I was in the Army in Germany when the Wall came down,,, I was at Check Point Charlie when they opened the gates,,, I was on border patrol when it happened,,, I had a 13 yr old East German girl bring me a piece of the wall and kiss me on the cheek and say thank you,,, it was an emotional moment for me,, and when I hear this song I get emotional all over again and remember her face,,, the smile she had on her face
Mir kommen jedes mal die Tränen, wenn ich den Song höre. Ich kann mir kaum ausmalen, wie es ist, für jemanden, der dabei war. Es klingt dämlich und ausgelutscht, aber danke, dass du in dieser Stunde da warst!
I was stationed in Berlin (1990-1993), this song hits me so hard. Seeing first hand how the East Germany people lived due to the Soviet rule was very shocking. When the wall was opened and family that had been separated for so many years were able to finally hold each other just caused an emotional relief that nobody was ready for.
I was stationed in Korea around the same time (1989-1993) and fully expected that the wind of change would not only knock down the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain, and finally blow away the Soviet Union, but also that the DMZ would evaporate. It's hard to believe that it's been almost 35 years and the Koreas haven't reunified.
This song changed the course of history y'all! The whistle still sends shivers down my spine over 30 years later. "The children of the future" is a direct reference to YOU guys
Heard this song being played in Saint Petersburg Russian Federation two years ago , absolutely brought me to tears, never imagined I would hear an acoustic version of this by a young man and woman in Russia , old enough to remember this first time , and it truly did change history. Lived through the cold war and the nuclear threat , peace is the only way.
I love when Amber talks about the children of the future. Sweet Amber, when this song came out you were in the generation of children being referenced. It was a seriously emotional time. Hopeful. Until that point we lived under the fear of some hot headed politician starting a nuclear war. The day that Wall came down I sat and cried out of sheer relief for my little babies. Thank you so much for this channel, it's my favorite.
I still cannot believe all these decades later I STILL get chills hearing this like the first time. Such an inspirational, devastatingly beautiful song.
If you guys were just a few years older, you'd understand why this song brings up so much emotion. The cold war was very real threat. It was always in the back of our minds that a radar error or miscommunication could annihilate the world as we knew it. The US and the USSR thought that each other was the height of evil and had thousands of nuclear missiles aimed at each other, ready to launch in a moments notice. I recommend a movie called "the day after"..it was a pretty realistic portrayal of the tensions at the time and it scared the shit out of millions and millions of us! This song wasn't specifically about the Berlin wall, but broader ideas, that the east and the west could live together in peace. There was a music festival in the USSR that was one of the very few times they allowed Western musical acts in the country. That's why all the references to Moscow landmarks.
Evil has always been the dictatorship of The USSR and CHINA and even though their are serious corruption in the USA nothing could ever be as bad as those 2 very evil countries.
That being said- Back in the USSR is a good listen. I remember hearing this as an American and was like “I thought ussr bad!” Must have shot through a lot of people’s ignorance
I grew up in Sweden during the 80-90's, and I remember the Cold War vividly. Mainly because we talked about risks in school, but probably mostly because of the shelter exercises in school. The threat of a nuclear war was very real, at least up to the mid 90's.
I'm a German American who grew up during the Cold War. Learning the German language in school, we were taught the Berlin Wall as fact; it was as much a part of Germany as the grammar. So it's hard to put into words just how unbelievable it was to see people tearing it down. It was truly amazing, and we all knew we were watching history. Next Stops, Deutsche Aufgabe: Scorpions, "Rock You Like a Hurricane" Nena, "99 Luftballons" (Offizielles Musikvideo) Falco, "Rock Me Amadeus," "Der Kommissar"
Usually, songs written about a particular current event gets dated as time passes and the relevance is lost. But WIND OF CHANGE has become timeless in its own way. Maybe it's because those events at the time had a big impact on my life. Whenever I hear WIND OF CHANGE, I can't help but shed a tear every time because it brings it all back...even 30+ years later.
