Desert Island Discs

andy

I'm working away on this report (one that Richard W would be *really* interested in, i bet), the deadline is quite soon and I'm working on it on a tuesday night. So naturally, I've been thinking about my Desert Island Discs. Now I think that the point of the show is that you pick the 8 tunes that are a mix of your favourites, representatives of times in your life and remind you of other people. With those caveats, I'm at a longlist that includes: Stevie Wonder - Don't you worry bout a thing Sugarcubes - Hit Stone Roses - She bangs the drum Last goodbye - Jeff Buckley Blur - To the end (actually, there are about 6 blur songs on the shortlist) Bob Dylan - Mozambique Brenda Fassie - Vulundela Portishead - Glory Box (Just pushing out Massive Attack) Pixies - Where is my mind? Radiohead - High & Dry Flaming Lips - Do you realise? Elton John - can't decide, but it needs some early Elton The Shins - Young Pilgrims Prince - Raspberry Beret Pulp - Do you remember the first time? White Stripes - Hotel Yorba This is impossible! There's so much missing already and I'm going off stuff on there. Anyone care to comment or add their own?

andy

Nothing by The Jam, Rolling stones,Charlatans. This list is all wrong.

David

Elton John's should be Bennie & The Jets, if not cos its his best, because of Tim and I's Karaoke duet in Portugal years ago. Flaming Lips had some nice moments but simply wouldn't make the list for me. No trip hop either, you're on a desert island for christ's sake.

andy

There's nearly no trip hop there! Just portishead and that's very reminscent of college for me. What's on your list?

David

See i'd be going more for diversity here. If it was really stuck on an Island, i'd also go for long tracks, get my money's worth. A good moving piece of classical lasting c.30mins, probably Gorecki's 3rd, if you need some Stone Roses, go for Resurrection, as its got 10 minutes of jamming on the end. for Prince, it'd be Mountains as it he did release the extended version commercially which was probably c.10 mins with a big jam thing at the end, then again Lovesexy did that too in fine fashion. Then if the track was to be short it'd be very loud and furious, possibly Queens of the Stone Age - Feel Good Hit Of The Summer. That type of thing. Blur for me, would probably be Essex Dogs, Pixies - Number 13. Earthling would beat Portishead or Massive if we're gonna go triphop, but we shouldn't.

Pete

Tom Waits - Buzz Fledderjohn
Ani DiFranco - Studying Stones
They Might Be Giants - Ana Ng (I'm not really a TMBG "fan")
Kris Delmhorst - Little Wings
Louie Armstrong - We Have All The Time In The World
David Bowie - Golden Years (ANNNNNNGEL)
Bob Dylan - Lay Lady Lay (The only Dylan song that I can fully stand)
Blind Melon - No Rain
Beach Boys - Good Vibrations
The Distillers - Die On A Rope

I've taken the view hat I wouldn't want too much depressing stuff on a desert island, so no Joy Division etc.

Oh, and something i thought about doing on my site but haven't got round to yet:
Using this extention
http://lussumo.com/addons/?PostBackAction=AddOn&AddOnID=115

and this
http://www.radioblogclub.com/

I think we could have Radio Greener.

matt

I can't possibly pick eight songs, so here are my favourite albums:

Bent "Ariels"
The Blue Nile "Hats"
Electronic "Electronic"
Foo Fighters "The Colour And The Shape"
Frou Frou "Details"
Merz "Merz" (recently reissued as a 2CD set)
Michael Jackson "Off The Wall"
Murry the Hump "Songs of Ignorance" (little known but amazing welsh indie band)
New Radicals "Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too?"
Pete Yorn "Music for the Morning After"
Phoenix "It's Never Been Like That"
Prefab Sprout "Steve McQueen" (recently - two weeks ago - remastered by Thomas Dolby)
Prince "Sign o' the Times" (no need to say more)
Puressence "Only Forever"
Radiohead "The Bends"
Stereophonics "Word Gets Around"
Talk Talk "Spirit of Eden" (truly amazing)
The Notwist "Neon Golden"
The Sundays "Static & Silence"
Third Eye Blind "Third Eye Blind"
Ulrich Schnauss "A Strangley Isolated Place"

Anything by Josh Rouse, Counting Crows, Feist, XTC, Sondre Lerche, Bic Runga, Nick Drake, Alpha, Björk, Bran Van 3000, New Order and so many more

David

oo, a Spirit of Eden fan, did you know that was mostly made on computer from random jam sessions, Pete? I actually prefer Laughing Stock, but both great. Found some wierd outtakes of the sessions that made up both albums the other day. Shit essentially, but interesting to hear if you like the two albums.

matt

I'd listen to them. I wasn't aware it was produced on computer!

