It’s completely off-topic, but we can use a few excursions to the off-topic every now and then, in between our discussions of abortion, gay marriage, and the evils of Sunstone. Besides, it’s a fun mental exercise, and it’s also fun to see other people’s musical tastes. So here are the rules: You have a CD with 20 22 songs, and it’s all that you will have to listen to as you’re stranded on a desert island. What are your song choices?
Here are my own:
The Police – Every Breath You Take (the best stalker song ever written)
OMD – If You Leave (one of my two or three all-time favorites)
Simon and Garfunkel – I Am a Rock (some of the best lyrics ever written — very John Donne)
Don McClean – American Pie (just beautiful lyrics, and some great piano as well)
U2 – With or Without You (they’ve never topped it)
Three Dog Night – Shambala (just a fun song)
Celine Dion – To Love You More (stop laughing, everyone!)
Cure – Just Like Heaven (another of the all-time favorites)
Bob Dylan – Tangled Up in Blue (how can you not like a story like this?)
Guns ‘n Roses – Sweet Child o’ Mine (starts out with that really great guitar riff)
When in Rome – The Promise (I’m not sure why, but I really like this one. It’s high-school music for me)
Laura Pausini – La Soledad (her voice is just enchanting, and this one has a great tune too)
Ricardo Arjona – Jesus, Verbo no Sustantivo (the lyrics are great, and his voice really grows on you. Oh, and as an added bonus, he mocks Mormons just a little)
Billy Joel – Always a Woman to Me (with some great lines, just barely edging out a lot of other worthy songs from Joel)
Creedence – Cotton Fields (barely edging out lots of worthies here, too)
Indigo Girls – Closer to Fine (so I like folksy stuff — is that apparent yet?)
Eagles – Hotel California (as discussed in a prior thread)
Simon and Garfunkel – The Boxer (so I couldn’t just keep one S & G here. Even just two was painful — how do I leave out so many good songs?)
John Denver – Poems, Prayers and Promises (that seventies mix of guitar and lyrics gets me every time)
Madonna – Spanish Lullaby (she has a very pretty voice, and a real musical talent)
Sixpence None the Richer – Kiss Me (a voice that is impossible to ignore)
Styx – Come Sail Away (no one makes songs like this anymore)
Wow, that was harder than I thought. I left off a lot of songs that surprised me — it’s a lot easier to _say_ “20 songs” than it is to actually choose them.
This game becomes more fun and interesting as more people join in, so I hope that readers poss their own song choices in the comments. If you want to give a brief explanation, that’s fine as well (though not necessary). Enjoy!
To some extent, I am giving exposure to underappreciated songs, but I could be quite content with this list.
The Beatles – Ticket to Ride
The Beatles – And Your Bird Can Sing
The Knickerbockers – Lies
The Left Banke – Pretty Ballerina
The Guess Who – Star Baby
Steely Dan – My Old School
Fleetwood Mac – Coming Your Way
Fleetwood Mac – Never Going Back Again
Cake – Pretty Pink Ribbon
Green Day – Poprocks and Coke
Collective Soul – Shine
Grey Eye Glances – The Better Part of Me
Beth Gibbons – Mysteries
The Proclaimers – I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)
Donna the Buffalo – The Funky Side
The Stanley Brothers – Angel Band
October Project – Be My Hero
Pablo Cruise – Ocean Breeze
Kansas – A Song for America
Yes – Into the Lens
These last two would fill a CD by themselves:
Mike Oldfield – Ommadawn I
Pink Floyd – Atom Heart Mother
Kaimi that’s a difficult task and I had to do the best I could in limited time. Here goes:
Pop / Ballads
1. Beatles — I Will (favorite Beatles song)
2. Beach Boys — Wouldn’t It Be Nice
3. Hall and Oates — Sara Smile
4. Mary Chapin Carpenter — Grow Old With Me (originally written and 5. performed by John Lennon)
6. Billy Joel — Just the Way You Are
7. Billy Joel and Ray Charles — Baby Grand
8. Paul Simon — Under African Skies
R&B
9. Sam Cooke — You Send Me
10. Martha and the Vandellas — (Your Love Is Like A) Heatwave
Reggae (I’m stuck on on island, right?)
