OK so this week there are some very visually pleasing videos and some which are well?? hahem. Little River Band here's looking at you. Man there should be a law against their dress code.

So the shortlist for interesting videos this week are:

1. Our lips are sealed by the Go, Gos
2. Don't you want me baby by the Human League
3. Black Velvet by Alannah Myles

I think out of those three, my favourite is "Don't you want me baby" by the Human league although "Black Velvet" comes in a close second. The Gos, Gos video probably shouldn't really be in the shortlist but it is kind of cute video to match a cute song.

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

Another one of my favourite Coldplay songs for sooo many reasons. The line that rings so true to me (especially in relation to my past chosen career of cell biology) is: "Nobody said it be easy, nobody said it would be so hard."

I think many honest folk who work in RAE (publish or perish) world that is sadly modern day medical research can very much relate to that sentiment.

Hope this sentiment holds for the USA and that they are never fooled again by a charlatan like Trump. For that matter, I also hope that our Trump-like prime minister's time is also short and we can finally rid ourselves of our aberrant nationalistic hard right wing Conservative Party.

Never have I wanted the main lyric of this song to be true as in 2020. I so much hope and pray that the wicked spell of far right politics is broken in 2021. So tired of the Trump's, Putin's and Johnson's of this world.

I remember exactly what I was doing when I first heard this classic track from Brian Adams. I was working in a Woolworths shop in a place called Manly (Sydney Australia). It was a University vacation job and I was working on the back cash register (from here it was about a 3 minute walk to the glories of Manly beach). If only I appreciated the beauty of that wonderful place as I do now. For some reason I associated this song with a girl I used to like at the time even though the lyrics were completely inapplicable because we never actually went out. Ironically, the line in the song that resonated with me (and which now brings a smile to my face) is the line "thinking about our younger years". I first met this girl when we were both at school in about '82. Apparently the song was released in 1984 although I definitely couldn't have heard it on the Aussie charts until 1985 as this was my first year at the University of Sydney. As a very young 19 year old, 3 years was like a lifetime ????.

Wow we begin week 52 of Covid Island Discs. We have nearly made it through a whole year of UK lockdown which is a sobering thought. In some ways it seems like only yesterday that Johnson announced the first lockdown all the back in March 2020 but in other ways it seems like half a lifetime ago. Certainly it will be great to finally bring Covid Island Discs to an end when life in the UK returns to normal. However, I sometimes wonder whether the disruption this virus has caused, will leave permanent change to our society in a similar way 911 forever changed air travel. I hope not but alas, things often don't work out the way you hope.

To mark the start of week 52, I am citing a first from the female group Wilson Phillips. In many ways this band is quite "sweet" to the ear so not what you would describe as rock. A better description would be soft pop which might not be to your taste. "Eyes like twins" however is probably their most "non-sweet" song and certainly deserves a place in Covid Island Discs. Sadly, I could not find a video to go with the tune so the video below is the next best thing: someone putting together a Powerpoint presentation of images to accompany the tune.

So this is the second year that I have cited a song on Australian Anzac day. Anzac day is when Australians commemorate all those Aussies who have tragically lost their lives in armed conflict from the tragic souls who were gunned down by the Turks on Anzac cove to the many Aussies who suffered in were killed or suffered horrific injuries; both psychological and physical in the Vietnam war. If only we could really give peace a chance at those times when nations drift inexorably toward war.

Happy Anzac Day!