 |
Journal | Friends | Calendar | User Info | Memories |
'My Corduroyed Life' - Mark A's Journal
I was listening to Desert Island Discs the other day, and I started pondering what I’d choose…
Desert Island Discs (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/desertislanddiscs.shtml) is a BBC Radio 4 programme that gets celebrities to name the eight songs, the one book (you get the Complete Works of Shakespeare and the Bible for free), and the one luxury item that they’d take on a desert island. They then have to choose which of their eight songs they’d have if they could only have one. It tends to rarely have celebrities I like (or even know in some cases), but they’ve had some cool people like Sir Ian McKellen, Brian May, Vic Reeves, and Billy Connelly.
So, I sat down, had a think, wrote down a massive list (over 50 tracks – only allowing one track per artist) of my favourite songs and did a process of elimination thing to make my decision. This was fiendishly difficult, as I felt I was betraying the songs I love and the memories I have associated with them with every crossing out.
Finally, I managed it, and these are the eight songs (plus book and luxury item) that I decided I would take. These are not necessarily my absolute favourites ever, but I’ve picked them for the fact I do adore them, plus the diversity of the tracks, plus what they mean to me. A brief blurb as to why each song got picked is below each choice (a la the radio show).
1) Coco Jamboo by Mr. President
Possibly the most unpredictable track I’ve chosen. Yes, I do mean that really cheesy commercial dance song from the late 90s. Simply put, I went on holiday with my parents and brother, and heard the song there and enjoyed it. I purchased it, and ever since it’s had an inexplicable ability to make me inexplicably gleefully happy. I put this record on when everything is going right in my life, and without fail grin from ear to ear. I simply cannot tell you why or how it works like that though.
2) Keep Hope Alive by The Crystal Method
This song is the atmospheric accompaniment to my favourite opening scene of a film ever. At the start of The Replacement Killers is Chow Yun Fat being SO badass in a club doing some hella shooting. It’s a very John Woo intro (and so it should be, it’s a John Woo film), and the most perfect song for it too. Beyond that, the song is just magnificent: a breakbeat vibe with raw guitars and a heavy beat. Wonderful.
3) Bring Her Down by Rob Zombie
As you will see from the majority of these entries, I’m a sucker for anything that is experimental and/ or melds genres and unusual combinations of instruments and style. This track gets string/ orchestral music and juxtaposes it onto Rob Zombie’s distinct ‘rah’ voice and music style. I can’t emphasise how much this shouldn’t work, but it really, really does and it is a VERY worthy track to take with me on my desert island.
4) Debaser by The Pixies
The Pixies: influential, inspirational, alternative, amazing… I don’t even care about their rep because I hear some of their stuff and I want to cry because it’s so shite, but then I hear other stuff and want to cry because it’s so good. This particular track is just, without a doubt, superb. It is also, more importantly as far as I’m concerned, truly the song of my third and fourth years at University. Happy, happy times. All my flatmates loved it, and this track bought us together: be it in the kitchen in our flat/ house, the Students Union, or in a grotty nightclub, we’d always dance around like gibbons with a firework up our arse. Beyond that, it is fantastically surreal and as addictive as [insert addictive thing here: in my case chocolate].
5) Classical Gas by Vanessa Mae
I find it difficult to articulate how much Vanessa Mae’s music effects me. She is uncomparable in my opinion. Classical music can make me cry because it’s emotional and sad, but Vanessa Mae can make my cry just because I’m in utter, utter awe of her talent and musical beauty. I truly have cried when I've heard Vanessa Mae's music, and that's the truth. She truly is a musical Goddess. No-one alive can match her grace, talent, and true dedication to the beauty of amalgamation of classical and modern music. Any number of Vanessa ‘crossover’ (so crude a term for such a beautiful thing) tracks could have be dropped in here, but her enchanting, graceful, sensual, and enchanting violin introduction after a momentary harpsichord that sends a powerful, powerful shiver up the spine in this song makes this the one I’d choose.
6) Make No Sound by Gomez
The most downbeat of all my choices. Gomez are one of those groups that never quite have a huge hit, but everything they do shines a hell of a lot more than any of the crap that is churned out by media whores. They’ve won music prises that they’ve deserved, not because they’re pretty and hyped like other Indie bands, but because they're fucking good. I won’t lie, the guy who sings in this track has the most wonderfully distinctive voice you’ll ever hear, and singing the wrong track, he’d sound like a strangled cat. This is not the wrong track: this is an inspirational track that takes his voice and makes him sound like he’s bionic. Perfect range, perfect dynamics, perfect accompaniment (including a truly captivating cello solo – so what if I’m a cellist and biased?) – they take a distinctive voice and make it superhuman. True, true unconventional, stylised magnificence!
7) Midnight In A Perfect World by DJ Shadow
A lot of chilled out tracks fought for this crown. In fact, a large percentage of the tracks that didn’t quite make the cut were ‘chill out’. This track epitomises chill: it is simply, simply beautiful. It makes me want to smoke weed (which incidentally, I have only done once in the last three years), and say “Chill, man.” This is the song you put on in the morning to impress someone you’ve slept with, the song you put on after a big night out, the song you put on when you’re trying to show you have music taste to a cute guy, and the song to put on when all you want to do is sit back, relax and let the music calm you. Perfect.
8) Screamanger by Therapy?
Classic. This is the kind of song that every band should dream that they’ve written. Even U2, Radiohead, Bon Jovi, bloody Michael Jackson, cannot claim that they have a song that they’ve played live at every gig for over five years and not sung a note, but it was the loudest song of the night. Therapy? play this song, and turn the microphone to the audience to sing: such is the adoration of their fans of this song… And every time, every fan sings with all their heart and nearly raise the roof. It’s about being alternative, unloved, fucked up, paranoid, and loathing oneself: what true rocker has not felt like that? I know every word off by heart and howl every word like I’m gargling gravel whenever I hear this track! How could I not include the song I most irrefutibly most overenthusiastically dance to? Two and a half minutes of pure, unadulterated, melancholic, jump around like an utter twat ROCK. Unbeatable!
The Final Three
Song: Classical Gas by Vanessa Mae
Book: The complete works of Oscar Wilde
Luxury Item: An endless supply of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate.
Have fun,
M
Current mood:
accomplished.Current music: All of the above... forever!.