The song lyrics came from two ideas; the first being the old wives' tale, when children pull a face, their mothers say to them "when the wind changes, you'll stay like it", hence "my feature form with a change in the weather. The second idea was formed when, at the time the song was written, American nuclear missiles were being brought into England and many people, including Roland Orzabal, were scared. The lyric "when the weather starts to burn, then you'll know that you're in trouble" refers to the effect of a nuclear explosion. "When The Wind Blows", the book by Raymond Briggs, later made into an animated feature film, tells the horrifying story of an old couple who are at home when a nuclear bomb explodes, hence the lyric "when the wind blows".