Paul Weller- Desert Island Discs (2007)

Love him or hate him? Erm...
Am I alone in my feelings about Paul Weller, namely ambivalence? Opinion usually seems to be divided over the man and his work - is he insufferably smug and pretentious, a genuine genius? In fact Weller is picking up this year's NME Godlike Genius Award For Services To Music*...
The Jam were okay- in our school there was an unbridgeable Jam/ punk divide amongst the boys (although I'm sure that we all bought the incomparable Eton Rifles) so I didn't really appreciate the qualities of The Jam until later. That said I viewed Weller as a decent songwriter (his work was and remains highly derivative)rather than as some sort of poet of the dole age. I never really got The Style Council. And the whole 'Modfather' thing of the Britpop era wasn't really Paul's fault. He just happened to influence a generation of formulaic, soulless rock bands (Oasis spring readily to mind). On the other hand I have vague memories of hearing him play an acoustic version of Eton Rifles on some radio show in the mid nineties and it was immense, and Wildwood was , to me , one of the albums of the 1990s.

Tin Soldier-The Small Faces
September in the Rain-Dinah Washington
Better Get Hit in Yo’ Soul-Charles Mingus
Don’t Be a Drop Out -James Brown
Arabesque No 1- Branford Marsalis with the English Chamber Orchestra
Galileo (Someone Like You) -Declan O’Rourke
River Man -Nick Drake
That’s Enough -Roscoe


Tin Soldier- was Paul's overall record choice. He chose Absolute Beginners by Colin MacInnes as his book, and his luxury was a settee to sit on.

Here's the programme:





*Hence the timing of this post. This year's NME awards take place at the Brixton Academy on February 24th.
Take a look at this list of previous winners of the Godlike Genius and decide for yourselves how worthy it is...
1999 Massive Attack
2000 Shaun Ryder
2001 U2
2002 Pennie Smith
2003 The Clash
2004 Ozzy Osbourne
2005 New Order & Joy Division
2006 Ian Brown
2007 Primal Scream
2008 Manic Street Preachers
2009 The Cure
2010 Paul Weller

Suggs- Desert Island Discs (2002)

Quintessential Englishmen?
Well, we're a class riven society and I suppose they fall into two categories:
Apparent toffs like Basil Rathbone, Terry- Thomas, Stephen Fry and Boris Johnson are undeniably quintessentially English. But then again so are Michael Caine, Stanley Holloway, Johnny Vegas and John Terry.
Suggs bridges the gap here...
Madness were undoubtedly one of the major successes of the eighties. Maybe they did appeal to kids who idolised Tucker off Grange Hill but they turned out a succession of catchy and humorous hits. The ‘Ska revival’ also missed out on a sartorial coup, with faux market stall pork pie hats and sta pressed trousers that were more like pantomime costumes replacing the authentic fashions of the late sixties. It was all a bit fake.
However, as their enduring popularity testifies, Madness had a place in the hearts of millions of working class Britons.
When frontman Suggs appeared on Desert Island Discs in 2002 there was also something quintessentially English about a number of his selections: The Kinks, Sir John Betjeman, Ian Dury and The Clash.

Despite the Englishness of her name Julie London was, of course, American- Suggs chose Cry Me A River (younger readers may know it from V for Vendetta) and you can't argue with that as a selection of a timeless classic.
Ian Dury represents a proletarian flavour of risque entertainmnet that dates back to the music hall era. It's easy to imagine Dury as a carachter from Dickens or the ragamuffin cabman providing Sherlock Holmes with some tipoff.
On London's Burning from their self titled debut The Clash give us a hefty chunk of urban dissaffectation from the western suburbs of London.
In terms of fogeyishness the genuine article here is Sir John Betjeman, the betweeded poet laureate who , in the words of Auden was so at home with the provincial gaslit towns, the seaside lodgings, the bicycle, the harmonium. (We'll be having more from Sir John in the near future).
Prince Buster pops up with the obligatory 'ska' number- Al Capone.
I've nothing against Peggy Lee and actually have a few of her albums (Black Coffee is highly recommended) but I don't really go for the number that Suggs selected (Is That All There Is?).
The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society has been described as a concept album lamenting the passing of old-fashioned English traditions.
There is also something very British about Van Morrison's Cleaning Windows- the disaffected grammar school boy trapped in mundane labour whilst immersing himself in American beatnik culture of jazz, blues and Kerouac.

Sugg's overral choice was the Peggy Lee record. A book of Italian Verbs was his literary choice and a nucleus of bees was his luxury item.

Here are the records, but not the full programme:

Sadly gone from Rapidshare and I haven't got a clue what I did with the original file- never mind, worse things happen at sea.

John Peel- Desert Island Discs (1990)

On last week's Morrissey Desert Island Discs post we acknowledged the difficulty of selecting just eight records after a lifetime of following pop music. If it is hard enough for us mere mortals imagine the difficulty faced by John Peel when he was castaway in January 1990 (20 years ago? ridiculous).
I was going to write a bit here about how the teenaged Lonnie Donnegan fan's fetish for records led to him becoming the most revered figure in British popular music, but it would be superfluous.

Handel: Zadok the Priest
Roy Orbison: It's Over
Jimmy Reed: Too Much
Misty in Roots: Mankind
The Undertones: Teenage Kicks (overall choice)
Rachmaninoff: 2nd piano concerto
The Fall: Eat Y'self Fitter
The Four Brothers: Pasi Pano Pane Zviedzo


Here's the programme, first broadcast on January 14th 1990.

Morrissey- Desert Island Discs (2009)

Sorry for the delay in bringing you this -

Okay nostalgia lovers, who remembers the heady days of November 2009 when the world was a better, safer place? We used to leave our door unlocked in them days...

For those of you who don’t know (i.e.- those who are not from Britain) Desert Island Discs is a long-running radio programme. It was first broadcast on 29 January 1942 .
Imagine that you are obsessed with pop music from a young age- it is your all consuming passion- you become an aficionado.You enjoy a successful 26 year music career in which your work is rich in pop culture references, all influences reverentially eulogised. Then at the age of fifty, after 45 years of obsessive pop fandom you are invited onto Desert Island Discs and have to choose eight records.
Eight.
Practically impossible.
When he appeared in November last year I thought that Morrissey might include: Sandie Shaw, Jobriath, some Rockabilly, Ludus, Patti Smith, Joni Mitchell.
Here’s what he did choose:
• New York Dolls - (There’s Gonna Be a) Showdown (overall choice)
• Marianne Faithfull - Come and Stay With Me
• Ramones - Loudmouth
• The Velvet Underground - The Black Angel’s Death Song
• Klaus Nomi - Der Nussbaum - The Walnut Tree
• Nico - I’m Not Saying
• Iggy & The Stooges - Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell
• Mott the Hoople - Sea Diver

Included here are the eight records in their entirity and the complete programme.
For a more comprehensive insight into Morrissey’s tastes and formative influences see the LP Under the Influence .