Blowin’ in the Wind: A Breezy Playlist

 

Umbrella Blowin' in the WindI 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.

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  1. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    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.

    • #1
  2. Rodin Member
    Rodin
    @Rodin

    • #2
  3. MWD B612 "Dawg" Member
    MWD B612 "Dawg"
    @danok1

     

    • #3
  4. OldPhil Coolidge
    OldPhil
    @OldPhil

    See the source image

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2B2nT6pfSE

    • #4
  5. Eustace C. Scrubb Member
    Eustace C. Scrubb
    @EustaceCScrubb

    • #5
  6. Eustace C. Scrubb Member
    Eustace C. Scrubb
    @EustaceCScrubb

    • #6
  7. D.A. Venters Inactive
    D.A. Venters
    @DAVenters

    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. 

     

     

    • #7
  8. EHerring Coolidge
    EHerring
    @EHerring

    They Call the Wind Mariah. 
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByqYEzugleE

    • #8
  9. colleenb Member
    colleenb
    @colleenb

    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.

    • #9
  10. colleenb Member
    colleenb
    @colleenb

    Rodin (View Comment):

    Sometimes you just cannot top Frank Sinatra. It always amazes me how you can understand every word.

    • #10
  11. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

    What an awesome collection of songs, Clifford! Love ’em. Thanks!

    • #11
  12. Allan Rutter Member
    Allan Rutter
    @AllanRutter

    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”

    • #12
  13. Dotorimuk Coolidge
    Dotorimuk
    @Dotorimuk

    This guy is one of the best live performers I have ever seen.

     

    • #13
  14. Miffed White Male Member
    Miffed White Male
    @MiffedWhiteMale

     

     

    • #14
  15. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    OldPhil (View Comment):
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2B2nT6pfSE

    The link was a bit glitchy. Here is your song directly:

     

    • #15
  16. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    Susan Quinn (View Comment):

    What an awesome collection of songs, Clifford! Love ’em. Thanks!

    Always a pleasure, especially priming the pump for the variety of songs offered in the comments.

    • #16
  17. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    D.A. Venters (View Comment):

    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.

    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. 

    • #17
  18. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    colleenb (View Comment):

    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.

    So, do you prefer another version of Bob Dylan’s song?

    • #18
  19. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    EHerring (View Comment):

    They Call the Wind Mariah.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByqYEzugleE

    I am putting Paint Your Wagon on my watchlist.

    • #19
  20. Clifford A. Brown Member
    Clifford A. Brown
    @CliffordBrown

    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.

    • #20
  21. OccupantCDN Coolidge
    OccupantCDN
    @OccupantCDN

    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.

    • #21
  22. EHerring Coolidge
    EHerring
    @EHerring

    Clifford A. Brown (View Comment):

    EHerring (View Comment):

    They Call the Wind Mariah.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByqYEzugleE

    I am putting Paint Your Wagon on my watchlist.

    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

    • #22
  23. EHerring Coolidge
    EHerring
    @EHerring

    Clifford A. Brown (View Comment):

    EHerring (View Comment):

    They Call the Wind Mariah.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByqYEzugleE

    I am putting Paint Your Wagon on my watchlist.

    And the classic 

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTymtAbaG08

    • #23
  24. Foghorn Inactive
    Foghorn
    @Dave Rogers

    And then there is breaking wind but that’s a totally different playlist.

    • #24
  25. EHerring Coolidge
    EHerring
    @EHerring

    Clifford A. Brown (View Comment):

    EHerring (View Comment):

    They Call the Wind Mariah.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByqYEzugleE

    I am putting Paint Your Wagon on my watchlist.

    And, of course, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV1f06Vlfhk

    • #25
  26. EHerring Coolidge
    EHerring
    @EHerring

    Clifford A. Brown (View Comment):

    EHerring (View Comment):

    They Call the Wind Mariah.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByqYEzugleE

    I am putting Paint Your Wagon on my watchlist.

    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

    • #26
  27. EHerring Coolidge
    EHerring
    @EHerring

    Foghorn (View Comment):

    And then there is breaking wind but that’s a totally different playlist.

    Blazing Saddles.

    • #27
  28. OldPhil Coolidge
    OldPhil
    @OldPhil

    Clifford A. Brown (View Comment):

    OldPhil (View Comment):
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2B2nT6pfSE

    The link was a bit glitchy. Here is your song directly:

    Thanks, I can never get the videos to embed. I follow the instructions in the help section, but it never seems to work.

    • #28
  29. Foghorn Inactive
    Foghorn
    @Dave Rogers

    EHerring (View Comment):

    Foghorn (View Comment):

    And then there is breaking wind but that’s a totally different playlist.

    Blazing Saddles.

    I always thought that if they used enough  🌶 those saddles really might be blazing. 

    • #29
  30. Susan Quinn Contributor
    Susan Quinn
    @SusanQuinn

     

    OldPhil (View Comment):

    Clifford A. Brown (View Comment):

    OldPhil (View Comment):
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2B2nT6pfSE

    The link was a bit glitchy. Here is your song directly:

    Thanks, I can never get the videos to embed. I follow the instructions in the help section, but it never seems to work.

    1. Go to the video on Youtube.
    2. Underneath the video click “share”
    3. Left click “copy”
    4. Go to where you want to embed it.
    5. Click on “paste” or Control V
    • #30
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