Songs on a Desert Island

Lately I've been exploring the website for Desert Island Discs. It's a radio show where guests choose eight musical pieces they'd take to a desert island. The guests then discuss how each piece relates to their lives. Here are my picks:

1. Vorspiel/Weia! Waga! Woge, Du Welle!
Composer Richard Wagner
Performer Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
CD Title Wagner: Das Rheingold

The prelude to Wagner's Ring Cycle, it's been described as the creation of the universe in a slowly unfolding movement. Great for watching the ocean wash onto a beach of a desert island.



2. Birdhouse in Your Soul
Composers John Flansburgh and John Linnell
Performer They Might Be Giants
CD Flood

The song is said to be about a child's nightlight, but it always reminds me of my wife. Flood was in the the air when we fell in love and it makes me smile every time I hear it.



3. Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End
Composer John Lennon and Paul McCartney
Performer The Beatles
CD Abbey Road

The medley of song fragments that ends Abbey Road, so it's three songs for the price of one. "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make." Sappy and true.



4. Minor Incident
Composer Damon Gough
Performer Badly Drawn Boy
CD About a Boy

A nice message of parental love from About a Boy. Like novelist Nick Hornby, I also have an autistic son and the lyrics resonate with me the same way. (listen to the song, ignore the video).



5. We Are All Made of Stars
Composer Moby
Performer Moby
CD 18

I think it was Carl Sagan who said, "I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together...Goo goo ga joob." Gesundheit!



6. Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 IV. "Ode to Joy"
Composer Ludwig van Beethoven
Performer London Symphony Orchestra
CD Title Immortal Beloved

Classic. Transcendent. I'm fond of the scene in Immortal Beloved where an aged Beethoven attends the song's premier, recalls his boyhood, and touches the stars (turn your volume up).



7. The Body of An American
Composer Shane MacGowan
Performer The Pogues
CD Poguetry in Motion

Could I make a song list without including the Pogues? This one has it all: death, drinks, love, loss, drinks, gypsies, boxing, war, and the longest accordian denouement I've ever heard.



8. Into the West
Composer Fran Walsh, Howard Shore, Annie Lennox
Performer Annie Lennox
CD Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Finally, my desert island songs would include this one from The Return of the King where the hero sails into the afterlife. I'd like to think the end will be just like that.



So, what are your desert island songs?