It would be tricky wouldn't it.
Hasn't everybody compiled their list?
And then changed it regularly.
Well I never get started. Because I think 'no this is too tricky'.
Lost interest when i heard he was leavingFriday
How would you go about choosing your Desert Island Discs?
Using my brain, the power of remembering and generally picking songs I like a lot.
Something my parents played
Something from university
Something about meeting my wife
Something classical (throw it in halfway, nobody will notice the incongruity)
The Beatles (perhaps Something)
Something my kid likes
Something outside the Western musical tradition.
Something contemporary, no matter how clumsily I justify it.
Book: something anodyne.
Object: something anodyne and potentially useful, that Kirsty has to allow because I've been so charming
Saved from the waves: wife or child-based ditty
I listened to an archive episode at the weekend and was surprised by how shite Roy Plomley was - stiff, charmless, unable to coax out interesting aspects of his castaways. Very much inferior to Kirsty Young.
I'd just pick ten songs I like when I'm doing the picking.
Meaningless anyway innit.
Not if you're hoping to cop off with Kirsty Young, it isn't.
Why do they have to mention Roy Plomley every week?
His apparently ferocious widow (Diana Wong) owns the rights to the show, I think.
https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-111413594.html
Also, on Just A Minute they mention Ian Messiter each week.
I liked Roy Plomley. Not so sure about the iron girly approach. Different ways for different days, I suppose.
Kirsty is by far the best host. She seems to enjoy it, which is more than can be said for her forebears.
Self-explanatory, surely. She can plays cutesy and awe-struck, as required, and she's as hard as nails. Obviously a winning combo in our day and age.
Why do they have to mention Roy Plomley every week?
His estate owns the format.
---Tum te tum.
Something like
Elgar - Ave Verum Corpus (I used to sing it when I was a kid)
Bax - Tintagel (the Sea, the Sea)
Malcolm Arnold - Cornish Dance No 3 (the sound of home, a sly dog)
Crowded House - Distant Sun (love)
SunnO))) - Alice (the sound of other worlds)
Wire - Outdoor Miner (never the same twice)
Vaughan Williams conducts Vaughan Williams' Symphony No 4 (a ferocious performance, a full four minutes faster than anyone else, of my favourite symphony. )
The Unthanks - The King of Rome (the song most likely to make me cry, and also the song that speaks most to my upbringing. Billy Bragg's "Between the Wars" is an honourable second).
Book would be HG Wells, "Tono-Bungay".
Good work on the unthanks.
Charlie, you’ll lose that bird...
I think it depends if you want to survive or not. if you choose things, for example, linked with your beloved wife who is 10,000 miles way and (presumably) mourning your (presumed) death, then anything too personal would send you mad. So, I think, four songs to jump around and be daft to, and four more serious pieces for when you want to have a bit of a think.
For the book : a rattling good yarn or something to cheer you up. So a toss-up between Conan Doyle or Wodehouse, for example.
I'm not sure exactly what you're allowed. I mean, it seems a bit unfair if a single track by Napalm Death is treated as one choice in the same way as the entirety of the Ring cycle.
I don’t think either of them would assist your longevity.
It may depend on your location. For example: You Don't Miss Your Water (till your well runs dry), might be highly appropriate at many levels.
My 8 (8 not 10) would be either favourites or works I'd assume would need a lot of listening to get to grips with. They would all would have to be as close to inexhaustible as possible, to last an indefinite stay. Love the choice of V.W. conducting his own 4th Symphony. Fantastic performance.
He once ending a rehearsal of it saying, "Well, I don't know if I like it, but it's what I meant."
Richard Ingrams claims the idea didn't originate with Plomley but someone else a couple of years earlier. Can't remember who.
