Wind Of Change By Scorpions Essays Examples

The song, “The Wind of Change,” speaks of the times in which the Soviet Union was broken. It uses different poetic and artistic features such as imagery, nostalgia and the variation of tones. The sound effects also serve to enhance the events of the song and the mood. The sound, especially, serves in explaining the mood of the song and the nature of the reality. The scorpions are a band that alternate in roles in their different albums. The essay explains the song in depth. It explains the visual, graphical, sound of the song in portraying the message.

Setting

The song is done in the setting of war and after-war. It begins with an introduction statement stating the place of the events. The setting is Platz, Beijing in 1953. The song is nostalgic in the beginning. The singer goes further to show the nature of the events by his facial expression and narration. The video shows a change of mood according the lyrics whereby the bright and peaceful depiction go side by side with the words “the wind of change.” The song seems nostalgic whereby the singer narrates the events of the war . The words used in the entire song are well composed and given deep thought.
The events of the war are also gloomy and sad. He also says that it was not possible to picture a time that people of the opposing sides and races would live together in harmony; like brothers. The entire song is more of wishful thinking while the singer is in that moment of war and agony.
The song begins with a portrayal of the past. The graphical representations and the singer make the observer shift with the song into the past, and then back to the present. It oscillates between times and moments whereby it also shifts from gloom to peace and hope. It moves into the moment of wishful thinking to the reality of living in the good times. The video shifts from the fourth stanza to a moment of hope and relief in stanza five. However, the entire song seems to be filled with wishful thinking. The only stanza that seems to speak about the current reality is the second stanza. Maine speaks of the disbelief in the current state of peace that they could not visualize back during the time of the war. In the second line, he seems to appreciate the beautiful current time by the words, “living like brothers was incomprehensible, and the feel of the future in the air is refreshing,” .
Upon listening to the song, I felt a sense of loyalty to peace well up in me. I felt the song and the message and the felt committed to living in peace with my neighbors for the sake of avoiding such incidents as those depicted in the song. The song depicts people being mistreated, including the children. Meine says that he hopes for the balalaika to speak on behalf of his guitar. His musical mind is shown in the statement whereby he personates his guitar and balalaika.
The song contains personification of instruments. I first heard this song in one of the episodes of “Top Gear.” I decided to use it for the analysis because of the prowess of the artist in the composition of the lyrics, the indirect referencing of events and hopes and the beautiful way that the instruments coordinate. The style of the song of embedding deeper meaning into the words is also intriguing.
Maine speaks to his instruments to speak on his behalf. The implications of the instruments passing on roles to each other shows the level of the personification and his artistic mind.
The singer uses a sad and nostalgic. However, it has a glimpse of joy when referring to the current better days that are. The choice of words puts the point of the singer’s feelings clear. The gloom that characterized the time of war is clear whereby he mentions the activities of the soldiers as they walked across the alley. It seemed to be a time of wishful thinking about a time that all the people would live their regular lives and the children enjoy their childhood. The second line of the third stanza mentions that the memories of the time of war are distant. They seem to be fading.
The song portrays the conflict as the way of life during the time of war and inhumane treatment that the people used to receive then. Maine meant it to show the overwhelming emotions that characterize war. The sadness that comes with the graphical representation is disturbing. The obstacle to the children’s dreaming and living is the state of war. The singer sings to have the wind of change blow him away so that he does not have to live in the time of the war. That could mean that he hopes to have the trauma of the events fade away with the good things that is here. The song is written to show the state of hopelessness that comes with war. During the times of grief, Maine says that he hopes to be blown away by the wind to better days.
The video shifts from the time of war in 1957 to the current time in 1990. The environment is no longer smoky. It is clear and bright and the audience portrays a moment of peace and relaxation. The soldiers are also portrayed as normal humans whereby they hug their families upon their return home.
The song uses sound effects such as soft guitars and the whistle. The whistle draws a person to the mood of depressing silence. It has a sense of loneliness and darkness that moves a person to relate to the events of the video and the depth of the agony in the hearts of the people in the video. The timbre of the song gets thick towards the third stanza whereby the singer sings to be taken away from the moment of agony and into the moment of peace. He pleads to be blown by the wind of evolution into the different world that he is now living.
The singer uses figurative language to describe the moment that he hopes to live in a beautiful time. There is also the use of repetition whereby the singer repeats the phrase that shows “walking down the Gorky Park.” The words, “listening to the wind of change,” show the longing in his heart at that time of depression and sadness during the war. The desperation that comes with being helpless is explained with the longing for hope in the wind that blows. It could mean that the wind was the only thing that used to blow in peace.