In March 2022 I'm shedding tears as I listen to this, but not tears of happiness. The future's in the air again, but this time a future of fear and uncertainty.
@ Doug, Caught myself too, I remember seeing the images of the wall coming down, and the people's reactions, just overwhelming what they went thru and to finally have it taken down. Reagan's voice saying to Gorbachev way back when "Tear down these walls" still resonates. @Sarco64, I couldn't agree more. It's not the people of our countrys I fear, it's the govts, Including my own.
This was the Scorpions' first release after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Being a German band, it was almost obligatory for the Scorps to react to that event, and they nailed it with this song. By the time this song/album was released, the old Eastern European Communist Bloc had essentially collapsed, so the song took on even greater meaning. -JR in Miami
This song was actually written prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall but released after. Meine has stated it was inspired by glasnost in the USSR and their tour they had previously done in the USSR. But by capturing the feeling of that movement and the ending of the Cold War it obviously directly relates to the Berlin Wall as its fall was a major event leading to the collapse of the USSR.
Great choice! One of the best Scorpions songs! Based on the fall on communism and the bringing down of the Berlin Wall. I used to have a piece of the Berlin Wall (probably still at my parents house). The wind of change was the winds blowing into a new unprecented time to come... new fredoms and experiences. Also another good song with a whistle as part of the melody is Guns and Roses- Patience. That one is so good to!
When I was working across from a bar back at the end of the 80’s there was one band that would play outback of the bar after hours on acoustic instruments and one song they played was Patience.
I have a piece of the Wall - my sister was there a few months after the fall, and paid a dude to rent his pickaxe for 15 minutes and chop off as many pieces as she could.
I remember when this song dominated the airwaves back in the day. It was played and played and played. So beautiful and deep. Scorpions outdid themselves.
I start crying after five seconds listening to this classic song that has so much story and history in the lyrics. And the wind of change never stops blowing, there are so many places and things that need to be changed. I truly love this song. The Scorpions is just a super great band that is still active. Thanks cuties for playing this!
This song was the Eastern Europe anthem in that time. After 1989, the entire region was in a constant change. For the good or for not that good. We were living, sensing and embracing freedom like something we never seen before. This song embodies thru lyrics and music what we all felt back then. It is still one of the most popular songs in my country- Romania.
I had to quit my job because i started beefing it with 50 year old mfs.. and I’m 21, i spend most of my time smoking weed on my RU-vid channel now, meanwhile i get back to the hustle 🤦♂️
I can't think of any song in the last 2-3 centuries that captures, memorializes and immortalizes such a pivotal moment in history as well as this one does.
Ohio written by Neil Young and performed by CSN&Y also captured a moment in history very well, but it was American History. This Scorpions tune captured a moment in world history.
As y'all already guessed, this is about the end of the Cold War, and the Scorpions are a German band. Germany, of course, was famously split into two during the Cold War, - Communist East Germany and democratic West Germany. The fall of the Berlin Wall was an important turning point at the end of the Cold War. But Russia was the sort of power center of the Communist side of the Cold War, and this song sings about a couple of specific Moscow landmarks. The Moskva is the river that runs through Moscow (Moskva in Russian), Russia, and Gorky Park is a little amusement park in Moscow, emphasis on the "little". I missed the chance to see the Scorpions live in concert in Moscow the summer of 1997 because I couldn't find anyone to go with me and it wasn't super safe for an American to be going out alone at night in Moscow (I was doing a summer study abroad there). But I remember the fall of the Berlin Wall, and it's interesting to learn about the reunification of Germany afterward, which had its own struggles as well. I think the Scorpions writing and singing this song was a form of communal cultural healing as the Cold War came to an end.
Unfortunately they are turning into a totalitarian state once again due to their stance on Covid vaccinations among the population. History repeats itself does it not?
