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.

It will quickly dawn on people as I share my list over the next few weeks that I am still mostly stuck in the 20th century in terms of my music. So just to demonstrate that I have just about managed to make it into the 21st century with some of the music I listen to, this is a song released in 2003 (thought it was later than that).

From the time I was born until I left to come to England in 1992, I used to spend every Easter at Barrington Guest house. This was such a lovely holiday for a special set of families who would converge on the guest house every year for the Easter break. Over the years, these same families became great friends as we enjoyed each other's company. During the Easter break we would walk together in some of most beautiful rain forest in the world, ride horses, feed Rosellas that would eat out of your hand or land on your head, compete in a Davis cup tennis tournament, swim in crystal clear rivers (sliding down a natural rock face slippery dip) and attend one of the most amazing country Saturday bush dances complete with a diagonal couple "Strip the Willow" spin. The older teenagers and twenty somethings would then commandeer a tour bus after the dance and sing songs like "American Pie" until the early hours of the morning. It truly gave me many of the most memorable and enjoyable times in my life.

Yet it was always a downer when the holiday was over and we had returned to Sydney. Although there wasn't much sand at Barrington, sometimes you would find something (say mud or a bloody sock from an encounter with a leech) on your shoes that would make you think, "wow I wish I was back there". Over the years I wrote many silly lyrics to famous tunes sometime to perform at school formals or house parties. Yet the comedown from Barrington one year was enough for me to write my own song (I have only ever written two proper songs in my life) which I guess was along similar lines to this Dido classic. For what it is worth, my chorus went: "it's a matter of time, that drives us fast, pushing our future into the past, a holiday with you, passes too soon, leaving us to steal memories while staring at our room."

There is a sad postscript to this story. In 2006 Helen and I were booked into Barrington Guest House. I drove excitedly to the spot pulling up and getting out of the car to be greeted by someone. The conversation went like this:

Me: "Hi we are here to stay at Barrington"
Bemused person: "you not staying here mate"
Me (a little confused): "why?"
Person: "It burnt down last night"

Why did I not see that? Well the outer shell of the guest house was still standing (I now understand the full meaning of the term when they say a house has been gutted). It was only when you got closer you could see the smouldering smoke rising from the interior. Such a tragedy because the guest house was built sometime early in the 20th century which made it a valuable historical artefact by Australian standards.

This song was not one I intended to include until today when I heard about the sad death of Dave Greenfield who died late yesterday aged 71 after testing positive for Covid-19. He had been in hospital for a prolonged period with heart problems. RIP

Such a beautiful song this time augmented with a nice duet from Sheryl Crow. The background to the story is equally interesting. From memory I thought it was about one of his friends who took her own life but apparently each verse is about something different. This is what the npr.org website said about the song.

Taylor wrote "Fire and Rain" in 1968. The song has three verses. One is about a friend who committed suicide, another is about Taylor's addiction to heroin, the third refers to a mental hospital and a band Taylor started called The Flying Machine. Each verse is followed by the same chorus, `I've seen fire and I've seen rain. I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end. I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend, but I always thought that I'd see you again.' James Taylor told me he can't stand to hear his songs on the radio. He dives for the dial if "Fire and Rain" comes on. But it remains a song he likes to sing and one that audiences always wait for.

I think most of us at some points in our life can relate to the lyrics of this song. Very interesting video and well worth watching.

Time from some more heavy rock. I quite like the lyrics to this song: "be yourself is all that you can do." Surely a simple self-evident truth?

Another very beautiful song from the 1980s. I beginning to think that perhaps the 80s was one of the best decade for contemporary music or perhaps, more likely, it was just my formative years when I was developing my musical taste and collecting lots of albums.

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