11. Bob Marley — Redemption Song
80s Rock
12. The Police — Driven To Tears
13. U2 — Bad
14. The Smiths — Back to the Old House (acoustic version of the Hatful of Hollow album)
Rap
15. Run DMC — It’s Tricky
16. Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre — Ain’t Nuthin’ But A G Thang (clean edit)
17. Notorious B.I.G. and Puff Daddy — Hypnotize (clean edit)
Rock/Hard Rock/Metal
18. Dire Straits — Why Worry
19. Jimi Hendrix — The Wind Cries Mary
20. Led Zeppelin — When the Levee Breaks
21. Metallica — For Whom The Bell Tolls
Protest Song
22. Woodie Guthrie — Alice’s Restaurant (I have to listen to this every Thanksgiving — it’s a tradition)
And if I could just cram one more on:
23. The Beatles — Her Majesty (this song only lasts about 10 seconds and I usually put it on the back end of any compilation I put together)
Whoops, I misnumbered mine. I get one more! (I’m still wanting to cram #23):
So let’s add one to 80s:
Prince – Kiss
You realize, of course, that this is a different list of what we consider the greatest songs. There are some all-time great songs that I couldn’t listen to over and over. That being said, this is my list:
Aimee Mann – Wise Up (just plain beautiful)
The Beta Band – Dry The Rain
Bob Dylan – Positively Fourth Street (the greatest song of bitter indifference)
Maná – Me Vale (the second-greatest song of bitter indifference)
Cyndi Lauper – Time After Time (greatest song of the 80’s)
David Bowie – Space Oddity
Frente – Bizarre Love Triangle (New Order’s was good, this version is beautiful)
James – Out To Get You
Joe Cocker – A Little Help From My Friends (Beatles’ was good, this version is incredible)
Kid Rock – Bawitdaba (okay, I’m a loser, I know)
Lauryn Hill – Killing Me Softly (how do you beat Lauryn’s version of this song?)
Led Zeppelin – Kashmir (only because I’m trying to choose one per artist, otherwise they’d fill half this list)
Maná – Vivir Sin Aire (see above)
Massive Attack – Daydreaming
Mazzy Star – Flowers In December (gorgeous song)
Neil Young – Old Man
Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
Radiohead – Fake Plastic Trees (if I could only take one album, it would be OK Computer)
LL Cool J – I Can’t Live Without My Radio (the original rap song by the original rapper)
Shakira – Antologia (before she sold out)
Smashing Pumpkins – Disarm (how do you choose just one?)
U2 – One (this song tops With or Without You)
Weezer – Undone/Sweater Song (greatest song of the 90’s)
Kaimi–
You’re my kind of guy.
Off the top of my head:
Elvis Costello–Alison, Every Day I Write The Book
Beatles–Blackbird
Squeeze–Tempted or Up the Junction
James Taylor–Carolina on my MInd
Bryan Adams–Summer of ’69
Emerson, Lake and Palmer–Lucky Man
Simon and Garfunkel–America
Steely Dan–Reelin’ in the Years
Doobie Brothers–Black Water
Deep Blue Something–Breakfast At Tiffany’s
Eagles–Desperado or Hotel California
The Kinks–Lola
Supertramp–The Logical Song
Yes–Owner of a Lonely Heart
Derek and the Dominoes—Layla
Police–King of Pain
Crosby, Stills & Nash–Helplessly Hoping
Billy Joel–The Longest Time
Arlo Guthrie–Alice’s Restaurant
Not in any particular order, and missing lots of stuff I would probably rather have.
Dan,
Arlo Guthrie sang Alice’s Restaurant. But you’re right, it is a classic.
Dan–
I make everyone listen to Alice’s Restaurant every Thanksgiving as well.
Rusty,
Good call on the Maná. Vivir sin Aire was inches away from making my list. (On any given day, it’s probably more likely than not to be on the list, but I felt more like Arjona today. For that matter, Como Diablos was also pretty close, and so were Buscándola — one of the best rhythms ever — and Rayando el Sol.)
