The ultimate question
Keen to broaden my knowledge of classical music beyond ‘populist muck’ opera and ’tiresome’ minimalism, I have been taking an evening class on ‘music appreciation’ on and off throughout the past year. Because it’s been by and large, a nice group of people involved, on more than one occasion we have found ourselves down the pub after.
So what’s the most obvious conversation subject in such a situation? Music. Fine with me. And what’s the question that’s inevitably going to be asked at some point? What’s the question that I, as both a lifelong music fan and a dedicated Radio 4 listener, should have well and truly prepared for?
Yes, it’s ‘What are your desert island discs?’
The answers flowed forth with certainty from everyone else around the table: ‘Mahler’s 7th’, ‘White Man in Hammersmith Palais’, ‘Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 4′, ‘Miserere mei, Deus’, ‘Good Vibrations’, etc. etc. But not from me – for I was embarrassingly unprepared, dumb struck by choice, overwhelmed by having to nail my colours to the mast with only eight songs.
Eight songs! I could think of dozens of songs I love and couldn’t live without. ‘Be ruthless’ I was told sternly.
Hmmm, ‘Wuthering Heights’, ‘Hot Burrito No. 2′ by the Flying Burrito Brothers, Philip Glass’ String Quartet No. 5, John Coltrane’s version of ’My Favourite Things’, Benny Goodman’s ‘Sing, Sing, Sing’, ‘More Love’ by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, The Go-Betweens ‘Streets of Your Town’, ‘Eleanor’ by The Turtles, Acts I and II from La Boheme… all of West Side Story… and Forever Changes… and I still haven’t included anything by George Gershwin… or The Beatles…
So dear reader, could you have faired any better? Have you prepared for the moment when you are asked the ultimate question?
Tags: music = opinions
November 3rd, 2010 at 12:51 pm
It’s too impossible to pin down, but I’d have to include Fairport Convention’s A Sailor’s Life and VInce Guaraldi’s Cast Your Fate To The Wind, mainly because they’re both long.
November 3rd, 2010 at 1:03 pm
Maybe I should have chosen ‘Echoes’ by Pink Floyd then. Anyway, length may win on the desert island, but on the radio Kirsty will just cut ‘em off.
November 3rd, 2010 at 1:06 pm
40 minute version of Blue Room by The Orb anyone?
I got down to 20 last time I tried to list them, but I’m sticking there.
November 3rd, 2010 at 1:16 pm
Or a Jive Bunny style mega-mix of all your favourite tunes!
November 3rd, 2010 at 1:16 pm
Actually I can’t believe I just wrote that last comment.
November 3rd, 2010 at 3:18 pm
It’s virtually impossible; unless of course the gorgeous Kirsty Young wanted to ‘do me’ every Friday morning. However, a couple of tunes that would probably always make the cut: Marmalade’s The Ballad Of Cherry Flavour, Wild Youth by Generation X and Rue de Kereon by Jean-Paul Albert. Oh, and Samuel Barber’s Adagio. The Beatles are already hardwired into my brain so would only take up valuable space. I’d probably bump them for some early Who or Kinks.
November 3rd, 2010 at 4:04 pm
It changes depending on mood, can’t say what tunes exactly but The Beatles, Pistols (perhaps Bodies) John Martyn and The Damned would all be in..
November 3rd, 2010 at 6:06 pm
I thought that both of you, John and Mondo, would be shoe-ins for having a list planned and honed over many years thinking. I feel better now!
November 3rd, 2010 at 7:14 pm
I’ve done my list several times and it’s been different on each occasion according to my mood and situation. Constant features remain Ace of Spades (both the Link Wray and Motorhead tunes of that name), however. And always one B52s, one Kraftwerk and one Pixies track. But never, ever, EVER any Beatles.
