So this week there are some great videos in my music list. Ones which are really worth checking out are:

1. I send a message, INXS
2. Come as you are, Nirvana
3. And she was, Talking Heads
4. Call me when you're sober, Evanescence

All the videos are great for different reasons. The INXS video has a cute little black toy robot juxtaposed into a Japanese Geisha girl's hangout, the Nirvana song has the iconic baby in the water with the dollar bill which of course was the album cover to Never Mind. The Talking Heads video is classic Talking Heads with surreal cartoon paper cut out images in the same genre as the Monty Python animated sequences and, as usual, the Evanescence "Call me when you're sober" song is just completely intense both musically and visually.

Yet when you have finished looking at this list, you might as well also check out the Cold Chisel video "Forever now" and Australian Crawl's "Reckless" as these two videos are also very visually appealing: the former with the drummer keeping time on café cutlery while the latter has car indicators in time with the strong beat of the song. I guess if I had to choose one video that was the best out of this strong set, I would probably go with "I Send a message" (mainly because of the robot) although "Call me when you're sober" is also at the top of this list.

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 completed my first swim since lockdown without a wetsuit so quite cold. Two people from Platt were also there John Boley (Sarah Boley) and Rachel Watson. Was good to see some church folk in 3D for once although sad social distancing meant could only greet them with a distance wave. We're still in strange times. OK so this song seems very appropriate to celebrate my first swim. A song from the Australian wordsmith himself capturing another very human and sad story that revolves around the Australian beach and surf.

The other cool thing about this video is it brings back pleasant memories for me. Paul Kelly when playing a gig in Australia is so famous that he would only play at a major venue like the Sydney Entertainment Centre. However, in the UK, he is not really known and amazingly he did a gig in the northern quarter of Manchester in a small pub with a concert room that held only about 100 or so people. My daughter Grace and I got tickets to see it. This was my daughter's first experience of a rock gig so what a way to start her concert portfolio. It was a really great to see Paul Kelly up close on stage doing all his amazing hits.

OK so yesterday I mentioned the song the pinball wizard which in the musical Tommy was performed by Elton John (see yesterday's post). However, this is the Who's version of the same song with Roger Daltrey singing. Of course in the musical Tommy (where this song comes from) Roger Daltrey plays Tommy the pinball wizard who defeats his opponent who laments his defeat by singing this song. I guess that is why they needed Elton John to perform this number in the musical Tommy which I have also put in this post. I personally think the Elton John version is better.

Pinball Wizard performed by the Who

Pinball Wizard performed by Elton John

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 dark song from Radiohead. To me the meaning of this song is ambiguous. I guess the simple interpretation is that he thinks he is a creep as he looks upon the woman he loves who he knows he is totally unworthy of.

Yet another interpretation is one of deep sarcasm where he is processing how a woman has made him feel in terms of the way she has treated him and he is taking on that persona. An interesting song either way although a strong language warning for those who are sensitive to swearing.

Another very clever thing about this song is the musical progression. The music in the verses is very smooth but at the point in the chorus where Thomas sings "I'm a creep" a very dissonant out of time guitar chord is struck which really matches the dystopian meaning of the words that are being sung at that point. Such a very creative use of rock music matching it to the overall theme of the song.

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.

Ok so this song brings back lots of teenage memories for me. I remember going on a youth camp when I was about 16 and one night we had a video night where we watched all the Rocky movies back to back. This song always reminds me of that camp which was so much fun. I remember falling in love with a girl on the camp called Karen Bishop. I wonder what became of her?