FEATURE:
Answering That Big Question
PHOTO CREDIT: @florenciaviadana
The Desert Island Discs Dream
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I wrote about Desert Island Discs…
IN THIS PHOTO: Lauren Laverne (pictured with Ruth Jones) is the current host of Desert Island Discs/PHOTO CREDIT: BBC
a couple of years back, but I think my mind has changed since I selected the songs that I would take to a desert island. Desert Island Discs is one of the most popular radio shows ever and it runs on BBC Radio 4 Sunday mornings at 11:15. It is hoisted by Lauren Laverne – who took over from Kirsty Young last year -; Desert Island Discs has featured some of the most notable and impressive names from the worlds of science, entertainment and further afield. I like the show, because you get a real range of castaways. One week, you might hear a physician or inventor; the next there might be a sports personality or director. Running for more than fifty years, Desert Island Discs is a programme one can see enduring for decades more. I listen in on Sundays and I always wonder which discs the guests will choose. The rules for each castaway are simple: they can select eight discs and they are given two books – The Complete Works of Shakespeare and The Bible -; they are allowed to select a luxury and, crucially, they have to narrow their eight discs down to one – if the waves threatened to destroy all their selections, which one would they rush to save? I can understand the appeal of Desert Island Discs. Not only does one get to hear a well-known figure in a different setting, the combination of traditional interview interspersed by musical selections is brilliant.
PHOTO CREDIT: @j_cobnasyr1/Unsplash
I think music tastes can say a lot about a person, so it is always fascinating discovering which discs various people will choose. Even if you are not obsessed by music or Desert Island Discs, I think we have all sort of fantasised about appearing; just to get the opportunity to think deeply about our favourite songs. Another reason I am revisiting this subject is because an article was published in The Guardian, where Hadley Freeman talked about her favourite tracks and how she’d love to appear. As a respected journalist, there is every chance she might be invited on the show in future shows. For people like me, the possibility of appearing on Desert Island Discs is remote. Freeman talked about the dream of being interviewed by high-profile people/shows and how we all sort of dream of being in the spotlight:
“Show me a child of the 80s who never fantasised about being interviewed by Wogan or Oprah, and I’ll show you a person without ambition. For some of us, that fantasy outlasts childhood. I still spend about, ooh, 65% of my free time imagining I’m being interviewed on the TV or radio, carefully practising my “Oh Graham Norton, you are going to love this upcoming anecdote” chuckle in the bathroom mirror. And honestly, that chuckle is so good by now that I’ll often think, “What a waste this is, just between me and the bathroom mirror. Where is my Graham Norton interview?”
PHOTO CREDIT: @j_cobnasyr1/Unsplash
It’s easy to laugh at this level of entitlement and narcissism, and it’s entirely possible you are doing so right now. But interviews are validation and with the ubiquity of podcasts, it’s almost more unusual these days not to have been interviewed. (Where is my podcast interview?) I love Adam Buxton’s podcast, but there always comes a point when I stop listening and instead imagine that I’m that week’s guest, gently rambling on, pausing while Buxton laughs at my terrific witticisms.
But there is one particular interview that I fantasise about more than any other: where is my Desert Island Discs? I have spent whole transatlantic flights revising my disc choices. As everyone around me is mouth-breathing while watching a bad Adam Sandler movie, I’m pondering the eternal DiD question: do you choose the songs that reflect the big moments in your life, or the songs you’d actually listen to for ever? The former may be better for the interview, but I think it has to be the latter. Charles & Eddie’s Would I Lie To You? was No 1 the week I was hospitalised with anorexia and is therefore permanently associated in my mind with trying to hide food down my trousers. Similarly, The Verve’s The Drugs Don’t Work was playing when I started making out with the boy to whom I lost my virginity. Two quite formative moments, but neither are songs I want to hear for eternity”.
PHOTO CREDIT: @seantookthese/Unsplash
I have no interest in chat shows or anything like that; Desert Island Discs is rare, as one can be subjected to an in-depth interview, but there is that U.S.P. where one can select songs that mean the most to them. Would you choose songs that are your favourite, or those that you could listen to again and again? The assumption is one has a record player, so they can only listen to these eight discs and no other music – unless a castaway chooses a solar-powered radio as their luxury (that would be allowed; one is not allowed anything electricity-powered). It is both infuriating and luxurious, given the chance to reflect on the songs that matter most. Honing a list of hundreds to eight is incredibly difficult, but how often does one get the chance to sit down and think about music in such a manner?! I cannot recall which discs I selected in 2017, but it is funny how one’s mind can change; even when we are talking about songs that are most valuable to us. It is always that case of forgetting to include a track. You can only have eight discs, so there will be the odd few that cannot make the cut. There is an instant trio of artists who would be in my list because, frankly, they have shaped my life more than anyone else. The Beatles, Kate Bush and Steely Dan would be in the mix, no questions! It would be tough to just the one song from each act – The Beatles especially! -, but I would choose Deacon Blues by Steely Dan, as it is my favourite song and it reminds me of my late aunt and a particular period of my life!