Structure of the song is explained here:

The song is made up of nine stanzas. Five of the stanzas that have four lines each are variations of the chorus. The chorus portrays the theme of the song. The other four stanzas contain six lines each. The four stanzas have a repetition of the final line in the exact words, or with a slight variation. The song drifts me to the movie, “Chuck versus the Seductive Impossible,” of Chuck, the television show. The song also reminds me of the currently famous show, “Top Gear” that represents the current pop culture because it was featured in episode 2 of series 15 of the show . The situations in context are those that make me feel sad, gloomy and helpless. I get carried away in the transitions up to the moment of peace and normalcy. It is inspiring and encouraging because of the words of the hope for a better tomorrow. The treatment that the regular civilians and the accompanying words of the song that say “let the children dream away” get during the time of war moves me to the point of tears. The child held between two soldiers seems helpless ad scared yet the soldiers do not care. He is then forced to bow to the ruler that passes by.
The characters have dull and fanatic personas. The young boy that has been held between the two soldiers seems to accept his position of subjection. That is shown in the way that he bows to the passing leader despite his discomfort. The activities of the soldiers are destructive. However, the time of the events necessitates it and they have to act as if they are controlled, like robots. The part that depicts a moment of peace shows characters that are in their right mind and sober .
The ex-factor of the song is the unique use of instruments, including the whistling. The instrumental role of the whistling is not common, especially not in the common contemporary music. The whistling takes up the lead role in setting the mood of the whole song.
Klaus Meine, the artist and lead singer of the band, Scorpions, appears on all albums. He writes the lyrics of their songs and also participates in some of them with Herman, band’s former drumist. Meine has had problems with his voice because of the vocal cords. He almost dropped out from the band because of the problem with his vocal cords. However, he recovered after several surgeries .
In conclusion, the Scorpions are a band with Maine as the lead singer. Just like any other band, the scorpions have been through trials such as the problem with Maine’s vocals and the drop out of one of the instrumentalists. The structure of the song is artistic with the chorus carrying the main theme and the theme being portrayed in other lines in the other stanzas. The video enhances the message, and the instruments pass on the emotion of the song to the listener (me). The song has been features in several shows and TV series in the current culture under different contexts.

Works Cited

IMDB. (2015). Klaus Meine. Retrieved Jan 29, 2015, from IMDB: <The choice of words puts
the point of the singer’s feelings clear. It seemed to be a time of wishful thinking about a time that all the people would live their regular lives and the children enjoy their childhood. >
Meine, K. (Composer). (1990). Wind of Change. [Scorpions, Performer, & K. Meine,
Conductor] New York, U. S. A.
Metrolyrics. (2013). WInd of Change Lyrics. Retrieved Jan 29, 2015, from Metrolyrics:
<http://www.metrolyrics.com/wind-of-change-lyrics-the-scorpions.html>
Thedancingrest. (2013, Jan 21). Song of the Day: Wind of Change-Scorpions. Retrieved Jan 30,
2015, from The Daccing Rest: <http://thedancingrest.com/2013/01/21/song-of-the-day-scorpions-wind-of-change/>
Thscorpions.com. (2015). TheScorpions.com. Retrieved Jan 29, 2015, from Scorpions:
<http://www.the-scorpions.com/english/theband/klaus_meine.asp>