I’ve been dipping into the vast archive of Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, available on demand via the fabulous BBC Sounds. I can recommend listening to Adele, Simon Reeve, Lyse Doucet and George Michael, to name a few.
But I also got to thinking about which eight tracks I would choose to have on my own desert island, alongside a book and a luxury item.
Here is what I came up with:
- Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles | 1979 | One of the best pop songs ever and if you disagree with that statement, we can no longer be friends
- Its My Party by Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin | 1981 | I was off school sick and spending the day on our (horrible) greeny-brown nylon covered solid sofa. Dad was aircraft modelling at the dining table in front of the backroom window. It must have been winter because the overhead light and fire were on all day. Radio Nova played this and I thought it was incredible. I have no idea why we were listening to an Irish radio station
- Forever Young by Alphaville | This reminds me of driving along country roads in Germany in the late 1980s with my then boyfriend
- We Didn’t Start The Fire by Billy Joel | Another contender for best pop song ever and reminds me of long, hot German summers and because I was in my early 20s, thinking I was invincible
- Wind of Change by The Scorpians | A song that reminds me of snapshots in time – the fall of the Berlin Wall and a boyfriend I adored
- All Together Now by The Farm | 1990 | This reminds me of when I was attending an intense, pre-promotion training course at my beloved RAF Hereford.
- Swing Life Away by Rise Against | I first heard this in late 2020 and it was an instant favourite … “Let’s pack our bags and settle down where palm trees grow”
- Sovereign Light Café by Keane | I love, love, love this song. Even though the locations in the song are in Bexhill-on-Sea, it reminds me of my home town in North West England
The one track that I would rescue from the surf? Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start The Fire.
I went with heart over head with my musical choices. 🙂 Tom Hanks, cast away in 2016 said that his tracks gave him “an unspoken before and after emotional connection – you remember where you were and what you were doing and what your place in life was… You can see the people that you loved and the people who’ve gone away as well as what you learned about yourself.” And I couldn’t agree more.
Book choice: A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute will join the Complete Works of Shakespeare and a copy of the Bible (or your choice of sacred text) in my Island library.
Luxury item | something to make my time on the island more pleasurable, rather than anything too practical: a solar-powered Kindle (if there were such a thing).
Why not leave me a comment sharing your personal picks?
This West London Life 
I am going to spend some time later listening to your choices. I am not sure which songs I would put on my Island PlayList; there’s a few that I grew up hearing that remind me of my Mother & so many others that invoke sweet memories of carefree summer days (& some not so carefree days). As for favourite reads, I know that The Thirteenth Tale is on it, as I think The Hobbit & Lord of The Rings. I like the idea of a solar powered Kindle. There’s got to be a scrapbook page in this!
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I think it is likely my choices would change, depending on when you asked me.
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