Desert island Discs

[Prospero]

There are a lot of music enthusaists on this site so this is one for you.
To the American and other non-uk members some background. Desert island Discs is a British radio show that has been running for centuries in which notable people choose the eight pieces of music which they'd take with them to a desert island - along with a book (apart from the Bible/Koran and comlete works of Shakespeare) and one luxury. The idea is that the songs are personal to them in some special way - reminders of childhood, songs that mean something or are deeply loved or the sort of music they could most comfortably live with or not live without for the rest of their lives.



I'll start.

1. God Only Knows - The Beachboys
2. Four last songs - Richard Strauss sung by Lisa della Casa
3. The B Minor Mass - Johann Sebastian Bach
4. Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan
5. The Wand of Youth - Edward Elgar
6. Strawberry Fields Forever - The Beatles
7. "Didos Lament - When I am Laid" by Purcell from Dido and Aeneas sung by Emma Kirkby
8. Rhapsody In Blue - George Gerswhin

Book - À la recherche du temps perdu (in English) by Marcel Proust
Luxury - a piano

[iamdrgonzo]

John Lennon - Serve Yourself
Muddy Waters - Hoochie Coochie Man
Roger Waters - Amused to Death
Bob Dylan - Masters of War
Van Morrison - Cleaning Windows
Luigi Boccherini - Musica notturna delle strade di Madrid
Iron Maiden - Hallowed Be Thy Name
Bob Marley - Redemption Song
Book: White Jacket by Herman Melville

Luxury: Huge never ending satchel of high-grade marajuana

I'm going to add another catergory to the Desert Island wish list, which Tgirl would you have along?

Tgirl : Domino

401582

* The enumeration in the list, of items, shall not be construed to deny or disparage other items which may be added to the list by the list maker at a later time and thus the enumerations of the items on the list have no weighted bearing whatsoever as to their relation on the list whether the items on the list have been listed or not.

[Stavros]

Maybe there should be an alternative DiD in which you consign to a desert island the music you never want to hear again -I saw the Beach Boys live in London as a headline act in the 60s, not by choice as we went for the other acts: I loathe their music as much as Elvis, all that rock and roll crap that sounds like it was recorded in a kitchen, Led Zeppelin and every heavy metal band; plus Edward Elgar, William Walton, and Aaron Copeland. However DiD is often not just the music but its context, some personal memory, which is why I can't do it. 7 just isn't enough.

[Prospero]

It's eight Stavros... and the discipline is the whole point. I agree. I have - currently - over 97,000 pieces of music on my computer hard drive. A good 10,000 are indispensable.

I agree about context though.

I like the idea of music you'd never ever want to hear again though.

Here goes

1. Death metal music in its entirety
2. I should be so lucky - Kylie Minogue
3. Orville's Song - Orville and harris
4. The Archers theme music
5. There's No One Quite like Grandma - St Winifred's School Choir
6. Anything by Des O'connor
7. Happy Christmas Everyone - Slade
8. Two Little Boys - Rolf Harris

[Jericho]

A bit cerebral for this time of day, but...

1. One Lonely Heart - Lena Lovich
2. Dark Therapy - Echobelly
3. Coma White - Marilyn Manson
4. Another Girl Another Planet - The Only Ones
5. Old Red Eyes Is Back - The Beautiful South
6. Alice - Tom Waits
7. One - Johnny Cash
8. The Queen And The soldier - Suzanne Vega

Book. The Thirty Nine Steps - John Buchan

Luxury. Enough Vodka to drink myself to death.

[Prospero]

Dr Gonzo's challenge is a lot, lot harder..... one T girl.
She would have to be smart and a great conversationalist. Sexy as hell but also resourceful. A mate and a lover. Able to cope in adverse conditions and not someone who needs constant meds (unless HER luxury was all the necessary hormones to sustain her equilibrium). So its from a long list. This is a shortlist.

1. Liberty Harkness
2. Eva Vortex
3. Shannon
4. Najwa Hayat
5. Pearl (who I just met)
6. Domino (for her looks - I have no idea what her personality is like)
7. Linda hand (for her mind)
8. Tia Phoenixx

[Stavros]

1. Death metal music in its entirety
2. I should be so lucky - Kylie Minogue
3. Orville's Song - Orville and harris
4. The Archers theme music
5. There's No One Quite like Grandma - St Winifred's School Choir
6. Anything by Des O'connor
7. Happy Christmas Everyone - Slade
8. Two Little Boys - Rolf Harris

Amazing! I never knew Orville even cut a disc! Some real horrors there...I can't imagine what the Grandma song sounds like, looks like I will have to taste it on YouTube.

I once heard on Radio4 an old recording of about a thousand girls, all with plummy accents singing 'Nymphs and Shepherds Come Away' and it stuck in my head for 12 hours and drove me mad, I don't even know what it means...

[Prospero]

You must mean this....

YouTube - ‪Nymphs and Shepherds.wmv‬‏ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vkpqHECZtE&feature=related)

[iamdrgonzo]

Dr Gonzo's challenge is a lot, lot harder..... one T girl.
She would have to be smart and a great conversationalist. Sexy as hell but also resourceful. A mate and a lover. Able to cope in adverse conditions and not someone who needs constant meds (unless HER luxury was all the necessary hormones to sustain her equilibrium). So its from a long list. This is a shortlist.


Quite right. I choose Domino based soley upon her looks (shallow I am). I have no idea whether she is a good conversationalist, cook or mate but I would be more than willing to find out.

[Jericho]

Should probably choose a big fat one...Don't know if there's any food on this island yet! :hide-1:

I'm sorry, ill get me coat!

[iamdrgonzo]

Who needs food when we'll have manna from heaven.

If we're dreaming we may as well dream big.

[Prospero]

True Dr G... and I'm posting this mainly to propel it back up the thread in the hopes that more will join in and play.

[robertlouis]

Today's eight pieces, subject to change every other day..... I make no apology for two of them being by personal friends - they stand up to all the necessary criteria.

1. Brahms Deutsches Requiem
2. Schubert String Quintet
3. Sibelius 5th Symphony
4. Vaughan Williams the Lark Ascending
5. Bruce Springsteen Born to Run
6. Neil Young Cinnamon Girl
7. Martyn Joseph Cardiff Bay
8. Dick Gaughan Now Westlin' Winds

Book: The American Civil War - A Narrative History by Shelby Foote

Luxury: A Guitar with a lifetime supply of strings

Tgirl: I go along with Prospero's definition, so probably either Libby or Sammi.

If I dump the book (who'll have time for reading anyway?), can I take them both

Please?

[Stavros]

You must mean this..(Nymphs and Shepherds)..GHASTLY!!! HORRIBLE!!! I am not even sure I would want to bother looking for an 'authentic' period piece version, its just so harvest time twee...

[Stavros]

Ok I know its cheating, but I was going to have a third selection just of Mozart...

Classical Music:
1. Beethoven String Quartet op59 no 2 [Razumovsky] (Alban Berg Qt)
2. Schubert Piano Sonata in B Flat D960 (Uchida)
3. JS Bach, B Minor Mass (still looking for the definitive recording)
4. Shostakovich: Symphony No 4 (Ashkenazy)
5. Wagner: Tristan und Isolde (Bohm)
6. Verdi: Aida (Muti)
7. Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier (Solti)
8. Strauss Kramerspiegel, op66 (Fischer-Diskau)

Miscellaneous

1. Leonard Cohen: Suzanne
2. Leonard Cohen: Sisters of Mercy
3. Incredible String Band: Chinese White
4. Van Morrison: Astral Weeks
5. Van Morrison: Madame George
6. Bob Dylan: Mr Tambourine Man
7. Bob Dylan: The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest
8. Robert Johnson: Kindhearted Woman Blues

Book: Nostromo

Luxury Transexual: Eva Robins

[robertlouis]

JS Bach, B Minor Mass (still looking for the definitive recording)



I have the 1985 recording with Eliot Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir. Haven't heard a better version on record.

[Stavros]

Thanks for the tip on Gardiner; his Cantata cycle is a mixed bag, but I don't think I have heard his mass yet.

