Like week 35, the choice for the best video of week 36 was also an easy decision to make. While Michael Jackson's music is not always my cup of tea, his videos are incredible because the dance sequences in them are amazing.

The video for the song "Beat It" is not an exception. In fact, I think it is one of the best ones he produced in terms of a dance sequence. It was such clever choreography to get men from two opposing gangs to perform a dance which represents a stylised fight, ending with Michael Jackson making peace between the two gang leaders. The video concludes in a single co-ordinated dance with dozens of male dancers (gang members). Very clever indeed!

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 end my one hit wonder strange song theme with this very sobering offering. This song was written at a time when we feared the world could end in a nuclear holocaust. Here is its background (taken from Wikipedia): The lyrics of the original German version tell a story: 99 balloons are set free and are mistaken for UFOs, causing a general to send pilots to investigate. Finding nothing but balloons, the pilots put on a large show of fire power. The display of force worries the nations along the borders and the war ministers on each side bang the drums of conflict to grab power for themselves. In the end, a cataclysmic war results from the otherwise harmless flight of balloons and causes devastation on all sides without a victor, as indicated in the denouement of the song: "99 Jahre Krieg lieβen keinen Platz für Sieger," which translates as, "99 years of war have left no place for winners." The anti-war song finishes with the singer walking through the devastated ruins of the world and finding a balloon. The description of what happens in the final line of the piece is the same in German and English: "Denk 'an dich und lass' ihn fliegen," or "I think of you and let it go.

Thankfully, the end of the 80s turned out to be a time of great political change in the right direction with the collapse of the iron curtain and the fall of the Berlin wall. While it was good that the evils of communism fell in the East, it created a false narrative that all forms of capitalism were equally good because none were as bad as the system that so radically failed in the former Soviet Union. Similarly socialism appeared to become forever linked with communism. While I fully agree there is a form of capitalism that is superior to socialism, that form has been subsumed by an extreme version of neo-liberal capitalism which is not sustainable for the remainder of this century.

Let's hope this terrible virus helps us to make the urgent corrections that are required to our capitalist economies for the sake of the vast majority of adults on this planet and their children.

Happy birthday USA. Not looking so well at the moment.

Let's give the boys a turn. Wow this song is amazing and captures at least one of the reactions one can have against the modern world: "I have become comfortably numb". Enjoy the amazing electric guitar at the end which is truly a work of art. If you have not heard it before take the time to listen to it. If you like electric guitar, the extended riff in this song will take your breath away.

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.

This rock star's voice reminds me of Bonnie Tyler who reminds me of a female version of Kurt Cobane who reminds me a little of Rod Stewart.

So I'll admit that Jimi Hendrix is not my favourite artist but here is one of his classics which demonstrates some of his guitaring skill. If you like electric guitar, you're going to love this one. This video is quite funny really as it is sooo late 60s early 70s. Like the two cool hippy dudes dancing at the front getting the ears blasted by the outside speakers. Also quite funny crowd scenes capturing the "dress code" of the time. What I find a little sad about these 70s clips is that all these folk, who at the time, were so non-conformist, went on to form, in general, a generation which was far more materialistic than their parents and whose leadership has seen the most outrageous growth of inequality which has practically all but wiped out some of the gains we made in creating a more equitable society in the post 2nd world war Western world.