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

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.

Always enjoy finding Beatles videos on Youtube because there aren't many of them. I guess I can relate to this song as I too have written a paperback although its not really "a dirty story about a dirty man" ????

Haven't as yet had a song from the man they called the king of rock and roll so I guess a song from him is long overdue. This is probably my favourite Elvis Presley song.

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.

Countdown to the year anniversary of Covid Island Discs Covid Island new year's eve

Well we've made it. Tomorrow one year ago I started Covid Island Discs. Little did I (or indeed the world know) just how devastating this disease would be on so many lives. Since starting Covid Island discs so many thousands of lives have been lost to this terrible virus. So many people have also been forced to live a year of their lives in isolation and many businesses have been deeply damaged, some of course have gone out of business.

Yet there is light at the end of this very dark tunnel. One really impressive thing this year has shown, is just how well science can work to serve humanity when scientists are able to collaborate on a single problem rather than compete in an adversarial way, which sadly is much more common, given the foolish grant system that funding agencies have created. We now have at least 4 different highly effective vaccines available and in the UK, through the excellent work of the NHS, British people are steadily being vaccinated. In fact, I received my first vaccination the day I wrote this sentence although it is not on the 20^th of March but rather the 13^th as I write Covid Island Discs posts in blocks and then use a Wordpress scheduler to make sure they published on the correct date. Although I have very much enjoyed doing Covid Island Discs and will continue to do so until the UK is officially out of lockdown, I will certainly be pleased when this project finally comes to an end as this means that we have finally defeated this microscopic enemy, hopefully through the population reaching herd immunity.

The logical song is certainly one of Supertramp's greatest songs. Hodgson wrote the song reflecting on his Boarding School experience. He said of his own song: “the burning question that came down to its rawest place was 'please tell me who I am,' and that's basically what the song is about. I think this eternal question continues to hit such a deep chord in people around the world and why it stays so meaningful."

A new hit from Coldplay. Quite a catchy song with a very funky video sequence to go with the music.