[Prospero]

My best recording of the B MInor Mass is a french recording on Erato from Michel Corboz and the Lausanne vocal and instrumental ensemble and soloists issued in 1972. I have never fund it on CD though - so I've only got a rather worn vinyl version which is also no longer available. .

[Prospero]

And I'd go with RobertLouis in choosing a different list every day which depends upon one's mood.
Curious why Stavros cannot stand to listen to The Beatles anymore? Is it your tinnitus?

[Prospero]

So today's eight pieces of music

1. Rhapsody In Blue - George Gershwin
2. A Love Supreme - John Coltrane
3. Brahms - Deutsches Requiem
4. The Dream Of Gerontius - Edward Elgar
5. Visions Of Johanna - Bob Dylan
6. A Change Is Gonna Come - Otis Redding
7. Manhattan - Ella Fitzgerald
8. Black Crow - Joni Mitchell

[robertlouis]

Prospero, forgive the curiosity, but is your avatar a painting of a cardinal, pope or doge?

And it bears an uncanny likeness to John Gielgud.

[robertlouis]

And my eight for today

1. Mahler 2nd symphony, The Resurrection
2. Beethoven 7th Symphony
3 Bruch, Kol Nidrei
4. Copland, Appalachian Spring
5. Show of Hands, Country Life
6. Crosby, Stills and Nash, Helplessly Hoping
7. Mozart, Coronation Mass
8. Andrew Gold (RIP), Never Let her Slip Away

[Stavros]

I was a Beatlemaniac and I can't deny it, but for many years I have just found the songs too sugary and lifeless, and I think I have heard enough of Paul McCartney's voice -I am not a sentimental type of person so I can discard a lot of things that were once important without being concerned. Corboz...that's a recording I shall try and find, I used to have one of his Bach cantatas on record (I got rid of my vinyl years ago, long story).

RLS Prospero's avatar is from Greenaway's film 'Prospero's Books'...but I am not presuming it is an endorsement of that individual's films...

For today all I can muster is:

1. Deep River -Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (Julian Joseph on YouTube does it so well)
2. I am the Wife of Mao Tse-Tung -John Adams, from Nixon in China. Actually I detest minimalism, but I saw a South Korean soprano, Hye Jung Lee sing it at the Cardiff Singer of the World (on tv last week and available on BBC iPlayer) and she was sensational.

[martin48]

Last month the BBC asked listeners for their choices - here they are:



Your Top Eight Tracks





Ralph Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/find-a-castaway/music/Ralph%2BVaughan%2BWilliams)
Sir Edward Elgar - Enigma Variations (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/find-a-castaway/music/Edward%2BElgar%2Bnimrod)
Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony No 9 in D minor 'Choral' (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/find-a-castaway/music/Ludwig%2Bvan%2BBeethoven%2B-%2BSymphony%2BNo%2B9%2Bin%2BD%2Bminor)
Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/find-a-castaway/music/Queen%2B-%2BBohemian%2BRhapsody)
Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/find-a-castaway/music/Pink%2BFloyd%2B-%2BComfortably%2BNumb)
Sir Edward Elgar - Cello Concerto in E Minor (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/find-a-castaway/music/Sir%2BEdward%2BElgar%2B-%2BCello%2BConcerto%2Bin%2BE%2BMinor)
George Frideric Handel - Messiah (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/find-a-castaway/music/handel%2Bmessiah)
Gustav Holst - The Planets (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/find-a-castaway/music/Gustav%2BHolst%2BThe%2BPlanets)


Your Top Eight Artists





The Beatles (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/find-a-castaway/music/beatles)
Bob Dylan (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/find-a-castaway/music/bob-dylan)
Ludwig van Beethoven (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/find-a-castaway/music/ludwig%2Bvan%2Bbeethoven)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/find-a-castaway/music/wolfgang%2Bmozart)
Pink Floyd (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/find-a-castaway/music/pink-floyd)
Johann Sebastian Bach (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/find-a-castaway/music/Johann%2BSebastian%2BBach)
The Rolling Stones (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/find-a-castaway/music/rolling-stones)
Sir Edward Elgar (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/find-a-castaway/music/Edward%2BElgar)


Top Tracks By Women Artists





Joni Mitchell - Case of You (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/find-a-castaway/music/case%2Bof%2Byou)
Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/find-a-castaway/music/kate%2Bbush%2Bwuthering%2Bheights)
Adele - Someone Like You
Ella Fitzgerald - Every Time We Say Goodbye (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/find-a-castaway/music/Ella%2BFitzgerald%2BGoodbye)
Edith Piaf - Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/find-a-castaway/music/Edith%2BPiaf%2BRegrette)
Aretha Franklin - Say A Little Prayer (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/find-a-castaway/music/Aretha%2BFranklin%2BSay%2BA%2BLittle%2BPrayer)
Nina Simone - Feeling Good (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/find-a-castaway/music/Nina%2BSimone%2BFeeling%2BGood)
Joan Armatrading - Love and Affection / Eva Cassidy - Fields of Gold

[iamdrgonzo]

The Ramones - I Wanna Be Sedated
Peter Framton - Do you Feel Like We Do
Beethoven - Symphony No. 5 (Maazel/Vienna Philharmonic)
Janes Addiction -Jane Says (steel drum version)
Roger Waters - 5:01AM The Pros And Cons Of Hitch Hiking, Part 10
The Beatles - A Day In The Life
Alice Cooper - Welcome To My Nightmare
I like to read when I'm smoking copious amounts of marijuana and having my way ravishing Domino while here on Desert Isle.

Book: Kurt Vonnegut - The Sirens Of Titan

[Prospero]

It is indeed Sir John Gielgud as Prospero from Peter Greenaways hateful film. Love Gielgud but hate Greenaway.

[Prospero]

The Resurrection Symphony - that would have been on my first list. See so much music, so many girls, so little time.... sigh

[robertlouis]

The Resurrection Symphony - that would have been on my first list. See so much music, so many girls, so little time.... sigh

Mahler - all his symphonies are fantastic in the literal sense of the term. I find it hard to prioritise them, but I do want to have the finale of the second played at my funeral!

[Prospero]

Never could manage to work my way into the seeming forest of sound that is the eighth (The Symphony of a thousand)... The 9th was my entree. Such a haunting sadness.

[Stavros]

I think the best version of the song, Everytime we say goodbye that I have heard is by John Coltrane, the worst is by that woman in the Eurythmics whose name escapes me. I will never understand the appeal of Bohemian Rhapsody, I am sure it started out as a joke, and just got out of hand...

Did anyone ever hear of a band called The Apple Tree Theatre?

[Jericho]

Annie Lennox, Pappous, Annie Lennox.

[Prospero]

Bit of a belter, our Annie.

[Prospero]

Today's desert island list

1. The Rite Of Spring - Stravinsky
2. Atomic - Blondie
3. Love Walked in - Benny Goodman (live concert)
4. This One is from The Heart - Tom Waits and Crystal Gayle
4. Chopin - complete Nocturnes
5. Carioca - Evan Christopher
6. Die Heligen drie konige aus morgenland - Strauss performed by Elizabeth Schwartzkopf
7. The Golden Road To Samarkand - Delius
8. Tangled Up In Blue - Bob Dylan

[Prospero]

Bump up

[iamdrgonzo]

1 - Jamie Cullum, If I Ruled The World
2 - Rufus Wainwright, Cigarettes and Choclate Milk
3 - Lynard Skynyrd, The Ballad Of Curtis Lowe
4 - The B52's, Love Shack
5 - Outkast, Roses
6 - Ella Fitzgerald, Shine
7 - Billy Joel, Scenes From An Italian Resturant

Book - Joseph Heller Catch 22

[robertlouis]

Today's list, all back catalogue rock etc. Tomorrow all classical!

1. The Doors - Roadhouse Blues
2. The Beach Boys - Surf's Up
3. Alan Price - Jarrow Song
4. Jefferson Airplane - Somebody to Love
5. Martin Simpson - Never Any Good
6. Ralph McTell - Girl from the Hiring Fair
7. Randy Newman - Tickle Me
8. Lindisfarne - Together Forever

Book - Paul Theroux - The Great Railway Bazaar

[Prospero]

Now there a few songs there I have never heard so must check them out - McTell and Martin Simpson.

