D.I.D (a musical meme)

Harry said…

Given your love of music and your admiration for Nick Hornby, I would be intrigued to see your Desert Island selection.

If you’re up for it then I would ask you to abide by certain rules that differ from Radio 4’s format.

Firstly it needs to be based on albums as opposed to individual tracks or singles; and secondly none of your choices can be younger than one year old.

Of course you will need to also choose a book and a luxury item (though I suspect the latter might be a solar powered laptop with the most powerful wifi in Christendom).

Like most blokes I know, I have tried this a number of times in the past and it’s bloody difficult – but always revealing.

Thanks Harry! 🙂

My first thought was: ‘Easypeasy!’.

But after mulling things over for the last few days I’ve changed my mind.

This is hard!

Eight albums?

Just eight albums?

I decided that to be fair I would only include one pop compilation – otherwise my selection would look something like this:

1. Best of Green Day
2. Complete Pink Floyd
3. Beatles Anthology
4. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s complete works
5. etc.

1. The Beatles – Abbey Road.
If you had to choose just one Beatles album, could there be a better choice? Oh Darling, Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight, George Harrison’s epoch-marking Something and the brilliant, Claptonesque (just you listen to this track – recorded in 1969 – and then listen to Clapton’s Let It Grow from 461 Ocean Boulevard which was recorded in 1973 and then try and tell me that The Fab Four didn’t influence Slowhand!) I Want You (She’s So Heavy). There’s a better Beatles album out there? Really?

2. Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here.
History was made the day they cut this album. In the last century people asked each other where they were when they heard that JFK was shot. Well I can remember where I was, what I was doing, who I was with, what day of the week it was and a thousand other pieces of trivia the day I first heard this album. What marks it out? For me it isn’t the (Waters-inspired) message of regret focussed at the late Sid Barrett. It’s the level of creativity. Waters’ guitar work is exemplary. The percussion punctuates – look, I still don’t know how it does and I’ve listened to this album thousands of times (wearing out five copies along the way!) – in an unobtrusive yet thoroughly meaningful way. But Gilmour’s work… It really is the icing on the cake. The way these painstakingly professional musicians weave Waters’ melodies in to a series of symphonic tone poems is skillful as to almost defy description.

3. The Housemartins/Beautiful South – Soup.
And there it is. My token compilation. But bloody hell folks, what a compilation! Flag Day? It’s worth paying out for this album just for the harmonies on that one track. Really, it is. And then there’s Build! And I’ll Sail This Ship Alone. And, and, and, and… Brilliant.

4. Dr Dre – 2001. Or Eminem – Curtain Call.
One of them. I can’t decide which, they vie for top slot in the post-modern world of high-end rap. They’re both a long way from the rawness of NWA’s Straight Outta Compton – but their roots are there for all to listen to. Each album brings together street anger with professional musical competence; blends rythm and poetry in a new structure that forms the pinacle of the rap genre. If I had to choose just one – and I do – I’d have to consider things over a long mug of Latte and – eventually – regretfully have decide on Dre. Or Eminem. Or Dre. Or Eminem. Or…

5. Les Miserables – Official Sound Track.
My one and only sound track, but what a corker. Melody-rich, story-telling and capable of filling the mind’s eye with almost as much colour as the stage musical. At the risk of repeating my earlier words… Brilliant.

6. Sigur Rós – Takk.
This is it – musical sorbet; a palate-cleanser for the audio processing areas of your brain. This under-rated album should be a compulsory inclusion in everyone’s collection. Feeling tired of what you listen to? Want something… different? But not something easy-listening? Want to have your brain work in a different way? The soaring Icelandic melodies mixed with European notational values mark this album as a truly remarkable opus. So what if you can’t understand the words? Get over it. Appreciate the work for what it is – and just love what went in to bringing the blend to your ears. Beautiful.

7. Clifford T Ward – Gaye and Other Stories.
The epitome of the English (not British) singer/songwriter, the late Clifford T Ward. And I’m not just including him because he lived near where I now live and taught in Bromsgrove. I’m including him and this album because he played a huge part on my musical upbringing. The man wrote articulately and then set – with painstaking care – his well-crafted lyrics to his beautiful melodies.

8. Van Morrison – It’s Too Late To Stop Now.
He may be – these days – classed as nothing more than an irrascible old git, but Van The Man’s musical pedigree is beyond reproach. The inclusion of this album in my Top 8 surprised me. But I’ve had three copies – lost two in foreign countries and worn one out. Disc 1 is good enough. Disc 2 elevates the album to iconic status. This is an album for those desert island evenings.

And those are my choices, my eight albums for a desert island – though I don’t know what they say about me!

Book?

The complete works of Robert A Heinlein. It would challenge and compliment The Biblical and the Shakespearean tomes.

So what of you? Would you like to play this game of Harry’s?

What might your eight Desert Island Disc (albums) be?

Feel free to either pick up this musical meme and take it to your place (but please credit Harry – if for no other reason than he’s a nice person) or fill it in here.

B.