Waiting for Hurricane Sandy

I have a friend who lives in New York and what with Hurricane Sandy bearing down on them we were emailing one another last weekend before internet connection was lost.

Amidst all the talk of preparations and battening down the hatches inevitably our talk turned to music.

I told her a story of when I was a child and how I loved the song ‘Waiting for the Hurricane’ by Chris de Burgh.  I loved the lyrics describing a town anticipating the arrival of a hurricane and the relentless beat of this particular song.  I used to sing this song in the playground and one day as I was singing it a huge storm blew up.  I remember running down the playground as the teachers called us inside and a huge blast of wind gusted across the playground.  I distinctly remember feeling the wind under my feet as I ran and in my young overactive imagination thinking it could pick me up!  When me and my best friend got inside we swore to each other for ages that we had made the storm blow up just by singing the song.  I can also remember standing on a chair looking out of the window humming the song to myself as rivulets of water ran in the gutters.  It was nowhere near a hurricane I am sure, but to my young mind it was a powerful natural event that was heightened by my linking it with music.

This got me thinking about other songs about Hurricanes.  The two that immediately came to mind were ‘Hurricane’ by Bob Dylan and ‘Like a Hurricane’ by Neil Young.  Of course Dylan’s ‘Hurricane’ is a protest song about a miscarriage of justice and not a storm, but it is a great song never-the-less.

‘Like a Hurricane’ by Neil Young is a great, brooding track and I love a video of this that used to play on VH1 a lot when I was a kid.  Young was playing on stage with giant fans blowing his hair all over the place and he’s make his guitar scream out as the song built.  I am also partial to the ‘Unplugged’ version of this song which again is a brooding affair and one I can happily listen to over and over before moving on to the next track.

I guess if nothing else good comes from such violent storm systems then at least their power has inspired some great music.  Small consolation in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy I know and I hope my friend and the rest of the American eastern coastline get safely cleared up and back on their feet soon.