I think the most important songs are those that can take you back and are in your heart for reasons good and bad. Deacon Blues is a very important song to me, and I feel so much better every time I hear it. Things are harder with The Beatles, as I have no clear stand-out track. I love all of their work, but I would say Paperback Writer, because it is my favourite of theirs and I think it would keep me good company on a desert island. When we think of Kate Bush, again, I am spoiled for choice. Being a gigantic fan, there are so many songs I could plump for. If I had to select only the one, I would go for Wuthering Heights. It is one of the most-requested songs on Desert Island Discs, and you can seer why! I could have selected a more obscure cut, but this is the one song of hers I could not be without – it is from my favourite album, The Kick Inside. When thinking of Wuthering Heights, it takes me back to childhood. It was the first time the visual side of music really resonated and connected. Watching Bush in a white dress dancing to the song in a studio – there were two different videos; the other was her in a red dress dancing outside -, that really got to me and opened my eyes! Taking things to the end of my first four selections would, oddly, be Wakin’ on the Sun by Smash Mouth. This song was released in 1997 and came along during a fairly difficult period of my life. I was in high-school and it was a strange and challenging time.
A friend I knew since the first year of school unexpectedly died, and it was tough processing that. A lot of the music from 1997 sort of passed me by because I was dealing with a lot of confusion and distress. When you are faced with tragedy, music changes tone and purpose. When I look back on 1997 and the song that stands out most, it would be Walkin’ on the Sun. At the time, the song sort of held a dark aspect. It is a very upbeat song, but I wasn’t able to fully appreciate it at the time. It is only years later that I realise that track helped me through. On its own, Walkin’ on the Sun is a fantastic track and sounds very different to anything around now – it is very much a product of the 1990s and the prosperity in Pop. The remainder of these tracks, invariably, will be from my childhood and earlier years. There are a few tracks that have scored later memories, but all of my favourite songs ever sort of predate 2010. The fifth I would choose comes from another of my favourite artists, The White Stripes. I was pretty obsessed with them during their heyday, and the first gig I ever attended was a White Stripes gig at Alexandra Palace in 2005.
There is not a specific song that highlights my love for them but, as the duo themselves are so instrumental, I would include Black Math. It is from their 2003 album, Elephant, and was an album I discovered when I was at university. That album was very important and scored a time where I was under a lot of pressure – studying and earning my degree. I have a lot of fond memories from the time, and Elephant was in the foreground and background to many of them. Listening to Black Math and I am transported back to a time when I was in this new world and embarking on this big thing of getting a degree. If Black Math is one of the most-recent songs on my list, Tears for Fears’ Everybody Wants to Rule the World is one of the earliest. I know I have mentioned this song numerous times on this blog, but it was my first memory of life and, therefore, it just has to be included. That song appears on the Songs from the Big Chair album of 1985, so I think I heard it about a year after – when I was about three-years-old. Not much more explanation is required because, as I say, I have talked about Everybody Wants to Rule the World quite extensively. The last two choices are tough because I am aware of how many songs I have to leave behind – many just as important as the ones I am including here.
One of the songs I feel needs to go on the show – if ever that were to happen – is T. Rex’s Hot Love. When I was a child, I was introduced to a lot of different artists. From The Beatles and Billy Joel through to T. Rex, it was a very rich and interesting upbringing. T. Rex stand out because they were one of the bands I listened to with friends very young. The carefree nature of riding around on a go-kart and playing songs like Hot Love stays with me still. Music is powerful in the sense it can preserve memories and it can keep alive a part of your life that might otherwise have been forgotten were it not for music. The last slot is a tough one. Whilst music was vital and transformative before I hit high school, I think the last disc would be taken from my high school years. When I think about that time, there are many happy memories. I think Red Alert by Basement Jaxx would be in the mix, as it was a single that I remember buying. Me and friends would take the bus into town and buy singles and albums all of the time. Red Alert is a track I remember buying in 1999 and, as it was the last year of high school, it was played at our prom. That night was a sort of goodbye to a school I had been at for five years; a farewell to people I had come to know very well.
Also, Red Alert is a great end to a fantastic decade for music! British Dance was in a sorry state before Basement Jazz released their debut album, Remedy, in 1999. I was more used to European and American Dance through the 1990s, so it was refreshing hearing Basement Jaxx release an album exploding with colour and energy. That prom night was bittersweet and special, and it was quite scary leaving high school and entering sixth form college. I transitioned okay and, looking back after all of these years, I do think music genuinely made all the difference. It is tough whittling down a lifetime of musical adoration into eight discs, but I feel these songs are all pivotal and remind me of important moments – and they are all songs I can listen to over and over again in their own right. I am not sure under what circumstances I would be invited onto Desert Island Discs – I would have to be in the music business a hell of a lot longer than I have been -, but it is fun imaging which records I would choose. With the songs themselves come the memories; the friends and times that come flooding back to mind. The eight discs I have selected above – and I may yet change my mind a couple of years from now – are taken from various points of my young life, and I cherish the songs very much. Artists I have omitted include Madonna and a Deee-Lite but, as I say, one has to draw the line somewhere. I have put this feature together because Hadley Freeman’s article caught my eye. I think most music lovers dream of being on Desert Island Discs as it gives a chance to explain why particular songs mean a lot to us. Whilst the chances of me ever appearing are extremely thing, one can…
IN THIS PHOTO: Sabrina Cohen-Hatton appeared on Desert Island Discs earlier this year/PHOTO CREDIT: BBC
KEEP their hopes up!