So this week sadly contained songs without much video content. I guess the two songs which make my shortlist this week for the best video are:

1. Angel of the Morning by Juice Newton
2. No Surprises, Radiohead

Out of those two, I go for Angel of the morning as the Radiohead video while very clever is very dark indeed and let's face it Judy is a lot more attractive than Jonny Greenwood who has terrible oral hygiene (the calculus on his lower teeth is really off putting. Sorry my Dad was a dentist so I notice these things ????).

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 needs no introduction. And what a fantastic backdrop for the Oils to perform live in. This one is for all my Felly friends with special mention to Simon (Happy birthday mate), Jodi, Tani, Adrian, Anne, Matt, Fiona and Cathy. Also in loving memory of my best man Jonathan Higgs who was a MASSIVE Oils fan. So much so, he had a Midnight Oil themed 21^st where I went dressed from the album cover Head Injuries.

I know at least three of you on this list have photos with the great Peter G. Thanks for the wonderful memories guys. You are such valuable friends.

"US Forces give the nod!"

Let's really go crazy. This is one of our Rebekah's favourite. Love the guitar player.

"I know why you went away. Understand you couldn't stay."

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.

"and Harry doesn't mind, if he doesn't make the scene. He's got a day time job he's doing alright."

Countdown to the year anniversary of Covid Island Discs T -3

This is probably one of Dire Straits longest songs running for over 15 minutes. This song opened their Love over Gold album and it certainly is a fantastic and interesting song. Interestingly enough, there is a Telegraph Road in the North Shore of Sydney so whenever I drove past that road in Pymble, it always brought this classic Dire Straits song to mind. Some how I don't think the Pymble Telegraph road would have been the road that Mark Knopfler had in mind when he penned this classic.

Time for a bit of a meme song. This is certain one of those rock and roll classics that everyone knows yet the first time Rainbow has appeared in Covid Island Discs. Like the key change in the middle of the song.