Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Desert Island Discs

Ever wondered which album that you would come closest to hearing in its entirety if you were stuck on the famous BBC owned Desert Island; It’s Pink Floyd’s 'Dark Side of The Moon'. Jeremy Clarkson took 'Time', Zandra Rhodes 'Us and Them', Alan Ayckbourn 'Eclipse', and Pamela Stephenson 'Brain Damage'. Apparently while she was recording the programme Pamela said that is was the song that most reminded her of an LSD trip, a remark that failed to make the final edit. It’s been claimed that the Floyd album has, over the years, been the most popular music in Amsterdam’s many live sex shows, which clearly had no influence over the people that picked it.

Pink Floyd’s Dave Gilmour, when he was a guest on the show, took none of his own bands records (unlike some other musicians) but chose records that included Tom Waits, Dylan, The Kinks and Neil Young. Dave’s choice, if he was only allowed one record, was Martha and the Vandellas, 'Dancing in the Street', which probably surprised people. For good measure George Clooney took 'Another Brick in The Wall'.

4 comments:

James Higham said...

And you, Richard?

Richard Havers said...

Sir James, I'd be pushed to get it under 800! But one would definitely be 'Til I Die, the Beach Boys.....I'm having it at my funeral.

Here's another.....Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis by Vaughan Williams.

Richard Havers said...

I just had this on an email from an old friend.

Your post got me thinking about Norman Wisdom, It was a fair bet that he'd choose one of his own recordings. He actually chose five! The other three came from Mario Lanza, Frank Sinatra and Gracie Fields who must feel very honoured to have replaced three Wisdom records. One of his choices, a comedy duet with Joyce Grenfell, was rather sweet; but the others were just the usual bland pap.”

I’ve no idea whether Norman thereby holds the record for the largest number of his own tracks to be played on the show, and that’s not my point. Because this wasn’t “The usual bland pap” Oh no, this was something quite extraordinary. I would seriously contend that Norman’s own tracks that were played that day, taken together, constitute by far the worst body of music to be played on a BBC national radio station for many years, and possibly ever. I remember one lyric went “Some sang hi!, some sang LOW”, with Norman affecting the appropriate pitch changes. It was a classic of its kind, and so staggeringly awful that it must be the stuff of some kind of Desert Island Discs Hall of Fame.

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Hi. Oh, I loved Desert Island Discs! [It's just not the same listening to it on the net.] Wasn't it Elizabeth Schwartzkopf who chose ALL her own recordings?