The only Ambrose-led track on K.G., “Straws in the Wind” feels like it was designed to get a crowd going. With its anthemic chorus and infectious 3/4 groove, the song is a powerhouse that allows Ambrose to really work the audience. The lyrics aren’t as fun though, as Ambrose rattles through the complications of the COVID-19 pandemic, noting how the media sensationalized the situation to create a state of paranoia. The chorus asks if this is the end of the world through the image of, well, straws in the wind. It could allude to a tornado throwing the contents of crop fields around, or it could be something more man-made, plastic going everywhere. Whatever you interpret, “Straws in the Wind” is certainly a song about that feeling that this is the end times.
A demo for the song reveals what Gizzard was thinking early on. At eleven minutes and twenty seconds in length, the demo is in a different key, has a different structure and is, of course, much longer than the final version. There’s also a difference in guitar; this version features distorted electric rather than the bright acoustics. According to Ambrose, the lyrics were a reflection on the COVID-19 pandemic and the chaos of the world at the time. “This acoustic boogie came together around March this year. Stu hit me up to have a crack at writing some lyrics for it. It was one of the first song ideas for K.G. that came together. At the peak of the toilet paper crisis, it was so hard not to write a ‘Sign of the Times’ at that point of complete chaos. I tried singing in a different register to what I’d normally with the intention in mind to match the impending doom I was hearing in the music.” In a Reddit AMA from November of 2020, Lucas said that he believed the acoustic guitar parts in the song were recorded using an iPhone. The liner notes for K.G. show that only Ambrose (vocals/harmonica/keyboards), Cavs (drums/percussion), Cook (guitar/piano/keyboards/sitar) and Stu (guitar/vocals/bass/keyboards/percussion/flute) recorded parts for the song. While a music video for the song would be released first, “Straws in the Wind” was released as part of K.G. on November 20th, 2020.
The first tease for the music video was in the first Gizzymail which featured a photo of Stu playing acoustic guitar in front of a green screen with the caption “Jason’s back on the tools with a new clip coming along.” In the second Gizzymail was a photo of the inside of a windmill with guitars hanging on the wall. Stu captioned it “Jase is also still chipping away at a new video clip too. Out next week. He painstakingly recreated joeys bedroom inside the windmill that he lives in.” Gizzymail 4 would link to an unlisted YouTube video called straws in the wind BTS which shows Stu and Ambrose messing around in front of the green screen. Stu wrote “This is how we made Straws In The Wind. Life’s weird at the moment. Funny and also not funny at the same time hahaha.” Jason Galea’s music video for “Straws in the Wind" would be released on September 15th, 2020 with a single release alongside it. It shows the band playfully performing the song in a field with flowers and windmills which is then hit by a tornado, sweeping the band off their feet into the sky. In the air the band continues to play, with a 3D Ambrose breakdancing to the music and Joey mimicking the playing of a flute with an air blower. The end of the video fades to an orange color which sets up the music video for “Some of Us,” filmed using a thermal camera.
When the video was released, it was given this caption: “We shot trash around the room with a leaf blower and pretended that we were in a trash tornado. What has the world come to.” When asked about the DIY approach to the video in an interview for All Things Loud, Ambrose said it was because of the pandemic. “Definitely a product of the pandemic, yeah. We were in Melbourne on an intense lockdown when we did the video for ‘Straws in the Wind.’ In fact, we were in our studio when a stage four lockdown was announced and we realised that – again – we wouldn’t be able to see each other for who knows how long. I jokingly suggested we should go to the hardware store, buy a leaf blower and get a green screen. The guys laughed and said, ‘Ok Ambrose, cool, you can run the reigns on this one’, so I bought a robe, Ugg boots and some shitty sunglasses. We were gonna film it the next day all by ourselves when Jason Galea suggested he come round and help set up the lights. He filmed half of the video and I filmed the other half, and then he turned it into a little masterpiece.” This would be the first video released after the departure of Eric Moore on August 25th, 2020 and the first video for Galea since 2019’s “Fishing For Fishies.” Stu later named the video as one of his favorites to make in a 2022 Reddit AMA. Jason Galea uploaded a behind the scenes look to his Instagram page in January of 2021. The breakdancing Ambrose would later appear in the countdown clock for “Smoke and Mirrors” during the final verse (14:32 to be precise).
“Straws in the Wind” was first played at the band’s first post-pandemic show on 2021-02-23 at the Croxton Park Hotel in Naarm (Melbourne) with a runtime of almost ten minutes. The second night of the Croxton shows (2021-02-24) was a minute shorter. Even in its earliest moments it was proving to be a jam vehicle that allowed Ambrose to get the crowd going — making them sing the chorus. On 2021-02-26 the song would be the start of a long medley of “Straws in the Wind” > “Sleep Drifter” > “Honey.” Most of the time, however, the song would be a standalone track. While some microtonal songs would be dropped off of sets after 2021, “Straws in the Wind” continued to be a prominent track often stretching above ten minutes in length, a far cry from the five minute studio version we hear on K.G..