Desert Island Discs

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Desert Island Discs is a long-running BBC Radio 4 programme devised by the late Roy Plomley and first broadcast in 1942. A guest ("castaway") is asked to choose eight pieces of music, a book and a luxury item for their imaginary stay on the island, while discussing their lives and the reasons for their choices.

I thought I would try it for myself. It is very difficult!

The first 3 to 5 were easily chosen, but after that it' wa difficult to keep to 8 choices. I have eclectic musical tastes and that is reflected in the choices.

Anyway, here are mine................with some rationale below

  Track (click to find why it was chosen) Artist/Composer Performance
1 Bridge Over Troubled Water (Live at Central Park) Simon & Garfunkel
2 Cello Concerto

[First Movement (Adagio - Moderato)]

Sir Edward Elgar

Cello: Jacqueline Du Pré

Conductor: Daniel Barenboim

3 Telegraph Road Dire Straits
4 Planets Suite: Jupiter Gustav Holst
5 Gaudete Steeleye Span
6 My Heart Will Go On Celine Dion
7 Largo from New World Symphony No 9 Antonín Dvorák
8 In My Life Sean Connery

Notes on why each track was chosen

1 Bridge Over Troubled Water (Live at Central Park) Simon & Garfunkel
Paul Simon is my favourite singer/songwriter and has been since the 1960s.

I have seen him live several times:

  • At Pine Knob in Michigan (now DTE Music Theatre) in 1998 where he shared the bill with Bob Dylan. I have to admit that Dylan was far the better performer on the night.
  • In Hyde Park, London in 2004 where he appeared with Art Garfunkel (and the Everley Bothers)
  • At the NIA in Birmingham on June 30, 2011

So a Paul Simon song is a must. The first song I play/sing at a new venue is always "Sounds of Silence", I often sing "50 Ways" and "Slip Sliding Away" but for an extended period on my own the words of "Bridge" have so much depth. And then there are the associations it would conjure up...................

 

2 Cello Concerto

[First Movement (Adagio - Moderato)]

Sir Edward Elgar

Cello: Jacqueline Du Pré

Conductor: Daniel Barenboim

Elgar is a very English composer. This movement is for those times of sadness that would inevitably come. I was introduced to it by my friend Ann McMinnes. I saw it performed by Julian LLoyd Webber in the Royal Albert Hall in 2009.

 

3 Telegraph Road Dire Straits
Dire Straits were definitely my favourite group in the 1980s. Again I was introduced to them by my friend Ann McMinnes. I sing "Money for Nothing" and really enjoy "Brothers in Arms", but for long lasting meaning I had to choose "Telegraph Road". I'd always associated it with Telegraph Road in Metro Detroit, Michigan and then discovered that, indeed, that was the inspiration for Mark Knopfler.[see]. I saw them perform at an open air concert at Woburn Abbey.

 

4 Planets Suite: Jupiter Gustav Holst
 
Holst is another English composer and The Planets Suite one of my favourite pieces.  Of the 8 pieces I would have to have to choose "Jupiter -- Bringer of Jollity".
I remember in the 1950s one of its themes was used for a BBC TV program  about inventions/business ideas.
But the reason for choosing it is the other theme known as "Thaxted" and used as a hymn "I Vow to Thee My Country"
Holst was organist at the church at Thaxted in Essex. I actually looked at buying a home in the town (I viewed 6 properties there). So "Jupiter" would remind me of Essex, (a county I lived in for much of my life) as well as all the places I visited during my "house hunt"
The melody is also used as "World in Union" the theme of the Rugby Union World Cup

 
5 Gaudete Steeleye Span
Steeleye Span are my favourite group of al time. I must have seen them live nearly 20 times since the early 1970s (in such venus as Royal Albert Hall and The Rainbow) to April 4, 2011 (Dartford).

For my 18th birthday (and in anticipation of passing my A Levels) my parents bought me an electric guitar. We went to Charing Cross Road to buy it. I chose a Hofner Presdent which was an acoustic electric in a "cello" style used by dace bands (and Bert Weedon). Immediately my musical tastes changed to  folk music -- for which it was not really suitable. However, Steeleye Span (and others) changed tat with their folk played with electric instruments.

My first "contact" was long before I saw them (and in fact the group's formation). In about 1968, founder members Maddy Prior and Tim Hart visited Reading University to play and were hosted by Roger Watson (?) who was in my corridor in Whiteknights Hall of residence. It was only years later that I realised that the couple sitting having coffee in his room would become part of my favourite group).

From all their tracks I had to choose Gaudete for long term listening.

 

6 My Heart Will Go On Celine Dion
The movie "Titanic" was released at the time when I was working (and living) in the US and getting in to Karaoke.. This song was made popular by the movie and sung often at the time by my favourite Karaoke Host, "Patty Kaye". 

I saw Celine Dion sing it at the old Wembley Stadium.

The words

"Far across the distance

And spaces between us
You have come to show you go on

Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that the heart does go on
Once more you open the door
And you're here in my heart
And my heart will go on and on"

would take on a new meaning when sat on a Desert Island and remind me of so many friends "Far Across the distance".

 

7 Largo from New World Symphony No 9 Antonín Dvorák
Known popularly as "the tune from the Hovis advert"  this would remind me not only of several visits to Gold Hill in Shaftsbury (where the ad was filmed) but of so  many other towns in the UK. A bit ironic when this was written about "The New World"

 

8 In My Life Sean Connery
As a teenager in the 1960s I couldn't complete the disc without a Beatles song. So many to choose from but one with a lot of meaning is "In My Life". I was introduced to this version by my college friend William Smith. It's on the album "In My Life" produced by Sir George Martin with versions of Beatle songs sung by other artists --some very unusual which has made a great "after dinner" quiz as guests try and work out who is singing. This version was inspired by Peter Seller's "Hard Day's Night" in the style of Richard III.

 

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