Windows Of Your Mind

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Cor!

What's it all about?

― the pinefox, Thursday, 6 November 2003 15:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I meant the WINDMILLS of your mind.

Why did I start to think it was 'Windows'?

Perhaps I had in mind 'The Windows of the World'. That is also a song that is quite good.

But what is... "The Windmills Of Your Mind"... about?

― the pinefox, Thursday, 6 November 2003 15:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Going from that line, I'm guessing it's a Don Quixote referencing song about madness and your perception of the world versus others'.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 6 November 2003 15:41 (twenty-one years ago)

"Windmills Of Your Mind" consists of a whole list of different similes for 'the circles that you find" there; said circles are like "a circle in a spiral," "a wheel within a wheel," "a clock whose hands are turning," etc. The circularity of the song's theme is echoed by the fact that the song musically consists of a cyclical series of the same chord progression descending a semitone at a time.

"Windmills Of Your Mind" also illustrates the difference between simile and metaphor, for the title phrase is itself a metaphor rather than a simile. Nothing is being explicitly compared to a windmill; rather, the mind is being described as if it actually had windmills in it. In literal terms this is obviously nonsensical and wrong, for there are no windmills in anyone's mind. In the same way as a simile, however, the metaphor connotes a set of images or concepts that no literal description could do. The phrase, with its connotation of relentless, unceasing turning motion, is intended to suggest a mind in turmoil, while the similes mentioned earlier illustrate what this endless motion is like.

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 6 November 2003 15:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Or, more accurately, the chord sequence ascends a semitone at a time, realises its unattainable peak and then sadly descends back down, realising its lack of immortality.

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 6 November 2003 15:45 (twenty-one years ago)

The song is the missing link between Windy Miller and Icarus.

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 6 November 2003 15:46 (twenty-one years ago)

So, there's no Don Quixote link at all?

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 6 November 2003 15:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I think it's a bit of a rubbish song. "The Thomas Crown Affair" is good though.

― Jonathan Z., Thursday, 6 November 2003 15:59 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost:

No, you're thinking of Nik Kershaw. "Don Qui-h-otey/What do you saaay?"

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 6 November 2003 16:00 (twenty-one years ago)

It is perplexing how she does say "ROUND" at the beginning.

― the pinefox, Thursday, 6 November 2003 16:06 (twenty-one years ago)

It's taken on a new identity since the Reeves & Mortimer pastiche:

Like a sugar unicycle being ridden by a fork, like a Tudor vacuum cleaner saying 'how do you do' etc. etc.

― Jez (Jez), Thursday, 6 November 2003 16:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't really know anything about the song being discussed here! I was offering up a guess based on the song title.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 6 November 2003 16:07 (twenty-one years ago)

The hilarious Reeves and fucking Mortimer. About as funny as the Soham trial.

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 6 November 2003 16:08 (twenty-one years ago)

If you look out the windows of your mind I've heard you can see the 'Mindgardens' made famous by David Crosby in the song of the same name.

― Alex K (Alex K), Thursday, 6 November 2003 16:21 (twenty-one years ago)

The 'windmills' are situated somewhere in the middle of said 'Mindgarden', or so I've been lead to believe.

― Alex K (Alex K), Thursday, 6 November 2003 16:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Doesn't compare with Viv Stanshall's "Canyons Of Your Mind," though, does it?

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 6 November 2003 16:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Woah - there are canyons too?

― Alex K (Alex K), Thursday, 6 November 2003 16:35 (twenty-one years ago)

"Tell me why / we build castles in the sky"

not WHY, HOW goddamn it!

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Thursday, 6 November 2003 16:51 (twenty-one years ago)

This song is great.

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Thursday, 6 November 2003 16:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Like a shrimp in a suitcase laying on a window ledge,
like a pair of tartan slippers and they’re underneath a hedge,
like a scout master at daybreak putting peanuts in his glove,
like a specially formed ice arch for climbing over doves,
like a sardine in a hair net and he’s staring at a priest.

These things you'll find constantly irritate our minds.

Like a sugar unicycle that’s being ridden by a fork,
like a batten berg owned by Jesus that can miraculously talk,
like a lemon pip with sideboards fighting a bearded crab,
or Bono in a boob tube on the choir master’s lap,
like a elaborate heating system apparently in Kent.

These things you’ll find constantly irritate our minds.

Like a badger with an afro throwing sparklers at the Pope,
like a family of foxes and they’re glowering at some soap,
like a lump of Nazi nougat walking down an avenue,
like a Tudor vacuum cleaner saying "How do you do?"
like a kestrel having sex above a television set.

These things you’ll find constantly irritate our minds.

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 6 November 2003 16:57 (twenty-one years ago)

There are the Diamonds, Ghost Riders, Castles, Lucy, a Spirit, and an Eye ALREADY in the sky, not to mention Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes. What now, a pair of skates?! Use other skies, please!

― jazz odysseus, Thursday, 6 November 2003 16:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Stevem, thankyou, thankyou very much

― chris (chris), Thursday, 6 November 2003 17:10 (twenty-one years ago)

It is plainly a song to celebrate the wonder of similie. Pure and simple and a little strange.

― Lara (Lara), Thursday, 6 November 2003 18:12 (twenty-one years ago)

"To the ventricles of your heaaart my dear...!"

― Tom May (Tom May), Thursday, 6 November 2003 22:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Lara is a Formalist.

― the pinefox, Monday, 10 November 2003 16:52 (twenty-one years ago)

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 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
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 a 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 the fragment of a song
Half-remembered names and faces
But to whom do they belong?
When you knew that it was over
You were suddenly aware
That the autumn leaves were turning
To the colour of your 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

― the windfox, Monday, 10 November 2003 16:54 (twenty-one years ago)

"And every time I hear your name
(Frying Pan, Frying Pan)
Oh my my how it hurts
(He's in pain)
In the wardrobe of my soul
(Of my soul)
In the section labelled Shirts."

― sweet essence of giraffe, Monday, 10 November 2003 16:56 (twenty-one years ago)

good effort

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 10 November 2003 17:17 (twenty-one years ago)

The version in The Thomas Crown Affair was shockingly bad after being used to Dusty Springfield's version. This was my father's favorite track on Dusty in Memphis; I used to remember him playing this when I was a boy. Was the film soundtrack version a hit?

― Sean (Sean), Monday, 10 November 2003 22:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Its interesting to note thhat the oriiginal song by Michel Legrand was callled Les Moulins de mon coeur, which means I think, the Windmills of my heart. So the French sing about hearts, the English sing about the mind. Well its interesting to me, anyway!

― Liliya, Tuesday, 11 November 2003 18:51 (twenty-one years ago)

There was a great version of this song on a Matalan advert last year, which this site informs me was by one Ronan Cavanagh. No, I don't know who he is either, but he sounds quite a lot like Tony Christie.

― Philip Alderman (Phil A), Tuesday, 11 November 2003 23:16 (twenty-one years ago)

I opened this thread to post 'windmills of the world'. OK.

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 11 November 2003 23:21 (twenty-one years ago)

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