Ten Songs for a Deserted Island Marooning - Final Installment

This is it. The final three songs I'd stick on my iPod if I knew I was goin' down in the Indian Ocean. For the most part, I'd take the original album version, but have stuck a couple YouTube live clips in for good, clean aural pleasure.


All right, so here's a summary of the top ten songs I'd want on my iPod (with unlimited batteries) if crashing on a tropical island. This list is likely to change but not too much...these songs have been near and dear to me for many years - 20+ years in the case of Sonic Youth, Husker Du, Tom Tom Club, and a few of the others.

1) Talking Heads - This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)
2) Patti Smith - Birdland
3) Sandy Denny - The Sea
4) Henryk Gorecki - Symphony No. 3 (Symphony of Sorrow)
5) Sonic Youth - Shadow of a Doubt
6) Tom Tom Club - Wordy Rappinghood
7) Brian Eno - On Some Faraway Beach
8) Neil Young w/ The Band, Joni Mitchell - Helpless
9) Black Sabbath - Jack the Stripper/Fairies Wear Boots
10) Husker Du - Pink Turns To Blue



10) Husker Du - 'Pink Turns To Blue'

Hard to pick a favorite Husker song. I was listening to KGLT, the college radio station in Bozeman, when I was in 7th grade and was into taping music from the radio to make mix-tapes. The DJ said "cue up your tape 'cuz I'm playing 2 consecutive 45 min. Husker Du sessions". I didn't know them yet but did as I was told and recorded it all. Well, that was one of the most thread-bare tapes I had over the next couple years. Pink Turns to Blue was always one of my favorite tunes off Zen Arcade. They had two totally distinctive sounds depending on whose tune was being played (Bob Mould or Grant Hart) and threw in just the right mix of rockin' art-damaged punk, melody, acoustic-ness, noise, and smart lyrics. One of the best bands ever in my opinion...





9) Black Sabbath - 'Fairies Wear Boots'

Like a few other heavy as shit, but oh-so-sludgy slow faves (like 'Dirt' from The Stooges Raw Power), this song is great to me 'cuz it doesn't rock you too hard, just too heavy. It's basically a simple blues tune with a kick-ass bass line and Tony Iommi just wailin'. It's also sort of a funny song - it makes me smile and bounce every time I hear it so it seems like a good Sabbath representer for an island get-away.







8) Neil Young - 'Helpless'

In my nerdy life of defining everything by where it falls on an internally ranked list, Neil Young is usually the top of the songwriters list (others that dally near the upper echelon are Joni Mitchell, John Darneille of Mtn. Goats, Gene Clark, and the Lennon/McCartney team). This is one of my fave songs of his and my fave versions from Scorcese's 1978 Last Waltz (the Band, and Joni hiding behind the speakers, c'mon!...plus, Neil's infamous 'cocaine booger'...). I've probably watched this performance hundreds of times and could listen to it for a long time comin' without it wearing down those rough, beautiful, perfect edges.






cheating moment...
Being an unabashed Byrds fan, I had trouble leaving a tune by them off my list. This is one that kept trying to creep onto the list but I guess didn't make the cut. I actually got to sit down with Peter Fonda once and talk about Easy Rider and told him I loved this song...he didn't really care.