So there were some very visually interesting videos this week. Probably the top three that are worth looking at are:

• Life for rent by Dido
• Wrapped around your finger by the Police
• Thank U by Alanis Morissette

I think out of those three probably the most bizarre is Alanis's video which has her completely naked sitting in various public places singing her song. The Wrapped around your finger video is also pretty cool with Sting tipping over hundreds of single candles in tall candle holders. Finally, Dido's video is also visually inspiring especially towards the end of the video when she too starts throwing vases of flowers around smashing them against a bare wall.

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 problem of evil (whether natural or human) has vexed philosophers and led to atheism down the ages. For many, Covid-19 is a timely reminder for why they do not believe in God. Yet I wonder if our problem with "the problem of evil" is we simply vastly underestimate how difficult it is to fix? Good Friday reminds me that even for God, the problem of evil could not just be brushed away by the power he used to create the cosmos. No it required his own mysterious Trinitarian Personhood to be broken: the eternal relationship between the Father and the Son interrupted for a finite period of time as Jesus hung in agony on the cross crying out "My God, My God why have you forsaken me?". Because he did this for me (and for all those who will receive it) I am very, very thankful.

I always think Kim Carnes is the female version of Rod Stewart (in terms of voice of course). Ahh just realised I haven't posted a song from Rod Stewart yet!

Yesterday I shared a hit by the band the cure. The cure and Joy division often played gigs together with Joy Division opening their concerts. Of course Joy Division's music is anything but joyful and one of their founding members, Ian Curtis was a tragic figure suffering long term depression which led to him to take his own life when he was only 23. This song is probably from their most famous and final album (apparently they only had two) "Closer" and was released just a few month after Ian Curtis had taken his life. The remaining members of the band regrouped forming the band New Order.

"and Harry doesn't mind, if he doesn't make the scene. He's got a day time job he's doing alright."

Well I never thought I would be doing a second Covid Island Disc post on Good Friday. Given it is Good Friday, it seems only appropriate to share a song that is related to the Christian story of the creator God who redeems humanity via the death of his son Jesus of Nazareth around AD 30 in Roman occupied Jerusalem. Whether the story is true or false is something that every individual, who hears the story, must decide for themselves. However, if it is true, then it offers us an incredible hope that this present life, with all its pain and suffering, is not the final reality of our existence but there is a much greater and better reality that awaits us if we can just embrace the message of the gospel story which simply calls us to say sorry and to recognise that the creator of this incredible universe has the right to rule it.

Amy Grant is probably one of the most famous Christian artists within the mainstream musical industry and I have already cited one of her songs It takes a little time on day 184 of Covid Island Discs.

So this is a song that was released by Alan Parsons after 15 years of musical silence. The video of this song is also really worth watching because it really is in some ways Parson's musical autobiography. I watched this song just after preparing Parson's biography for Covid Island Discs (Week 23) and what is fascinating about the video is seeing all the important landmarks of Parson's life in the imagery of the video, including Abbey road and his past famous albums. In fact, even the very opening scene of the video has a piece of old ship paper with the words "Dark Side of the Moon" inscribed on it as this was one of the early albums Parson's helped to produce along with the iconic Beatles album, "Abbey Road", when he first went to work at Abbey road studios as a young man.