Alan Hull made a few solo records after Lindisfarne which were pretty good.

[robertlouis]

Now there a few songs there I have never heard so must check them out - McTell and Martin Simpson.

Alan Hull made a few solo records after Lindisfarne which were pretty good.


I picked up my first guitar after seeing Ralph McTell live - so I guess he has a lot to answer for....

Everyone knows about Streets of London, Ralph's blessing and curse all in one, but he is a master songwriter and one of the most modest, kind and unaffected people you could ever hope to meet. I'm proud to be able to call him a friend. The song I mentioned has all the drama and colour of a Hardy novel.

Martin's song is a loving dedication to his own father - great writing and stunning guitar playing.

[Prospero]

Great....

YouTube - ‪Martin Simpson - Never any good‬‏ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwqbi7mlYOg)

YouTube - ‪Fairport Convention - The Hiring Fair‬‏ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRmyKFmMzPs)

[robertlouis]

Great....

YouTube - ‪Martin Simpson - Never any good‬‏ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwqbi7mlYOg)

YouTube - ‪Fairport Convention - The Hiring Fair‬‏ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRmyKFmMzPs)

Thanks for posting, Prospero. Fairport's version is OK, but Ralph's original is outstanding. I used to have it in my set back in the days when I mostly played covers. I'll see if I can mp3 it for you.

[robertlouis]

Even better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VlvIUVbL-4

[Prospero]

I actually prefer the fairport's version having just listened to both. I like their arrangement.

[robertlouis]

I actually prefer the fairport's version having just listened to both. I like their arrangement.

Trust me mate. Playing the solo version in a club in the right conditions where you can in effect sing the song to the prettiest girl in the room can reap considerable sexual dividends.....

I have a few songs that will do that! :dancing::party:

[Prospero]

Typical bloody musician. Prostituting your art for pussy. Still refer the full orchestral version to the one that enable you to get laid.

Do you think Herbert Von Karajan got more girls by pointing his baton at ladies in the audience during the climax of a choice piece of Kodaly or Schoenberg? Did it transfigure his night for him?

[Stavros]

Curious -I saw Fairport Convention at one of those free concerts in Hyde Park, I think it was 1968 -in fact I went to the very first one that year with Pink Floyd (Jethro Tull were also on it along with Junior's Eyes and Roy Harper)- anyway I also think I saw them in concert at the Royal Festival Hall, but when I recently bought their first album, which was one of the vinyls I discarded years ago, I found it bland and uninteresting.

Folk music, particularly in the UK, seems to me to be a queer, insular little world where arguments rage over whether or not someone using a tambourine is violating a sacred code -when Dylan appeared with a band at the Albert Hall in 1966 didn't someone in the crowd shout out 'Judas!' -? The Incredible String Band lost a lot of diehard folkistes when they appeared at the RAH with electricals: for some obscure reason I have never forgotten the first line of the Melody Maker review: 'Electric Incredibles! It had to happen..'. probably because I was there...enough of this...but I note that The Guardian has published the obituary of Mike Waterson:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jun/22/mike-waterson-obituary

[trish]

Hmmm finding just eight albums that I would take with me to a desert island is really difficult. I made a list and started axing things. Still I only got the list down to twelve pieces. Thank goodness for 64 gig iPods. Those items that remained were all classical. Here they are in alphabetical order by composer.

01. Glenn Gould's piano recordings of J.S. Bach's Well Tempered Clavier.
02. Bartok's Blue Beard's Castle (I have the D Fischer-Dieskau Deusche Gram version..nice).
03. Bizet's L'Arlesienne.
04. Boulez's Repons.
05. Debussy's Iberia.
06. Gorecki's Symphony No 3.
07. Mahler's Symphony No 4 [The third movement just BLOWS ME AWAY every-fuckin'-time. Just listened to it again].
08. Messiaen's Trois petit liturgies.
09. Schnittke's In Memoriam.
10. Shoenbergs, Pierrot Lunaire.
11. Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8.
12. Sibelius's Symphony No. 4.

[trish]

Typical bloody musician. Prostituting your art for pussy. Still refer the full orchestral version to the one that enable you to get laid.

Do you think Herbert Von Karajan got more girls by pointing his baton at ladies in the audience during the climax of a choice piece of Kodaly or Schoenberg? Did it transfigure his night for him?Perhaps you heard this one:

A musician dies, goes to Heaven and is accepted into the Heavenly Philharmonic. On the first day of practice our newly deceased musician is surprised. It seems to him that that might be God Himself standing behind the podium. So he leans over to his fellow musician and whispers, "Who is that behind the podium?" The reply, "Oh that's yes that's God. He thinks He's Herbert Von Karajan."

[Prospero]

Trish - totally agree. The third movement of the 4th by Mahler is, indeed, truly incredible.

[rodinuk]

I'll have a bash at this tomorrow - interesting that you dislike Greenaway, Prospero I'll comment on that too on the morrow.

[Stavros]

Trish -sorry I have to dissent from your choice of Glenn Gould -I am one of those who find his pseudo-cerebral humming and muttering, playing with crossed legs just too much to take. I know why he is revered, but I don't revere him. His fellow Canadian, Angela Hewitt is the kind of musician I like, and I listen to her piano versions of Bach more than anyone else.

I love Messiaen and I could not live without O Sacrum Convivium -I was going to post a youtube link but the ones they have are all over 5 minutes long whereas it should be over in 4.40...

Finally, are you familiar with Glen Tetley's ballet for Pierrot Lunaire? It not only makes the music come alive, it is even bearable which is saying a lot for most of Schoenberg....

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=pierrot+lunaire+ballet&aq=f

[robertlouis]

Trish - totally agree. The third movement of the 4th by Mahler is, indeed, truly incredible.

The 4th was the primary soundtrack to my recent holiday in Austria.

[Prospero]

Ah my sound track to a holiday in Austria would be the Horst Wessel Lied
They are unreconstructed

[iamdrgonzo]

Today is a quiet day on Desert Isle

Book - The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, William Shakesphere

[Prospero]

No - its a busy day on Dessert Isle.... chock full of profiteroles and chocolate cake

[Prospero]

Bump......

[robertlouis]

Time for a new list.

1. Sibelius 7th Symphony (Ashkenazy)
2. Beethoven 3rd Symphony, Eroica (von Karajan)
3. Elgar Violin Concerto (Kennedy)
4. Stravinsky The Rite of Spring (Stokowski)
5. Mahler 9th Symphony (Abbado)
6. Rachmaninov 3rd Piano Concerto (Ashkenazy)
7. Vaughan Williams, Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus (Loughran)
8. Faure, Requiem (Gardiner)

Book - Patrick Leigh Fermor, A Time of Gifts

Luxury - Sammi Valentine, but she'd HATE the choice of music. Oh well.

[Prospero]

And from me today before I also vanish into the blue....

1. Lift to the scaffold - Miles Davis
2. Strange fruit - Billie Holiday
3. Great Mass in C - Mozart
4. The Lark Ascending - Vaughan Williams
6. Who Will Take my Dreams - Marianne faithful and Angelo Badalementi
7. Angel - Jimi Hendrix
8. Zdes’ khorošo… Op.21 no.7 - Rachmaninov - sung by Anna Netrebko

Book - Richard F Burton - Personal narrative of a pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Mecca

Luxury - my ten favourite films on DVD (list coming!)

[iamdrgonzo]

It's like Groundhog Day only better.

1 - I Alone, Live
2 - Boom Boom, John Lee Hooker
3 - Sweet Georgia Brown, Benny Goodman
4 - Eminence Front, The Who
5 - Mother - Danzig
6 - The Mooche, Duke Ellington
7 - France- Grateful Dead
8 - Remedy - The Black Crowes

Book - The Rum Diary, Hunter S Thompson

Luxury - Hot bath and a bottle of Malbec

TGirl - Sunshine Monroe was looking Yummmy this morning

[Stavros]

I think I might have said this before in another thread but I have never been able to get into The Grateful Dead, I tried and every time I realised after a minute or two my mind had wandered. Can anyone tell me what is is they do? I am mystified.

