Who Knows The Wind?

In AM to FM, I wrote of my recollections of when, in late 1966, WOR became the first FM station to play modern music in the New York area and, after it changed formats a few months later, was followed by WNEW-FM in October 1967.  The DJs and overall tone on FM was much calmer.  On FM they played more songs, album cuts, and long cuts, not just the Top 40.  FM sounded better with its clarity and sense of space between the notes creating a more intimate and immediate sound.

Perfectly suited to the new ambiance, particularly for the late-night DJs like Rosko and Allison Steele (“The Night Bird”), was Wind by Circus Maximus.  The five-piece band, formed in 1967 by Bob Bruno and Jerry Jeff Walker (later to write Mr Bojangles) released its first album that year (and broke up the next).  I have the album and, with the exception of Wind, there is not a decent cut on it.  But Wind was perfect for FM, with its haunting melody, enigmatic lyrics (I liked the phrases and sounds of the words and never looked up the full lyrics or thought much about what the song was about), and jazzy vibe – listen to the guitar and piano solos about five minutes in.  I’d probably only listened to a handful of times in the past 40 years.  Listening to it again just before writing this, it brings me back to the younger me.  Laying in bed, late at night with the radio on the shelf of the bed with this song playing in the quietness.  I can close my eyes, picture my room and everything in it; I can feel myself in that moment.  Yeah, I was once that kid.