The REAL Desert Island Discs

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…