Music Blog

Change Is In The Wind

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

This is Week 42 of Glyn’s Mixed Music Bag and we are
being asked to choose a song by a group or solo artist whose
name begins with the letters S or T. This is my choice.

It’s 1990. The Berlin Wall has just come down. The Soviet Union is on the verge of collapse. A heavy metal band from West Germany releases a power ballad called “Wind of Change.” The song becomes the soundtrack to the peaceful revolution sweeping Europe — and one of the biggest rock singles ever. According to some fans, it’s the song that ended the Cold War.

Looking back to 1970, the working-class town of Hannover, Germany, was decidedly not a bastion of R&R music, but Klaus Meine and brothers Rudolf and Michael Schenker changed the way the world perceived Hannover … and even the rest of Germany. As originators of the hard rock band the Scorpions, the trio created top ten hits and generated worldwide attention through both their musical talent and controversial album covers. By 1994, with 15 albums to their credit, the band was deemed “the greatest German rock export”.

Singer Klaus Meine first performed in a band called the Mushrooms. His budding musical career was interrupted, however, by a stint in the German Army. Upon his return to civilian life at age 23, he met a 16-year-old guitarist named Michael Schenker who, four years earlier, had started playing guitar for a young German band. Together they formed a band called Copernicus.

Soon after forming Copernicus, Michael Schenker got an offer from his brother Rudolf to join a band called the Scorpions. Although Rudolf was the Scorpions original singer, he extended the invitation to Meine after seeing his work with Copernicus. On December 31, 1970, rhythm guitarist Rudolf Schenker, lead guitarist Michael Schenker, and singer Klaus Meine kicked off what would become an international R&R force for decades.

The band’s success inspired the release of a live album and a one-hour video movie about the tour titled Worldwide Live. They took part in a record-breaking rock festival in Brazil called Rock in Rio, where they played for 350,000 people. The German rockers went on to play behind the Iron Curtain in Budapest in 1987, thus becoming one of the first Western bands to venture into the Eastern Bloc.

The Scorpions continued to break international, geographical, and political boundaries. The band returned to the Soviet Union in 1989 to play in the Moscow Music Peace Festival at Lenin Stadium. They performed in front of 100,000 people, and the experience provided the inspiration for their super hit single on the Crazy World album —”Wind of Change” which took Crazy World to mega-platinum status. During the Persian Gulf War, troops adopted “Wind of Change” as their anthem.

The single reached #1 in 13 countries and won the ASCAP Award as one of the most performed songs of 1992. Soon after the Berlin Wall fell, the Scorpions played to more than 300,000 fans in the Roger Waters’ production of Pink Floyd’s The Wall —Live in Berlin ’90. By 1994, Crazy World stood as the best-selling rock album in Germany … ever; with estimated sales of 14 million copies sold worldwide, it is one of the best-selling singles of all time.

This is “Wind of Change” by the Scorpions, 1989

From Crazy World this is “Wind of Change”, 1991

LYRICS

I follow the Moskva
Down to Gorky Park
Listening to the wind of change
An August summer night
Soldiers passing by
Listening to the wind of change

The world is closing in
Did you ever think
That we could be so close, like brothers
The future’s in the air
I can feel it everywhere
Blowing with the wind of change

Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away (dream away)
In the wind of change

Walking down the street
Distant memories
Are buried in the past forever
I follow the Moskva
Down to Gorky Park
Listening to the wind of change

Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow share their dreams (share their dreams)
With you and me
Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night (the glory night)
Where the children of tomorrow dream away (dream away)
In the wind of change (the wind of change)

The wind of change
Blows straight into the face of time
Like a stormwind that will ring the freedom bell
For peace of mind
Let your balalaika sing
What my guitar wants to say

Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow share their dreams (share their dreams)
With you and me (with you and me)
Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away (dream away)
In the wind of change (in the wind of change)

Written by: Klaus Meine
Lyrics Š BMG Rights Management
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

Mixed Music Bag 2024 – week 42 – So simple minded

Big thanks to Glyn Wilton for hosting Mixed Music Bag every week. Please be sure to follow the link and check out Glyn’s site.

Thanks for joining me today and spinning some tunes.

See you on the flip side. 😎

NARŠ2024

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and are not to be used without permission. NARŠ2017-present.

40 thoughts on “Change Is In The Wind”

  2. “Wind of Change” undoubtedly is a pretty catchy song that demonstrates Scorpions’ successful formula of combining hard-charging pop metal rockers with ballads. Scorpions who I understand initially were more popular outside of Germany than in their home country first entered my radar screen with 1984’s “Love At First Sting.” This album, which included rock classics like “Rock You Like a Hurricane”, “Big City Nights” and “Bad Running Boys Wild,” remains my favorite to this day. With “Still Loving You,” of course it also included a memorable popular ballad.

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  5. EXCELLENT POST on an Excellent band and moment in history. That song is an anthem for freedom as much as Blowin in the Wind. One of my kids (sorry bad memory not sure which one) really liked them and had the album Wind of Change is on. GREAT VIDEOS also, Nancy. Thanks for bringing it back to me. The Roger Waters Live at the The Wall is an excellent concert also!

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    1. Thanks so much, Lisa! The Scorpions have always been a favorite group, one I sadly never got to see perform live. I thought about going with one of their heavier songs but this one just seemed appropriate. When is a prayer for peace not appropriate? Thank you for sharing your thoughts and memories (as bad as you say your memory is!).

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  6. Mary had a friend who grew up in Germany and remembered the Berlin wall going up. When the wall came down, she went to visit, and brought home a small chunk for Mary. It was a huge moment, not just for the people of West Berlin, but for the entire world.

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      1. I have a memory of getting home from school and finding my Mum sitting in front of the tv, stunned by pictures of the Berlin Wall going up. I’m not ashamed to admit that I cried at the pictures of the protestors on the Wall, knocking lumps out of it, and bringing about its destruction.

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  10. Thanks for featuring one of my all-time favourite bands, Nancy! 💖 Their live shows are amazing too. The last time we saw them (Aug. 2022), they had changed some of the lyrics from “Winds of Change” to reflect support for Ukraine. It was beautiful!

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    1. It must have been an incredible moment, Debbie. I was torn between featuring this song or one of their heavy rocking numbers which they do so well. With the condition our world is in, this was an obvious choice. It’s such a gorgeous song. Thanks for adding your comments to my post today. ❤︎

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  13. How much music plays a part in history/life. We hear it and it reminds us of events. But hearing can almost make us taste – in some strange way – the event. And we each feel the magic in a different way.

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  14. A wonderful selection, Nancy … and the poignantly phenomenal chorus lyrics still reverberate around the world …

    “Take me to the magic of the moment
    On a glory night (the glory night)
    Where the children of tomorrow dream away (dream away)
    In the wind of change (the wind of change)”

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  15. Oh! If only.

    Sorry Nancy it a lovely thought and beautiful song but nothing ever changed .

    Maybe it did but it just got worse.

    Take that from one who was a soldier too.

    Great post love but we never learn. 💜💜💜

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