I heard Spirit of Eden first, so love that more, but there's not much in it between that and Laughing Stock.

David

They had hundreds of hours of sessions, from which they produced both albums. Can only think it took quite a while as music software back then certainly didn't have the punch it does now - A [Mitsubishi X-850](http://tradingpost.sweetwater.com/images/200606211145160.mitsu 32.jpg) digital reel-to-reel and a mixing desk, I just [looked it up](http://users.cybercity.dk/~bcc11425/IntIMRW1188.html), so not computer but digital. Pah. Hendrix did Ladyland on an 8 track, the amateurs.

Ian

The Jam - Town Called Malice The Cure - Friday I'm in Love Japan - Swing (Live) Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here Pixies - Monkey Gone to Heaven Cocteau Twins - Pandora (for cindy) The Clash - London Calling Blondie - Heart of Glass OK, I'm not entirely happy I have the right selection - it doesn't seem right to me not to nod to Buddy Holly's pioneering, the Beatles (Come Together) and the Stones (Sympathy for the Devil). I'd like to have something from Prefab Sprout's Steve McQueen album, which I played to death in the mid 1980s. Billy Bragg for the time (and the times I saw him live). Bowie (I secretly would go for Under Pressure which is also my favourite Queen song and my favourite Vanilla Ice Song). Trip hop under represented - Safe from Harm from Massive attack? Not enough of the 70s and Elton John with Rocket Man or Benny and the Jets (or many others). No metal - and there should be perhaps Ace of Spades by Motorhead or something from Ozzy's first album. Talking Heads? Surely Slippery People... ... Blimey this is difficult. Back to the drawing board. See you in 2014.

Marquis

I remember when Spirit of Eden was new I was seriously disappointed about how a great pop band had gone all hippy and krautrock, and it took me about ten years to learn to appreciate it fully (but then I definitely did). I also prefer Laughing Stock, and Mark Hollis's solo album was brilliant too. It's a bit of a shame though that everyone's focus on the later phase of the band distracts from the great songs from the earlier records, I think The Party's Over has never been received as well as it should. Mark Hollis is from Tottenham, isn't he?

matt - wow, there are some records I'd completely forgotten about! Very interesting mix!

Couldn't do a list right now, but probably the Lightning Seeds' Greatest Hits album would be on it as it's a sunny desert island and I'd be jumping around for a significant part of the day (before collapsing into depression and putting something else on the record player).

checkski

Does nobody like classical music any more? What a pity.

Marquis

That's jumping to conclusions, checkski. Talk Talk really were an amazing band.

sincers

Don't forget "Standing in the Shadows of Love" by the LSO - Classic!

ADGS

Checkski, you obviously missed the post about wanting long classical pieces, possibly Gorecki's third (which is beautiful, but I would find a bit bleak for a desert island).

Matt, did you see Puressence when they played the Silver Bullet recently?

Good to see Japan and the Sugarcubes getting some love. I think I may also have to use the album cheat...

Promenade - The Divine Comedy
Pioneer Soundtracks - Jack
Disintegration - The Cure
Hounds of Love - Kate Bush
His'n'Hers - Pulp
Stranded - Roxy Music
The Lexicon of Love - ABC
Black Love - The Afghan Whigs

Arkady

Narrowing to 8 proved impossible.

Billy Joel – She’s Got a Way (live version from Songs in the Attic)
Cat Stevens – Katmandu
Lindisfarne – Lady Eleanor
Bob Dylan – In My Time of Dyin’
Bob Dylan – Love Sick (live from the Grammy Awards 1998)
Bob Dylan – Cold Irons Bound (live, Masked & Anonymous soundtrack)
Bob Dylan – Tangled Up in Blue (tie between the ‘Real Live’ 1984 version and Santa Cruz 2000)
Bob Dylan - Not Dark Yet
Bob Dylan - Tomorrow is a Long Time (live 1962, released on Greatest Hits v2)
Bob Dylan – Forgetful Heart
Bob Dylan – Just Like a Woman (Bootleg Series v.4 ‘Live 1966’ – greatest thing ever committed to tape)
Bob Dylan – Blood in my Eyes
Bob Dylan – Mississippi (pedal steel version #1 from Bootleg Series v8)
Bob Dylan & The Band – Forever Young (live at the Last Waltz)
The Band – The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
Hot Chip – Over and Over
Shantel – Disco Partizani
Johnny Flynn – The Wrote & The Writ
The White Stripes – Ball & Biscuit

That will have to do.

