Week 37 – Think Bensonium

Day 259: Rockaria, Electric Light Orchestra

Roderick Benson — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

A great song by ELO which really shows their full synthesis of rock with classical music. Sadly the sound quality of this official video is surprisingly poor but I guess this is because it was made in 1976.

Day 258: Brass in Pocket, The Pretenders

Roderick Benson — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

“????Make you, make you make you notice. Gone is my arms, gone is my legs, gone is my style .. cause I’m going to make you see no else here no one like me.????”

Day 257: Revolution, The Beatles

Roderick Benson — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This is the grunge version of the famous song that appears on the White album. Actually there is a surprising number of Beatles videos on the internet given they really didn’t do many public appearances post about 1965. Truly I never get tired of this band that is arguably the greatest rock band of all time.

And here is the original version from the White Album (no video included)

Day 256: Dear Mr President, Four Non Blonds

Roderick Benson — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

A second appearance of the 4 non blonds in Covid Island Discs. In some ways I can relate to the lyrics of this song. In the scheme of things the USA is a wonderful country and yet …. and yet! Oh USA what has gone wrong with your dream? How has Trump et al. bewitched so many of you? A question I cannot pretend to answer and yet one which causes me much distress.

Day 255: November Rain, Guns N’ Roses

Roderick Benson — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Time for some Gun’s and Roses? The story of this song is not fully evident until you watch the video until the very end but it involves “matches and dispatches” without the “hatches” ????.

Day 254: Rocket Man, Elton John

Roderick Benson — Sun, 29 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Another song from the piano man, Rocket Man. This is such a great version of this wonderful song when the young Elton John still had his voice. The piano in this video is also just wonderful.

Day 253: Song for Guy, Elton John

Roderick Benson — Sat, 28 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I remember falling in love with this piece by Elton John when I first heard it as a child (released in 1978). I just love the piano chord progression with the clever use of synthesizer and the gentle castanet percussion sound. This is not an entirely musical piece for it ends with the single and simple line “Life isn’t everything”. Amen to that.

Interestingly, my youngest daughter absolutely loves this song.