"Catch the Wind": Folk Feelings

One of the things I love about music is the effect it can have on us. I’ve written before about the nostalgic effect some music has, but music has the ability to affect pretty much any of our emotions. For me, the easiest example to come up with for this would be loud, powerful music which serves to energize and motivate us. I’m talking about songs like “Eye of the Tiger,” “The Final Countdown,” or “Back in Black.” But there’s another aspect to this that I have found primarily in folk music.

Especially when I was younger, I preferred “big” music with full instrumentation and energetic vocals. In general, I think I still do. For this reason, I was uninterested in folk music for a long time. However, as I began to give it a chance, I found myself fascinated by songs that were fairly bare-bones and lacked a certain “punch,” but were able to conjure up emotions stronger than anything I’d listened to before. So, I wanted to start a new series of posts, titled “Folk Feelings,” where I’ll explore some of these songs and try to figure out why they have the emotional power they do. The first song I’ll be looking at is “Catch the Wind” by Donovan.

If I had to choose a second favorite song (behind “Good Vibrations,” of course), “Catch the Wind” might just be it. It combines two attributes of music that I love, namely a rhythmic, well-thought-out structure and poetic yet relatable lyrics. I want to map it out a bit to show what I mean, so here are the opening lines of the song:

In the >chilly >

Hours and >minutes >

Of un>certainty >

>I want to >be

>In the warm >

Hold >of your >loving >mind

To decode this mess, “>” points to the beat, the rhythm of the song. There are no drums here, only Donovan, his guitar, and - depending on the version - either a harmonica solo or a faint string section. However, by picking single-string notes at each “>” and building the lyrical rhythm around this, Donovan creates a really nice flow. This is aided by his rhyming. There’s no set rhyme scheme and many times, there aren’t any rhymes at all. But honestly, it’s not noticeable. I think the rhythm plays a big part in this, helping the song move along without the need for a proper rhyme scheme. The rhymes that are there, though, fit extremely well. They’re bolded in my little diagram above. The majority of the rhymes are close together and some feel like they’re hidden, in a way. “In the warm hold of your loving mind” rhymes “of” with the first part of “loving.” This isn’t as obvious as the rhyme between “tears” and “fears” later on in the song; it’s a more subconscious effect. It sounds good because of the rhyme, but the rhyme might not be immediately apparent. I can’t say what exactly, but I think there’s something to that.

The lyrics are where the song really shines, however. It’s not easy to take a common feeling, one that has been written and sung about too many times to count, and turn it into something that feels fresh and poetic, but still deeply understandable. And yet, Donovan does it. “Catch the Wind” is about unreciprocated feelings. Even back in 1965, this was not a novel topic for a song. It is a feeling that has been expressed many times in many ways, so it’s easy for it to sound cliche or recycled.

The song isn’t very long and every line has a unique beauty in it, so I’ll just paste all of the lyrics here and let them speak for themselves. I’ll bold a few of the phrases that I think manage to portray common feelings and ideas in new ways.

“In the chilly hours and minutes of uncertainty

I want to be in the warm hold of your loving mind

To feel you all around me

And to take your hand along the sand

Ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind

When sundown pales the sky

I want to hide a while behind your smile

And everywhere I'd look, your eyes I'd find

For me to love you now, would be the sweetest thing

T'would make me sing

Ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind

When rain has hung the leaves with tears

I want you near, to kill my fears

To help me to leave all my blues behind

Standing in your heart is where I want to be

And I long to be

Ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind”

This new series is supposed to be about emotions, so I should probably get to those. While I would expect this song to make me feel a sympathetic pang dedicated to unrequited love, that’s not quite what it evokes. To me, “Catch the Wind” is a haven of sorts. All of Donovan’s eloquent wishes for simple things have such a comforting, peaceful effect, even if they all end with a lamentation for their impossibility. The warm guitar and slightly hushed vocals only add to this.

It’s similar to how I described “Syberia” (Siberia) by Brodka in another post of mine: like sitting beside a warm fireplace on a cold day. It’s a feeling of comfort and serenity, of hiding a while behind a smile, of being inside while the rain has hung the leaves with tears. I haven’t experienced a song that makes me feel this calm. I think the simplicity of the song works in its favor in this regard, but it’s just one piece of the puzzle I’ve done my best to set out here.