Just latetly, BBC Radio 4 have been inviting listeners to contribute to their Desert Island Discs programme. In brief, on this programme, you are invited to list your ten favourite records and to say why those songs are significant to you. I have loved this programme for many years and I have given a great deal of thought to what would be my ten records:
1. We will Rock you - Queen
You've got mud on your face, you big disgrace, waving your banner all over the place...
This takes me straight back to my childhood when we were living in a council flat and had no more than two brass pins to rub together. Although times were hard, it was still a good time. It reminds me of my childhood friends and the incredible summer of 76.
2. Suzanne - Leonard Cohen
Suzanne takes you down to her place by the river...
Laura was my first big love, and she was a great Leonard Cohen fan. Although I have not heard this in years, just the thought of it takes me back to being 18 and being naively in love and thinking that the world was always going to be like it was then.
3. Welcome to the machine - Pink Floyd
Welcome my son, welcome to the machine...
Almost unbelievably, this is the song I sung to my eldest on the night he was born. I held him in my arms 20 years ago and sang to him as he slept when he was just a few hours old.
4. Do nothing- the Specials
I walk and talk, do nothing...
And two years later, I danced around the front room with Big Al in my arms as I played this on the record player.
5. Little Green Bag - George Baker
Turn to the left, turn to the right...
Dancing to the early hours of the morning at the Catfish Club with my beloved in the sultry heat.
6. Song 2 - Blur
I got my head shaved...
When The Wife and I moved in together, one of the first things I bought her was a CD player. She had a collection of Blur albums and the CD player had a disconcerting habit of turning itself on the in the middle of the night and playing cd's - weird, but they were almost always Blur songs. Such a strong and happy memory.
7. At last - Etta James
At last my love has come along, my lonely days are over...
Slightly out of sequence, but At Last is one of my all time favourite songs and reminds me of Northern Exposure, a Channel 4 programme in the 90's which I enjoyed immensely, but also love it because it is a song of love and redemption. When I met The Wife, this is the song that came to my mind.
8. Szelerem - Hungarian folk song
Szelerem means love in Hungarian and this traditional folk song is a haunting tale of what love means to one person. It describes empyting the sea with a spoon so that one can give the pearls on the sea bed to your love. It reminds me of when I was separated from my beloved, and how much I owe to her and how much I love her.
9. How I Wish you Were Here - Pink Floyd
How I wish, how I wish you were here, we are two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl...
I think, strictly speaking, you are not permitted the same group/musician twice, but this track is so true to itself, and is so evocative of how I feel when I am apart from those I love, that I have to include it.
10. Sorrow - Bowie
Hah - well, actually, this is another track that I have always adored, it also (in a positive way) reminds me of my first wife, with her long blonde hair and eyes of blue. It's not true that I only got sorrow.
What would be your 10 tracks?
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1 comment:
Chris Rainbow
Is the summer really over
Dear Kenny Everet introduced me to Chris Rainbow. I remember saving hard to buy the albums and rushing to the store only to find that often they hadn’t heard of him. I had my records copied onto disc about 7 years ago. I love all his songs, but this one spells out the Summer of our youth.
Sparks
This town aunt big enough for the both of us….
Another slightly off beat band, I just loved their stage presence. A song of determination, and YES, it’s not me who’s gonna leave!
David Cassidy
How can I be sure?
Not many girls my age can deny their undying love for Cassidy, and Osmond, or a Jackson.
How CAN I be sure, in a world that is constantly changing? How can we be sure of anything?
Slade
How does it Feel
I went to see Fame with my first real boyfriend. I knew that it was not going to last! The song told me so, I am afraid that I did not think of him “Everyday when he was away”! The song has lasted in my memory much longer than he did.
David Bowie
Hmm now which one do I choose? It has to be one of Hunky Dory. It has to be Kooks
Funny cribs where paint doesn’t dry and throwing homework on the fire, to be with a couple of Kooks appeals to my alter ego. To begin with I started listening to Bowie because a boy I liked at school did. We became good friends for a time, but school finished and we parted. Never a relationship, but that would have spoiled what we did have!
The Beatles
Lucy in the sky…
No I don’t think I ever listened to this in my youth and thought LSD. I thought it amusing. Before the days of Pop videos, we had to imagine the plasticine Porters and the little boat on the river.
Beautiful South
Pretenders to the Throne (Your town is getting me down)
I heard this song long before I had heard of Beautiful south. Again it was hard tracing it, as it was not on any of their albums for a very long time. Perseverence pays though and eventually I found it.
The Who
Sally Simpson
I loved Tommy, the Rock Opera and it is hard to single out a song from it. However as I was never allowed to go to concerts as a teenager,
Wings
Magneto and Titanium Man
Long and happy memories of my younger sister and I growing up and having to share everything, We wore our mother out with the constant bickering. Dad bought a state of the art record player, and consequently we had the old Gramophone hauled up two flights of stairs to our attic room. We thought we had died and gone to heaven! We could play whatever music we wanted without Dad shouting “Turn that animal music off”! Instead we turned up the volume and sang at the top of our voices, dancing, marching and grabbing the nearest hairbrush to sing into!
(We did it again just recently at her 50th Birthday gathering).
Madonna
This Used to be my Playground
Don't look back
Keep your head held high
Life moves on and although you can and should learn by your mistakes, you should let regret diminish. A friend once wrote in my autograph book, “Life is full of disappointments; nothing ever comes off except buttons”! Whereas I am most definitely NOT a Pessimist, and my glass is more than half full, I think we have to stop to sew the buttons back on occasionally. That done, we can keep our heads held high!
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