Also, Me Vale always makes me chuckle. At one point, when we were feeling rebellious, my compa and I sang our own version of Me Vale — “que piensa mi compa de mi, que piensan los zonis de mi, que piensa el presidente de mi, solo tengo que decir . . .” Of course we didn’t actually say that to the mission president, but it was fun to sing and pretend that we were bada** enough to do so.
Lol. Thanks for the correction. How could I have gotten Woody mixed up with Arlo? Good grief.
Kaimi, I failed to notice your “Jesus es Verbo” addition on your list. I’ll never forget those lines:
“Jesus siempre puso en hecho todos sus sermones,
Para tomar cafe es pecado dicen los Mormones!”
First time I heard that I was on a bus heading out of Esquipulas. I don’t think that town was too crazy about that song for some reason … (and it wasn’t because of the criticism of Mormons either)
Well, if I were on a desert island and had to listen to the songs over and over again, no question I would take jazz. Great jazz stays fresh and vibrant through repeated listenings better than even the best popular music. If I add up the tracks from Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, Bill Evans’ Portrait in Jazz, and My Favorite Things and A Love Supreme by John Coltrane, I get 22 tracks (more or less, depending on how many bonus tracks are on the release), although there’s no way they would even come close to fitting on one CD. (Of course, I doubt you could fit that many on any CD with American Pie or just about any Led Zeppelin song, so I take it we’re being generous.)
But assuming we’re going popular music (to be more congruent with others), one possible narrowing-down might go like this (it would certainly be different on another day):
The Who: Behind Blue Eyes
Led Zeppelin: Kashmir
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Sweet Home Alabama
BTO: Taking Care of Business
Van Halen: Ice Cream Man
AC/DC: Back in Black
AC/DC: Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution
Roxette: The Look
Mr. Big’s version of Cat Stevens: Wild World
Digable Planets: Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)
Barenaked Ladies: The Flag
Barenaked Ladies: Am I the Only One?
Eric Clapton: Alberta
Ben Harper: Steal My Kisses
Lenny Kravitz’ cover of the Guess Who: American Woman
Radiohead: Karma Police
Radiohead: No Surprises
Red Hot Chili Peppers: Californication
Sublime: Caress Me Down
Backstreet Boys: I Want it That Way
Incubus: Drive
Jack Johnson: Flake
What?? Nobody wants Sultans of Swing? Man, that was a top contender for my funeral song, for a long time. Then, Magic Carpet Ride took over. Now I think Fake Plastic Trees is the contender. Kudos to Rusty for Wise Up.
Is there going to be any making out with hot chicks on the island? If so, I’d better bring my Coldplay along. Man, that stuff is GOLD!!
Billy Joel – Still Rock N’ Roll To Me
Flogging Molly – Devil’s Dance Floor
Led Zeppelin – D’yer Mak’er
Led Zeppelin – Ramble On
Iron Butterfly – In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (Full Version)
Jethro Tull – Locamotive Breath
The White Stripes – Girl, You Have No Faith In Medicine
Reel Big Fish – Sell Out
Squirrel Nut Zippers – Hell
Squirrel Nut Zippers – Memphis Exorcism
The Big Six – Who Put The B In The Boogie
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy – Jumpin’ Jack
Rush – YYZ
Violent Femmes – Kiss Off
Cake – I Will Survive Cover (Clean Edit)
Goldfinger – Superman
Louis Prima’s Sing Sing Sing with Gene Krupa on Drums
The Aquabats – Idiot Box
The Toasters – Mona (live)
James Gang – Funk #49
Green Day – Hitchin’ A Ride
Ben Folds Five – Underground
Ebenezer, truly some great, great songs. Of course, you realize that if these artists read your blog and found out you liked them, they would serve you up beatdown. Except perhaps for the Aquabats.
Steve, I love the song Sultans of Swing … I threw in Why Worry just because it’s not as lauded a song (but still great).
Bryce, right on with Squeeze’s Tempted.
Logan, I’m so glad you put Van Halen’s Icecream Man on there… love that song.
I’m going to have a lot of fun going through people’s lists and figuring out what to listen to that I haven’t heard before. There’s tons of stuff here.
Heh. You’re right Steve.
