The People's Desert Island Discs

Hi JWM

This is really hard, I cant make up my mind over two albums, funnily enough both by the same artist.

It would either be QE2 or CRISES by Mike Oldfield, both albums enchant me and send me to a nicer place.

Iris DeMent "My Life" (1994).

The Beatles - If I fell

Larry Adler - Summertime

JS Bach - Air on a G String

Jon & Vangelis - I Hear You Now

Ella Fitzgerald - Bewitched

Fleetwood Mac - Man of the World

Andrew Gold - Never let her slip away

and finally - The sound of a Merlin Engine in a passing Spitfire

Of course, it could all change the next time I choose.

That's why I haven't been able to post my 8 yet!

for tonight anyway....

leonard cohen - hey that's no way to say goodbye

sandy denny - who knows where the time goes

scott walker - if you go away

stranglers - hanging around

van morrison - ballerina

smiths - there is a light that never goes out

leonard cohen - the traitor

clash - bankrobber

My choices change whenever I'm asked this question - so here are eight 

1. Save My Soul by Wimple Winch (Simply the best pop record ever made)
2. Who Knows Where The Time Goes by Sandy Denny (Simply the best song I've ever heard by the greatest singer-songwriter ever to grace the planet)
3. Gilderoy by Shirley Collins  (There is no finer performance from the worlds best singer)
4. The Pilgrimming Vine by Basia Bulat (Delightful track from her debut record)
5. Devil's Answer by Atomic Rooster (Another great song by a wonderful and sadly underrated band) 
6. Karn Evil 9 by Emerson' Lake and Palmer (A masterpiece)
7. Hello Goodbye by the Beatles (Is there a finer piece of psych?)
8. Everything is AOR by Half Man Half Biscuit (Or any of 100 other tracks by the best band in land)

How could I choose just one .... if I had to choose a single slab of vinyl then it would be the elpee Eldorado by the Electric Light Orchestra which I'd much sooner have than the complete works of Shakespeare (not that I've anything against the bard even though he never did write a play about me). I assume the complete works of Douglas Adams is a given. 

Of course my list should include tracks by Ray Davies, Incredible String Band, Kevin Ayers, Kevin Coyne, Janis Joplin, Karine Polwart and Delia Derbyshire and, of course, Martha & the Muffins (You Sold The Cottage)

The BBC will probably choose something like Coldplay or Radiohead or the Stone Roses, but I live in hope nonetheless.

All the best, Guy 

I don't know about records but I remember a few years ago when Wayne Sleep was on and asked for his luxury item he said 'a poppy... a very serviceable flower'.

Mind you, Noel Edmonds wanted a motorway service station.

I liked the Guy who picked the Linguaphone Portuguese set as his DID - he said he couldn't stand music playing on his island all day. 

This one would do me.

I would pick the 12" though.

It was Elisabeth Schwarzkopf who famously chose her own recordings for all 8 (perhaps otherwise, she was similarly stuck in choosing, like the rest of us?!)

James,

The above is my one constant on the old Des/discs threads on here over the years.

I would just take my iTouch

I think Cleo Laine had a few of her own as well.

Actually, I think DID is often misunderstood. They're not meant to be the 8 greatest records ever made but more a reflection of the life of the guest. Records that take you back, and meant a lot to you at a particular time of your life. For instance, if it was 8 photographs to take with you, they would be of family and friends and not a selection from the worlds best photographers.

That's why "Never Let Her Slip Away" is in my list. It's far from the greatest pop song ever made but it does take me right back to being sixteen, and trying to cop off with my best friend's sister

After three days' hard thought, this is what I am going to be entering on the BBC website:

Mozart, Horn Concerto No 4 (Dennis Brain) -
The first record I was ever played, aged 3, by my late uncle.  This is where my love of music all began!



The Beatles, Eleanor Rigby -
I was said to look like 'a little Beatle' when I was born.  No child of the '60s would be compolete without...



Jehan Alain, Litanies -
Recessional music at our wedding, the happiest day of my life (despite acute tonsilitis!)



The Doors, Moonlight Drive (live, incl Horse Latitudes) -
The soundtrack of our early married years, the kids being under fives.  Joy.



Puccini, Turandot, "Signore ascolta...non piangere, Liu" -
Sums up for me my beloved opera.



Monks of Solesmes, Victimae paschali laudes -
Gregorian chant and Easter.



Vaughan Williams, Fantasia on Greensleeves -
A beautiful English summer's day in a very special secret spot in Suffolk.



Rory Gallagher, A Million Miles Away (live, Irish Tour 74) -

Opened my life to what it means for a musician to 'live' music.

The 'one' - it's gotta be Rory!

Brilliant record but he got Dylan's lyrics wrong.

> Brilliant record but he got Dylan's lyrics wrong.

Surely, that's no reason to get excited

A moderator kindly spoke

There are many forum members who think these poles are but a joke

But you and I we've been through that

We know it is not our fete

So let us not talk falsely now the hour's getting to 8.18 PM

(I agree it doesn't seem to rhyme). 

It would have to be Exiles from Larks Tongues in Aspic.

Steve T