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Blowin’ in the Wind: A Breezy Playlist
I will leave the debate over various renditions of Dylan’s 1962 song to others, assuming someone chooses to take it up or the days fill with other riffs on the theme. Kick back and enjoy a short playlist organized around the theme “blowin’ in the wind.”
The Association leads off with their 1967 joyous harmonizing in “Everyone Knows its Windy.”
I’ll take Gladys Knight & The Pips version of “Hero (Wind Beneath My Wings)” over Bette Midler’s:
In this difficult year, in the struggle for the survival of America as presently constituted, it is appropriate to reflect back to the fall of the Soviet empire. The German band Scorpions provide the soundtrack with some good harmonizing on “Wind of Change:”
If the wind is blowing, there might be some “Stormy Weather,” and Lena Horne has owned that song since she first sang it on screen in Stormy Weather, released by Twentieth Century-Fox in 1943.
And, if the wind is blowing, the “Windmills of Your Mind” will be circling. This song, first recorded by Noel Harrison in 1968 as the theme song on the 1968 Steve McQueen, Faye Dunaway film The Thomas Crown Affair. The song, played in the movie during a sequence of a bright yellow glider flying, won the 1969 Oscar for best original song in a film.
We will close out with Peter, Paul and Mary’s sweet harmonies in their 1963 recording of “Blowin’ in the Wind.” It was recorded at the height of the Civil Rights movement and before the Vietnam War became part of America’s political landscape.
Enjoy, and add your own favorites in the comment section.
Published in Group Writing
This post is part of our Group Writing Series under the March 2021 theme: “Blowin’ in the Wind.” Stop by and sign up soon. Interested in Group Writing topics that came before? See the handy compendium of monthly themes. Check out links in the Group Writing Group. You can also join the group to get a notification when a new monthly theme is posted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2B2nT6pfSE
There was a very interesting podcast series about the Scorpions’ Wind of Change, and whether it was actually written/ produced by the CIA to help push the Soviet Union over the cliff. The podcast was put together by a couple of journalists who tried to investigate that claim.
I won’t give away the ending but they talk to former spies and people in the music business and even interview the lead singer of the Scorpions and directly ask him about it. It’s really fascinating, even apart from the main question they are trying to answer. Apparently a lot of left-leaning, communist sympathizing musicians and artists were used in CIA operations, sometimes with fake, or at least CIA-backed, charity outreach organizations. They had no idea they were helping fight the cold war.
They Call the Wind Mariah.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByqYEzugleE
Great selections @Clifford A. Brown. I’m looking forward to everyone else’s input. Wow The Association’s Windy and
Windmills in Your Mind take me back. I like Blowin’ in the Wind but still think PP & M are commies and never changed no matter how much evidence of commie perfidy there was. Thanks.
Sometimes you just cannot top Frank Sinatra. It always amazes me how you can understand every word.
What an awesome collection of songs, Clifford! Love ’em. Thanks!
Two tunes:
Donald Fagen on his exceptional solo album “The Nightfly” with the NBC/Letterman show band on the final album cut, “Walk Between the Raindrops”
Also the title song done without the dancing by Jamie Cullum, “Singin’ in the Rain”
This guy is one of the best live performers I have ever seen.
The link was a bit glitchy. Here is your song directly:
Always a pleasure, especially priming the pump for the variety of songs offered in the comments.
CIA agents/dupes? I’ll have to look that one up. I’m inclined to discount any claim leaked out of the CIA, given their abject failures, time after time, from the days that President Eisenhower said the agency had a “Legacy of Ashes.” Now, if it was a BDN (German Federal Intelligence Service) claim then maybe.
So, do you prefer another version of Bob Dylan’s song?
I am putting Paint Your Wagon on my watchlist.
Here is the glider flight with “Windmills of Your Mind.” Steve McQueen was not yet qualified on the glider, so the stunt sequence was performed by a glider instructor.
Windy songs? How about some wind breaking?
Although it has no wind, there are some seasons in the sun:
Its a pretty depressing song, about a childhood friend who died of Leukemia, his father… and Finally a good bye to his daughter on his own death bed…A downer of a song.
Loved the music so much that I bought two albums, one to listen to and one for later, when the first one got too scratched. Never needed the second one…CDs came out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dincIjE64pw
And the classic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTymtAbaG08
And then there is breaking wind but that’s a totally different playlist.
And, of course, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV1f06Vlfhk
Dang, YouTube. Every time I go there, I spend up to an hour listening to the offerings in the margin. Ok. I am done now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjA92MAF880
Blazing Saddles.
Thanks, I can never get the videos to embed. I follow the instructions in the help section, but it never seems to work.
I always thought that if they used enough 🌶 those saddles really might be blazing.