Moody Blues bass player John Lodge wrote this song. It deals with how, at the time, some people looked to rock stars for answers to the world's problems. His response is contained in this song: he had no answers. John Lennon expressed similar sentiments when he was in The Beatles. "Glass Onion" is a good example.
Various events in society and politics informed the lyrics. The "riots by the people for the people" are about riots that were spreading around Europe, and the "person who is frightened by the people who are scorching this earth" is the terrified young girl in a famous photo running in the street after being burned by Napalm during the Vietnam War.
The Moody Blues formed in 1964 and landed a UK #1 hit with their debut single, "Go Now," that same year. By the time they went to work on their 1972 album Seventh Sojourn, they were really famous, and it got overwhelming. "When we started there was just five of us and a roadie, and by the time Seventh Sojourn came around we had our own touring company, our own publishing company, a string of record shops, and we had lots of people working for us," John Lodge told Songwriting magazine. After returning from a tour, Lodge came home to find a group of fans camped in his garden, awaiting him like he was some kind of guru. He had no interest in being a messiah, so he wrote this song to make his position clear.
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