I tend to like specific songs rather than artists though. I do like a lot of songs by the Squirrel Nut Zippers, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, and, curiously enough, Rush, but for the rest of them it is only a song or two. Hopefully they will spend so much time hunting down file-swappers that they’ll never get around to reading my blog! ;-p
I am reminded of the easter egg from this classic Teen Girl Squad.
Watch to the end and then click on the words “snooty independent record store.”
No one’s comment in particular prompted this association. Just the fact that I purposely didn’t put on some of my real favorite songs because they’re too obvious.
LOL!
Mmm, I wonder what will be implied about me from reading my list?
:)
1. Somewhere Over The Rainbow (Arlen/Harburg, sung by Judy Garland)
2. The Moon’s A Harsh Mistress (Jimmy Webb, sung by Linda Ronstadt)
3. I Could Have Danced All Night (Lerner/Loewe, sung by Julie Andrews)
4. Embraceable You (Gershwins, sung by Ella Fitzgerald)
5. Fire and Rain (James Taylor)
6. A Natural Woman (by Carole King, sung by Aretha Franklin)
7. Thunder Road (Bruce Springsteen)
8. Here, There and Everywhere (Paul McCartney)
9. You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away (John Lennon)
10. One For My Baby (Arlen/Mercer, originally sung by Fred Astaire)
11. My Lord And Master (Rodgers/Hammerstein, sung by Doretta Morrow)
12. Losing My Mind (S.Sondheim, sung by Dorothy Collins)
13. Send In The Clowns (S.Sondheim, sung by Judy Dench)
14. Another Hundred People (S. Sondheim, sung by Pamela Myers)
15. Brown Sugar (the Rolling Stones)
16. Won’t Get Fooled Again (the Who)
17. Message In A Bottle (The Police)
18. With Or Without You (U2)
19. Every Time We Say Goodbye (Cole Porter, sung by Annie Lennox)
20. Free Man In Paris (Joni Mitchell)
21. Both Sides Now (Joni Mitchell)
22. Weepin’ Mary (by me, sung by Sarah Asplund)
Dame Dench spells her first name with an “i.”
1. Beatles-Here Comes the Sun
2. Pixies-Here Comes Your Man
3. Old 97’s-Timebomb
4. Old 97’s-If My Heart Was a Car
5. Chomsky-Straight Razor
6. the Deathray Davies-Chinese Checkers and Devo Records
7. Foxymorons-Irene
8. XTC-Summer’s Cauldron
9. the Church-Under the Milky Way
10. Badly Drawn Boy-the Shining
11. Cowboy Junkies-Blue Moon Revisited (Song for Elvis)
12. Housemartins-Bow Down
13. the Beautiful South-Old Red Eyes is Back
14. Ben Harper-Forever
15. Big Star-the Ballad of El Goodo
16. Paul Simon-St. Judy’s Comet
17. the Flaming Lips-Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
18. Camper Van Beethoven-She Divines Water
19. the Shins-New Slang
20. the Specials-Guns of Navarone
21. Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians-Airscape
22. James-Sometimes (Lester Piggot)
My list is heavy on local bands (Dallas). I won’t apologize for this. Also, my list assumes it’s summer when I’m stranded on a desert island. If it’s in December, I’d need to add the Nutcracker Suite and subtract Summer’s Cauldron, which would only depress me in that case.
Kaimi, I hope I’m stuck on a desert island with my i-Pod, rather than a cd. 22 songs simply would not do. But here’s the most frequently played 22 songs on my iPod:
More Like the Moon – Wilco
A Salty Salute – Guided By Voices
Art Star – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Retrieval of You – Minus 5
Burned – Wilco (Neil Young cover)
Silence Kit – Pavement
Fight Test – The Flaming Lips
Letter From an Occupant -The New Pornographers
My Kind of Soldier – Guided By Voices
You’re Pretty Good Looking – The White Stripes
Division Day – Elliott Smith
Punch Drunk – Uncle Tupelo
I See a Darkness – Will Oldham
New Partner – Will Oldham
Color Me Impressed – The Replacements
Call the Doctor – Sleater Kinney
Good Vibrations – The Beach Boys
Colors and the Kids – Cat Power
White Man in Hammersmith Palais – The Clash
Bird Stealing Bread – Iron & Wine
Right in Time – Lucinda Williams
Timorous Me – Ted Leo/Pharmacists
That you have extremely good taste, D. Fletcher. One doesn’t expect to see Dame Judy Dench on these kinds of lists.
