So this week there are quite a few interesting video that are worth checking out for their video content. In fact these four videos are all interesting in their own ways.

1. The Reason, Hoobastank
2. Chasing Cars, Snow Patrol
3. It must be love, Madness
4. Everybody's Talking, The Beautiful South

Out of those four however I am going to give my favourite video vote to Madness' "it must be love" which of course contains Madness' trademark humour which permeates all their music and videos. As the guy warns at the beginning, don't try this stunt (of running in front of a funeral hearse) at home.

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

I quite like the way Sinéad kind of flattens the "to you" at the end of the chorus. Sadly, I heard recently she was suffering from severe mental health problems. This world certainly is enough to break people sadly.

So I have one of Ryan Adams albums but this song wasn't on it. The song from the album I was searching for is called "Gimme something good" but while searching for it, this song popped up. The opening credit to this song is quite something as he filmed this on the 7^th of September 2001, a few days before those two gigantic buildings (the world trade center), which feature heavily in his film clip, would come crashing down forever changing airtravel as we know it.

My own personal memories of those amazing buildings date back to 2000 when I was at a scientific conference in New York. One afternoon I went to the observation level of the World Trade Center which was always incredible because unlike the Empire State building, they had designed the roof top so there was no actual safety netting or fencing. Basically, you could walk out to an edge which had a short drop down of about 5 feet into a pit area that was probably about 20 feet wide. If you were to jump into the pit (obviously you couldn't jump 20 feet to make it to the ultimate edge of the building), you of course you would not hurt yourself but once down in the pit area, you were protected from the ultimate building edge by a perimeter wall which I guess was about 10 feet high.

I arrived at the World Trade Center in the early afternoon and made my way up to the lower observation deck. This floor was inside and in the central part, was packed full of shops and food outlets. I bought myself an early tea (some pizza and coke) and then went up to the roof top where I spent several hours watching the sun set and the city transform itself from a day to a nightscape as literally thousands upon thousands of tiny lights began to illuminate across that incredibly vast city. It was a memory I will never forget and I am so thankful I had the opportunity to do it.

On the day the Trade Centers came down, I felt physically sick and my mind kept wondering if any of the folk who served me tea that afternoon were now lying dead in the ruins of those mighty towers. Of course I will never know but given I was only there the year before, it is sadly possible that some of the people I interacted with that day lost their lives on that cold morning of September 11^th.

A second appearance of the 4 non blonds in Covid Island Discs. In some ways I can relate to the lyrics of this song. In the scheme of things the USA is a wonderful country and yet .... and yet! Oh USA what has gone wrong with your dream? How has Trump et al. bewitched so many of you? A question I cannot pretend to answer and yet one which causes me much distress.

Another timeless classic. One of those pieces where the saxophone really become the key instrument in making the song so distinctive.

Time to finish the first week of 2021 with another classic song from arguably the greatest Australian wordsmith Paul Kelly. A great story about a guy struggling with alcohol addiction who ends up splitting up with his wife while he receives inpatient therapy for his addiction. The story then covers the nervousness of his returning to his home after such a long time away.

He came in on a Sunday
Every muscle aching
Walking in slow motion
Like he'd just been hit
Did they have a future?
Would he know his children?
Could he make a picture
And get them all to fit?
He was shaking in his seat
Riding through the streets
In a Silvertop
To her door

Another song from the band Pulp. I guess this English band's song picks up the very much alive English class system.

And here is a comical rewording of the song aimed against one of the most elitist politicians in the current Conservative party. Sadly the lyrics in this comical version are not so far from the real Rees Mogg in my opinion. Such is the terribly awful Brexit government that is currently running the UK.