Wednesday, January 8, 2025

The Windmills in Your Mind: Sinne Eeg Delivers the Goods, An Angel's Soul on a Platter

Sinne Eeg. Billy Peterson, bass.
I must have first heard this song decades ago because I remember seeing The Thomas Crown Affair but was too young to engage the song which had been composed for this film by French composer Michel Legrand with lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman. The song has since become an iconic standard, covered by numerous artists across various genres, each adding their unique flavor to its haunting melody and labyrinthine lyrics.

I discovered it after seeing Sinne Eeg, the Danish superstar jazz performer, this past fall at the Oldenburg House in Carlton. The lyrics generate for me connections to classic literature (Cervantes' Don Quixote, Borges' exploration of labyrinths, among others.) 

While the words are poetic and abstract, painting images of "windmills" -- a metaphor for the cyclical nature of thought, memory, emotion  and life -- while phrases like "a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel" evoke a profound sense of the psyche's intricacies. And any reference to wheels within wheels immediately inserts a connection to Ezekiel's otherworldly vision of the four living creatures, the heartbeat of the universe. The Bergmans' words are both a puzzle and a revelation, inviting listeners to reflect on their own mental processes and, perhaps, divine insertions.


The song itself is structured in a way that musically mimics the complexity of the mind's own workings. Legrand's composition features a cyclical, almost baroque melody that keeps returning to its initial theme, much like the recurring thoughts suggested by the title. The lush piano arrangement captures the essence of introspection.


Eeg's version of "Windmills of Your Mind" transcends its initial cinematic context. 

What do you think? I recommend repeated listens.It's a track worth exploring and savoring, a testament to the power of a performer to not just entertain but to provoke thought and emotion in equal measure.


Here's Sinne Eeg doing her magic with this penetrating song.

As for Sinne, the more your listen the more your hear, 
and the more you're moved. 

Related Link: Night to Remember

https://pioneerproductions.blogspot.com/2024/10/a-night-to-remember-cookin-at-o-with.html

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Here are the lyrics for this profoundly moving song.


The Windmills of Your Mind

… Round, like a circle in a spiral

Like a wheel within a wheel

Never ending or beginning

On an ever-spinning reel

Like a snowball down a mountain

Or a carnival balloon

Like a carousel that's burning

Running rings around the moon


… Like a clock whose hands are sweeping

Past the minutes of its face

And the world is like an apple

Whirling silently in space

Like the circles that you find

In the windmills of your mind.


… Like a tunnel that you follow

To a tunnel of it's own

Down a hollow to a cavern

Where the sun has never shone

Like a door that keeps revolving

In a half-forgotten dream

Or the ripples from a pebble

Someone tosses in a stream


… Like a clock whose hands are sweeping

Past the minutes of its face

And the world is like an apple

Whirling silently in space

Like the circles that you find

In the windmills of your mind.

… Keys that jingle in your pocket

Words that jangle in your head

Why did summer go so quickly

Was it something that you said

Lovers walk along the shore

And leave their footprints in the sand

Is the sound of distant drumming

Just the fingers of your hand


… Pictures hanging in a hallway

And a fragment of this song

Half-remembered names and faces

But to whom do they belong

When you knew that it was over

Were you suddenly aware

That the autumn leaves were turning

To the color of her hair


… Like a circle in a spiral

Like a wheel within a wheel

Never ending or beginning

On an ever-spinning reel

As the images unwind

Like the circles that you find

In the windmills of your mind.


… Pictures hanging in a hallway

And the fragment of this song

Half-remembered names and faces

But to whom do they belong

When you knew that it was over

Were you suddenly aware

That the autumn leaves were turning

To the color of her hair


… Like a circle in a spiral

Like a wheel within a wheel

Never ending or beginning

On an ever-spinning reel

As the images unwind

Like the circles that you find

In the windmills of your mind. 

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