Malbec, on the other hand...now that's different -of the two wines that have captivated me in the last two years, Malbec is one (Ribera del Durro is the other).

[Prospero]

Stavros - I think you needed to drop quite a strong tab of Acid or smoke a lot of powerful grass before listening to them.

There is ONE good Dead album of songs -"American Beauty" with some structured compositions by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter. Otherwise its mainly long blues jams or unlistenable psychedelia (aoxomoxoa). There is one interesting long instrumental they did called Dark Star which is quite fine.

[Stavros]

Thanks for the advice, Prospero, I think I'll pass on the acid...

[Prospero]

I don't blame you.... but that seems to be the generally received notion.

[robertlouis]

Stavros - I think you needed to drop quite a strong tab of Acid or smoke a lot of powerful grass before listening to them.

There is ONE good Dead album of songs -"American Beauty" with some structured compositions by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter. Otherwise its mainly long blues jams or unlistenable psychedelia (aoxomoxoa). There is one interesting long instrumental they did called Dark Star which is quite fine.

*Bump*

Workingman's Dead is another good back to basics album, with a concentration on the songs, much like American Beauty. Needless to say, they're the only GD albums in my collection.

[Prospero]

I thought the only good song on Workingman's dead was Uncle john's band though casey jones is amusing. I used to have vinyl copies of Live Dead, Aoxomoxoa and Anthems Of The Sun - but they never got played and so went to the local oxfam shop (now they're probably worth a small fortune. Such is life)

[Prospero]

And from me today before I also vanish into the blue....

1. Lift to the scaffold - Miles Davis
2. Strange fruit - Billie Holiday
3. Great Mass in C - Mozart
4. The Lark Ascending - Vaughan Williams
6. Who Will Take my Dreams - Marianne faithful and Angelo Badalementi
7. Angel - Jimi Hendrix
8. Zdes’ khorošo… Op.21 no.7 - Rachmaninov - sung by Anna Netrebko

Book - Richard F Burton - Personal narrative of a pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Mecca

Luxury - my ten favourite films on DVD (list coming!)

Promised my films....

1. The Lives of Others
2. Radio Days
3. The Ipcress File
4. Performance
5. Solaris by Andrei Tarkovsky
6. Celine and Julie Go Boating
7. My Fair lady
8. All Quiet On The Western Front
9. All The Marx Brothers movies
10. Some Like It Hot

[iamdrgonzo]

I think I might have said this before in another thread but I have never been able to get into The Grateful Dead, I tried and every time I realised after a minute or two my mind had wandered. Can anyone tell me what is is they do? I am mystified.


I really can't put my finger on it Stavros but when I listen to certain Grateful Dead songs my foot just starts-a-tappin' and I get the urge to dance.

France is one of my favorite Dead tunes. Perhaps you'll give it a listen?

YouTube - ‪Grateful Dead - France (Studio Version)‬‏ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl-qNKQWK34)

[Stavros]

Dr Gonzo I took the medicine...sorry, I found it bland and incoherent, I did think it was going to take off like some Ruben Blades track, but it just fizzled out....

[robertlouis]

Dr Gonzo I took the medicine...sorry, I found it bland and incoherent, I did think it was going to take off like some Ruben Blades track, but it just fizzled out....


They don't fizzle out as such, Stavros, they just reach the point where the various band members keel over either because they're stoned or exhausted or both. I suspect that, on the live recordings, that was from time to time genuinely the case. I admire the musicianship, and I think that Bob Weir was a very fine songwriter, but I find the self-indulgence of the solos and breaks mind-numbing. Sorry, deadheads.

[robertlouis]

Promised my films....

1. The Lives of Others
2. Radio Days
3. The Ipcress File
4. Performance
5. Solaris by Andrei Tarkovsky
6. Celine and Julie Go Boating
7. My Fair lady
8. All Quiet On The Western Front
9. All The Marx Brothers movies
10. Some Like It Hot

Well, well. Our number one film is the very same!

Here's my list

1. The Lives of Others
2. Paths of Glory
3. La Grande Illusion
4. Blade Runner (Director's Cut)
5. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
6. All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone 1930)
7. O Brother Where Art Thou
8. Das Boot (although the tv series was better)
9. The Ladykillers (Ealing version 1953)
10. The Spirit of the Beehive

[iamdrgonzo]

Films you type well then:

1 - Papillon
2 - Soylent Green
3 - Bram Stokers Dracula
4 - Jeremiah Johnson
5 - Cool Hand Luke
6 - The Manchurian Candidate (Original Version)
7 - The Hustler
8 - One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
9 - Mars Attacks
10 - All That Jazz

[iamdrgonzo]

Dr Gonzo I took the medicine...sorry, I found it bland and incoherent, I did think it was going to take off like some Ruben Blades track, but it just fizzled out....


All you can do is give it a listen.

[Stavros]

My Films List

1. Citizen Kane
2. The Wizard of Oz
3. The Big Sleep
4. Persona
5. The Seventh Seal
6. Mirror
7. Andrei Rublev
8. Satantango
9. Tokyo Story
10. Last Year in Marienbad

[Prospero]

I deliberately omitted Citizen Kane. it is in a class of its own. But I forgot the Wizard of Oz... that is insinuated so deeply in my brain it doesn't need re-viewing. I nearly chose Rublev instead of Solaris. Hard to decide. Never heard of Satantango - so will check this out. And Last yYear in Marienbad I've set through twice and still don't understand, though it is haunting.

[robertlouis]

I deliberately omitted Citizen Kane. it is in a class of its own. But I forgot the Wizard of Oz... that is insinuated so deeply in my brain it doesn't need re-viewing. I nearly chose Rublev instead of Solaris. Hard to decide. Never heard of Satantango - so will check this out. And Last yYear in Marienbad I've set through twice and still don't understand, though it is haunting.

While I think I'd stick with my original list, I could have almost done separate top tens of Kubrick, Louis Malle, Truffaut, Chabrol, Erich Rohmer, Scorsese, Peter Weir, the Coens, David Lean and Woody Allen.

[Prospero]

aarrghhhhhh the hugely over rated Coens. Together with that fake Tarantino.

[Stavros]

I could have almost done separate top tens of Kubrick, Louis Malle, Truffaut, Chabrol, Erich Rohmer, Scorsese, Peter Weir, the Coens, David Lean and Woody Allen.

I don't know if it is a function of age, but if I look back at the directors of the last 50 years I used to admire, I find most of their films no appear to me to be as good as I thought they were. The -European- survivors for me are Renoir, Bergman, Bresson, and Tarkovsky; Haneke is a contender but still alive, and as someone said his output is erratic in the extreme.

I would like the opportunity to re-assess Jancso but other than My Way Home I can't get all the ones I want, from The Round-Up to Allegro Barbaro. I don't like any of the films by Derek Jarman, Ken Loach, Ken Russell and but a few of Mike Leigh, but the English directors are idiosyncratic in a way that you dont find elsewhere (I dont include Greenaway whose films are almost literally shit; I nearly came to blows with this pompous asshole; he was inches away from me at the premiere of the risible nonsense The Falls, but thats another story).

The biggest casualty for me is Antonioni whose films I used to think were amongst the best ever made, now I can't watch them; Fellini never excited me so he doesn't make the cut, same is true of Pasolini and most -but not all- of Fassbinder.

Kubrick is one of the most over-rated director of recent times: he made one good film, Paths of Glory, and Barry Lyndon a beautiful fairy cake of a film; the rest of his films are a shambles and shaped by one idea -no matter how hard one tries to change things, everything remains the same. A bleak purposeless view of life, one even wonders why he made films.

As for the French, a list of useless frauds will always be topped by Godard, who I nominate as the director of the worst films ever made that have a reputation (given that worst films would have to include B films that were never meant to do anything but fill the space before the main feature). Louis Malle's films are feeble, in some cases -Jules et Jim, for example- embarrassingly bad; Chabrol's cinema is the filmic version of cement.