Greg, are you the commenter usually known as BTDGreg, or do you just listen to exactly the same music?
D., I haven’t heard Weepin’ Mary (unless in was performed in Manhattan 1 during 1998-2001), but Sarah Asplund’s version of Joni Mitchell’s “River” is amazing. Is there an MP3 available of your piece?
I guess this is as good as any place to show how out of touch I am…
John Denver: Wild Montana Skies
Elton John: Tiny Dancer
Los Kjarkas: El Picaflor (folklorico from Bolivia)
Los Kjarkas: Por Un Mundo Nuevo
Cal Smith: Country Bumpkin
George Jones: He Stopped Loving Her Today
Johnny Cash: Folsom Prison Blues
OMD: If You Leave
Led Zepplin: Black Dog
Los Lobos: La Bamba
Unknown: Way Out There (the opening yodeling sequece from Raising Arizona)
Everly Brothers: Dream
Elvis Presley: Love Me Tender
Hank Williams: I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry (I’m stranded on an island, for crying out loud!)
Roy Orbison: Dream Baby
I’d have to find a nice Sacred Harp choral number
I’d need a good Polynesian choral number
I’d pick a native flute number by Carlos Nakai
Deep Purple: Smoke on the Water
And, don’t laugh…All Glory, Laud, And Honor by the MoTab
A short list but I’m outta time…
Okay, comment 24 answered my question.
Allison, I am not “BTDGreg”, but apparently he likes good music.
That’s me playing the piano accompaniment under Sarah’s “River.”
I don’t have an Mp3 of “Weepin’ Mary” though I suppose I could make one. Is such a thing uploadable here?
Aha! I figured it was Peter. Great track.
I don’t think we can host mp3s, but Kaimi can let me know if I’m wrong. I could probably host it on my (currently unused) personal homepage, and link to it from T&S, though.
Aaack! This makes the fourth independent reference to the Squirrel Nut Zippers I’ve heard in the past 24 hours. Maybe it has something to do with Election Season (I was about to do “wabbit season/duck season” with election season, but then heard in my head what that would sound like spoken out loud and thought better of having Elmer Fudd say “election season”)
Any, time to dig out my cassette of “HOT” and listen to “Hell” again. That song is an earworm if there ever was one!
D and Greg, I have no idea what the technical requirements are, but Bob and Logan have some sort of mechanism at Sons of Mosiah for hosting music over there. Maybe see if you could upload it there.
I’d be happy to put it up for listening. Can you e-mail the mp3 to me? I just tested it and I can receive huge e-mail attachments.
[email protected]
I’m with D. on “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” being at or near the top.
There are so many great tunes. It’s too painful to think about what would not be included on the list.
Here are mine:
Airscape – Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians
R.E.M. – So. Central Rain
The Replacements – Alex Chilton
The Old 97s – Big Brown Eyes
The Velvet Underground – Sunday Morning
Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Beyond Belief
Centro-Matic – Fountains of Fire
Pleasant Grove – I Couldn’t Withstand the Damage of an Evil and Wicked Divorce
The Jazz Butcher – Next Move Sideways
Husker Du – Could You Be the One?
The Connells – Hey Wow
Modest Mouse – Black Cadillacs
The Shins – Kissing the Lipless
The Jesus and Mary Chain – Head On
The Pixies – Debaser
Dukes of The Stratosphere – Vanishing Girl
Badly Drawn Boy – Silent Sigh
Love & Rockets – If There’s a Heaven Above
New Order – Ceremony
Ben Folds Five – Narcolepsy
The Cure – Jumping Someone Else’s Train
Talking Heads – Naive Melody (This Must Be The Place)
Scary how close my list would be to Kaimi’s. I would have to bump a few things for R.E.M., tho.
Oh my gosh, D.–YOU WROTE “Weepin’ Mary”?!?!?!
