Saturday 4 June 2011

BBC Desert Island Discs... The Challenge


Found I couldn't resist the challenge of trying to come up with just the eight requisite number of pieces of music to post on the BBC Your Desert Island Discs page despite knowing how difficult it would prove to be. So I settled on attempting to pick pieces chronologically that had affected me in some profound way, regardless of whether they were actually real favourites. This meant there were far more that, sadly, had to be dropped and so they simply got away! The final list I submitted, after much deliberation:
The Beatles - In My Life
Wendy (was Walter, at the time) Carlos - from Switched on Bach - Brandenberg Concerto No.3 In G Major 1st Movement
Emerson, Lake and Palmer - from Pictures at an Exhibition - The Great Gate of Kiev
Queen - These Are The Days Of Our Lives
J S Bach - from the St. Matthew Passion - Wir setzen uns mit Tränen nieder
Peter Gabriel - The Power Of The Heart
Coldplay - Fix You
Sir Edward Elgar - from The Enigma Variations - Nimrod

with the Peter Gabriel track as my favourite
Now, as mentioned these all mean a great deal, even though I appreciate some are very popularist choices and will potentially bring down scorn upon my cultural taste. So to get around the strict eight disc rule here are some more from the shortlist in a similar chronological order:
Easybeats - Friday On My Mind
Fleetwood Mac - I need your love so bad
The Nice - Intermezzo from the Karelia Suite
Carl Orff - from Carmina Burana - Fortune Plango Vulnera
Bob Dylan - When He Returns
Van Halen - Jump
Imogen Heap - Hide and Seek
Arcade Fire - Intervention
Again, even this more esoteric list leaves out many I would love to feature... oh woe!

I have discovered you can see who also picked the songs you selected, quite alarming in some cases! Try out the searches in the section Find castaways and choices.

P

5 comments:

nevell said...

Its a cruel world, and as suspected you've already stretched 8 into 16! The problem is not the selection, but the editing! Why must we enslave ourselves to the unreasonably finite, when eternity (and presumably abundance) is our inheritence?
No surprises then with Peter Gabriel ;-) "In My Life" has always been an instinctive Beatles favourite, ever since I first heard it :-)

Peter Banks said...

Cheers Tim, yes, a little creative stretching of the brief had to be done!

Interested that so many love 'In My Life'... I am musing on whether to blah on about my selection or just save it for a future moment ;-)

The funny thing is I didn't discover the database search on the #BBCDID website until after I had made my submission. It may have influenced my choices!

For example, at the top of the list for choosing 'In My Life' was Tony Blair yet also chosen by Bob Geldof and, particularly revealingly, George Martin.

Best, PB

Sam Charles Norton said...

My first thought was that I didn't have a clue what the Beatles' 'In my life' sounded like - so a quick youtube visit later - I realise that I know the song primarily through the Johnny Cash cover! Great song.

Sam Charles Norton said...

Meant to include the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka2h0BMdUgU

Michael Gray said...

Actually a very impressive, eclectic selection, banksyboy !
I'd really like to hear the chat surrounding the choices - maybe we could get together and make the actual programme ...