The glories of French cinema: where in recent years did any film match the wonder and passion of Les Enfants du Paradis, surely one of the greatest films ever made? The social commentaries of the age: La Marseilleise, La Grande Illusion, La Regle du Jeu -Renoir's style and depth was never matched by Chabrol. Rohmer is hugely under-rated, but his films are the equivalent of short stories rather than novels, which is his appeal.

Bresson emerges as the greatest of the French, pure cinema where everything from the movement of a finger to a single note of music has its exact place. But I am biased because there is a scene in Au Hasard Baltasar which happened to me, when I was the same age as the girl in the first scene, and also in France -weird and in its own way exquisitely personal.

Has anyone ever found that? A scene in a movie which is almost exactly if not exactly like something that happened to you?

Coming next: my pet obsession: music -or rather, the abuse of music- in films....

ps Prospero, Satantango lasts over 7 hours and is about the demise of a collective farm in Hungary....it rains a lot...his films are slower than the slowest Tarkovsy...you will have to devote most of a waking day to it, and either love it or hate it.

[Prospero]

Gosh a seven hour film about collective farming. I will wait until I can no longer get out of my chair I think. Thanks for the tip.

Stavros - you are one of the harshest critics of film (and music i think) I've come across. NONE of Fellini? I think he had a latish flowering with Amacord for instance. Nor Chabrol. What about Day For Night? Isn't it possible that not every film must be measured against jean Renoir?

I agree wholeheartedly about Greenway, but have a place in my heart for Jarman (I had a minor role in the production of one of his better films) and he was actually a hugely nice man.

I can't wait to read our thoughts on the uses and abuses of music in film. (I do worry though that these threads will get deleted as being too far from the spirit of this whole site).

And curious that Hitchcock isn't on any of the lists yet.

[iamdrgonzo]

Kubrick is one of the most over-rated director of recent times: he made one good film, Paths of Glory, and Barry Lyndon a beautiful fairy cake of a film; the rest of his films are a shambles and shaped by one idea -no matter how hard one tries to change things, everything remains the same. A bleak purposeless view of life, one even wonders why he made films.

I gather you missed Kubrick's nightmare comedy Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb.

[Stavros]

Dr Gonzo, I have seen Dr Strangelove I think 3 or 4 times over the years, and every time I am amazed that Kubrick could not see how he was making a mess of his own film by creating in Strangelove a figure who has no credibility, acted with an excess of -well, everything, by Sellers: pseudo-German accent, music-hall disability, twisted imagination: Sellers is brilliant as the Air Force officer, as is Sterling Hayden, the rest comes straight out of a very bad and cheap comic -the whole film lacks a soul but outside Paths of Glory there is no soul in any of Kubrick's films. OK, I know it is a satire, but Kubrick to me had seen too many Carry On films, it just doesn't work. Kubrick is one of many directors whose female characters are problematic, not because of the drama/story -but him. Nicole Kidman might look good with her clothes off, but has no place in Eyes Wide Shut other than as decoration; the only substantial female roles outside Lolita, are Lady Lyndon and Barry Lyndon's mother -one is vacuous and passive to the point of immobility, the other a grasping harridan. The women in A Clockwork Orange are there for sexual purposes. In Full Metal Jacket the first half shows men being turned into killing machines, the second half repeats the Kubrick theme of perennial uelessness as the killing machine can't cope with a single sniper who turns out to be a teenage girl -at least the girl who sings at the end of Paths of Glory suddenly reaches into the soul of man, and turns a rowdy bar into a funeral parlour...the death of innocence, the death of empire, the death of illusions...

Prospero, believe it or not I have mellowed with the years -I used to be really obnoxious, and actually regret some of the things I once said to people I know. I can take La Strada, but after Otto e Mezzo, Fellini had his head stuck so far up his own ass/arse he couldn't do anything without smearing it in shit.

Satantango is of course about much more than collective farming, like all Tarr's films (which he 'co-authors' with his partner Agnes Hranitzky) it is filmed in black and white and adopts extreme tactics: in one scene the same words are said over and over I think for about 20 minutes; there is at least one one-hour segment with no dialogue; if you stay the course the slightest change becomes important, and in that way Tarr re-constructs some of the key elements of life under communism: its crushing boredom, its relentless repetition. Into this mix you throw, circa 1989 a bewildering hope which leads the members of the collective farm to put their faith in a charismatic figure who disappears: his re-appearance at the beginning of the film sets in motion the drama that indicts communism but also raises profound questions about the individuals who lived through it. Have a look at the latest film The Turin Horse in imdb, Tarr is an acquired taste I admit that, but once seen his films haunt me.

If Satantago is too much, have a go at Werckmeister Harmonies, its only two hours and 25 minutes and deserves to be seen several times, although I have only seen it three times (I have the Bela Tarr box with Damnation and The Man from London).

I should not be so dismissive of Chabrol, but I can't help it -I never liked his films. Hitchcock is problematic, mainly because of his misogyny, I enjoy his films but they always fall short although North by Northwest and his version of The 39 Steps and Dial M for Murder are great thrillers.

[iamdrgonzo]

Dr Gonzo, I have seen Dr Strangelove I think 3 or 4 times over the years, and every time I am amazed that Kubrick could not see how he was making a mess of his own film by creating in Strangelove a figure who has no credibility, acted with an excess of -well, everything, by Sellers: pseudo-German accent, music-hall disability, twisted imagination: Sellers is brilliant as the Air Force officer, as is Sterling Hayden, the rest comes straight out of a very bad and cheap comic -the whole film lacks a soul but outside Paths of Glory there is no soul in any of Kubrick's films. OK, I know it is a satire, but Kubrick to me had seen too many Carry On films, it just doesn't work. Kubrick is one of many directors whose female characters are problematic, not because of the drama/story -but him. Nicole Kidman might look good with her clothes off, but has no place in Eyes Wide Shut other than as decoration; the only substantial female roles outside Lolita, are Lady Lyndon and Barry Lyndon's mother -one is vacuous and passive to the point of immobility, the other a grasping harridan. The women in A Clockwork Orange are there for sexual purposes. In Full Metal Jacket the first half shows men being turned into killing machines, the second half repeats the Kubrick theme of perennial uelessness as the killing machine can't cope with a single sniper who turns out to be a teenage girl -at least the girl who sings at the end of Paths of Glory suddenly reaches into the soul of man, and turns a rowdy bar into a funeral parlour...the death of innocence, the death of empire, the death of illusions...



Stravos, I believe that Kubrick in creating the Dr. Strangelove character (et al, Jack D. Ripper for example, Haydens character) without credibility was precisely the idea. The entire purpose of How I Learned to Love The Bomb was to show that the "professionals" (I use that term loosely) were nothing more than madmen who believed that thermo-nuclear war was not only survivable but winnable. It would have been comical if it weren't true.

Kubrick's portrayal of USMC boot camp in the movie "Full Metal Jacket" is as true to life as I have seen. The use of the young girl as a sniper who holds off the vaunted jolly-green-giant killing machine is a metaphor for might does not always triumph (as we can clearly see in todays current unpleasantness in Southwest Asia). You'll recall the closing scene when the jolly-greens are striding foward purposefully while singing the "Mickey Mouse Club March" a tune which sums up rather nicely the futility of the US's involvement in Indochina (et al).


As for Kubricks portrayal of women in his films perhaps it was a product of his up-bringing and he was merely reflecting the societal-norms of his time, that women were to be seen and not heard? (Speculating)

Of course there are "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "The Shining" which I also enjoy watching from time to time.

[Stavros]

Dr Gonzo you make valid points, and in fact I do watch Kubrick's films even though they irritate me mostly, but there is always something to admire -however, the point about the Desert Island is -would you take them with you? Its like moving house when you know you can't take everything to the new place -I have had to do it in the last 10 years and was surprised at how ruthless I was in throwing out stuff I thought I would always keep -thus I find the things I don't like in Kubrick are enough for me to leave him behind. Bresson, Tarkovsky, Bergman -as directors, are indispensable; as are a host of individual films that dont make it to the list because its 8-10 as dictated by the format of a radio programme. For some reason, other than highbrow art, I like car chases even though I don't drive and have no interest in cars: Bullitt, The Driver and The French Connection I are the best films of their kind, all stand up years after they were made -again I didn't choose The Godfather I and II but they are classics of their genre. Maybe the lists should be themed: war films, westerns, car chases, and so on....