Here we are
Plomley always claimed to have thought up the idea, which he said came to him as a flash of inspiration in the middle of the night in November 1941. In fact he almost certainly lifted it from a jazz magazine called Rhythm which ran a regular feature which was titled "Desert Island Discs" and in which readers named their favourite six records.
from https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/columnists/ri
chard-ingrams/richard-ingrams-week-another-decisive-move-from-the-foreign-secretary-842124.html
How would you go about choosing your Desert Island Discs?
Sorry to be obvious, but I would make a long list of music that I like then pare it down. It would be chosen because I like the music rather than because they ‘remind me of something’ or have sentimental associations, as seems to be the case on Desert Island Discs.
Mmm. I think without having something more than "I like them." You would soon get fed up with them and start playing Skim Stones or Skipping Stones with them.
I wouldn't spend much time thinking about it. You just have to accept that your list would be different every time, can't therefore be definitive, so there's no point trying to make it so.
I would certainly choose songs with significance over how often I listen to them. Alone on a desert island I would like to remember that first single I bought with my own money, rushing home and playing it over and over again. I never listen to it now but when I do hear it played I’m taken back to that moment; the joy I got from every note. That to me is what DID us about. The first piece of music I can ever remember really liking and asking what it was, I was probably five years old. It was my grandfather’s record. Again, when I hear it I’m back at my grandparent’s house with the coal fire and his pipe collection
It helps that it’s a rousing score so I’d have enough driftwood collected to build a shelter before the middle 8.
I would choose some dull, turgid classical crap LIKE EVERYONE ELSE on there
I would have the obligatory Beatles one, the opera one to prove I'm clever, one by someone like Marvin Gaye to prove I'm not racist, Simply The Best because I know fuck all about music, Bring Me Sunshine to show I'm jolly, something by my husband or one of my kids, Miles Davies because I'm hip and Dylan even though I hate it.
Now tell me about your fourth choice, Simply The Best. What does that song mean to you?
To demonstrate that I took the premise seriously, I would spend the entire programme crying, begging and pleading not to be abandoned isolated on a desert island.
I'd like it as long as there was a source of fresh water, and lobsters.
I was working closely with someone when they were on DID. Unfortunately they had no real interest in music. Their selection was, I think its fair to say, a rather cynical exercise in getting a long list from staff and then paring down by committee to support thier image/agenda.
I would ask how the device that would play the music on the island was supposed to be powered. Also, how I came to have my entire music collection on the ship before it was wrecked, but only be able to preserve a tiny bit of it while rushing to the lifeboat. This implies it's on vinyl, because if it's all digital, why would I have to delete all but 8 tracks?
Sorry to be obvious, but I would make a long list of music that I like then pare it down. It would be chosen because I like the music rather than because they ‘remind me of something’ or have sentimental associations, as seems to be the case on Desert Island Discs.
That's not the point of DID. It's supposed to be a series of markers on which you base the story of your life. John Cooper Clarke did it brilliantly and scored a double whammy by telling his - terrific - life story AND playing some great music. Bruce Springsteen played some great records but was dull because he missed the point. (Though, to be fair, he probably didn't have the advantage of growing up listening to it.).
I also remember John Peel talking about his (by then dead) father and how he might have finally accepted that JP's life had been successful because he'd been asked onto DID.
I would ask how the device that would play the music on the island was supposed to be powered.
Clockwork gramophone, youngster.
Also, how I came to have my entire music collection on the ship before it was wrecked, but only be able to preserve a tiny bit of it while rushing to the lifeboat. This implies it's on vinyl,
Obviously you could only grab a handful (of 8) from the cabin of the steamer taking you to your new life abroad in the colonies before elbowing the women and children out of the way to get to the life raft.
because if it's all digital, why would I have to delete all but 8 tracks?
Well you'll be humming your playlist then. Enjoy.
This implies it's on vinyl
I don't think the 'concept' has changed since it was launched in 1942 by Roy Plummy (who still gets a mention at the end of each episode, IIRC).
It's supposed to be a series of markers on which you base the story of your life.
