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

OK from yesterday's post this Segway could have gone the obvious way (I listed three classic rock tunes which I could now cover) or the psychedelic way I shall choose the latter. So yesterday's song was Eagle Rock by a band called Daddy Cool. The 3 hit wonder group Boney M wrote a hit song by the same name. Yet they also (to my knowledge) had two other big hits and today I share one of the three, Rasputin. What exactly is my next musical theme you may be wondering? Well it is weird, wonderful and often comical music from the one hit wonder bands of the 80s and 90s. Given the shutdown in the UK is going to continue for sometime yet, we might as well take a look at these one hit wonders as they will bring back some great memories and some of the film clips are pretty interesting or, as with this specimen, will give you all a good laugh. Bobby Farrell's dancing in this clip cracks me up every time.

"Oh those Russians."

PS: Bobby Farrell died in St Petersburg on the 30^th of December 2010 the same date (not same year obviously) and in the same city as Grigori Rasputin.

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?

Another very famous rock classic. Even after so many days of Covid Island Discs there are still classics to find on Youtube.

This is one of my all time favourite Christmas carols. As I get older, I realise the reality in which we find ourselves leaves us with a stark choice. We can make our way through life looking for the odd joy here and there but anyone who really ponders the human condition realises that if there is really no power outside of ourselves then things are existentially very bleak.

While I am a Christian, I accept that my only tiny understanding of reality means that I could be mistaken. However, for me the Christian message appears to be the most coherent and correspondent (for a more formal explanation of these ideas which are used in the practice of science see my first lecture) explanation of the strange life in which I find myself. While sometimes, in my darker moments, I think surely the gospel is too good to be true, I choose to continue to hold onto the hope that there is a good God who made us and who one day will put everything to right, despite our best efforts to mess everything up.

Time for another song from one of my all time favourite bands Supertramp. Dreamer was one of their hit songs from their Crime of the Century album and it certainly made the Aussie singles and album charts. When I listen to this song it always makes me feel a little sad because in many ways it summaries my own life. I definitely was a man with many dreams which would never be fulfilled. I do feel a much wiser course of action as a younger person is to set realistic goals so you don't set yourself up for crushing disappointment.

Well I never thought I would be doing a second Covid Island Disc post on Good Friday. Given it is Good Friday, it seems only appropriate to share a song that is related to the Christian story of the creator God who redeems humanity via the death of his son Jesus of Nazareth around AD 30 in Roman occupied Jerusalem. Whether the story is true or false is something that every individual, who hears the story, must decide for themselves. However, if it is true, then it offers us an incredible hope that this present life, with all its pain and suffering, is not the final reality of our existence but there is a much greater and better reality that awaits us if we can just embrace the message of the gospel story which simply calls us to say sorry and to recognise that the creator of this incredible universe has the right to rule it.

Amy Grant is probably one of the most famous Christian artists within the mainstream musical industry and I have already cited one of her songs It takes a little time on day 184 of Covid Island Discs.