[robertlouis]

Maybe the lists should be themed: war films, westerns, car chases, and so on....

Now you've done it, Stavros.

Top Twelve War Films

1. Paths of Glory
2. La Grande Illusion
3. All Quiet on the Western Front
4. Come and See
5. Went the Day Well?
6. Colonel Blimp
7. Lacombe Lucien
8. Au Revoir Les Enfants
9. Das Boot
10. Glory
11. The Dam Busters
12. Ride with the Devil

[Stavros]

I can't find 12 but I can do these:

1. Paths of Glory
2. La Grande Illusion
3. Come and See
4. The Thin Red Line
5. The Army of Crime
6. Casablanca
7. Rome, Open City
8. Paisa
9. Germany Year Zero

[Prospero]

1. Paths of Glory
2. All Quiet On The Western front
3. Armadillo
4. Restrepo
5. La grand Illusion
6. The Thin Red Line
6. Lacombe Lucien
7. Shoah
8. Au revoir les Enfants
9. The Battle For Haditha
10. Lebanon
11.The Battle Of Algiers
12. In he valley Of Elah

[Stavros]

Is Shoah really a war film? I wasn't that sure about Casablanca on my list but the war shapes the drama so that was why I included it. I like Lacombe Lucien but its a desert island I am being sent to, not the lounge, and I prefer Patrick Modiano's work as originally written...

[mikelpo]

1. The big red one
2. The longest day
3. Saving private Ryan
4. Hamburger hill
5. We were soldiers
6. The great escape
7. The wild geese
8. Platoon
9. The deer hunter
10. The hill
11. Full metal jacket
12. Apocalypse now

In no real particular order but the wild geese edges it solely on the performance of the rsm! Fucking powerhouse acting you must see it to believe it!

[robertlouis]

Other war films that came close for me - and I found it hard to prune the list down to twelve - would include Downfall, The Fall of Berlin, Breaker Morant, Europa Europa, The Big Red One, Black Book, The Duellists, Cross of Iron, Letters from Iwo Jima, MASH, The Counterfeiters, and Days of Glory as well as most of the films on the other two lists so far.

Interesting that other than Malick's Thin Red Line, there are no Vietnam films there. My fascination with Apocalypse Now is more about the mythology surrounding its making, and The Deerhunter, despite excellent performances, is deeply flawed. My choice would be Indochine, which is an epic love story set against the background of the war against French colonial rule.

Next up, westerns!

[Jericho]

Next up, westerns!

Tough narrowing that down to 10

The Outlaw Josie Wales
Dances With Wolves
The Magnificent Seven
Jeremiah Johnson
The Proposition
The Wild Bunch
The Alamo
A Man Called Horse
The Far Country
Last of the Dogmen

[robertlouis]

My Westerns

1. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
2. The Searchers
3. Stagecoach
4. The Ballad of Cable Hogue
5. The Wild Bunch
6. Shane
7. Tombstone
8. The Magnificent Seven
9. The Outlaw Josie Wales
10. Once Upon A Time In The West
11. McCabe and Mrs Miller
12. High Noon

[Jericho]

Bugger...We can choose 12?

Run Of The Arrow
The Cheyenne Social Club

[robertlouis]

Bugger...We can choose 12?

Run Of The Arrow
The Cheyenne Social Club


I went for 12 because I could have chosen 20. Also depends on how broad you make the definition. You could, I think, include films like Hud, The Last Picture Show, No Country for Old Men, even Deliverance more or less conforms to the classic western model.

It's hard to stray from the great directors of the genre like Ford, Hathaway, Peckinpah, Eastwood and Leone, but nowadays, unless it's a one-off which somehow gets into the mainstream, only Clint Eastwood really continues to fly the flag.

[Jericho]

I went for 12 because I could have chosen 20. Also depends on how broad you make the definition. You could, I think, include films like Hud, The Last Picture Show, No Country for Old Men, even Deliverance more or less conforms to the classic western model.

It's hard to stray from the great directors of the genre like Ford, Hathaway, Peckinpah, Eastwood and Leone, but nowadays, unless it's a one-off which somehow gets into the mainstream, only Clint Eastwood really continues to fly the flag.

Some of the horror crossovers aren't too bad, either. The burrowers, D2D...The Hangmans Daughter, though i draw the line at Billy the Kidd V's Dracula!

[Prospero]

Westerns now Jeez I love the genre but its gotta include some corny stuff. later....

[mikelpo]

Hate westerns apart from blazing saddles!

[Prospero]

so then 12 best westerns - or rather my fave 12

1. Heaven's Gate
2. The man who shot Liberty Valance
3. The Magnificent Seven
4. The assassination of Jesse james by the Coward Robert Ford
5. True Grit (new version)
6. Black Hat
7. High Noon
8. Lonely Are The Brave
9. The Searchers
10. Stagecoach
11. The Unforgiven
12. Once Upon A Time In The West

Black Hat - set in Canada and involving the encounter between missionaries and the indians may be stretching the genre a bit. but its a magnificent film.

[Stavros]

'The Western' is a problematic genre -historically, if by a cowboy we mean the guys paid to 'move em on, ride 'em out' -herding cattle, then most cowboys were slaves and therefore black, whereas in Rawhide, Bonanza, The Virginian et al, I never saw a black cowboy. On the other had, the genre is really about private property and the development of the 'new economy' in the west outside the industrial economy of the north and the slave-based plantation economy of the south. Shane thus becomes a hymn to private property, as does Heaven's Gate, but curiously this doesn't mean a free enterprise economy is automatic -a lot of the tensions in westerns are focused around families who are monopolising land for their own benefit, sometimes stealing it. The rule of law thus becomes the arbiter of squabbles, revenge and so on: the Sherrif/Marshal as Hero.

The Searchers has a huge reputation because it must be the most complex film that bothers to deal with relations between America's first nations and the newcomers, but I haven't been able to get beyond 20 minutes of Dances with Wolves so I am not an expert.

Lastly, westerns are also problematic when it comes to gender and sexuality -typically, in a western a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, the films are reliant -mostly- on the masculine stereotype, even when the 'softer' side of man is contrasted with the macho as it is in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Women have a tendency in westerns to introduce fitna as it is known in Arabic/Islamic culture -aka chaos, a disruption of normal behaviour, which may be why westerns used to be so popular in the Middle East. Homosexuality is non-existent, the American first nations' Berdache also invisible -as far as I know -so Westerns to me are problematic even if they should be important documents on American history.

For entertainment value, the cynical dissection of greed, and superb editing and photography:

1. A Fistful of Dollars
2. For a Few Dollars More
3. The Good, the Bad, the Ugly
4. Eagle's Wing

That's all I would want on a desert island, and I am not even sure about them.

[robertlouis]

Giving this thread an overdue bump.

Today's disc selection:

1. Sibelius Symphony No 2
2. Schubert Symphony No 9, The Great
3. Mendelssohn, Hymn of Praise (Lobgesang)
4. Vaughan Wlliams, Symphony No 3, The Pastoral
5. Steve Tilston - Slipjigs and Reels
6. Dvorak, Requiem Mass
7. Steve Hackett - A Midsummer Night's Dream
8. Richard Shindell - Reunion Hill

[Stavros]

I see you are venturing into the Obscure: Never heard of Shindell or Hackett (bought some shirts there though). Mendelssohn's Octet is a work of genius, but most of his music I find relentlessly dull.