Being 45, I'm old enough to truly remember a world where the USSR was a strong threat to the US, there were two German nations, MTV played videos, and seeing the world change before your eyes. The Tiananmen Square Massacre was only 2 years earlier. Rock-n-Roll and blue jeans changed the world.
@Michael Plowman I am a year younger than you but I remember vividly in middle school social studies class being required to learn about the types and effects of atom bombs and what the would would be like afterword (photocopied sheets of paper with diagrams of blast zone sizes and military resource comparisons stand out in my memory). It is hard to explain to kids today how there was a national/global depression while living during those cold war years and how it was healed when the wall, and then the USSR fell. Those post-USSR/pre-Putin and crime bosses years were hopeful. We in the west should have done so much more to welcome our brothers and sisters to a life full of possibilities before self-determination and freedom were taken off of the table by criminals and thugs.
@@KevinSchmitt77 I'm just a few years older than you. I remember the same things back then. Our school system actually had nuclear missile drills that we practiced a couple times throughout the school year. Much like alot of schools run Tornado drills. Definitely was a scarier and heavier time.
One of the best selling singles of all time(14 million plus copies) . The biggest from a German artist. Unskinny Bop was Poison. You did No One Like You and Still Loving You from them. You have probably heard their song Rock You Like A Hurricane at sporting events.
Guys this song is about the fall of Communism in East Germany and they mentioned Gorky Park which is the famous park in Russia it’s a great song from when all of Eastern Europe was liberated from the Soviet union great choice guys from your history teacher Will.
The wind of change that was blowing was the fall of Soviet Union, and Rob you are right, the fall of the Berlin Wall. The song became the unofficial anthem for the German Reunification! And Scorpuons are a German band. So when they played in Russia they felt that “ wind of change”!!
It's funny how as soon as the guitar solo starts that's where everybody feels the music, very strong passionate sound that literally pierces your heart
Seen Scorpions live in Concert in Billings Montana. Lead singer is awesome. And Unskinny bop is Brett Michaels and Poison. Just FYI. Love you guys. Check out Scorpions “ Tease me Please me”!! Rob you will love this song!!
I’ve got a chunk of the Berlin Wall. It’s just concrete with spray paint on it, about the size of a baseball, but it means so much more. A physical piece of history and how things changed for the better. We need more of that, instead of “history repeating itself.” Always loved this song too. So well written.
I was stationed in Germany in the mid to late 80s and remember always being aware of our surroundings Going to the Czech border was surreal being photographed by the Czech and Russian soldiers. There are a few images in this video of the Gulf war which I was in so this song and video does hit home that myself and millions of others were part of this history
I graduated from high school in 1990. This song, along with “Right Here, Right Now”, by Jesus Jones fully capture the, perhaps unreasonable, hope we felt at the time that the world was changing for the better and we were heading into a brighter future. Almost seems naive now.
Those two songs were basically the epilogue for the book of the 80s. The world was so much different in 1990 than 1980. The threat of nuclear war was over. The two biggest powers were shaking hands instead of fists. For the first time in 80 years there were less people living under communism when the decade ended than when. It began. And wall that trapped an entire population in for over 25 years came down. Everyone hoped and dreamed the Cold War would end. Very few believed it would though.
This song is THE hymn to the fall of the iron curtain/ the German Wall. Although it wasn’t written for this, it is forever connected to them. Greetz from Germany.
I served 2 tours of combat. This, song spent many nights with me. I've been a Fan of the Scorpions, since day one. I'd respectfully, would be honored, to thank them for helping me get through my years of... turmoil.
My opinion is this is one of the greatest songs ever!!! This video reminds me of the Billy Joel song "we didn't start the fire". The images flash by fast enough that it's really easy to miss the symbolic references.
This song is off the Scorpion's album "Crazy World". I'm looking at my CD right now! Other good songs off this album are Tease Me, Please Me and Send Me an Angel. Yes, this was a truly iconic song of that time period. But still resonates today.