Tallboy

Such an eclectic taste.

Arkady

You can mock, but there’s a big difference between Hot Chip’s electropop, the Balkan dance of Shantel and the folk-rock & blues of Lindisfarne et al. On the other hand there is very little of Dylan’s output that I could live without, hence its preponderance here.

ADGS

I'm now wondering whether the Afghan Whigs' slot should have gone to the Long Blondes' debut. Or either Indelicates album. Eight is a bastard number, top tens are so much easier.

David

What you need Arkady is one of those remixes they did pre-jive bunny. [Stars On 45]() and the like. You could have Hooked on Dylan. It could go: _boom-tish-boom-tish_ In my time of dying don't want nobody to mourn _boom-tish-boom-tish_ We loved with all the love that life can give _boom-tish-boom-tish_ Hey, hey, babe, I got blood in my eyes for you _boom-tish-boom-tish_ Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl Even the gecko's would probably leave the island. But think of the extra six hot chip singles you put in.

Arkady

Thanks for the idea David. (I didn’t pick the overplayed *All Along the Watchtower* though, so the last lyric wouldn’t be on it). Impressed by your inclusion of the more obscure lyrics though, one wonders whether you knew them or looked them up. I contemplated sneeking in the superlative *Like a Rolling Stone* hip-hop remix by Italian lyric-spitters *Articolo 31*: <

David

I looked them up. I'm not a fan, which is odd as I've plenty of appetite for folk (UK 70's mostly mind) but he just didn't do it for me.

Arkady

He’s not for everyone. Someone once suggested to me that most people accept that he’s the greatest lyricist of the 20th century, maybe half rated his musicianship but only a fraction could tolerate his singing for any length of time. For me, I reckon (to quote George Harrison) he makes Shakespeare look like Billy Joel (though I like Billy Joel too). His acoustic guitar and harmonica-playing are (or in the latter-case were) unique and enormously underappreciated, and he is (again, arguably was) an astonishingly good singer, especially in the mid-70s but sporadically at later times too, even (rarely) today. There is simply no combination of voice and lyrics that can sit me down and force me to listen like him (Jack White comes close). And he remains the only artist I can think of who has matched their early heights late in their career. Even the recent Christmas Album has moments of glory (I’m being serious). He can be pretty unlistenable live these days though. I last saw him in ’09 at the Roundhouse and almost cried. I’m pretty sure he would scare off the geckos, as he singing sounds like a bagful of them being put through an amplified blender.

ADGS

I have always loved his songwriting, but couldn't abide his own performances of them. People told me I'd understand when I was older, and I was sceptical - but a couple of years ago during 'Hurricane', it clicked. I still find a lot of the folkier stuff a bit hectoring, but the rock'n'roll I now mostly love.

Arkady

@ADGS: Interesting to hear. Contrary to my earlier claim I’ve also heard it suggested that there is always one song somewhere in his canon that can unlock a real enthusiasm for Dylan. It’s rarely the ‘hectoring sixties stuff’, but something from later on… for me it was *Things Have Changed* from 2000. I actually worked backwards, collecting the albums from 2001’s *‘Love and Theft’* and obtaining the albums in reverse order. The 1960s remain my second-least favourite of his decades.

Ian

My view of Dylan is that his triumph was to stop himself from going one step further and putting the cymbals between his knees.

nick_m

stick to the format people. 8 songs, 1 book and the bible: girlfriend in a coma - the smiths; someday - the strokes; star chasers - 4 hero; i am the resurrection - stone roses; like a motorway - st. etienne; changes - bowie; just like heaven - the cure; young holt unlimited - young and holtful the lord of the rings trilogy (does that count as 1 book?) richard dawkins - the greatest show on earth (alternative bible)

nick_m

p.s. Ian - a very apt choice of Wish You Were Here for a desert island disc!

Arkady

(Dawkin's *The Greatest Show on Earth* is an absolutely brilliant, beautiful book)

David

Live Good - Burning Spear Acperience - Hardfloor Symphony No.3 - Henryk Górecki Witness the fitness - Roots Manuva After the flood - Talk Talk Black ego - Digable Planets Lonesome tears - Beck Fight For This - Cheryl Cole Book: Fogle & Cracknell - Race to the pole. Songs are really just to get the artists in. Anything off the Marcus Garvey album for Burning Spear, Sea Change for Beck. Hard to pick single songs and 8 is basically impossible. Cheryl and Fogle are in there to remind me just how shit it is back on the mainland and to never return.