The Bean may have just vomited in her mouth a little bit. Klaus Meine may be insanely short. The outfits the band wore 20 years ago look out of place anywhere outside the Blue Oyster Bar (Google it). I care not. If you were in your late teens or early twenties in 1991, then you remember “Wind of Change” – a power ballad extraordinaire that captured the sentiment of political and social change in Eastern Europe between 1989-1991.
I graduated from high school in 1991 and was ready to study history at university. How fortunate was I to be living and aware in such a momentous time. Even from the limited perspective such a young age affords, you couldn’t misinterpret how fantastically gargantuan the changes going on around us were. Scorpions captured the feeling perfectly, as only a band formed by members of the first post-War generation of Germans and Europeans could, finding their feet in the midst of the Cold War in the heartland of Europe.
You may not like power ballads. You may not like Scorpions. But, listen to the song. Think of the excitement driving it. The relief that change has finally come. Only then can you truly appreciate the strength of the “Wind of Change” and rock hard.
