This week's best video from a visual point of view goes to Michael Penn's "No Myth" although a close second would be Fleetwoodmac's "Tusk". The Tusk video is interesting but the video quality is a little poor.

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

It will quickly dawn on people as I share my list over the next few weeks that I am still mostly stuck in the 20th century in terms of my music. So just to demonstrate that I have just about managed to make it into the 21st century with some of the music I listen to, this is a song released in 2003 (thought it was later than that).

From the time I was born until I left to come to England in 1992, I used to spend every Easter at Barrington Guest house. This was such a lovely holiday for a special set of families who would converge on the guest house every year for the Easter break. Over the years, these same families became great friends as we enjoyed each other's company. During the Easter break we would walk together in some of most beautiful rain forest in the world, ride horses, feed Rosellas that would eat out of your hand or land on your head, compete in a Davis cup tennis tournament, swim in crystal clear rivers (sliding down a natural rock face slippery dip) and attend one of the most amazing country Saturday bush dances complete with a diagonal couple "Strip the Willow" spin. The older teenagers and twenty somethings would then commandeer a tour bus after the dance and sing songs like "American Pie" until the early hours of the morning. It truly gave me many of the most memorable and enjoyable times in my life.

Yet it was always a downer when the holiday was over and we had returned to Sydney. Although there wasn't much sand at Barrington, sometimes you would find something (say mud or a bloody sock from an encounter with a leech) on your shoes that would make you think, "wow I wish I was back there". Over the years I wrote many silly lyrics to famous tunes sometime to perform at school formals or house parties. Yet the comedown from Barrington one year was enough for me to write my own song (I have only ever written two proper songs in my life) which I guess was along similar lines to this Dido classic. For what it is worth, my chorus went: "it's a matter of time, that drives us fast, pushing our future into the past, a holiday with you, passes too soon, leaving us to steal memories while staring at our room."

There is a sad postscript to this story. In 2006 Helen and I were booked into Barrington Guest House. I drove excitedly to the spot pulling up and getting out of the car to be greeted by someone. The conversation went like this:

Me: "Hi we are here to stay at Barrington"
Bemused person: "you not staying here mate"
Me (a little confused): "why?"
Person: "It burnt down last night"

Why did I not see that? Well the outer shell of the guest house was still standing (I now understand the full meaning of the term when they say a house has been gutted). It was only when you got closer you could see the smouldering smoke rising from the interior. Such a tragedy because the guest house was built sometime early in the 20th century which made it a valuable historical artefact by Australian standards.

OK this is an unfortunate album because it was so overplayed in the UK that everyone came to despise James Blunt after hearing the hits on this album over and over and over and over again. However, this little song I think stands the test of time.

I must confess I particularly relate to this song when many years ago (1992) I returned from a trip from the religious community Taizé. Jon and I spent a night travelling back on the train talking to two fellow young women one who by the end of the night I was highly attracted to even though she was engaged to married so knew that as we exited that train at Victoria station I would never see again — it was a melancholic feeling at the time.

This song is actually another Carol King classic which also appeared on her Tapestry album (see yesteday's post). However, I also really like Jame's Taylor's version of the song. In this post I have also included Carol King's version as well.

James Taylor

Carol King

Wow! So at the moment I am filling in missing years where I have no song in Covid Island discs that were published for a particular year. Up until today, 2017 was one such empty year. In my search for a song for this year, puts this song at number 5 for the best 50 songs released in 2017 and yes I certainly agree with their assessment. This song combines powerful lyrics with a full orchestral accompaniment against U2's rock genre. The theme of the song is also something I can relate to. The key lines that immediately jumped out at me were:

I shouldn't be here 'cause I should be dead
I can see the lights in front of me
I believe my best days are ahead
I can see the lights in front of me
Oh Jesus if I'm still your friend
What the hell
What the hell you got for me
I gotta get out from under my bed
I can see again the lights in front of me
Hey I've been waiting to get home a long time

So this song is particularly interesting lyrically for it covers a disturbing theme of a guy who hits a woman in his car while driving home. Out of fear he doesn't stop but continues on his way. It is clear from the song that the woman is not killed but remains in a permanent coma. Although the hit and run driver escapes justice, he cannot escape his conscience and it is his anguish cry against his conscience that occupies the chorus of the song

All my life I'll be haunted by
All my life just one moment in time
All my life until the day I die
And it will live inside of me
I will never be free all my life
Trapped in her memory all my life
Till the day that you open your eyes