If I Could Only Take Eight Songs to a Desert Island
With only one by Bruce
They say revenge is a dish best served cold, and Alex Markham clearly kept this challenge in the freezer for a while in retaliation for the numerous prompts I’ve drawn him into. Taking his cue from the BBC Radio show “Desert Island Discs,” he listed the eight songs he would take to a desert island, and implicitly challenged me to do the same. You can see his picks below:
At first I thought this would be a simple task that I could bang out while watching Scooby-Doo reruns on a rainy afternoon; I just finished a series on my favorite albums for every year I’ve been alive, so eight songs would be simple. Except (as I’m sure Alex well knew), not so much.
At first glance I planned to simply take the Born to Run album with me. It is the greatest album ever and has exactly eight songs, a serendipitous sign if ever there was one. But Alex threw in a kicker for his list: an artist can only appear once. It was a self-imposed rule, but one I felt honor bound to follow, so only one Springsteen song. Damn it.
At that point I considered going full contrarian and picking the eight songs I hate so much I would be forced to channel my inner Gilligan and build a raft out of bamboo and coconuts to escape both the island and the songs. Surely “We Built This City,” “My Heart Will Go On,” and “Kokomo,” would turn me into a master shipbuilder. Alas, that’s a topic for another day.
All that said, here are the eight songs I would take with me to a desert island with the assumption that I will get no others for the remainder of my days.
“Born to Run” by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. I seriously considered picking “Thunder Road” instead, for a simple reason: I don’t need the actual recording of “Born to Run” to hear it. I have played it so many times and in so many versions over the past 47 years that I can call up any number of versions in my head and listen to them just like they’re on the turntable (at this moment I’m hearing the lightning-fast version from the Hammersmith Odeon show in ’75). I came to my senses, of course; tramps like us…even on a desert island.
“There Is a Light That Never Goes Out” by the Smiths. According to my Spotify stats, this is one of my most-streamed songs every year since I joined their platform. What their algorithm doesn’t know is that I was playing it long before we knew what Spotify was (or streaming, or the internet for that matter). I can still hear my kids singing it as toddlers, their squeaky little voices meshing perfectly with Morrissey’s.
“Allison Road” by the Gin Blossoms. I knew I had to bring a Gin Blossoms song with me, but choosing one proved more difficult than I expected. “Hey Jealously” seemed the obvious pick, and “Come on Hard” could have made it as well. But this is ultimately my favorite Gin Blossoms tune, and the line about not knowing I was lost at the time fits my newly marooned self for this exercise.
“Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes” by Jimmy Buffett. If I’m stuck on an island, there has to be at least one Jimmy Buffett song, right? This one’s my favorite of his, so it gets the nod, even if “Fins” or “A Pirate Looks at 40” fit the islands better.
“Vienna” by Billy Joel. Something a little slower for those more laid-back island nights. Unfortunately, unless a Japanese fishing trawler happens by, Vienna will have to continue to wait for me. Sorry, Billy.
“Even the Losers” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. My favorite Petty tune, and an encouraging word for when I start losing hope of being rescued from my island prison. It’s also a flat-out jam, which is nice.
“It Is Well” by Kristene DiMarco (live version). This modern adaptation of the classic hymn is here to remind me to be content even in what I can only assume will be trying circumstances. For those who don’t know, the original version of the song was written by Horatio Spafford in 1873. His wife and four young children had gone ahead of him to Europe, and the children all perished when their ship sank in the North Atlantic after a collision with another ship. Spafford left America on the next available ship to join his wife, and at the spot where his children’s ship went down, he wrote these words:
When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll,
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.
“Somewhere Over the Rainbow” by Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwoʻole. Moving on to something considerably more lighthearted, it doesn’t get more island than IZ. This one’s also got over 1 billion views on YouTube, and that many people can’t be wrong. It always puts a smile on my face, and is the ideal way to wrap up this list.
Looking back over my picks, it comes as no surprise that all are also on my funeral soundtrack. At least for that one I got to choose 23 songs. What would your desert island eight look like?
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