November 3rd, 2010 at 9:53 pm
Agree with most of the comms above, if you are a genuine music fan, then it will almost certainly change on a daily basis, depending on mood, particular buzzes at the time etc etc. Desert Island Discs is particularly hard, because you have to narrow it down so much, almost impossible (unless music doesn’t play that big a part in your life, then it’s easy). The one record that ALWAYS turns up in my top 10 no matter when I compile a list is Pretty Vacant, and it’s the nearest I’ll ever get to selecting my all time favourite record.
Not quite what you are looking for, but here’s the last list I compiled similar to what you are talking about. Top 15 albums, as selected in September 2010… So I guess I was a little prepared… although I’d definitely change some of them now in November 2010!!
1. T.Rex – Slider
2. Marc Almond – Open All Night
3. Sex Pistols – Never Mind The Bollocks
4. David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust (or Hunky Dory, or Low)
5. The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses
6. The Beatles – Rubber Soul (or Revolver)
7. The Damned – Strawberries (or The Black Album)
8. The Sweet – Desolation Boulevard (be nice to have ‘Strung Up’ or ‘Give Us A Wink’ too!)
9. Sparks – Hello Young Lovers (or Propaganda)
10. Lou Reed – Transformer
11. Blur – Modern Life Is Rubbish
12. Frank Sinatra – Greatest Hits (preferably with tracks hand picked by me!)
13. The Divine Comedy – Absent Friends
14. Alice Cooper – Love It To Death (or Killer)
15. Billy Joel – Piano Man
Not shown in any particular order, and I had a self imposed rule to only pick 1 album per artist. Note how I cheat by adding in alternative albums in brackets! tricks of the trade m’dear ;-)
P
November 4th, 2010 at 12:12 am
I’m liking your thoroughness here Piley (alternative albums – just in case!). Now, I ask cautiously, since this list was only prepared in September 2010, is this something you do er… regularly? Can you/do you track the changing nature of its contents? Now that would be a fascinating exercise.
It’s interesting that you point out that Desert Island Discs is difficult unless music doesn’t play a big part in your life. I have only recently come to realise this as I hear people on the programme choosing either completely contrived choices or absolute rubbish! Nick Clegg, do you REALLY want to be stuck on a desert island with Shakira’s World Cup theme?!
And I hope that both of you, Piley and ISBW, aren’t stuck on a desert island together. I wouldn’t want you to come to blows over those Beatles records now.
November 4th, 2010 at 7:08 am
No need for blows, Cocktails. A quick game of frisbee with that copy of Revolver, and we need never speak of it again.
November 4th, 2010 at 9:04 am
There was a thing flying round Facebook a couple of months ago, asking you to list your top 15 albums. hence my compilation.. I didn’t prepare it on the off chance that someone might ask!
I’m sure ISBW and I can be very civil about it all, and am more than happy to use Revolver as a frisbee to pass the time (I’ll still have my bracketed copy of Rubber Soul anyway!).
Isn’t the idea of Desert Island Discs outdated now anyway? Lugging even a small bunch of Vinyl is heavy – I should know I’m currently rehousing my entire collection. But could I not just opt to take my MP3 which after months of dedicated work houses just about everything I own now??! Also, the use of headphones would save ISBW getting fed up with the Beatles… just trying to help!
P
November 4th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
Right, Piley, next time time someone asks me the dreaded question I’ll just tell them that I’m taking a 30GB mp3 player with me precisely so that I don’t have to deal with these sorts of questions. Problem solved.
Revolver wouldn’t have been a very good frisbee anyway. You probably need some of that really flimsy 80s vinyl, something like Huey Lewis and the News perhaps?
November 5th, 2010 at 1:19 am
Eight you say?
In no real order…….
Action – The Sweet
Showgirl – The Auteurs
Tchaikovsky’s 5th (1st & 2nd movements)
Sibelius – Karelia Suite
Superheroes of BMX – Mogwai
After I Made Love To You – Bonnie Prince Billy
Will The Night – Low
Northwest Passage – Papa M
Reserves:
Station To Station – Bowie
Cool Cool Water – Beach Boys
Lonely Cryin’ Only – Therapy?
