The Wind Blows High

Lyrics: Robert Hunter
Music: Robert Hunter

A new song Hunter introduced on his solo tour in spring 1997. He varied the lyrics a bit between different performances (for an example, see below), but this is the version published in his journal for 17 March 1998 (no longer accessible from his web site):

Trees whip to the ground, the clouds are streaming
To think I ever would live to see this day
Beneath an angry sky the crowds are screaming
It's clear someone's got to pay

I cannot account for where I've been
I never though I'd need an alibi
Neither knowing blessedness or sin
All I know - the wind blows high

C.C.Rider coming in the morning soon
Unwrap your blue guitar, play a merciful tune
Squeeze a final tear from a dead man's eye
The wind blows low, the wind blows wide and high

The wind blows high and the wind blows low again
There's a shaking in the earth like the world might end
Voices of the sea and the sky contend
The wind blows high and the wind blows low again (note 1)

Through these wicked sheets of driving rain
Far away the whistle of a train
Someone's gone away and never coming back
The crew's already tearing up the track

Track by track they stack the road away
Rail by rail the pile mounts to the sky
Does it always have to end this way?
All I know - the wind blows high

C.C.Rider screaming down the border line
Unwrap your blue guitar, play a tune so fine
Hold that rhythm, never let it go
Rock me while the wind blows high and low

The wind blows high and the wind blows low again
There's a shaking in the earth like the world might end
Voices of the sea and the sky contend
The wind blows high and the wind blows low again

World enough and time and I do believe
For love to grow and the heart grow to a seed
World enough in time to turn around
We're not lost, just waiting to be found

Whistle up the wind that calls your name
Howling like a prayer with no amen
Low or high, ride it just the same
It will never blow this way again

C.C.Rider gleaming in the morning light
Tell me how you fared all through the night
Write it and carve to it a tune
To sing beneath a silver studded moon

The wind blows high and the wind blows low again
There's a shaking in the earth like the world might end
Voices of the sea and the sky contend
The wind blows high and the wind blows low again

Trees whip to the ground, the clouds are streaming
To think I ever would live to see this day
Beneath an angry sky the crowds are screaming
It's clear someone's got to pay

I cannot account for where I've been
I never though I'd need an alibi
Open up the sky and let me in
Whoa, the wind blows high

I see you coming in the morning soon
Pick up your blue guitar, play a merciful tune
Steal a final tear from a dead man's eye
Whoa, the wind blows high

Beside these wicked sheets of driving rain
I can hear the whistle of a train
Someone's gone away and never coming back
The crew's already tearing up the track

Rail by rail they cart the road away
Track by track the pile mounts to the sky
Does it always have to end this way?
Oh - the wind blows high
The wind blows high

I see you standing on the border line
Break out your blue guitar, play a tune so fine
Hold that rhythm, never let it die
Rock me while the wind blows high

The wind blows high and the wind blows low again
There's a shaking in the world like the earth might end
Voices of the sea and the sky contend
The wind blows high and the wind blows low again

World enough and time and I do believe
For love to grow and the world grow to receive
World enough in time to turn around
We're not lost, just waiting to be found

Whistle up the wind that calls your name
Howling like a prayer with no amen
High or low, you ride it just the same
It will never blow this way again

The wind blows high

I see you in the morning light
You play your blue guitar all through the night
Stretch your heart and soul upon the string
Gleaming with the tender love you bring

The wind blows high

The wind blows high and the wind blows low again
There's a shaking in the earth like the world might end
Voices of the sea and the sky contend
The wind blows high and the wind blows low again

The wind blows high

2 April: Second night working on a song I'm really enjoying. A modal kind of A-minor piece I'm calling "The Wind Blows High." Got verses but expecting better ones to appear as I develop it. Got the chorus tonight. Not going to rush it, just build it nice and slow and learn it as I go. Something to look forward to performing next month.

12 April: Feel like I finally got some keeper verses to "The Wind Blows High" today.

26 April: The song of greatest concern is the new one: "The Wind Blows High". I've got the arrangement down, but just finished writing the lyrics today (if, indeed, I am finished) and memorizing them in time to perform the tune in LA is problematic.

29 April: The song of greatest concern is the new one: "The Wind Blows High". I've got the arrangement down, but just finished writing the lyrics today (if, indeed, I am finished) and memorizing them in time to perform the tune in LA is problematic.

Later: Did "The Wind Blows High" and only muffed a couple of lines. Response was reasonable, considering it's an unfamiliar song.

1 May: "The Wind Blows High" stronger tonight.

15 May: The Wind Blows High" came of age tonight. From a newbie, it's suddenly one of the stronger songs in a repertoire of strong material - very unusual for a tune without audience familiarity.

26 June: Got a yen to work on "The Wind Blows High" some more. Realized I'd like the first verses of the three sections to be twice as long, eight lines instead of four. Performing the song on tour was fun and the audience picked up on it. But the lyrics seemed too sketchy. They didn't tell enough of the "story." The new four line stanzas I've written also serve to introduce another chord sequence, relieving the monotony of the minor to major strum behind the lyric. It also creates more nooks and crannies between verses that invite transitional guitar runs.

11 July: Good practice last night in the dark kitchen. The notion of syncopating "The Wind Blows High" occurred to me. The song suddenly became what it's been wanting to be all along, rocking rather than rolling forward. A very interesting segue to a familiar song recommended itself, due to the enhanced rhythm. It was an uncanny moment - I felt as though a spectral audience was watching from the dark.

20 July: Felt comfortable enough to perform the finalized version of "The Wind Blows High," which has evolved into another part of the Terrapin cycle, to my surprise. The audience received it well, so I'm feeling elated this evening.