1972 – Think Bensonium

Day 447: Alabama, Neil Young

Roderick Benson — Wed, 09 Jun 2021 23:00:00 +0000

So this is one of Neil’s protest songs against the USA southern state racism. This song would lead Lynyrd Skynyrd to decry Young name in his most famous song Sweet Home Alabama (see tomorrow’s post).

Day 414: Heart of Gold, Neil Young

Roderick Benson — Fri, 07 May 2021 23:00:38 +0000

To open week 60, I shall start with probably one of the most famous Neil Young songs of his very large repertoire which is Heart of Gold. This concert was recorded for the BBC all the way back in 1971 when Heart of Gold was just fresh of the press; hence why he says it is a new song. Now it is only a mere 50 years old!! How time flies when you’re having fun hey.

Day 363: Travelin’ Prayer, Billy Joel

Roderick Benson — Wed, 17 Mar 2021 00:00:12 +0000

Countdown to the year anniversary of Covid Island Discs T -4

The opening song on Billy Joel’s Piano Man album was called Travelin’ Prayer. This is a particularly interesting song musically because it begins with a snare drum and piano and slowly builds with a new musical instrument being added from verse to verse. I really like the banjo in this song. Banjos of course very rarely make an appearance in a musical arrangement but in this song Joel very clever weaves the banjo and the piano together in a very fast melody song bursting with musical character and life. Another clever addition is when the violin enters the fray. I think the tempo in this live recording of the song is even faster than the original album track which is pretty impressive as the original recording was extremely fast.

Live Recording of Travelin’ Prayer

Album Recording of Travelin’ Prayer

Day 337: Sylvia’s Mother, Dr Hook

Roderick Benson — Sat, 20 Feb 2021 00:00:43 +0000

So last week I shared a classic hit from the 70s from the US band Dr Hook. This is another one of their not so well known song that tells an interesting story about a guy who has lost the love of his life, Sylvia. As he argues over the phone with her mother (Mrs Avery) about whether he can speak to her so he can “tell her goodbye”, each verse slowly unfolds the story of Sylvia moving on in her life marrying a guy from down Galveston way.

Meanwhile as he continues to plead with her non-budging mother, the operator keeps coming on the line saying: “and the operator says 40c more for the next three minutes please”. As you can guess if you have read some of this blog, this song really appeals to me because of the rich lyrical content.

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 202: Needle and the damage done, Neil Young

Roderick Benson — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 23:00:00 +0000

Another one from my musical centre. Neil Young music is like an old friend to me. This song is particularly poignant especially since my first job was working in a drug and alcohol unit at Westmead hospital. It was there I began to understand the complexities of drug addiction especially addiction to heroin.

Day 140: Old Man, Neil Young

Roderick Benson — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 18:24:46 +0000

Love playing this song on my guitar. Remember first seeing this clip back in ’93 when I was sharing a flat in Manchester with a group of university students. Those were the days of video recorders so I recorded the BBC show and held onto the video tape long after my video player died. Finally threw it out a few years back but still love this concert which now is scattered across Youtube.

Day 99: American Pie, Don Mclean

Roderick Benson — Tue, 08 Sep 2020 11:40:39 +0000

I spent some time learning every verse to this song. Again brings back very pleasant memories of lovely holidays at Barrington Guest house (see Covid Island Discs Day 2). This song was now written a long, long time ago.

Day 54 (album cover 9 of 10): You’re so Vain, Carly Simon.

Rbenson — Tue, 18 Aug 2020 20:16:19 +0000

So with the partial release of the UK shutdown the question is when do I bring Covid Island discs to a fitting conclusion? I have decided its end point (my last post) will be on the day that I first am allowed to go swimming again. My guess is that won’t be too far away but we shall wait and see.

In the meantime, I just never get sick of hearing this song and the Youtube clip is a great version in a great location.