So this week the two songs that make my shortlist for the best video are:

1. Never tear us apart, INXS
2. Head over feet, Alanis Morissette

The second video is a little disconcerting because the song's lyrics is about a woman who has found the love of her life yet Alanis's facial expressions in this song convey a deep incongruence between the expected emotion of the song and the emotion she conveys in the images of this video. In some ways, you can almost that the woman in the video is suffering from some major psychological disturbance rather than being a healthy individual singing about the joys of her new romantic relationship

Thus my vote this week goes to Never tear us apart by INXS. The city that this video is filmed in is Prague which is an incredibly beautiful city and very well worth visiting if you have never been there. I also like the scene change at 1 minute 24 seconds which accompanies the line "two worlds colliding"

OK given Helen is currently reading 1984 and since there is no discernible change in the Johnson government's behaviour, I thought I would share two more songs from David Bowie's Diamond Dogs album before returning to my 21^st century theme. The second half of the album had three songs all dedicated to the dystopian novel 1984. I remember studying this novel for the HSC (yes back in 1984 in fact: I'm a very old git now) and we studied it alongside Aldous Huxley's "A Brave New World". I think Huxley's book is a more accurate prediction of what would happen in the Western world up until what I will call the "post-truth" Trump era. However, the doublethink of 1984 certainly appears to be becoming more present in modern political discourse. One absolutely unforgettable scene in the book is when Winston Smith turns to his lover and says "We are the dead". She replies "We are the dead". Then the government speaker on the wall sounds to life saying: "You are the dead". Freaky stuff which is captured well by Bowie in today's Covid Island Disc.

But now
We're today's scrambled creatures, locked in tomorrow's double feature
Heaven's on the pillow, its silence competes with hell
It's a twenty-four hour service, guaranteed to make you tell
And the streets are full of press men
Bent on getting hung and buried
And the legendary curtains are drawn 'round Baby Bankrupt
Who sucks you while you're sleeping
It's the theater of financiers
Count them, fifty 'round a table
White and dressed to kill
Oh caress yourself, my juicy
For my hands have all but withered
Oh dress yourself my urchin one, for I hear them on the stairs
Because of all we've seen, because of all we've said
We are the dead
We are the dead
We are the dead

So this is another song from my University days. The mid-80s was a great time for pop/rock music in my opinion. Correction just googled and it was actually 83 so I was actually still at school. Time goes too quickly!

I had the privilege of seeing Paul Kelly playing in a small pub in the northern quarter of Manchester. I took my daughter Grace to the concert and when we arrived I sat down in the serving area and got myself and Grace a drink. We started talking to a guy and his girlfriend who were sitting on the other side of the bar and it transpired the guy we were talking to was Robert Vincent. He was the support act for Paul Kelly that night and this was one of the songs he played in his set. It is a fantastic song and I hope one day he gets the recognition he deserves given his immense musical talent.

The other thing I love about this song is it captures something that I think many people go through in life and that is facing the realities of their own brokenness in whatever form that takes. Certainly over the years I have suffered from a chronic stress disorder so this is a personal demon of mine that I continue to battle with day by day.

Well it is my lovely wife's birthday today and I have the perfect song for this day. "Happy Birthday Helen" by Things of Stone and Wood. Sadly, the audio quality of this video is very poor so I have put two versions of the song one so you can see the Aussie band members of Things of Stone and Wood performing, the other so you can hear the song with decent sound quality. It is always gratifying when one can find the perfect song for an occasion (slightly more aligned than the song I chose for our 20^th wedding anniversary (Covid Island Discs Day 26) 😀.

Video of the band performing but poor sound quality

Audio of song with no video

Another late 70s classic, This song certainly dominated the radio airwaves and is one of those classic dance tunes which is wheeled out by every DJ at a wedding reception at about 11:30 pm when everyone is in a dancing mood

So what do I open up week 59 with? How about this little number from the British band the Squeeze which was a hit in 1979. "Cool for cats" is certainly one of those songs that everyone who was born in the 60s will remember. Like the reference to the 70s police soap The Sweeney.

Time for another Queen classic. This song opened the B side of their Night at the Opera album and in some ways has the same intense rock opera theme of Bohemian Rhapsody which closed the B side. Amazing really to have two such intense songs on the same side of the same album.

In some ways this song perhaps has more resonance than it did when it was released in the 70s because in a very real sense we now have modern prophets (scientists) warning us about the seriousness of global heating and warning us of the dire consequences if we do not change our ways. Let's hope at some point we are able to rise to the challenge global heating presents for the sake of future generations.