be elucidated further; yet
    I will leave that possibility up to those, who
    may be so inclined as to explore it.
    Of course, I may be entirely wrong on this.

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