Meh. I think the premise of DID is a bit naff. Do most people have eventful lives in which moments of epiphany are soundtracked by specific pieces of music? “Yes Roy, for my sixth disc I’m going to have Simply the Best because it reminds me of my hubby Steve.”
#41
Surely there is abundant solar energy on any desert island - unless we're considering a Shetland skerry?
Do most people have eventful lives in which moments of epiphany are soundtracked by specific pieces of music? “Yes Roy, for my sixth disc I’m going to have Simply the Best because it reminds me of my hubby Steve.
Lordy i can think of at least a couple of Desert Islands worth of bits of music that i associate with certain times and places in life.
Me too. I think it very much depends on how music informs your life and vice versa. Desert Island Books would be a very different creature that I’m sure some would find much more meaningful than music.
Yes, I certainly wouldn't just pick "music wot I like" but "music that has meant something with regard to a particular time in my life".
What I would struggle with is trying to remember whether I actually liked something at the time, or was meh about it, but today the music is imbued with nostalgia.
My first and most obvious choice would be Kate Bush, Wuthering Heights, as it is one of the first songs I remember noticing/hearing at age 3/4 and I became slightly obsessed with it when I rediscovered it at age 16/17. So it completely fulfils the brief of reminding me of two parts of my life and being a song I've always liked, and still do.
My choices wouldn't be particularly sophisticated or interesting musically speaking as my tastes are unsophisticated.
On Pointless the other day when Nicola Sturgeon was an answer to a question, Osman offered the factlet that her DIDs luxury was a coffee machine, adding that he wasn't sure how you'd get a coffee machine to work on a desert island.
No, beardie yeti, nor indeed a record player, which rather undercuts the premise, no?
Has anyone suggested Bear Grylls or Ray Mears as their luxury item?
Do most people have eventful lives in which moments of epiphany are soundtracked by specific pieces of music
I'm not sure about most people but I definitely do. At the end of each year I used to make a cassette of records I'd liked most during the previous 12 months and which often represented something important that happened that year. It was a musical diary. I now do the same thing with playlists on iTunes.
However these playlists are now several years grouped together. Save for one momentous year which still gets its own.
Working on the 'biographical arc' basis:
- Rivers of Babylon (Melodians or Boney M version, not fussed) South London in the 70s
- Slap n' Tickle (Squeeze), the first single I ever owned (given as a present on my 7th birthday)
- Close to You (The Cure). Adolescence.
- Loose Fit (Happy Mondays). Early adulthood.
- Soul Fire (Lee Scratch Perry). Late 20s. Magical thinking.
- A Quoi Sa Cert L' Amor (Edith Piaf). Early 30s. Fat Elvis years.
- Requiem (Mozart). Late 30/early 40s. Intimations of mortality.
- Good Thing Going (Sugar Minott). Tribute to the Mrs.
Has anyone suggested Bear Grylls or Ray Mears as their luxury item?
I think animate luxuries are verboten to prevent spouses/partners being chosen.
They'd realise before you when it's time to resort to cannibalism though.
I wonder if your book choice could be an audiobook? Which technically speaking is a ninth disc?
the first single I ever owned
You see mine was probably by Gary Glitter. Do I really want to remember the mid-70s that way?
My first single was Everlasting Love by the Love Affair. 1968. Think it cost 8/6.
The first one I actually bought myself I think was Bicycle Race/Fat-Bottomed Girls double-A side by Queen.
It was Bicycle Race that I really wanted. I didn't really understand Freddie's proclaimed interest in girls with fat bottoms, although for completely different reasons when I was eight than now.
My first ever records was 'Fuzzy Wuzzy was a Bear', it was red, and purchased from Woolworths. The B side was 'The Woody Woodpeckers Song'. I would not welcome either on a desert Island. My first 'Pop' record was 'My Green Tambourine' By the Lemon Pipers. I think it was a bit much for my parents who labeled it a waste of money but I liked it and played it constantly.
My Green Tambourine is a fantastic record. I still play it lots. Always makes me think of summer.