The Obscure List:

1. Wolf-Ferrari: Il Campiello
2. Wolf-Ferrari: I gioelli della Madonna
3. Korngold: Violin Concerto
4. Fibich: Poeme
5. Strauss: Die Schweigsame Frau (I dont think this has ever been performed in the UK)
6. Gubaidilina: The Passion According to St John
7. Bette Davis: Only a Rose
8. Lucienne Boyer: Parlez-moi d'amour

‪Lucienne Boyer - Parlez-Moi D'Amour [1930]‬‏ - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIAQWr34De0)

[Prospero]

That's quite a iist Stavros

Here is my latest

1. Rhapsody in Blue - Gershwin
2. Requiem Mass for the dead of Auschwitz - Penderecki
3. Four Lat songs - Richard Strauss
4. Ritual - Schnittke
5. His is ever the loving throne - choir of the Danilov Monstery, Moscow
6. Out of the Ruins - Holy Echmaidzizin Chorus (comp Michael nyman)
7. When I am Laid - Purcell
8. Die Heiligen Drei Konig - Richard Strauss
9. Eternal Source of Light Divine (Handel) - sung by Elin Manahan
10. Libertango - Astor Piazzola

[tsnajwa]

it is 8 tracks of music right? that is difficult to decide..
1.la zad by abdul majeed abdullah
2.ra7 nsakee by mohammad bash
3.supervixen by garbage
4.il etait une foret by gris
5.hooker with a penis by tool
6.drop dead gorgeous by republica (nostalgia reason)
7.ma elxa nana by sharip dzhabraylov (nostalgia reason)
8.protege moi by placebo
book: naked lunch by william s burroughs

wowi am all over the place here.

[dbev]

http://www.oldshep.it/images/his_ha1.jpg

HIS HAND IN MINE (November 1960)


http://www.oldshep.it/images/attheinternational.jpg
ELVIS AT THE INTERNATIONAL (December 2002 - Recorded live on 23 August 1969 - Midnight Show)


http://www.oldshep.it/images/agosto02.jpg
THE NASHVILLE MARATHON (August 2002 - Recorded in studio 4-6 June 1970)


http://www.oldshep.it/images/memphi1.jpg
MEMPHIS SESSIONS (October 2001 - Recorded in studio in 1969)


http://www.oldshep.it/images/theway2.jpg
THE WAY IT WAS (August 2001 - Recorded in August 1970)


http://www.oldshep.it/images/cd_ftd_onenightinveg.jpg
ONE NIGHT IN VEGAS (December 2000 - Recorded live 10 August 1970)


http://www.oldshep.it/images/cd_liveinlasvegas.jpg
LIVE IN LAS VEGAS (July 2001 - Recorded 24 August 1969, Midnight show 11 August 1970, Fenruary 1970-1972, 1956 and 1974-1975)




http://www.oldshep.it/images/cd_ahundred.jpg
A HUNDRED YEARS FROM NOW (July 1996 - Recorded in studio in 1970/1971)


http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/410hZcIo73L._SS400_.jpg
Complete 68 Comeback Special: 40th Anniversary Edition

http://www.oldshep.it/images/9443.jpg
THAT'S THE WAY IT IS (November 1970)

[robertlouis]

Do you like Elvis, by any chance, Dbev?

[Prospero]

it is 8 tracks of music right? that is difficult to decide..
1.la zad by abdul majeed abdullah
2.ra7 nsakee by mohammad bash
3.supervixen by garbage
4.il etait une foret by gris
5.hooker with a penis by tool
6.drop dead gorgeous by republica (nostalgia reason)
7.ma elxa nana by sharip dzhabraylov (nostalgia reason)
8.protege moi by placebo
book: naked lunch by william s burroughs

wowi am all over the place here.

The whole point is to be "all over the place' That's the nature of taste in music, isn't it? Interesting choice Najwa. I love music from the Middle East but don't know anywhere near enough about it yet. I will check out Abdul Majeed Abdullah and Mohammed Bash. Do you like Najwa Karim?

[maxpower]

I can't pick just 8 songs, so I'm going with albums, which were hard enough for me to choose:


Revolver - The Beatles
The Velvet Underground and Nico
Ramones
The Clash
My Aim Is True - Elvis Costello
Violent Femmes
Surfer Rosa - Pixies
Pinkerton - Weezer

[tsnajwa]

The whole point is to be "all over the place' That's the nature of taste in music, isn't it? Interesting choice Najwa. I love music from the Middle East but don't know anywhere near enough about it yet. I will check out Abdul Majeed Abdullah and Mohammed Bash. Do you like Najwa Karim?

I think najwa karam is one of only lebanese artist i respect :tongue::tongue:

most if you hear arabic pop it will be from lebanon or egypt (because their media is put all over tv with shows like alacademyah)

it depends what you like there are artist who pretend to be white like nicole saba and make terrible music.. when i was in beirut everybody listened to new fares karam (his new dabke album, he is not related to najwa karam) there is khaleeji music like abdul majeed and abdulaziz abdulrahman, and al wasmy, to iraqi music like 3azwan alfahad

iraqi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHFEfwFFp50

[Prospero]

I know abudulaziz abdulrahman... I went to a recording session with him in Dubai two years ago. A nice guy. Great singer.

[Stavros]

wowi am all over the place here.

TSNajwa, have no idea who those musicians are, but am irritated because there was an amazing singer from Iraq I heard on the radio a few years ago -a woman who performs under one name, but can't recall who she is. Also, I used to have a tape of Om Kalthoum -surely one of the greatest singers who ever lived -but I can't find it and because I bought it in the Middle East the label was in Arabic and I can't remember the name of it. I spent over an hour on YouTube last night but its still elusive. One of the most haunting voices I ever heard. Of the older generation, Kalthoum does it for me where Fayrouz does not.

[Prospero]

You can download lots of music by Um Kalthoum

[dbev]

Do you like Elvis, by any chance, Dbev?

Did you notice? Perspicacious!

[Prospero]

But LATE Elvis mainly?
I like the king too but mainly the early songs.

1. Hound dog
2. Blue Suede Shoes
3. Heatbreak Hotel
4. US Male
5. It's Now Or Never
6. Jailhouse Rock
7. Good Rocking Tonght
8. Just Because
9. One Night
10. Love me Tender

[Stavros]

If I had the power to erase people from music history, Elvis would be number one or two in the top ten, along with Michael Jackson; followed by the Beach Boys, and then every rock and roll act from the 1950s. My eldest sister was an Elvis fan, so, incredibly if also erratically, was my father who dragged me unwillingly to see Love Me Tender. I have detested everything about this hideous freak since I first heard its whining voice pollute my private universe.

I have been through a lot of Om Kalthoum on YouTube, Prospero, its a particular track I am trying to find, and its proving elusive. I can't find the tape I had which I think I threw out with a lot of other stuff in a move some years ago...

[Prospero]

So Stavros, I take it you don't much like Elvis Presley?

[dbev]

And if you erase Elvis, you erase all modern music.

Before Elvis there was nothing (John Lennon)

[tsnajwa]

wowi am all over the place here.

TSNajwa, have no idea who those musicians are, but am irritated because there was an amazing singer from Iraq I heard on the radio a few years ago -a woman who performs under one name, but can't recall who she is. Also, I used to have a tape of Om Kalthoum -surely one of the greatest singers who ever lived -but I can't find it and because I bought it in the Middle East the label was in Arabic and I can't remember the name of it. I spent over an hour on YouTube last night but its still elusive. One of the most haunting voices I ever heard. Of the older generation, Kalthoum does it for me where Fayrouz does not.

If she is from Iraq and she goes by one name I am sure she is Dali or Klodia,
dali
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOkiSwpvMjo&feature=related
when i was in basra the radio was always playing kathem alsaher and hussam alrassam (i am not a fan of either) if you know the lyrics to oum kalthoum song I can help you find it

[robertlouis]

But LATE Elvis mainly?
I like the king too but mainly the early songs.

1. Hound dog
2. Blue Suede Shoes
3. Heatbreak Hotel
4. US Male
5. It's Now Or Never
6. Jailhouse Rock
7. Good Rocking Tonght
8. Just Because
9. One Night
10. Love me Tender

I agree entirely with your base premise, Prospero. The musical and socio-political emasculation of Elvis' early power and sexual dynamism by the US establishment in the baleful shape of "Col" Parker, is one of the greatest tragedies in the long story of rock.

I can hardly bear to listen to anything he recorded after leaving Sun Records without thinking about all the might-have-beens of his career.

