There must be something about wind that puts songwriters into a reflective mood, as this second set of wind songs largely fits that description. As is my usual habit I’m mixing them up a bit: there is one that just about everyone will know, another where the original is famous but the cover version I’m playing is, I’m guessing, known to very few. You may know the final tune too, but I’d put money on the other two being fairly obscure. But hey, it’s my blog and I’m having fun in what I hope is an attempt at broadening your musical horizons.

Having said that, shall we get going with the one you will probably all know, even if not in the original version. If you don’t know it – where the hell have you been!

Blowin’ In The Wind was the opening track on Bob Dylan’s second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, which was released in May 1963. This was his big breakthrough: the album peaked at #22 in the US but has gone on to sell more than a million copies there, and after a slow burn it reached #1 in the UK for a week in April 1965, and returned to the top for a second time in May. The track was released as a single at the time but as far as I can tell it wasn’t a hit anywhere, and has never made the US Singles chart, though it did finally surface in the UK for a three week spell in March 2009, peaking at #93. Those seem strangely poor ratings for such an iconic song. It was, however, inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame in 1994, so that is something, at least. In one of those great injustices that the music industry throws up, Peter,Paul and Mary released a cover version in June 1963 which got to #2 in the US and #13 in the UK – I guess their sickly sweet harmonies were easier on the ear, though you’d have been hard-pressed to realise that it was a protest song from their treatment.

One of my favourite singer-songwriters, Caroline Jones, did a nice cover of this next tune back in 2019. Hers is a sweet version, but despite my love for her music I still prefer the original, and the Scorpions’ version doesn’t come close for me either:

If you watch that on YouTube some of the comments about what the song means to people are heartbreaking – truly a song whose message of the impermanence of life resonates with many. Kansas released Dust In The Wind in October 1977 on their fifth album, Point Of Know Return, which got to #4 in the US and #7 in Canada, but wasn’t a chart hit in the UK. The track was released as a single in early 1978, peaking at #6 in the US and #3 in Canada, selling more than 3m copies in the US alone. Although it wasn’t a UK chart entry it has still managed to earn a Silver Disc for 200k sales here: to me that is the mark of a good song with staying power. Its title is a Bible reference, paraphrasing Ecclesiastes: “I reflected on everything that is accomplished by man on earth, and I concluded: everything he has accomplished is futile — like chasing the wind!” There is also a reference in Psalm 18:42 – “I ground [my enemies] like dust on the face of the wind” – music and education: what more could you ask for?

I mentioned at the outset that one of today’s tunes will be known to you, but not in this version. Losing no opportunity to play one of my favourites, here’s something you may not have heard before:

The song is, of course, extremely well known, but I think that Sandy Denny’s beautiful voice is a magnificent accompaniment for Candle In The Wind, Elton John’s eulogy for Marilyn Monroe (and later for Lady Di). If you are going to cover a song you should add something to it, and to my ears Sandy does that: there is a hint of hurt in her vocal which I don’t think Elton can match. Sandy’s version was included on Rendezvous, her fourth and final solo album, released in May 1977, just a year before she was taken from us so tragically young – at only 31. The album wasn’t especially well received at the time by critics, who felt it was neither displaying her folk roots to their best, or making a real move into the pop world to which she seemed to be aspiring. As always, I treat what the critics say as being total bollocks: this was Sandy, I’d been a fan for ten years, and she could do no wrong in my eyes and ears! In case you were wondering, that electric guitar is, of course, being played by Richard Thompson, and backing vocals are by Gallagher and Lyle (Benny and Graham to their mums).

Taking another trip into what may well be the unknown for most, here is a lovely song that deserves to be better known. There are a couple of videos on YouTube of the band playing this live in the midst of their crowd, but I think the sound quality is better on the recorded version:

Hands up – who has heard of Green River Ordinance? Anyone? The band are from Texas, and were formed in 2000. They haven’t been especially prolific, having to date released four albums and seven EPs. Where The West Wind Blows is a track on the third of those EPs, The Morning Passengers, which was released in September 2010 and made #39 on the US Indie Chart and #3 on the Heatseekers listing. They have toured with several big names, including the Goo Goo Dolls (!) and Train, and their songs have featured in more than twenty TV shows, but they don’t seem to have been especially successful, which I think is a shame. Their Wikipedia page doesn’t mention any activity later than 2016, when they released their fourth album, but I sought out their website: it gave details of a new album released earlier this year and which is now in my Apple Music library! I found them back in the days after my divorce when money was tight and there wasn’t much spare cash for buying records: I found them on a site called Noisetrade, which has since been taken over by Paste, and on which acts offered songs and in some cases whole albums in the hope of attracting new fans to their music. GRO were one of my better finds there!

Today’s final song is another cover version. It was originally written by Ian Tyson, and I first knew it from Neil Young, but I’m going with another of my favourites today:

Ian Dawson Tyson CM AOE (25 September 1933 – 29 December 2022) was a Canadian singer-songwriter who wrote several well known songs, including this one, and he performed with partner Sylvia Tyson as the duo Ian & Sylvia until their divorce and musical split in 1975.

Apparently, singing Four Strong Winds has become the tradition at the end of the annual Edmonton Folk Music Festival. That recording of Mary Chapin Carpenter playing it from home was made in July 2020, ahead of what had been planned as her appearance at the Festival, but for obvious reasons the event was cancelled that year. MCC did a fabulous series of Songs From Home during the lockdown days, which became a regular weekly treat for so many of us, and this is very much in keeping with the spirit of those.

That concludes today’s set of tunes: another reflective bunch, which I hope have left you suitably relaxed. I’ll be back again soon – with what I have no idea – but until then stay safe and well, and keep away from strong winds

😊🎶