The Moody Blues: Question Meaning

Song Released: 1970

Question Lyrics

Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door?
With a thousand million questions
About hate and death and war.

It's where we stop and look around us
There is nothing that we need.
In a world of persecution
That is burning in it's...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   mathiemi

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Sep 23rd 2009 !⃝

   There is so much meaning in song "Question" by The Moody Blues, that its almost like two songs squished together. In the first and faster part of the song I think he is talking about the moral and political hypocrisy of our social system. " Why do we never get an answer when we're knocking at the door"-is asking why authority figures tell us what to do, but when we "knock" on the door and ask why they never answer.What the song is trying to convey is that they teach us morals but won't hesitate to blow somebody's head off if it means making money-"...in a world of persecution that is burning in its greed". "...the truth is hard to swallow that's what the war of love is for"-Overall this part of the song is a protest song,the shoving of the truth down the metaphorical throat.
   Suddenly the song gets personal,Ive always pictured a camera zooming in on his life. This second, slower part of the song is about love lost in the confusion of life. "...all the love you've been giving has all been meant for you"-I think this is the sudden realization that you've been giving all of this love away but never receiving any. He's sad,he's longing for a change or a miracle because he realizes that love wasn't what he thought it was.The woman he loves feels so far away that it was like a different "land" or lifetime that he knew her."...my mind becomes confused between the dead, and the sleeping, and the road that I must choose"-he's confused as to whether the love he knew is dead or just sleeping and where to go from there.
2. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Nov 26th 2019 !⃝

   The miracle is Jesus Christ.
   Great song!
   
   "I'm looking for someone to change my life
   I'm looking for a miracle in my life
   And if you could see what it's done to me
   To lose the love I knew
   Could safely lead me through"

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
3. Nautilus

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jun 23rd 2018 !⃝

   When this song was released, the lyrics were not printed on the album. Whoever decided to publish the lyrics later got it wrong, so most of the comments completely missed the most important point of the song. The line in the 3rd stanza should be “That’s what the wall of love is for.” When someone is knocking on a door, that door is in a wall, not in a war. Whoever was listening to the song to get the lyrics was brain dead at the time.
   And in the 5th stanza, there are no hidden metaphors or meanings. It means exactly what it says.
   
   “And when you stop and think about it,
   You won't believe it's true.
   That all the love you've been giving,
   Has all been meant for you.”
   
   The love you are giving to another person is the same as the love you would like to be receiving from that person. But so often that is not what you are getting. And if you can get back to the point where you had no expectations or demands in return for your love, and lose all selfishness, you can be happy again. You will find that in a sense what you are doing is giving love to yourself. And if he can get back to that place there would be no disappointment or hurt feelings, so that is the place he is trying to get back to.
4. anonymous

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jan 16th 2018 !⃝

   I used to think this song was about lost love, that is, material love for a woman(or a man in a women's case)mixed in with different life paradoxes, as they relate to the overall subject of aforementioned love....but the older I get, the more I learn about the world, the truth, and spirituality, I'm convinced that it is about GOD.
5. soulcoaxer

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3
   • 4
   • 5

   click a star to vote

   Jun 13th 2011 !⃝

   Stanza one represents man’s age-old frustrations in seeking knowledge on a myriad of life’s true meanings, especially as they relate to, “hate and death and war.” The line, “When we're knocking at the door?”, is a clever reference to Matthew 7:7 (Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you…)
   
   Stanza two confirms what we all know instinctively: When we inventory the important aspects of our lives, excluding personal possessions, we have no needs. HE provides what we need, but not always what we desire. However, all too often in the here and now we are persecuted by both others, and by our own actions, due primarily to greed.
   
   Stanza four and five are contiguous, and both express a lament over the lost love we shall not learn about until it is revealed in a line in Stanza six, “To lose the love I knew…” Continuing with stanza four and five, the first person expresses doubts about the second person, which is a newly found companion that the first person desperately hoped would help him with his desperation, agony and despair he experiences because of his lost love. These two stanzas summarize that he has learned and regrets that the love the new companion has been giving was only meant for her, and not for him.
   
   Stanza six expresses the essence of the story wherein he is seeking a companion to ease the pain of lost love, a miracle of sorts, someone to lead him through it: “I'm looking for someone to change my life. I'm looking for a miracle in my life. And if you could see what it's done to me to lose the love I knew, could safely lead me through”.
   
   Stanza seven is a metaphor that conjures his lost love, “Between the silence of the mountains, and the crashing of the sea, there lies a land I once lived in, and she's waiting there for me.” He contends that she still lives on, is in a land that he is unable to reach currently, but she awaits his arrival.
   
   Stanza eight expresses his thoughts, after he first considers the thoughts he expressed in stanza seven, and he concludes he is confused about the living and the dead (fearful to mention dead, and employs the word “sleeping” in its stead), and knows he must make the correct choice for his future: “But in the grey of the morning my mind becomes confused, between the dead and the sleeping, and the road that I must choose.”
   
   Stanza nine repeats his desire to find a worthy love to lead him through the pain, and implores that if one could see what he in going through they would have compassion. But he then materially changes that desire metaphorically from “lead him through” to “lead him to” that land he once knew (To a love as perfect as he once experienced): “I'm looking for someone to change my life. I'm looking for a miracle in my life. And if you could see what it's done to me, to lose the love I knew, could safely lead me to the land that I once knew. He completes this stanza by exclaiming what many happy fulfilled couples know is ultimately the true joy of a harmonious love relationship, “To learn as we grow old, the secrets of our souls.” After all, we were placed here to experience the multitude of joys and tribulations to perfect our souls, and how much more enjoyable that worthy endeavor is between two persons who love one another equally, and in all ways.

Latest Articles

• 
  A new era for Millennial favorite, Linkin Park
• 
  Anime to watch for the soundtracks… and other reasons you’re undateable
• 
  Dolly, we need you
• 
  The Stranger Things Effect: How new media is drawing Gen Z and Alpha's attention to aging media
• 
  The most underrated soundtrack of the early 2000s
• 
  Buy the Soundtrack, Skip the Movie: Brainscan (1994)