Today I learned there is a Wiktionary… how interesting!
The Wiktionary definition of the phrase Winds of Change is as follows:
Noun
winds of change pl (plural only)
- the inexorable process of inevitable societal and political change and progress over time.
Etymology
Coined by UK Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in 1960 in a speech advocating decolonization made in Cape Town, South Africa which referred to the “wind of change… blowing through this continent”, later shifting to the ” winds of change” in popular usage.
Another political series of events made the expression Wind of Change popular in the form of music.
In December 1990 more than a year after the Berlin Wall fell the band The Scorpions (a German band) released the song Wind of Change a song that was written as a peace anthem and ” symbolizes the end of the cold war” said the bands lead singer and writer of the song Klaus Meine. The song was also a celebration of the Scorpions performance at the Moscow Peace Festival in Gorky Park on August 1989 by invitation from Mikhail Gorbachev at a time when western music had been frowned upon in Russia. The invitation showed a softening on the part of Russia and an indication of the beginning of the end of the Cold War.
I grew up in Eastern Montana for several years with a missile silo within a mile of our home. We were taught to get under our desks at school in the event of a nuclear attack. Our very small rural school also had a small bomb shelter that would not accommodate all the students in our school, but we practiced getting in it anyway. It was very frightening as a child.
The end of the Cold War is also historically significant to my partner and me. He was a KC-135 pilot during the Cold War and spent one week a month on alert sleeping at the alert facility in order to respond to a nuclear attack if necessary. The alert facility allowed families to visit the “the Love Shack” bringing our children, meals and sometimes we gathered together for a communal meal. We were at the alert facility during the announcement that they were standing down alert. The Cold War had ended. There were tears of relief and joy.
The song Wind of Change has been part of my family’s personal history.
Moving forward in time…here we are trying to end the war in Ukraine.
The current Russo-Ukranian War has caused the Scorpions to rewrite the lyrics of Wind of Change Klaus Meine stated, “It’s not the time with this terrible war in Ukraine raging on, it’s not the time to romanticize Russia.”Instead of the original lines, Meine sang the following during the 2022 Vegas residency: “Now listen to my heart/ It says Ukrainia/ Waiting for the wind to change.”
I encourage you to listen to it if you haven’t heard it before. The new version has not been recorded yet that I can find. This is the original version.
https://open.spotify.com/track/3ovjw5HZZv43SxTwApooCM?si=mziyRm6dSKCRPia3IqQoRQ
To date the song has reached over 1 Billion views on Utube. The new version will be released in June 2025.
When I chose the prompt Winds of Change my goal was to provide a prompt that members in our group can relate with and respond to with their art, whether it is the nature of wind, politics, upheaval in a person’s life or health, tornado season or a political filibuster that happened today on the Senate floor. Cory Booker held the floor for 25 hours and 5 minutes has been reported. He has broken Strom Thurman’s record of 24 hours 18 minutes by 46 minutes.
The Winds of Change keeps blowing.