I hear Kirsty likes Primus & Anal C**t though……. :(
November 6th, 2010 at 11:55 pm
Didn’t Nick Hornby (predictably) opt to take an iPod as his luxury item, thus rendering the whole Desert Island Discs exercise pointless?!
I have to admit I’d be hopeless in narrowing it down to eight pieces. I entirely agree that people who don’t like music have no problem with this. They just choose stuff which reminds them of events in their lives.
I have similar problems answering the question “so what kind of music do *you* like?” often posed by just this same kind of musical ignoramus, usually after I’ve criticised some (terrible) music which it turns out they like.
My thought processes usually go something like this:
1. This person has poor taste and probably no interest in music. They are just making idle chat.
2. If I give a list of some of my favourites (Prefab Sprout, Steely Dan, The Sundays, The High Llamas, Miles Davis), I will be met by nothing but blank looks and the conversation is dead in the water. Maybe I should just say something bland like “I quite like the Beatles”.
3. I am now ridden with guilt. Not only have I made light of an extremely important subject in an attempt to ingratiate myself with a stranger (who doesn’t even like music), I have also flippantly dismissed the spectacular and varied oeuvre of the greatest band in popular music history as something about which I am rather ambivalent.
Why don’t these people just leave me alone?
November 7th, 2010 at 9:33 pm
Ill Man, ‘fess up – did you just write those down instantly or have you been lying in bed at night, sleeplessly grappling with that very question for years?! And Showgirl by The Auteurs? That’s a song I haven’t heard in years. I’ll have to dig it out now… although from what I remember, I don’t really see how it can be better though than any of the tunes on your reserve list. Also hope that I’m not going to be stuck on a desert island any time soon with you. You’re going to be right miserable company with that list!
Hoops, I read your comment and laughed. Then I felt bad because its true. I have definitely been through that process myself, and have been burnt so many times now that I rarely discuss music with people at work at all unless I have a reasonably good idea that they will respond positively. Most of the time though, I too ‘quite like the Beatles’…
November 8th, 2010 at 10:00 pm
Some selections were of the moment, others are bits of music that have floated about me on and off over the years. Regarding Showgirls, please see the the first two lines in my last post. It’s all interchangeable, and it would all change the following night.
November 9th, 2010 at 4:30 pm
You know i, like your self go totally blank when asked any thing like this. I spend far too much time listening to, reading about and thinking about music, yet when i’m asked to narrow it down , it all goes pete tong and i get blank. Off the top of my head as quick as i can 8 winners that mean a lot are……
1. God Save The Queen / Sex Pistols
2. Squeeze Me (live) / Count Basie and Orch
3. Juniors Wailing (live) / Status Quo
4. Midnight Hour / Wilson Pickett
5. Rock N Roll / Led Zeppelin
6. I Feel So Good / Faces , Bill Broonzy , Muddy Waters (any version)
7. New Rose / The Damned
8. Jean Genie / David Bowie
(reserves)
Sweet Emotion / Aerosmith
Blue For Jimmy Noone / Kid Ory & band
Depression / Black Flag
Lets Stick Together / Roxy Music
See easy………..hey what about………….
November 11th, 2010 at 8:47 am
Pretty good Carl! Eight top tunes there (even though you’ve kind of cheated with the reserves list like Ill Man!). Argh, I feel like listening to New Rose now – that’s always been one of my favourite Damned songs, although since I’m not that familar with their stuff, that isn’t hard. Not sure about Lets Stick Together. It’s a great tune, but somewhat overplayed…
November 16th, 2010 at 9:39 am
May be a Damned Best Of may be in order ?, put it on the xmas list ?. Neat Neat Neat is almost as brilliant too. Know what you mean about Lets Stick Together but i still remember the buzz of first hearing it, it is awesome !!!.