Week 43 – Think Bensonium

Day 301: We didn’t start the fire, Billy Joel

Roderick Benson — Fri, 15 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This song seems strangely appropriate to finish off this week given the incredible scenes we experienced last week with the storming of the US Capitol building by Trump insurrectionists. We are certainly living in history making times but as Billy Joel says “we didn’t start the fire, but we’re trying to fight it” with pretty much zero success. This song, like American Pie is an extended lyrical piece containing the cataloguing of world history verse by verse.

Day 300: Papa Don’t Preach, Madonna

Roderick Benson — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

So this is the first Madonna song to make it into Covid Island Discs. Although I’m not a great fan of Madonna, I do like this song. It also captures an intense family moment as a daughter begs her father that she will go through with an unplanned pregnancy and that she loves the father of her child. Madonna’s voice is also powerful in this song.

Day 299: Up where we belong, Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes

Roderick Benson — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This is a particularly memorable duet from the 1980s and of course was the theme song to hit movie “An officer and a Gentleman”. Again lots of teenage memories.

The other great thing about this song is the wonderful contrast between Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warne’s voice; the rough with the smooth really works well in this duet. The other really moving thing about this duet the look of absolute love and admiration Jennifer gives Joe repeatedly as they sing the duet together.

Day 298: Common People, Pulp

Roderick Benson — Tue, 12 Jan 2021 00:00:27 +0000

Another song from the band Pulp. I guess this English band’s song picks up the very much alive English class system.

And here is a comical rewording of the song aimed against one of the most elitist politicians in the current Conservative party. Sadly the lyrics in this comical version are not so far from the real Rees Mogg in my opinion. Such is the terribly awful Brexit government that is currently running the UK.

Day 297: Honesty, Billy Joel

Roderick Benson — Mon, 11 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

A very pretty and very wise song by Billy Joel. Sadly the sound quality of the video is a little poor.

Day 296: Brimful of Asha, Cornershop

Roderick Benson — Sun, 10 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

A fun song from the 1990s. This is actually a remixed version which is significantly faster than the original. This version reached number one in both the UK and USA charts while the original version (also on this post) reached number 60 on the UK charts in 1997.

Norman Cook Remix

Original Version

Day 295: Boulevard Of Broken Dreams, Green Day

Roderick Benson — Sat, 09 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This is the first Green day song to make Covid Island Discs. I didn’t realise how long ago this band formed which was all the way back in 1987 while I was till just an undergraduate at the University of Sydney. This song was released in 2004 and was on their American Idiot album (interesting title!).

There is also some interesting history behind this album. This is taken from Wikipedia:

In the summer of 2003, the band went into a studio to write and record material for an album, tentatively titled Cigarettes and Valentines. After completing 20 tracks, the master recordings were stolen from the studio. Instead of re-recording the stolen tracks, the band decided to abandon the entire project and start over, considering the taken material to be unrepresentative of the band’s best work. It was then revealed that a band called The Network was signed to Armstrong’s record label Adeline Records with little fanfare and information. After the band, who concealed their identities with masks and costumes, released an album called Money Money 2020, it was rumored that The Network was a Green Day side project, due to the similarities in the bands’ sounds. However, these rumors were never addressed by the band or Adeline Records, except for a statement on the Adeline website discussing an ongoing dispute between the two bands. The bands “feuded” via press releases and statements from Armstrong. Several journalists openly referred to the group as a Green Day side project, although it was not confirmed as such until 2013.