[Prospero]

Terrific two volume biography (very long but wonderfully written) of Elvis by Peter Guralnick. The first volume Last Train To Memphis charts his rise and is wonderfully optimistic. Volume two Careless Love is about his fall - and makes clear that there were many other parasites around him as well as Tom Parker, but that Parker was the main man who led to his undoing (together with the inevitable pressures of fame ). A sad saga but a brilliant red.

[Stavros]

Elvis: I see the importance of Elvis as part of cultural history, the emergence in the 1950s of a new discourse that is not rooted in the Depression or the War, which is alive to the emerging possibilities of consumer goods, of an increasing proportion of disposable income available to young people working for the first time, and of a subtle (?) challenge to the 'austere' 'reproductive sexuality' of the times: live fast, maybe die young, buy nice clothes, and experiment sexually. James Dean is the visual counterpart; Ginsberg, Kerouac and Ferlinghetti writing the scripts; Bird, Miles and Coltraine whistling in the wings.

The music? So a white boys sings the blues -that's about it really; and it ran its course, because blues is a niche in music that, once developed, ceased to 'be' blues. The rest is part of the history of Popular Music which in turn is the history of songs: songs from boys, from girls, and then, explosively, Groups: hence Beatles, Stones and so on. Note that the Beatles and Stones, once they had exhausted their R&B heritage, moved on to new sounds and songs.

For originality in popular music, the early years of Tamla Motown dwarf the musical contribution of Elvis; culturally TM took popular music to a different level altogether, and in a decade when the tone of music and politics changed and became multicultural and democratic: Elvis, culturally, may have been part of the 'first wave' of change, but musically his contribution was limited -and to some extent limited by the one-dimensional aspect of his voice.

The thunderous opening of Heartbreak Hotel is rage; for subtle anguish, and music that curls up and down the spine, try the opening of Marvin Gaye's version of I Heard it on the Grapevine.

I was forced to slop brylcree on my hair before settting off for school -that alone condemns the 1950s to the dustbin of cultural history. Never Again.

[Stavros]

The Motown List: Motown was important culturally and musically; the music of the barricades and the bars; the music of protest and love; the sweetest-sounding battering ram in the history of revolution.

1. Marvin Gaye -I Hear it on the Grapevine
2. Martha Reeves and the Vandellas -Nowhere to Run
3. Martha Reeves and the Vandellas -Dancing in the Street
4. Jimmy Ruffin -What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted
5. Gladys Knight and the Pips -Help Me Make it Through the Night
6. The Temptations -Papa was a Rolling Stone
7. The Temptations -People Get Ready
8. The Four Tops -Reach Out (I'll be There)

[Prospero]

Top Motown... wow

Here are mine

1. I heard It On The Graepvine - Marvin gaye
2. Dancing in The Street - Martha and vandellas
3. Reach Out (I'll be there) - The Four Tops
3. Ball of Confusion - The Temptations
4. Living For the City - Steve Wonder
5. My Guy - Mary Wells
6. Papa Was A Rolling Stone - The temptations
7. The same old Song - Four Tops
8. I Was Made To Love her - Stevie Wonder
9. People Get Ready - The temptations
10. Baby Love - The Supremes

[robertlouis]

Great picks both of you, but no Smoky Robinson???

[Prospero]

Well duh... as Dylan described him, the greatest living poet. See that is the flaw with any list. Who you gonna omit!

[Prospero]

Bye for now y'all....

‪Cleo Laine - OUR REVELS NOW HAVE ENDED‬‏ - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fketp6soFMc&feature=related)

Dailymotion - William Shakespeare - Our Revels Now Are Ended - Richard Burton - a Arts video@@AMEPARAM@@http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video@@AMEPARAM@@video (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xk7yxe_william-shakespeare-our-revels-now-are-ended-richard-burton_creation)

[robertlouis]

Bye for now y'all....

‪Cleo Laine - OUR REVELS NOW HAVE ENDED‬‏ - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fketp6soFMc&feature=related)

Dailymotion - William Shakespeare - Our Revels Now Are Ended - Richard Burton - a Arts video (http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xk7yxe_william-shakespeare-our-revels-now-are-ended-richard-burton_creation)

Safe travels, my friend. Great choice to sign off with.

I was there at the Stables when she sang on the night that Johnnie died. Magnificent in every possible way.

[dbev]

Elvis: I see the importance of Elvis as part of cultural history, the emergence in the 1950s of a new discourse that is not rooted in the Depression or the War, which is alive to the emerging possibilities of consumer goods, of an increasing proportion of disposable income available to young people working for the first time, and of a subtle (?) challenge to the 'austere' 'reproductive sexuality' of the times: live fast, maybe die young, buy nice clothes, and experiment sexually. James Dean is the visual counterpart; Ginsberg, Kerouac and Ferlinghetti writing the scripts; Bird, Miles and Coltraine whistling in the wings.

The music? So a white boys sings the blues -that's about it really; and it ran its course, because blues is a niche in music that, once developed, ceased to 'be' blues. The rest is part of the history of Popular Music which in turn is the history of songs: songs from boys, from girls, and then, explosively, Groups: hence Beatles, Stones and so on. Note that the Beatles and Stones, once they had exhausted their R&B heritage, moved on to new sounds and songs.

For originality in popular music, the early years of Tamla Motown dwarf the musical contribution of Elvis; culturally TM took popular music to a different level altogether, and in a decade when the tone of music and politics changed and became multicultural and democratic: Elvis, culturally, may have been part of the 'first wave' of change, but musically his contribution was limited -and to some extent limited by the one-dimensional aspect of his voice.

The thunderous opening of Heartbreak Hotel is rage; for subtle anguish, and music that curls up and down the spine, try the opening of Marvin Gaye's version of I Heard it on the Grapevine.

I was forced to slop brylcree on my hair before settting off for school -that alone condemns the 1950s to the dustbin of cultural history. Never Again.

Nice writing! Thanks for sharing!!!

[iamdrgonzo]

More Motown madness:

1 - Aretha Franklin - Chain of Fools
2 - Little Richard - Tutti Frutti
3 - James Brown -Sex Machine
4 - Ray Charles - What I'd Say
5 - The Shirelles - Will You Love Me Tomorrow
6 - Diana Ross and the Supremes - Baby Love
7 - Cab Calloway - Minnie The Moocher
8 - Curtis Mayfield - Superfly

[robertlouis]

More Motown madness:

1 - Aretha Franklin - Chain of Fools
2 - Little Richard - Tutti Frutti
3 - James Brown -Sex Machine
4 - Ray Charles - What I'd Say
5 - The Shirelles - Will You Love Me Tomorrow
6 - Diana Ross and the Supremes - Baby Love
7 - Cab Calloway - Minnie The Moocher
8 - Curtis Mayfield - Superfly

Sorry to be a label pedant, Dr, but I think I'm right in saying that only the Supremes' record in your list was actually on Motown - although I'd totally endorse every choice you've made as superb examples of black music.

[iamdrgonzo]

Sorry to be a label pedant, Dr, but I think I'm right in saying that only the Supremes' record in your list was actually on Motown - although I'd totally endorse every choice you've made as superb examples of black music.


Do you mean the Motown record label?

Or do you mean Motown the musical genre?


I must admit, though, Cab Calloway is a stretch.

[robertlouis]

Do you mean the Motown record label?

Or do you mean Motown the musical genre?


I must admit, though, Cab Calloway is a stretch.

Hmm, interesting extension there. While I like a lot of Motown, especially Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, the music that tended to come out in the UK on the Stax and Atlantic labels, which featured Aretha, Otis, Booker T, Wilson Pickett etc always seemed gutsier and more blues based to my ears.

[robertlouis]

OK, a top ten from my world, the UK acoustic/folk scene. Pleased to say I've gigged with quite a few of these folks.

1. 1952 Vincent Black Lightning - Richard Thompson
2. Peppers and Tomatoes - Ralph McTell
3. Slipjigs and Reels - Steve Tilston
4. Canadee-i-o - Nic Jones
5. No Gods - Dick Gaughan
6. Cardiff Bay - Martyn Joseph
7. Crazy Man Michael - Fairport Convention
8. Underneath the Stars - Kate Rusby
9. Breaking the Silence - Mike Silver
10. Stand Up for Judas - Leon Rosselson