So three strong contenders for best video for week 46 are:

1. Ocean Eyes, Billie Eilish
2. Jesus he knows me, Genesis
3. The Ghost inside, Broken Bells

I like Billie Eilish video mainly because she really does in this video have ocean eyes (an incredibly aqua blue) which go so well with the lyrics of the song. It is also interesting how they have multiple images of her to match the overdubbing of her voice in the song — a very clever match up of the video with the sound narrative.

The video for "Jesus he knows me" by Genesis visually tells the terrible story of the false charlatan preachers who use the kingdom of God to enrich themselves on the sick, the poor and the psychologically vulnerable. I like the ways in this song the words of the false preacher are placed into the very different band member's of Genesis, nicely capturing the idea that the deception is always identical even if the mouthpieces are very different: the single source of course being Satan himself.

But the winning video for this week has to be "The Ghost Inside" by Broken Bells. The video is like a mini-movie. It tells the story of a young female android making her journey to paradise. Sadly, due to lack of credit, at various stages on the journey she must pawn parts of herself in order to make the journey to her dream destination. By the time she reaches her dream planet, she is missing most of her limbs. Seemingly, lucky for her, when she is found unconscious by the keepers of her destination planet, they appear to take pity on her and restore her body making her once again completely whole. However, as she enters her new world as a restored android, she discovers that the paradise which she thought she would reach turns out to be a desert planet. In the final scene, she watches emotionless, as her spaceship leaves her behind in this remote inhospitable place.

The video also leaves an interesting question unanswered. Was the cost of her restoration being denied entry to Fortuna Repo? Is she instead sent to another planet reserved for those who don't have enough credit (or perhaps returned to her own planet of origin because the final computer message screen prints the following:

Item : Full Body Reinstated
Cost: Fortuna Repo
Jettison: Planet BB114

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

So on Thursday I posted a song by probably the greatest wordsmith of rock and roll, Bob Dylan. Yet this Australian gives the great Dylan a run for his money in my opinion. For my UK friends, his music is really worth getting into if you like poetry set to music. He has so many great songs but in this little number, he manages to smuggle a recipe for making gravy into his lyric ("Just flower, salt, a little red wine; don't forget a dollop of tomato sauce for that sweetness and extra tang"). Like Bob Dylan's song Hurricane, this song tells a detailed and complex story about a guy spending his time in prison over Christmas.

Another clever lyric clause in this song is: "and you'll dance with Rita, I know you really like her, just don't hold her too close oh brother please don't stab me in the back. I didn't mean to say that, it's just my mind it plays up, multiplies each matter, turns imagination into fact."

Certainly another great band that produced some great music over the years yet as with so many great rock bands, one of its members is no longer with us. I remember the day that Michael Hutchence was found dead in his hotel room from I guess suicide; I was driving back from Sydney University as I was visiting Australia at the time. It was an absolutely stunning day in Sydney and as the news was announced on the news the radio DJ came on afterwards and said "Why did he go and do that for?" Such a crystal clear memory for me.

This song always reminds me of my parents marriage which was far from happy. Yet somehow despite all the fights breakups and tears they somehow stayed together until the end of their lives.

A Barry Manilow album is not something I would purchase but this song of his is very pretty and deserves its place in Covid Island Discs.

Second song from Guns N' Roses. I think this is their most best known hit and certainly would sit comfortably in a Hard Rock Café playlist.

Can't believe it has taken me so long to cite this very old Beach Boys classic and this is the first time they appear in Covid Island Discs. This song brings back a nice memory for me relating to my old St Paul's youth group. Every year we would go away together for a least one or two house parties and during the weekend's festivities we would have some form of a campers concert on Saturday night. I used to take popular songs and reword them with silly lyrics and one year I reworded California Girls. Amazingly I still have the tatty bit of paper it was written on in 1985 (36 years ago!).

The first verse and chorus went

It's Friday night and we're cruising on the bus down Telford way Trying to find the turnoff so we don't end up in Yowie (yes it is a real place) bay We went down many dirt roads just to see where they would lead If only we could have seen the signs, if only we could read Chorus: I wish that I could see where my bed was I wish that I could unknot my pants I wish they hadn't created Seaforth girls

Well it was funny when we were 18 something years old performing lots of silly skits! The other bit of trivia related to this song is of course it inspired the Beatles to write "Back in the USSR" with the classic lines: "Ukraine girls really knock me out, they leave the west behind and Moscow girls make me sing and shout that Jojo's always on my my my my my mind"