Getting in the Mood of 2011

Carnival Colors B

The Wind

Peggyann , an on line friend on Facebook ,wrote "I hate the wind" in response to current ,early December weather conditions.There was a response from one of her friends of "Boo for the wind" and both of these phrases caught my eye.Perhaps I haven't really seen this kind of phrase too often but I have been panned in the past,the criticisms stinging me at times.. haha.Some people aren't aware of my past associations or ancient history that is not associated with Akhnaton, the 18th Dynasty Egypt,or Essene literature from Qumran.Peg was responding to the weather but I thought of her all morning and went on line just to write down what had gone through my mind because of her inspiration of ,"Hating the Wind".

The repetitive refrain from my old song , sang:

"Love is the wind , Wind is my love , Who knows the wind, Who knows my love , Where blows the wind , The wind is my love."

Love, like the wind , and in my song is abstract,an illusive ,changing picture that relies upon individual interpretation. Change is the only constant as in the rest of life yet we try to make a moment last , a feeling return, an orgasm continue that is intrinsically fleeting as are all of our entire existences,fleeting.We come and go as do all our friends and our families.Nothing last forever.The poetry recognizes the fact that change is coming , the wind represents changing.The poet isn't really in love with the wind , he is repressing his hatred of change by expressing an embrace of change.The wind is cold,brittle, and unmerciful yet the wind is not a being .The wind is intangible,without feelings or meanings. The poet wants to emulate the wind and have no feelings for anything anymore.The verses of the song tell stories of changes,some unwanted ,yet the resolution is to embrace the change and recognize that love is intangible and fleeting.

What if I had written :
"Hate is the wind , wind is my hate,who knows my hate, where blows my hate, the wind is my hate."

The effect would not be poetry but a narrative.This song was never written to be a hit song and ,indeed, succeeded in that respect, yet many diverse people did hear and relate to the lyric.In recent times I have been surprised at the responses from all over the world from people who remember when they heard the tune or listened to it again and again ,reporting the radio stations and personalities that played the record on the air.A couple years ago I was new to Youtube yet I found that someone had already uploaded the "Wind"."Zoodden" is listed as posting to Youtube from Sweden,certainly he's not from around these parts,pardner,yet he has heard and shared his recording with about 25,000 people at this point in time.The comments found at the site of our 1967 recording have been generally fascinating to me considering the age of the recording."Wind" was different than anything we did in that group and ironically was the one tune that was played the most.I sang out of tune and overdubbed solos but the poetry prevailed.The recording engineer was actually fired from the company shortly after the recording because of a splice he made in the tape.Sometimes the "Circus Maximus" was panned as a "Byrds" copy group but ,though I often played a jingle jangle type lead guitar ,I never owned the twelve string Rickenbacker guitar that was the center of the Byrd's sound but we used one that was rented a couple of times for the recordings. I normally played a 1959 Fender Stratacaster until it was stolen.We sang folk music in trio harmony before we had the electric guitars.We had some successes as a band including playing Carnegie Hall together but also had downers as well.The group was panned terribly one time by WBAI NY who played the entire album at 45 RPM and then again at 78 RPM . We sounded like the chipmonks and then maniacal chipmonks , our close harmony becoming a cartoon parody.In spite of their critical review WBAI still played the "Wind" in it's entirety night after night.(Right click these links to listen in a different window and continue reading)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-aBYqVAYNo
((((Here is another example of our first album now uploaded in it's entirety by"sbritt":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-joV3S5kxvs
..and from our second album "Neverland Revisited"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wADej1kPLk

The wind blowing through hair is often an image of freedom ,like a convertible driving fast with a beautiful girl in the passenger seat , her hair blowing while she laughs.Actually, not everyone wants their hair to blow uncontrollably. Even the models are set up to create the illusion , the fans blown from a certain angle , the hairspray already applied to keep a style throughout the effect.The wind this morning was cold and made the low temperature colder and the image of a beautiful model who's hair was blowing never entered my mind.I never achieved a hatred of the wind.A cool breeze on a hot day might be enjoyable as the sunny day but the sunny day doesn't love you back any more than the cool breeze means to bring you pleasure.You might love the sunny day ,a rainy day , or even a windy day but this is only the environment and there is no reciprocation from the weather. The character of the weather is an invention,sometimes poetic, sometimes not,but there is no "Jack Frost". "Jack" is a cartoon representation.Poor Jack, subjected to hatred like a Cold Wind. The winds will change and Jack's winter will come and go and soon we will want to see Jack again and again , everything changes . Change is in the wind .