Monday 4 November 2013

Noel Harrison's The Windmills Of Your Mind

The recent death of Noel Harrison on October 19th called to my mind his most famous song, The Windmills Of Your Mind.  When I was going to school, circa 2001, I used listen to the song on old vinyl LPs or 'records' as they were called in their hey-day.

It was part of the soundtrack for The Thomas Crown Affair and won the Oscar for best song in 1968. At first, Noel Harrison did not realise the song's potential, "it didn't seem like a big deal at the time. I went to the studio one afternoon and sang it and pretty much forgot about it...I didn't realise until later what a timeless, beautiful piece Michel LeGrand and the Bergmans had written. It turned out to be my most notable piece of work."

Now, I'll have to watch the Steve McQueen Thomas Crown Affair, and see how the lyrics play into the story, 'like a carousel that turning 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 its own...'

 

No comments:

Post a Comment