You know, 1991 does not seem like all that long ago.
And yet, sometimes, admittedly paradoxically, it feels like an impossibly long time ago. So much has changed, that it just seems radically different.
One of my favorite songs ever came out in January of 1991. Back then, I was still in high school, and getting excited about the New York Giants, fresh off of their most successful season since the incredible 14-2 Super Bowl championship season in 1986-87, as they showed suddenly incredible life in beating Chicago, 31-3, in the divisional round, then just scraping past San Francisco in what I still feel was the best NFL game that I ever saw, before ultimately edging the Bills by a single point in the closest Super Bowl ever. The United States was preoccupied with the first Gulf War, when the object was to get Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait, which Iraq had invaded and then eventually annexed the previous year.
Back in 1991, though, it seemed that the world was still a brighter place. The political situation here in the United States felt bad, although by way of comparison with today, it seems almost idyllic, charming, and hopelessly naive. But in the world at large, there was a lot of hopefulness. In 1990, Namibia, long occupied by apartheid South Africa, became the newest nation. In the fall, the Berlin Wall came down, and almost everywhere in eastern Europe, there was a largely peaceful revolution that removed the shackles of Soviet dominance and communist rule. There was violence in Romania and, later, obviously, in Yugoslavia. Yet, most Eastern Bloc nations enjoyed a peaceful revolution. Then, months later, and not entirely unconnected to the events in Europe in 1989, new President of South Africa FW deKlerk announced that apartheid had failed in South Africa. He announced that to much opposition, but he held firm with his plans of reform in South Africa, as the long held ban on political organizations opposed to white minority apartheid rule was lifted, and political prisoners were freed. Most famously, of course, Nelson Mandela was freed. He would come to visit the United States in 1991, and I went to go see him. Later still that year, East Germany merged with West Germany to become one united Germany.
In 1991 itself came the dissolution of the Soviet Union, one of the two superpowers of the world at the time. Communism seemed to have largely ended (except in increasingly isolated pockets, like in the Far East and in Cuba), and the Cold War had ended without the disaster of the worst possible scenario.
To my young and, admittedly, naive mind, it seemed like anything was possible. Of course, there was also China, where peaceful protests by mostly (but not exclusively) young students fighting for more freedom were violently cut down by the government at the infamous Tiananmen Square massacre. Also, it felt like while the rest of the world was rapidly changing, little to nothing was changing here in the United States.
However, it still was enough for me to feel optimistic about the world, and my outlook was generally positive and hopeful.
That has changed.
Sometimes, however, I like to look back and remember how it felt to feel good about the world, like it was a promising place full of potential, and where perhaps the world was slowly but surely becoming a better place.
In 1991, I remember, there were some things that reminded me of all of this change, and the seeming promise that it represented. My brother had gotten me the video (VHS back then) of Roger Waters performance of 'The Wall' live from Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. Bryan Adams ruled the airwaves that summer with 'Everything I Do,' which was a great song that I can hardly listen to anymore.
But there was a better song, at least in my estimation. That would be by the Scorpions, who released the brilliant 'Winds of Change' that, it seemed to me, captured the magic of that moment. I remember as recently as my own trip to Berlin back in 2013 with my girlfriend, when we were on the way to visit her country (Poland), when we had a long layover and decided to explore the formerly divided city of Berlin. It seemed amazing to me that this city used to be a symbol of Cold War divisions and fear, with the ugly Berlin Wall effectively seeming like an almost literal scar on the face of that city. Funnily enough, though, we, like everyone else who visits the city, went looking for any signs of the Berlin Wall that remained, and I almost rejoiced that we managed to see quite a bit of it. As we walked through the streets of Berlin, there were echoes in my own mind of that Scorpions song, and the hope and generally positive feeling that it seemed not only to evoke, but to capture.
At the time, it felt like the soundtrack to the most amazing events and era of my lifetime. It was brief, and the positive feel did not last anywhere near as long as likely anyone hoped.
Yet sometimes, it reminds me that sometimes, what feels like it will take an eternity to change can come with surprising speed, and hopefully, in the case of most of eastern Europe and southern Africa back in the late 1980's and early 1990's, it can happen not only quickly, but peacefully, to boot!
And so, here is a commemoration of a truly great song, and the largely positive changes that it captured and represented at the time, and to some extent, still does today.
In 1991 itself came the dissolution of the Soviet Union, one of the two superpowers of the world at the time. Communism seemed to have largely ended (except in increasingly isolated pockets, like in the Far East and in Cuba), and the Cold War had ended without the disaster of the worst possible scenario.
To my young and, admittedly, naive mind, it seemed like anything was possible. Of course, there was also China, where peaceful protests by mostly (but not exclusively) young students fighting for more freedom were violently cut down by the government at the infamous Tiananmen Square massacre. Also, it felt like while the rest of the world was rapidly changing, little to nothing was changing here in the United States.
However, it still was enough for me to feel optimistic about the world, and my outlook was generally positive and hopeful.
That has changed.
Sometimes, however, I like to look back and remember how it felt to feel good about the world, like it was a promising place full of potential, and where perhaps the world was slowly but surely becoming a better place.
In 1991, I remember, there were some things that reminded me of all of this change, and the seeming promise that it represented. My brother had gotten me the video (VHS back then) of Roger Waters performance of 'The Wall' live from Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. Bryan Adams ruled the airwaves that summer with 'Everything I Do,' which was a great song that I can hardly listen to anymore.
But there was a better song, at least in my estimation. That would be by the Scorpions, who released the brilliant 'Winds of Change' that, it seemed to me, captured the magic of that moment. I remember as recently as my own trip to Berlin back in 2013 with my girlfriend, when we were on the way to visit her country (Poland), when we had a long layover and decided to explore the formerly divided city of Berlin. It seemed amazing to me that this city used to be a symbol of Cold War divisions and fear, with the ugly Berlin Wall effectively seeming like an almost literal scar on the face of that city. Funnily enough, though, we, like everyone else who visits the city, went looking for any signs of the Berlin Wall that remained, and I almost rejoiced that we managed to see quite a bit of it. As we walked through the streets of Berlin, there were echoes in my own mind of that Scorpions song, and the hope and generally positive feeling that it seemed not only to evoke, but to capture.
At the time, it felt like the soundtrack to the most amazing events and era of my lifetime. It was brief, and the positive feel did not last anywhere near as long as likely anyone hoped.
Yet sometimes, it reminds me that sometimes, what feels like it will take an eternity to change can come with surprising speed, and hopefully, in the case of most of eastern Europe and southern Africa back in the late 1980's and early 1990's, it can happen not only quickly, but peacefully, to boot!
And so, here is a commemoration of a truly great song, and the largely positive changes that it captured and represented at the time, and to some extent, still does today.
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