All the hours on the watch,
I wait for that breeze to move me
And blow me back to that place,
That magic space all through me.
And I cry your name across the empty water –
You made a crazy dreamer out of me…
If you were conscious in the 1980s, the music of Ann and Nancy Wilson was practically inescapable. I first heard Ann in a duet with Mike Reno (lead singer of Loverboy — remember “Working for the Weekend”?) called “Almost Paradise”, the “love theme” from the film Footloose in 1984. “What About Love”, “Never”, “These Dreams”, and “Alone” were all massive hits and are indelible parts of the soundtrack of my childhood. Before their eponymous album made Heart massive pop stars, though, the Wilson sisters were the Queens of Rock & Roll, the engineers of sexy and soulful top-40 rockers “Crazy on You”, “Magic Man”, “Barracuda”, “Heartless”, “Straight On”, “Dog & Butterfly”, and “Even It Up” between 1976 and 1979.
By now, you must be thinking there’s been some internet error, so let me reassure you: Yes, this is still the Antioch Chamber Ensemble blog. You’re just getting a pop music history lesson because…Well, if you’ve read all of our bios, you can guess that this is Ray Bailey writing. And yes, I’m going to get to the point soon. The point is a strange and lengthy song on Heart’s album Dog & Butterfly, which I quoted above. It’s called “Mistral Wind”, and I first heard it in its Greatest Hits/Live manifestation when I was about twelve years old. Its narrator is apparently a sailor in the northern reaches of the Mediterranean who falls in love with the Mistral Wind, and the song’s commentary on love and inspiration and art and insanity (as well as its construction, harmonic progressions, shifting rhythms, and massive instrumentation) immediately entranced me. I wanted to know more about this Mistral Wind, which my research revealed had figured in the inspiration of so many artists.
And now, I do. We arrived in Provence (We’re staying at an unspeakably beautiful place called La Magnanerie, just outside Villedieu, next to Vaison-la-Romaine.) on a beautifully sunny, yet surprisingly windy day. This strong and nearly constant wind minimized the effects of what would otherwise have been stifling heat, clearing and drying the atmosphere, laying bare the light and the vivid colors which obsessed Gauguin and Van Gogh, among others. The wind which I found pleasant (frankly, seductive), however, is apparently a cruel mistress; its long-windedness (if you’ll pardon the pun) in the warmer seasons can lead to serious wildfires, and during the cold seasons, it is known for its miserable severity. It damages crops, and bends the region’s trees permanently southward. While the wind is thought to bring good health, as it eliminates pools of stagnant water and generally cleans the air, it has been known to wreck many a tourist’s vacation on the coast, blowing the warm coastal waters out to sea and replacing them from the frigid depths. The Mistral is also thought to bring headaches, distraction, restlessness, and depression, among humans of all ages and wild animals alike, though it’s doubtless brought equivalent amounts of creative fire to artistic types of every bent.
To over-simplify, the atmospheric phenomenon which causes this cool, dry, ferocious wind is the build-up of cool air coming down from the north of France, and settling, like a dammed-up river, among the Alps, where it builds until it overflows the top of the mountains and rushes down through the Rhône valley toward the sea, where it turns eastward, tearing most viciously through Marseille and St. Tropez. The wind can blow ceaselessly for literally weeks at a time and reach near hurricane force, as well as unusually high (It’s even quite strong at the summit of Mont Ventoux — the appropriately-named “Windy Mountain”) atmospheric height, as it charges toward the Mediterranean; it can affect weather patterns as far away as Africa.
While the Mistral we’re experiencing here (the name comes from a word in the local dialect — derived from Latin, of course — which means “master”) is more of a local weather phenomenon than I described above, I’d like to credit it with some of the inspiration I’ve had here (more on that later, perhaps), and I hope it keeps blowing, as its cooling effects have certainly been appreciated…And for anyone who’s interested, here’s the link to my favorite performance of Heart’s “Mistral Wind” that I’ve seen online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH3qTkhinqM. (If you like your rocking’ a little harder, here’s another: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAd9u2h_pRA.) ‘Til next time…
R