This song means so much to me. I was born in 1981 and grew up in Northern Germany near Hamburg, so I was just eight years years old when the Berlin wall fell in 1989. As many others have stated, the cold war was very real, even in those last few years and while I was of course too young to understand just how tense the situation was, it was quite normal for me to look out the window of our car when we were driving to visit our relatives in Austria and watch convoys of US Army roll by. It was normal to have fighter jets thunder over our house at little more than treetop height on some exercise run. And I still remember shortly after starting school that our entire class was one day led down to the library in the basement level of our school and told to stay in one particular corner of that library, far away from the door or any windows. Back then, I was mainly annoyed at not being allowed to grab a book, but looking back, it's clear that was an air raid drill. Throughout all of 1989, even a little kid like me had felt that "something" big was happening. During a stay with the Austrian half of our family, we'd visited Hungary, which the grown-ups had made a big deal about since as I know now it had been the first Eastern Bloc country to open its borders with the west. There was a constant buzz of news on the radio and in the TV news that I often watched with my parents. Then, towards the end of the summer, my parents had taken me, and one of my grandmothers, to the small town of Hitzacker east of Hamburg, which sits on a small rise in the landscape and overlooks the Elbe river and the border with Eastern Germany. After hearing all the news on the radio about "GDR this" and "Eastern Germany that", I had this image in my mind of some unstoppable machine, so when I looked across the river into Eastern Germany, I was pretty disappointed. It looked just like our side. I clearly remember asking my parents "what's the difference between uns and the other side?" They didn't have an answer. Then came November 9th. As always, my parents had let me watch the main evening news before sending me to go to bed, the latter apparently yielding mixed results. Suddenly, my mom came up and told me to come back down to the living room. "Something" was happening in Berlin. Over the next few hours, we watched the pictures come in from Berlin, the crowding at Bornholmer Straße and finally the celebrations on the wall itself. I remember looking up at my parents and my grandmother, who was living with us at the time, and seeing tears in their eyes. They'd seen the Berlin Wall go up in 1963, and they'd have never imagined that it would come down within their lifetimes, except under the shadow of mushroom clouds. Two days later, the first east German cars drove into the little village on the outskirts of Hamburg where my family was living at the time. One year later, East Germany ceased to exist as an independent country as Germany was reunified and one year after that, the Soviet Union would also be history. I'll always associate this song with that time.
I saw Scorpions in 1988 at the Monsters of Rock concert.They killed their set,along with a few other topnotch bands,Van Halen,Dokken,and Metallica!Let's just say it was an all day event!🤘
Ahhh, 80's power ballads. This is the epitome of that sound. These guys worked so hard through the 80's, seemed like every time I went to a show with more than 3 bands, Scorpions were one of them. I prefer their earlier stuff, butnifni gotta power ballad.. gimme Scorpions. My dad even liked Klaus' performance at the US Festival in 82. He hates most rock singers, but recognized Kalus' ability to sing through his power voice without screaming. One of their early members went on to solo fame after a slight name change, going from Ulrich Roth to Uli Jon Roth and becoming one of the pioneers of neo-classical rock/metal. Definitely recommend anything by him, or any earlier Scorpions music. Rich the Ancient Metal Beast
This is crazy! Like 3 hours ago I heard this song on the bus, going home after Xmas trip. Recognized it, had to look it up. Felt it was a message. Now this reaction pops up. Feel the Universe trying to really make me get the message 😄😍 Thank you for great reactions!
Try not crossing out the Christ in Christmas (Xmas ---> you crossing out Christ from the holiday?). And don't vote for the people who made the Berlin Wall exist. There's at least 2 reasons why you got this message.
Oh, man, I love this song. Indeed, I love most Scorpions. Your next one absolutely, positively HAS to be "The Zoo". The riff in that song is easily one of the best and most kick-ass of all time. Other must-listens are "Rock You Like a Hurricane", "Big City Nights", "Send Me an Angel", and "Hit Between the Eyes". P.S. "Unskinny Bop" was Poison. So far for the Scorpions you've done this, "No One Like You", and "Still Loving You."