I officially adore and admire and praise and honor you. I love that song. I’ll never forget the moment when it was performed at Eugene England’s funeral. Somehow I got hold of it before it was published (in Clayne Robison’s collection first, right?), and I’ve tried to get it performed by worthy performers at every possible occasion since.
Your place in heaven is secure.
By the way, I have since purchased the music legally, so I’m not cheating you of your royalties anymore. :)
Dire Straits – Sultans of Swing
Jethro Tull – Nursie
Incubus – Drive
Jack Johnson – Flake
Duran Duran – Come Undone
The Cure – Love Song
Barenaked Ladies – Am I the Only One?
Sammy Haggar – Little White Lies
Yes – Owner of a Lonely Heart
Led Zepplin – Babe
Cake – Never There
Marc Anthony – I Need to Know
Blur – Song 2
Blur – Tender
Live – Lightning Crashes
Stevie Ray Vaughn – Mary Had a Little Lamb
Collective Soul – Run
Three Dog Night – Momma Told Me Not to Come
Backstreet Boys – I Want it That Way
The Monkies – I’m a Believer
Whew! That’s me for today… I apologize in advance for any spelling errors.
Maybe you should just pick a bunch of really depressing songs, like “Love Stinks.” Then eventually you would be depressed enough to kill yourself. And you wouldn’t be on a deserted desert island anymore.
Just kidding.
Bob Caswell–
That’s “Led Zeppelin” :)
And by the way, isn’t that an apology after the fact?
I like the list a lot, at least the stuff that was released before 1990. I haven’t listened to much new music since then.
Mardell (and others)–
Does anyone else have the “Love Stinks” album by the J. Geils Band? It has one of my favorite tracks of all time: No Anchovies, Please.
I highly recommend it.
I’ve been reading T&S for a long time. I don’t know what it says about my testimony that this is the topic it took to actually bring me out of the shadows, but…in no particular order:
1. Peter Gabriel – Red Rain
2. Sting – Shape of My Heart
3. Led Zeppelin – Ten Years Gone
4. Lyle Lovett – Step Inside This House
5. Bruce Springsteen – The River (Live 1975-85 version)
6. The Black Crowes – Descending (awesome piano)
7. Marvin Gaye – Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)
8. Miles Davis – Flamenco Sketches
9. Bob Dylan – Subterranean Homesick Blues
10. P.O.D. – Set Your Eyes to Zion
11. Paul Simon – Hearts and Bones
12. Soundgarden – Superunknown
13. Aerosmith – Sweet Emotion
14. Robert Plant – Big Log
15. Natalie Merchant – Beloved Wife
16. Johnny Cash/Willie Nelson – Ghost Riders in the Sky
17. Bruce Springsteen – The Ghost of Tom Joad (I could do a full list on Springsteen alone)
18. Beck – Loser (everyone has a guilty pleasure)
19. Styx – Blue Collar Man
20. Cassandra Wilson – I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry
21. Stevie Ray Vaughan – Voodoo Chile
22. Don McLean – Vincent
Ask me again next week, and the list would probably be at least 30% different!
Yes, I wrote Weepin’ Mary. I can hardly believe I wrote it (because it has become so well-known), but I did.
It has a couple of other settings, a Sacred Harp shape-note tune, very angular, and a spiritual by Burleigh. I used the words and made up a new folk-tune. I also changed the words around, a little.
Bryce I-
It looks like you caught me on two accounts. By the way, at my blog we don’t have to say things like “it’s completely off-topic” when discussing music. :-) We have a nice new radio addition to the blog in which we’ll be rotating five songs. You pre-nineties music people should especially check it out (if you want to stay hip and cool). http://www.bobandlogan.com
P.S. Two other songs I could listen to over and over:
Blues Traveler – Hook
Robbie Williams – Angels
Hey Bob, we dont’ usually talk about music in quite these terms, but it’s interesting to see your list. I’m just glad I got in a few of those unknown gems (like BNL’s Am I the Only One) and songs most people are too cool to like (like BSB’s I Want It That Way) before you did, making YOU look like the copycat. ;)
In no particular order, and probably subject to drastic change. The ones with asterisks indicate songs with lyrics that, I realized after compiling the list, might convey a bitter irony if I were actually listening to them while stranded on a desert island.
