In terms of the most visually pleasing video for week 35, well surely it has to go to the Corrs video for the song "So Young". Yes I know! Well in fairness to me, the video is artistically clever even if most of the band members are stunningly beautiful.

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

This song has an interesting back story. Sting wrote this song about totalitarian regimes that keep tight control over their population through extensive surveillance.

However, after this song was released, Sting received lots of letters from starry-eyed couples saying how this song captured beautifully the dynamics of their relationship. Sting was so nonplussed by the correspondence that he wrote and released tomorrow's song.

Staying with the comedy, I think this is the song to finish the year on as it summaries the UK Tory government nicely. Let's hope 2021 is a better year but it feels like an impossibly long time to wait before this current crop of cabinet charlatans (I mean ministers) are finally prised from the levers of power. I think humour is about the only defence we have against those in power who care nothing about those they lead.

Happy New Year Everyone

This is a great little song by REM. I remember when it came out I was working as a PhD student at the University of Manchester. I have a very distinct memory of doing tissue culture work with another scientist Juliet while this song was blaring out of the radio. The lyrics to this song are also quite fascinating:

Now, Andy, did you hear about this one?
Tell me, are you locked in the punch?
Andy, are you goofing on Elvis? Hey, baby
Are we losing touch?

Say what? Also the line "hey baby are we losing touch" sounds like it is sung by the late great Roy Orbison

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"

Funnily enough I always thought this song was Stevie Nicks rather than Fleetwood Mac. Ironic really since I bought the album Tango in the night which is the album this song is taken from. A fairly solid offering from Fleetwood Mac.

So this song brings back a very distinctive memory for me. I first heard it on a flight from Sydney to Christchurch New Zealand in I guess 1979. It was a holiday with Mum and Dad and I think from memory it was on of the first holiday's without my older siblings. It was a great holiday and the only time I have ever been to New Zealand. I wonder if I shall ever get to back there? My guess is probably not/