They wrote this the night the Berlin wall started to go down. Being West Germans ,pretty much all of them had relatives in E. Germany they'd never seen or met. I never thought I'd live long enough to see that happen. 🤠
“Wind of Change” was about neither the Berlin Wall nor their German homeland. Rather, its origins trace to the former Soviet Union, and specifically the Moscow Music Peace Festival, a two-day “hard-rock Woodstock” staged in August 1989, in the city’s 100,000-seat Lenin Stadium. The event, which saw the Scorpions, Ozzy Osbourne, Mötley Crüe, Cinderella and Skid Row perform alongside homegrown bands like Gorky Park and Brigada-S, marked the first time Western heavy-metal acts had been permitted to play in the Soviet capital. Broadcast in dozens of countries and on MTV in America, the festival was a triumph (if not without drama behind the scenes), and it inspired Meine, who had grown up in the looming shadow of the Iron Curtain, to begin writing “Wind of Change.”
@@theresapaez513 Maybe the time since then changed their memories? I saw a documentation on Austrian TV ORF (before the fall of the wall in Berlin) about that rock festival in Moscow and an interview with someone from the band (I don't remember who) who explained, that they wrote a song about that feeling of change that was present all over the festival. And that winds of change represent that feeling they had during that time in Moscow.
Was stationed in Germany - served in the Middle East during Desert Storm - & this song brings up so much emotion whenever I hear it - to have been there at that time in history…Tears…just…tears…
Alright, more Scorpions! I think "Rock You Like A Hurricane" was their biggest hit, though I personally like "Still Loving You" better, but you've already done "Still Loving You". "Rock You Like A Hurricane" should be your next Scorpions song.
So more Scorpions for your consideration: “Can’t Live Without You” “No One Like You” Also if y’all are looking for more Aerosmith, a song that simultaneously showcases the band’s grand orchestration and Steven Tyler’s vocal range, that song is “You See Me Crying.”
Hearing this song brings me instantly back to the time when the USSR fell and my country among the others got their freedom back. I was 10 when it all happened but the song remains very popular among our generation even today. It’s such a good song.
Great video. I was living Germany in 1990. Everyone was so high then. Like riding a massive wave. To experience that first hand, that coming together. I've never felt that kind of hope. The raw power of it. I probably never will again.
Try listening to Terence Trent D'Arby singing "Wishing Well". Soul, Pop & Funk from 1987. Sananda Maitreya (born Terence Trent Howard), started his career with the stage name Terence Trent D'Arby...that's how we knew him back in 1987. When looking for this video, you might want to look for Sananda Maitreya singing "Wishing Well"...he has again changed his name and it's hard to find an official video with his stage name from back in the day.
This is an emotional song for me because I lived through the Cold War with the Soviet Unions. This song is about the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Unification of Germany. It was emotional seeing East Germans gaining their freedom.
I'm sure someone must have already mentioned this, but just in case..... "Unskinny Bop", mentioned by Rob in the beginning of the video, is by Poison, an American band with Brett Micheals and all his blonde hair singing away. "Winds of Change" is by Scorpions, a band originally from East Germany who were not only very popular in the U.S. in the late 80's and early 90's, but also all across Europe. Scorpions was the very first concert I ever went to as a teenager. I'm 48 now, but I still remember seeing them in concert and how amazing it was.
I belive this song is timeless because its about breaking down wall in your mind, breaking literal walls, , walls not being build and its about humanity. Its a lesson to everybody who wants to seperate society and people.
For me as german this song will allways have a very special place in my heart, because it's inseparably linked to the events of 1989/1990 that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of our country. Klaus Meine wrote the song in September 89, even before the fall of the Berlin Wall. But he sings about the changes of Glasnost and Perestroika in the Sowjetunion that made the peaceful revolution in germany and the end of the cold war possible in the first place.
