The Present is the eleventh studio album by The Moody Blues, released in 1983. It is the second album of the Patrick Moraz era. It had three minor hit singles, "Blue World" (#62), "Sitting at the Wheel" (#27) and "Running Water". The album itself features strong compositions, but with a track order designed to capitalise on the legacy of the more successful Long Distance Voyager, with Justin Hayward's songs at the beginning and Ray Thomas' as finales.
The Present also became, in 1983, the first compact disc manufactured worldwide. In November 2008, the album was remastered and released on CD with two extra tracks.
The cover is a pastiche of Maxfield Parrish's famous painting Daybreak, with some subtle details: The crossed arms of the standing child is said to symbolise the Roman numeral "X", this being the Moody Blues' tenth album (with Lodge and Hayward).
Read more about The Present: Charts
Famous quotes containing the words the present and/or present:
“The past is interesting not only for the beauty which the artists for whom it was the present were able to extract from it, but also as past, for its historical value. The same goes for the present. The pleasure which we derive from the representation of the present is due not only to the beauty in which it may be clothed, but also from its essential quality of being present.”
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)
“It is sadder to find the past again and find it inadequate to the present than it is to have it elude you and remain forever a harmonious conception of memory.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)