John Hyatt–Seven Little Indians
Tom Waits–Time (great song–perhaps not the best for keeping one’s spirits up, though)
Carlos Vives–Pa Mayte (peppy, to counterbalance Tom Waits)
Echo and the Bunnymen–Ocean Rain*
Parahia doing Busoni doing Bach–Wachet auf
Public Enemy–Bring the Noise
Webern–Symphonie, Op. 21 mvt. 1
Agent Orange–In your head
Bach–Et in spiritum sanctum from B minor mass
Messiaen–“Louange a l’eternite de Jesus” from Quartet for the End of Time*
Rufus Wainwright–April Fools
The Cure–Just Like Heaven
Annie Lennox–Why
Britten–“Now the Great Bear” aria from Peter Grimes***
Shumann–Im wunderschonen monat Mai
Radiohead–Idioteque* (asterisk for the incessantly repeated line “women and children first”)
La Monte Young–The Well-Tuned Piano (excerpt–it takes up 6 discs by itself)
Arvo Part–Credo from Berliner Mass
Low–Starfire (not a classic, but I can’t seem to stop putting in heavy rotation on my MP3 player)
Susana Baca–Panalivio
Miles Davis–So What
Coltrane–My Favorite Things
Woops. I left off all Talking Heads. Tell you what, I trim the piano intro off of “So What,” and maybe axe some of the artsy-fartsy stuff, to make room for a couple of tracks from Stop Making Sense.
Tantara has Weepin’ Mary online:
http://tantararecords.com/backpage.php?p=catalog&i=44
I remember losing an argument with a friend in which he asserted that the Talking Heads were the greatest band currently producing albums.
I left them off of my list too.
I didn’t think we could include longish classical pieces. I’d trade in my entire list for one Durufle Requiem.
L’invitation au voyage — H. Duparc
Von ewiger Liebe — J. Brahms
Das Wirtshaus — F. Schubert
Puisque l’aube grandit — G. Faure
Die Taubenpost — Schubert
Befreit — R. Strauss
L’exstase — Duparc
Die Kraehe — Schubert
Die Nachtigall — A. Berg
Kennst du das Land — H. Wolf
Dein Angesicht — R. Schumann
Avant que tu ne t’en ailles — Faure
Thraenenregen — Schubert
Gestillte Sehnsucht — Brahms
L’ombre des arbres — C. Debussy
Das Fischermaedchen — Schubert
Ich grolle nicht — Schumann
Ganymed — Schubert
Der Rattenfaenger — Wolf
Gefasster Abschied — E. W. Korngold
Yeah, Bill, but can you dance to it?
Make that Extase (number 7)
Dancing while stranded on a desert island?
Or sing. It doesn’t matter. What else are you going to do?
Listen.
Can the entire score to “My Fair Lady” count as one entry?
How about the whole of R. Vaughn Williams’ Symphony No.1 “A Sea Symphony”?
Bill — I thought about Ich grolle nicht too, but thought the dark humor would turn too depressing after a couple of listens on a desert island…
Debussy, La Mer…
Master the Tempest is Raging…
Counting Crows – Anna Begins
Lead Zepplin – Ramble On
Ben Folds Five – Brick
Elton John – Tiny Dancer
Simon and Garfunkel – Sound of Silence
Dave Brubeck – Take Five
Bill Evans – Peace, Peace
Sinead O’Connor – Nothing Compares 2 U
U2 – Bloody Sunday
Ben Harper – Forever
Indigo Girls – Galileo
Pearl Jam – Wish List
Ella Fitzgerald – At Last
Wilco – Jesus, etc.
Counting Crows – Omaha
REM – Nightswimming
Tori Amos – Cornflake Girl
Radiohead – Fake Plastic Trees
Fiona Apple – Shadowboxer
Pearl Jam – Daughter
Dar Williams – What Kind of Lover Am I?
Wyclef – Stripper Song (what can I say? it makes me laugh)
Maybe Rachmaninoff’s Isle of the Dead, or perhaps the Haydn opera, L’isola disabitata
Hey, if you get to count a symphony as one song, then I’m counting Pink Floyd’s The Wall as one song.
