For the second Saturday in a row, I'm working -- once again staring at spreadsheets until it feels like my brain's going to melt, and once again desperately in need of a distraction for a while.
So here we go. Last weekend it was obscure movies; this weekend one of my local radio stations is doing a Desert Island Discs marathon event, which is what gave me the idea for this irrelevant silly piece of crap diary.
I submitted a list to the station but I'm betting it won't get any play. They never play anything I request, the bastages, so this will have to do.
The usual way this is done is that you have to pick the three CDs that you would want to take with you should you be stranded alone on a desert island. I think that limiting it to three is just plain mean, so I'm expanding my list to five (and even that is damn tough to do). Double CDs and greatest-hits CDs are allowed, but mega box sets may not be counted as a single CD. If you try to do that, I'll find out where you live and make you suffer.
So, without further ado, and in no particular order, my list of the five CDs I would rather not have to live without:
- aLive Justforlove, Peter Murphy. The former Bauhaus singer goes solo and intimate, just him, his acoustic guitar, another guitarist and a violinist. It's an absolutely amazing CD.
- Live in Paris and Toronto, Loreena McKennitt. Side A of this one is basically her entire "Book of Secrets" CD played live, and side B is a selection of some of the best of her other CDs (up to that time anyway). She's a mesmerizing singer and I am completely in love with the Eastern flavor of many of her songs, as well as with all of the traditional instruments (hurdy-gurdies and the like) that she uses.
- Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Elton John. It takes me straight back to my adolescence and is actually one of the very few good memories I have of that time in my life. I'm not a huge fan of two of the singles ("Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting" and the title track), but I love every other song on this CD.
- Dead Set, Grateful Dead. The only thing that keeps this from being absolutely perfect is the absence of "Box of Rain". Otherwise, well, it's as close to perfect as anything can get, I guess.
- Court and Spark, Joni Mitchell. This was a tough choice -- I almost went with "Miles of Aisles" just because I love live music and there's so much good stuff on that one, but when push comes to shove I have to go with this one. It's that good.
I'm going to restrain myself from mentioning the numerous "honorable mentions" that I really wanted to put on this list...
Okay, so let me have it. What five CDs can't you live without?
UPDATE: Okay, I'm done squinting at spreadsheets. I'm on my way to pick up Thai take-out, and then home to veg in front of the fireplace and the teevee. Have a good one, y'all, and thanks for helping me get through the afternoon.