So this was meant to be the last week of Covid Island Discs but sadly the government has delayed the final relaxation of lockdown restrictions due to the delta variant of Covid-19 which is currently spreading rapidly in the UK population.

The two videos I recommend watching this week is "Park life" by Blur and "Twilight" from ELO with the latter video getting my vote for best video of the week. I can't quite decide if this is because the music itself is so spacey or if the visuals are also quite attractive to watch as you see a full orchestra perform this amazing rock technofunk piece of music. While the ELO video has some great lighting effects, the Park life video is much more down to earth and has a comical feel to match the lyrics of the song.

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 firstly I am late because we are redecorating Grace's room. Took the radiator off and then over the day noticed a slow leak. The washer on the pipe had failed. Long story shot, had to drain the central heating system so no central heating or hot water tonight. Need new washer or compression joint (can you get these during a shutdown)? Guess I will find out tomorrow.

OK so the Beatles is one of those bands where choosing a single hit is just about impossible. I really have come to consider them the greatest rock band of all time. What do I choose: Let it Be, Hey Jude, A Day in the Life, Elanor Rigby, Strawberry Fields, Norwegian Wood, The Long and Winding Road, A Hard Days Night, Penny Lane, Revolution 1, Ticket to Ride, Yesterday, For no One, Tomorrow Never Knows, Nowhere man, Michelle, The Fool on the Hill, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart Club band, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, She's leaving home? Incredible that one band consistently produced so many iconic songs that have stood the test of time.

So why did I choose Twist and Shout? Well it is a song that I think most of us associate with great teenage parties and late nights where this song is played to get everyone on the dance floor. Given our current depressing time, I thought this song might be good to cheer you all up and get you on your living room floor with your families dancing. You know what to do.

One final dilemma do I put the link to the album version or to a live concert version? Given it is Youtube, I decided to choose the latter but sadly that means you got to put up with screaming teenage girls.

A song that people of my age group can increasingly relate to as our parents come to the end of their lives. Once you lose your Mum and Dad, there are always days when you think, I wish I could speak to them again.

Yes this song is certainly unusual and the video clip makes it even stranger (and a little creepy). The battle of love trying to fend of death I guess?

Countdown to the year anniversary of Covid Island Discs T -6

So this song was a hit from Kate Bush's album Lionheart. Is is a particularly intense and musically dramatic song and the accompanying video has all the Kate Bush trademarks including great choreography and the persistent image trace of her moving arms. The guy dressed all in black with a black hood adds a menacing touch to the video to match the menacing feel the lyrics of the song also create.

The song itself is based around the film production company Hammer which is based in London and produced many classic horror movies including Baron Victor Frankenstein, Count Dracula, and the Mummy, which Hammer reintroduced to audiences by filming them in colour for the first time. Apparently Kate Bush used to supply screams for horror movies so I wonder if she actually worked for Hammer in her early days?

This song captures the hope that Christians have in terms of what Easter Sunday means in terms of redeeming our present universe from all the pain, suffering, death and wickedness that so many people experience on a day to day basis. I'll admit that sometimes it feels almost impossible to hold onto this hope but at the end of the day, as Simon Peter (one of the 12 Disciples) once said to Jesus when he asked his disciples whether they wanted to leave too, replied: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:68-69)

I have now found the studio version of this song so replaced the original live version, which was part of this original post, when it was first published at Easter 2021. The studio version has some really clever imagery with a rejected mirror found on a rubbish dump that gives glimpses of the future hope that is all around us if only we could see through these present sufferings and trust in the Christ's redemptive power.

Happy Easter!

Time to change from yesterday's heavy rock guitar of Jimi Hendrix to this pretty little number from Toto. This song was on their Toto IV album which had their two classic hits Rosanna and Africa. However, I think this song was also one of the best songs on this album. Unfortunately the live version I have cited here is not quite as good as the studio version as the high notes of the song are now a bit out of Bobby Kimball's vocal range so he really sings it on his vocal chords.