So this week there was only one official music video among the songs I cited. All the other videos are of live concert performances of the songs. The music video is for "Cat's in the Cradle" by Ugly Kid Joe. The video is very good and well worth watching as it captures the theme of the song about a Dad who doesn't really spend much time with his son and so loses all those irreplaceable years of father/son relationship. The key twist to the song is in the final verse when the Dad rings his son to see if he can catch up with him. His son puts him off saying he'd love to but is too busy with his own family matters: "you see the new job's a hassle and the kids got the flu, but it's been sure nice talking to you Dad, it's been sure nice talking to you."

The other two live concert songs that are worth watching are the Kinks performance of the "Ape man" (mainly because the guy playing the piano is dressed like an ape) and Ian Dury and the Blockhead's version of "Hit me with your rhythm stick" just so you can admire Ian's cool "sunnies" with the leather side covers.

So today I watched a very interesting video analysis of a song by the Beatles called A Northern Song. Post Covid Island Discs now usually records the death of famous musicians and of course poor old George Harrison passed away many years before the Covid-19 pandemic. So I guess this post is in memorandum to George Harrison even if he did pass away so many years before this website was even born. Yet there appears to be so much more to this song of Harrison's than meets the eye as explained by James Hargreaves in his video which is also included under the Beatles Anthrology recording of Harrison's clever song which I think, as Hargreaves argues, is a passive-aggressive dig at the way McCartney and Lennon treated him as an inferior member of the Beatles.

After watching Hargreaves excellent analysis of the Harrison's song, along with his detailing of the complicated tensions that existed between the Beatles in the late 60s, it became obvious that the band was always in trouble and it was only a matter of time before the fab four would go their separate ways. Hargreaves analysis challenges the commonly held idea that the breakup of the band was solely down to Yoko entering the scene as clearly relational tensions in the Beatles were not just confined to John and Paul.

A less known version but better version (in my opinion) of the song before Lennon and McCartney fell into a possible trap set by Harrison (see Hargreaves analysis below).

Analysis of the song and its meaning by James Hargreaves

The mainstream version of the song as first published on the Yellow Submarine Album

The third member of the Travelling Wilburys recently won a Nobel prize for literature; an unusual accolade for a rock musician. Yet Dylan is an incredible wordsmith when it comes to writing songs and this protest song about the framing of the boxer Rubin Carter for first degree murder is probably one of the best examples of his truly amazing writing talents. Eight minutes 16 seconds of pure poetry.

My favourite lines in this song are:

Meanwhile far away in another part of town, Rubin Carter and a couple of friends are driving around, the number one contender for the middle weight crown, had no idea what kind of shit was about to go down. When a cop pulls over to the side of the road, just like the time before and the time before that. In Paterson that's just the way things go, if your black, you might as well not show up on the street unless you want draw the heat.

Another great Australian band. This song captures the real sadness of the wondering spirit who is yet to find its home.

"I've been back to South East Asia, but the answer sure ain't there."
"Well the last plane out of Sydney almost gone..."

OK this is the last James Bond theme although I did share Paul McCartney's "Live and Let die" way back in week 2 day 9 which also belongs here. Sheryl Crow has already also made an appearance in my play list and she certainly was a good choice to do one of the James Bond opening songs.

So I have one of Ryan Adams albums but this song wasn't on it. The song from the album I was searching for is called "Gimme something good" but while searching for it, this song popped up. The opening credit to this song is quite something as he filmed this on the 7^th of September 2001, a few days before those two gigantic buildings (the world trade center), which feature heavily in his film clip, would come crashing down forever changing airtravel as we know it.

My own personal memories of those amazing buildings date back to 2000 when I was at a scientific conference in New York. One afternoon I went to the observation level of the World Trade Center which was always incredible because unlike the Empire State building, they had designed the roof top so there was no actual safety netting or fencing. Basically, you could walk out to an edge which had a short drop down of about 5 feet into a pit area that was probably about 20 feet wide. If you were to jump into the pit (obviously you couldn't jump 20 feet to make it to the ultimate edge of the building), you of course you would not hurt yourself but once down in the pit area, you were protected from the ultimate building edge by a perimeter wall which I guess was about 10 feet high.

I arrived at the World Trade Center in the early afternoon and made my way up to the lower observation deck. This floor was inside and in the central part, was packed full of shops and food outlets. I bought myself an early tea (some pizza and coke) and then went up to the roof top where I spent several hours watching the sun set and the city transform itself from a day to a nightscape as literally thousands upon thousands of tiny lights began to illuminate across that incredibly vast city. It was a memory I will never forget and I am so thankful I had the opportunity to do it.

On the day the Trade Centers came down, I felt physically sick and my mind kept wondering if any of the folk who served me tea that afternoon were now lying dead in the ruins of those mighty towers. Of course I will never know but given I was only there the year before, it is sadly possible that some of the people I interacted with that day lost their lives on that cold morning of September 11^th.

This song always reminds me of my parents marriage which was far from happy. Yet somehow despite all the fights breakups and tears they somehow stayed together until the end of their lives.

This rock star's voice reminds me of Bonnie Tyler who reminds me of a female version of Kurt Cobane who reminds me a little of Rod Stewart.