You all know the premise: you’re stuck on a deserted island somewhere, and all you have for entertainment is a wind-up (or solar-powered) record- or CD player and a few records. Which records would you choose to have? (The most common number of records allowed is eight or ten.)
If the assumption is that you’re going to be marooned there for a lengthy period of time, e.g. ten years, then I have to say that after a year or so (maybe sooner), you’re going to be using those albums as Frisbees because no matter how much you love them, you’ll be heartily sick of their contents.
So I’m going to expand the concept because it’s still a nice way to decide your favorite albums — and I’m going to stipulate albums because forget singles: that assumes you’d only be marooned for a couple-three weeks.
Here, then, are the parameters:
Ten composers, singers or groups. Examples: Beethoven, Elvis Presley, Rolling Stones. It can be any mix of the above — all bands, all singers, whatever. But only ten.
Specify up to five albums for each selection. Assume 45-50 minutes of music per album.
So you’ll have a maximum of fifty albums allowed. (For the pedantic, we can allow CDs to ensure that they’ll last however long you’re marooned.) But no carrying over: if you can’t think of five but only three, that’s what you get. I will allow only ONE compilation album, in total.
To give everyone the idea, here are my choices:
1. Bach: The Goldberg Variations (which is 2 albums altogether), Brandenburg Concertos, (also 2) and The French Suite (5 albums).
2. Rachmaninoff: Piano Concertos #1, #2 and #3, Rhapsody On A Theme By Paganini (2 albums).
3. Chopin: Études and Nocturnes (4 albums).
4. Beethoven: Symphonies #1, #2, #3, #5, #7 (5 albums)
5. Peter Skellern: A String Of Pearls, Still Magic, Cheek To Cheek, Sentimentally Yours (4 albums).
6. Beatles: Hard Day’s Night, Help!, Rubber Soul, Revolver and Sgt. Pepper (5 albums).
7. Procol Harum: Shine On Brightly, A Salty Dog, Prodigal Stranger, Grand Hotel, Broken Barricades (5 albums).
8. Genesis: Selling England By The Pound, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Trick Of The Tail, Then There Were Three, Duke (5 albums).
9. Steely Dan: Can’t Buy A Thrill, Pretzel Logic, The Royal Scam, Aja, Countdown To Ecstasy (5 albums).
And my compilation album:
10. American Graffiti Soundtrack (2 albums).
The biggest problem I had was deciding which ten (almost impossible), and then the second-biggest problem: deciding on which five albums.
Have fun storming the castle…
Need only one track: Elizabeth Schwartzkopf singing Jauchzet Gott. Your heart will carry you up and off the island.
.
In NO particular order.
1. Eddie Money – Greatest Hits: The Sound of Money
2. Hall & Oates – The Very Best of Daryl Hall & John Oates
3. Pink Floyd – The Wall, Wish You Were Here, Dark Side of the Moon, The Division Bell, Pulse
4. Stevie Ray Vaughan – Greatest Hits, The Real Deal: Greatest Hits Volume 2, Live Alive, Texas Flood
5. Phil Collins – The Platinum Collection, Hits
6. Madonna- The Immaculate Collection
7. The Cars – Greatest Hits
8. Van Halen – Best Of, Live: Right Here, Right Now, 1984, Diver Down, Van Halen
9. The Eagles – Hell Freezes Over, Hotel California, The Very Best of the Eagles, Eagles Greatest Hits Volume 2, Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975)
10. ZZ TOP – Eliminator, Afterburner, Greatest Hits, Antenna, Degüello
After a few revisions, rewrites, reconsiderations, and trying to bend the rules, I’ve decided to just cheat…
1. Bach:
The Violin Concertos,
2. Beethoven:
Violin Concerto,
3. Windham Hills:
A Winter’s Solstice compilations (especially #3)
4. Liz Story:
Solid Colors, Escape of the Circus Ponies
5. William Ackerman:
In Search of the Turtles Navel (the original recording), It Takes A Year,
6. Various Artists from Windham Hills Records:
to include George Winston, Alex e Grassi, Mark Isham, et al.
7. Led Zeppelin
8. Pink Floyd:
Meddle, Dark Side of the Moon
9. Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra:
Scheherazade, Bach’s Tocata and Fugue in D Minor
10. Franz Liszt
There is a science fiction short story that fits this subject to a T. Space traveler crashes on planet with no humans. He passes time by listening to his favorite tunes. Loves Big Band, New Orleans jazz. Goes thru playlist multiple times. Batteries go flat. No more music.
One day, he hears music. Not just any music. It is Arte Shaw’s Begin The Beguine.
He tracks the source to a very large creature who proves to be friendly. The creature plays the entire library. and begins to improvise new material.
One day, a rescue rocket lands. Crew looking for traveler. Meet large creature making strange noises. Kill said large creature.
Traveler goes berserk. Rescue crew don’t understand noises were music. Wrap traveler in straight jacket and take him to the closest planet with an insane asylum.
End of story
Sounds like a Twilight Zone episode.
Nightwish – Angels Fall First, Century Child, Once, Endless Forms Most Beautiful and Yesterwynde.
Cruxshadows – Telemetry of a Fallen Angel, Wishfire, Dreamcypher, Ethernaut and Astromythology.
Mozart – Great Mass in C minor, Piano Concerto #10, Symphony #38 Prague, Symphony #41 Jupiter, The Magic Flute
Hayden – Symphony 45 Farewell, Symphony 82 The Bear, Symphony 92 Oxford, Symphony 100 Military and Symphony 104 London
Brahms – Symphony 1-4, Variations on a Theme by Haydn
Wagner – Tristan und Isolde, Lohengrin, Nurnburg, Parsifal, Wesendonck Lieder
Rush – Fly by Night, A Farewell to Kings, Hemispheres, Permanent Waves, Moving Pictures
Styx – Equinox, Crystal Ball, The Grand Illusion, Pieces of Eight and Cornerstone
The Alan Parsons Project – Tales of Mystery and Imagination, Eve, The Turn of a Friendly Card, Eye in the Sky and Ammonia Avenue.
Debussy – Compilation – the Best of Debussy
So, I’ve thought about this for two days and decided I can’t obey the rules.
Best I can do is take the entire Glenn Gould catalog. That should give 10+ composers, heavily weighted with Bach, of course, but including some even older composers and some much more contemporary. I’d even include his spoken word stuff, just for variety. The guy has been dead 44 years, but he’s still the only one for me and someone I never tire of hearing, he said, ducking Kim’s wrath.