Week 36 – Think Bensonium

Day 252: All night Long, Lionel Richie

Roderick Benson — Fri, 27 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Yesterday I posted the song “Africa” by Toto. Along with “Eye of the tiger”, this song reminds me of a youth camp I attended in 1983. The final song that I associate with this camp is this classic tune by Lionel Richie.

On the camp was some guy whose nickname was “mouse” (can’t remember his real name now). Anyway, as was the tradition at these camps, on the final night campers would produce a concert where different groups presented funny sketches or songs etc. We took this song and changed the words so that it was captured the funny events of this particular camp (I’m sure the song we wrote wasn’t that funny but when you’re an immature 17 year old you think everything you come up with is funny). Anyway the one line from the song I can remember was “All night long, Mouse sang this song.” Very witty Wilde (not!).

Day 251: Africa, Toto

Roderick Benson — Thu, 26 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This song came out in my teenage years around the same time as the Rock movie theme tune, Eye of the Tiger. I mentioned in that post about a camp I attended where we stayed up all night watching Rocky movies. This song also figures heavily in this pleasant teenage memory as many of the campers had this song playing on their walkmans.

Day 250: Going Home, Mark Knopfler

Roderick Benson — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Such a lovely piece of music that brings back pleasant memories of the movie Local Hero which came out in 1983 when I was still at school. A nice concert performance of this timeless classic although this version does lack the brass section of which of course is prominent in the original soundtrack. However without the brass section Mark’s incredible skill with an electric axe really shows through.

Day 249: Beat It, Michael Jackson

Roderick Benson — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

OK I have resisted putting in a Michael Jackson until now as he is not one of my favourite artists. However, let’s face it he is mega famous and certainly part of modern rock pop so here is my Covid Island disc offering. I think this song is one of my favourites MJ songs and the video clip is pretty cool as well especially with the opposing gang members dancing at the end.

Day 248: Shame, Shame Foo Fighters

Roderick Benson — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

First for this band in Covid Island Discs. Like the way they combine the word shame with the guitar.

Postscript March 2022: RIP Taylor Hawkins.

Day 247: Jump, Van Halen

Roderick Benson — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Another very famous rock classic. Even after so many days of Covid Island Discs there are still classics to find on Youtube.

Day 246: Eye of the Tiger, Survivor

Roderick Benson — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Ok so this song brings back lots of teenage memories for me. I remember going on a youth camp when I was about 16 and one night we had a video night where we watched all the Rocky movies back to back. This song always reminds me of that camp which was so much fun. I remember falling in love with a girl on the camp called Karen Bishop. I wonder what became of her?