So this week the three videos that make my shortlist for the best video of the week are:

1. Runaway train by Soul Asylum
2. High Hopes by Panic at the Disco
3. Hopeless by Mumford and Sons

Difficult to choose my favourite of those three but I think I shall go for High Hopes by Panic at the disco simply for the really clever special effect of Brendon Urie walking vertically up a skyscraper. However, the other two videos are well worth watching for the visual spectacles especially Runaway train with the moving clips of real missing person notices and Mumford and Sons rather "out there" video of the boys playing their instruments in all sorts of interesting locations, including in a small row boat.

The first time I ever linked this song to politics was when Ronald Reagan first came to power in the 1980s. The song for me captured the moment with its lines:

Well how do you plead An actor indeed Go re-learn your lines You don't know what you've done The finale's begun.

Reagan of course was an actor and when he came to power it felt that the cold war could erupt into a full nuclear conflict. Thankfully, this scenario was avoided and yet little did anyone know that Reagan was to set in motion 50 years of rapidly growing and unsustainable wealth inequality that would result in a US billionaire class and the top 0.1% controlling 13.5% of the nation's wealth while the bottom 50% controlled only a further 2.5% in 2024. So I write this post as Trump gets inaugurated for the second time in 8 years. It is incredible to me that someone as immoral and sociopathic as Trump could become President even once, let alone twice. And yet many historians see obvious parallels with past nation empires especially with the rise of the Caesars in the Roman empire. The pattern seems to always be the same. Too much wealth inequality where many people become desperate for a slice of the pie even though that pie is plentiful. The problem is a small oligarchy that hoards resource forcing many of their fellow citizens into poverty. The big mistake the USA and subsequently many Western nations made was to conflate the regulation of wealth distribution with egalitarianism or even socialism. The idea that there should be a good differential between the net worth of someone who has contributed much to society versus someone who has contributed little, makes complete sense. However, in such a world the poorest may only possess a small amount of capital whilst the richest might possess many millions. Let's say 50 million. Yet we do not live in a world like that. Instead we live in a world where there are now a substantial number who have 950 million more than the 50-millionaire. These individuals are hiding behind the traditional wealthy hoping that those who struggle to make ends meet do not differentiate between someone who has a personal fortune of 50 million versus someone who hoards a billion. The odd thing about Americans voting Trump into power is they think someone who is a billionaire is going to fix the system that creates billionaires. Obviously, such an idea is preposterous. So is there any hope? Well according to the historians, the current state of affairs is unstable. Wealth inequality like this will not last forever and it will be corrected in one of four ways:

1. A major conflict either a civil or international war.
2. A revolution.
3. A major catastrophe such as a pandemic or major natural disaster
4. Major political reform driven by strong leaders who forcibly pursue wealth redistribution to help correct the inequality

The 4^th option has happened in the USA before at the turn of the 20^th century in what was called the gilded age. Presidents like Roosevelt and Wilson introduced many reforms to control the burgeoning wealth of the aptly named robber barons. Let's hope the current problems plaguing the USA are corrected peacefully as they were at the turn of the 20^th century rather than by a revolution or civil war which would be catastrophic in a nation that is so awash with guns.

This song was released when I was in first year at Sydney University. Still have such a distinct memory of listening to it with my biology class mates in the Carslaw building. I wonder what became of all those folks? Sadly my guess is that probably like Prince, some of them are no longer with us.

Time for more Eagles I feel. I remember seeing the Eagles in concert back in the day when George Bush junior was President. They introduced this song by stating that they hoped Bush would already been gone by the time the next Presidential election came along. Seeing Trump thankfully fall from power yesterday, reminded me of this song.

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

This is the first song by Steely Dan to appear in Covid Island Discs and perhaps his best known song. This song very much reminds me of another song that has the telephone number theme to its lyrics. I will cite that song in tomorrow's Covid Island Disc.

Wow can't believe I got all the way to day 346 without a Doors song. I guess this is probably one of their most famous singles. Citing a Doors classic reminds me of a Billy Joel Classic which will be the subject of tomorrow's Covid Island Disc.

While Fleetwood Mac's most famous album is probably Rumours, their album Tusk also had some gems on it. I have already cited the song Tusk from the album but probably one of the prettiest song on this album was the opening song Over and Over. It is such a melodic and relaxing song. The perfect song to put on after a stressful day at work or if you want to have a romantic evening with a loved one.

December 2022: RIP Christine McVie