Yesterday we went for lunch on the platform of our local station. They have turned the main building into a restaurant and serve very passable meals. Unfortunately although the sun was shining there was a strong wind and keeping the tablecloth etc in place poved interesting. It brought to mind the effect the wind can hve on us. So today some songs about wind.
“They Call the Wind Maria” is an American popular song with lyrics written by Alan Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe for their 1951 musical ‘Paint Your Wagon’, which is set in the California Gold Rush. Rufus Smith originally sang the song on Broadway. It quickly became a runaway hit, and during the Korean War, the song was among the “popular music listened to by the troops” and it was among the “popular hit singles at the record stores” that year. It has since become a standard, performed by many notable singers across several genres of popular music. A striking feature of the song in the original orchestration (also used in many cover versions), is a driving, staccato rhythm, played on the string instruments, that evokes a sense of restless motion.
“Blowin’ in the Wind” is a song written by Bob Dylan in 1962. It was released as a single and included on his album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan in 1963. It has been described as a protest song and poses a series of rhetorical questions about peace, war, and freedom. The refrain “The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind” has been described as “impenetrably ambiguous: either the answer is so obvious it is right in your face, or the answer is as intangible as the wind”. In 1994, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2004, it was ranked number 14 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
“The Wind Cries Mary” is a ballad written by Jimi Hendrix. According to his then girlfriend, Kathy Etchinghams, account, he wrote the lyrics after an argument with her, using “Mary” (Etchingham’s middle name). In a later interview, Hendrix commented that the lyrics represent “more than one person”. The single, backed by “Highway Chile”, was released in the UK in May 1967 and reached number six in the UK. In the United States, the song was first released as the b-side of Purple Haze” in June 1967. It was later included on the American Are You Experienced album, released in August 1967.
“I Talk to the Wind” is the second track from the British band King Crimson’s debut album, In the Court of the Crimson KIng. Starting immediately after the cacophony that ends “21st Century Schzoid Man, the mood of this song is a stark contrast; it is serene, simple and peaceful. Ian McDonald’s flute begins the song, and is one of the lead instruments throughout. He also plays a classical-inspired solo in the middle of the song as a “C” section and a longer one at the end as a coda.
“Winter Winds” is a track from Fotheringay is the self-titled album by the group formed by Sandy Denny after she left Fairport Convention in 1969, and was the group’s only contemporaneous release. It was recorded in 1970 with former Eclection member and Denny’s future husband Trevor Lucas, with Gerry Conway, Jerry Donahue and Pat Donaldson. Winter Winds is one of five Sandy Denny compositions include on the album.
“Wind Words” is the last track on the album Freedom Is Frightening (1973) by the Japanese percussionist, keyboardist and composer Stomu Yamash’ta and his band East Wind. It was recorded in August 1973 at Advision Studios (Gary Martin, engineer).
“Wind of Change” is a song by German band Scorpions, recorded for their eleventh studio album Crazy World (1990). It was composed and written by the band’s lead singer Klaus Meine. The lyrics were composed by Meine following the band’s visit to the Soviet Union at the height of perestroika, when the enmity between the communist and capitalist blocs subsided concurrently with the promulgation of large-scale socioeconomic reforms in the Soviet Union. “Wind of Change” was released as the album’s third single in January 1991 and became a worldwide hit, just after the failed coup that would eventually lead to the end of the Soviet Union. The song topped the charts in Germany and across Europe and peaked at number four in the United States and at number two in the United Kingdom.
