In the Wind of Time

Bob Nolan
Original copyright: September 27, 1955

Stop and turn around and wonder where we’ve been
And we will find that wondrous time we once knew long ago
Where the golden years
Are young again and no one cares
Where the stories end.

It’s waiting there
As young as when we too were young with all of life to share
Oh how I wish I could touch you now, my dear
If only in the wind of time.

But some steal back again to live and haunt the lonely hearts
Where some can rest in peaceful sleep perhaps to fade and die
That cry the same as I
And just as silently steal away to come again another day
Till all the tears are cried.

But some steal back on silent wings to haunt the lonely heart
They’ll silently torment your lonely heart till there’s no more tears to cry
I couldn’t even try
If I could find that secret place would courage fail me just to face
And kill a memory, or would I?

It’s waiting there
As young as when we too were young with all of life to share
Oh how I wish I could touch you now, my dear
If only in the wind of time.

Here we have an example of how Bob jotted down his ideas as they came. This little black spiral notebook was found among his effects many years after he died. Each page contains a rough idea of the verse he had in mind, no verse in any special order.

The words intrigued his grandson, Calin Coburn, who studied them until he decided on the order he would put them in himself. Then he registered the poem for copyright in 2004. Calin is reciting part of the poem on this page.

Who was this woman he was writing about? Many of Bob's fans have searched for clues but perhaps his grandson is right -

"I must also wonder where his music and lyrics came from at such an early stage in his life. Who was that love he longed for all those years? Or was it, as I've always thought, a search for a true love that he never ever found?

"I have a theory, though. He may have started to write about the love of a particular woman – maybe Pearl, maybe someone else before her or someone after her - his first love. But, as the years went by, he wrote about the love that he once felt; the desire to have that first love still in his life. That sort of love never comes twice in anyone’s heart, a love that is so clear and clean of all life’s trials and tribulations. In those younger years there are no responsibilities. Money isn’t factored into life yet. You are immersed in nothing but youth and love. That feeling and yearning after long years becomes an entity of its own. So, maybe there was no one woman he was writing about, rather a feeling that he had once experienced in his youth. And in his songs that feeling lives on."
(Calin Coburn, Bob Nolan's grandson)

The following is exactly page by page as in the spiral notebook

Stop and turn around and wonder where we’ve been and when will the story end.
But some steal back again to live and haunt the lonely hearts that cry the same as I
Where some can rest in peaceful sleep perhaps to fade and die
And just as silently steal away to come again another day till all the tears are cried.

But some steal back on silent wings to haunt the lonely heart that sings a lonely song
If I could find that secret place, would courage fail me just to face
And kill a memory, or would I? I couldn’t even try.
They’ll silently torment your lonely heart till there’s no more tears to cry

And we will find that wondrous time we once knew long ago
Where the golden years are young again and no one cares where the stories end.
It’s waiting there as young as when we too were young with all of life to share
Oh how I wish I could touch you now, my dear, if only in the wind of time.

We do not have any sheet music for this song.