1. This Corrosion – Sisters of Mercy
2. Millimillenary – Cocteau Twins
3. Pennyroyal Tea – Nirvana
4. 1945 – Social Distortion
5. Sleep Like Breathing – Allison Moyet
6. Under the Milky Way – the Church
7. Veloria – The Pixies
8. Last Night I Dreamt Somebody Love Me – the Smiths
9. Death of a Disco Dancer – the Smiths
10. Love Will Tear Us Apart – Joy Division
11. Atmosphere – Joy Division
12. Twenty Four Hours – Joy Division
13. Ceremony – New Order
14. True Faith – New Order
15. Take My Hand – Dido
16. A Forest – the Cure
17. Love Song – the Cure
18. Just Like Heaven – the Cure
19. Ruby Tuesday – the Rolling Stones
20. Gloria – U2
21. Alex Chilton – the Replacements
22. Hunger Strike – Temple of the Dogs
I must admit to a second or two of hesitation after looking at my list (composed last night on the BART ride home) and noticing how monochromatic it is in comparison to many of the others already posted. But I wasn’t willing to give up any of the songs on the list in the interest of genre diversity so I guess I’ll just have to go ahead an reveal what a pseudo-Goth, mopey young poet, 17-year-old-reading-Camus type I still am.
In my defense, I did give up the black turtlenecks several years ago.
William,
That resolves it! At the future meeting of the East Bay bloggernacle, Pleased to Meet Me will provide the soundtrack.
Sweet.
I always love these sorts of questions. It’s cool to see someone on the list who enjoys October Project. I was just now listening to their ’93 self-titled album. Too bad it feels like late August here in Louisiana.
1. “Caribbean Blue” – Enya
2. “The Door Into Summer – The Monkees
3. “Time Capsule” – Matthew Sweet
4. “Lost in the Supermarket” – The Clash
5. “The Mayor of Simpleton” – XTC
6. “Pure” – The Lightning Seeds
7. “Oliver’s Army – Elvis Costello
8. “Blown a Wish” – My Bloody Valentine
9. “If You Need Someone” – The Field Mice
10. “Mr. Roboto” – Styx
11. “Like the Weather” – 10,000 Maniacs
12. “I Think About” – Toad the Wet Sprocket
13. “Wellsville” – The Embarrassment
14. “I Carry Your Heart” – Michael Hedges
15. “Just Let Me Know” – The Ocean Blue
16. “God Made Me” – The Sundays
17. “Machine Gun” – Slowdive
18. “Metropolis” – The Church
19. “Cult of Personality” – Living Colour
20. “Grade 9” – Barenaked Ladies
Nice.
Nos. 5, 6 and 18 were all strong candidates for my list.
And while Toad the Wet Sprocket seems to be rather popular among Mormons ages 20-40, I don’t know that The Ocean Blue is. If you like some of the other bands on Andrew’s list and haven’t head The Ocean Blue, then check ’em out.
William,
Yes, I love Toad and picking just one of their tunes wasn’t easy. In fact, that list is only scratching the surface. I loved your choices, by the way — Cocteau Twins, Smiths, New Order … right up my alterna-pop alley.
As for the Ocean Blue, well, I’ve been a fan since their first album. A month or so ago I got to interview David Schelzel, the lead singer, for a feature story I wrote for The Town Talk. Needless to say I was one happy camper.
I would be happy with a cd full of one artist’s songs: Tori Amos. I’ve been listening to her almost exclusively for 2 years now. I know it’s kind of psycho, but so is the thought of having only one disc of music on a desert island. Any trip anywhere requires that I take 2 whole cases of cds. So 22 Tori Amos songs that I couldn’t live without (because I really do think that I could survive on just her music):
Bliss
Precious Things
In the Springtime of His Voodoo
Playboy Mommy
Raspberry Swirl
Tear in Your Hand
Space Dog
The Wrong Band
A Sorta Fairytale
Northern Lad
Sweet Sangria
The Waitress (live)
Landslide
Rattlesnakes
Bug a Martini
Siren
Iieee
Caught a Lite Sneeze
Father Lucifer (live)
Mr Zebra
Sugar
Cruel
That was painful. I had to do some serious soul-searching to wittle her catalog to 22 can’t-live-withouts.