ALL THOSE THINGS THAT DON'T CHANGE (COME WHAT MAY)

"Four Strong Winds" by Neil Young has been one of my favorites--ever since I heard it as a young teenager on the easy listening radio station that played whatever the hell it pleased, long before the corporate takeover of our airwaves.  As soon as I could, I went out and bought the record and played it over and over and over again. 

The song was always beautiful to me, no matter how many times I heard it.

I was moved, even as a thirteen year old, by the yearning in the melody and the poignancy of the lyrics.  I felt for the narrator who was willing to try just one more time to talk her into being with him, even though "we'd been through this a hundred times before."  And how sad, I thought, to leave her with the subtle ultimatum of "If the good times are all gone, then I'm bound for moving on."  And yet, there was such hope in the next line, "I'll look for you, if I'm ever back this way."  There would be no bridges burned in this case.  Over the years I associated this song with this woman or that, but eventually one came along with whom I will always associate this song.

Recently, I was watching a DVD of Neil Young's Heart of Gold concert film and he started to talk about how there was  a little diner he used to go to when he was a young man and put some change into the jukebox and play the same song over and over and over again because he thought it was such a beautiful song.   Then he and the band launched into the opening notes of "Four Strong Winds" and it took my breath away.  It was stunning to think that someone as cool as Neil Young had been moved by a song enough to learn it and record it and then, years after he first heard it, create his own version of the song that had so touched another person hundreds or, perhaps, thousands of miles away from him.

Again that night, I was reminded of the power of music.