We All Stand Together. Though to be fair, if it was a desert island with amphibian life it would also give me something to do of an evening.
I made my list some time ago. It wouldn't work on the programme as I only picked discs from my childhood. Nothing after the age of 13. So all 60s stuff.
I guess this indicates I had a pretty happy childhood. Which I realise more and more is quite the best blessing anyone could ever have.
Funeral Pyre by The Jam. But blew all my cool points by getting Stars on 45 at the same time.
Although Stars on 45 was far more 'the future' than The Jam were, thinking about it...
The Stars on 45 recordings were made before the birth of digital recording technology, which meant that each song was recorded separately and the different parts were subsequently manually pieced together with a pre-recorded drum loop, using analog master tapes, in order to create the segued medleys.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stars_on_45
The first Stars on 45 I quite liked. Early 1981 if my memory is right. I loved The Jam's That's Entertainment which came out around same time.
I loved the 80's music, and most of my choices would be from that decade, with the exeption of The Black Eyed Peas.
I haven't listened to this for years, so two questions before I decide:
If it's a rock or pop song, does it have to have been a single, or can you have any album track?
If it's a classical work, can you have all of it or only one movement/aria or whatever?
It can be a single or an album track.
I think you can have all of a classical work - e.g. castaways have chosen a symphony, not just a particular movement from it:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/26v4KfML
DfnJQ8n4mB2fWr0/facts-and-figures
Virginia Plain, Sultans Of Swing, Move It, Bohemian Like You, Jessica, Peter Gunn, Take Five, Can't You Hear Me Knocking
It would change over time, hard to say.
Today's would be Cure - close to me, Berlioz-symphonie fantastique, Mendelssohn - Fingal's cave overture, Dylan - just like a woman, Joni Mitchell- River, will Smith and jazzy Jeff - summertime, jurassic 5 - concrete schoolyard and Rodrigo's guitar concerto.
Tomorrow might be different.
When Did You Stop Loving Me, When Did I Stop Loving You - Marvin Gaye
Marquee Moon - Television
212 - Azealia Banks
Ain't No Mountain High Enough - Inner Life/Jocelyn Brown
Abbey Road medley - The Beatles
God Save the Queen - Sex Pistols
Night Life - Willie Nelson
Te Agradezco Pero No - Alejandro Sanz y Shakira
That's 50/50 songs that have some personal meaning and songs I just would always want to be able to hear. I suppose if you were doing real life DID you'd veer toward the former.
I think animate luxuries are verboten to prevent spouses/partners being chosen.
There is the precedent of Michael Palin in taxidermy.
#74 I love the Abbey Road medley Popstar. It's my favourite Beatles album. Far better in my view than Pepper
Has anybody ever swapped the bible for another text? Think I would prefer the I Ching
Yes, occasionally. I remember someone asking for the Bhagavad Gita instead.
And a few people have just rejected the religious text entirely - I remember Matt Lucas was one.
In principle, I agree with Matt, but if I were to take spiritual/philosophical solace along, the I Ching or Tao te Ching would do
Jewish guests are given the Torah, Muslim ones the Qu'ran, and I assume the same applies to adherents of other faiths as well, though I can't think of any offhand.
Michael Mansfield tried to swap the bible for something else but was told that wasn't allowed. Castaways don't have to take the religious text, but can't swap.
That noted authority, Google, suggests he ended up with The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b00vc504
41:50 - doesn't sound like it (though I didn't go to the very end)
Out of interest Popstar, what do you consider is included in the medley. All of Side 2? Everything starting with Because? The five tracks from Money through to Bathroom Window (i.e. all the first ‘joined’ tracks), everything except Her Majesty? Is there in fact a generally accepted definition?
EDIT: ok just checked Wiki which reckons You Never Give Me Your Money through to The End. Which I guess makes sense.
I remember someone unexpected like Pam Ayers or Beryl Cook choosing Stockhausen and the sound of worms eating.
Great album.