The Bible and Shakespeare......of Rock !!!
Posted by roylevy on 24 June 2008 - 9:30pm.
Here's a question I've been challenging myself with for the past few days, and I still don't have a satisfactory answer. On Desert Island Discs, guests choose a favourite book, after being told they already have the Bible and Shakespeare on the desert island. OK, you can see what's coming. On the desert island....of Rock !!! ...you get to choose your favourite album, but there are already two peerless, truly essential, indisputably classic, albums waiting for you. They are albums that open up a whole world. They speak to us like no others. They are The Bible and Shakespeare of Rock, and they are..........? Over to you.
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Easy
Beatles Blue and Beatles Red.
This ^^
Is exactly what I was about to say.
Probably Not
Trout Mask Replica and Metal Machine Music
Oh good question!
Can I tweak this? It's a while since I listened to Desert Island Discs, but isn't it The Bible and the COMPLETE works of Shakespeare?
So can I possibly pick one by one artist and the complete back catalogue of somebody else?
Oh go on...
The Motown Chartbusters series. Revolver.
Or...The Clash - London Calling and Prince's 80s output.
Dylan's Blonde On Blonde and the complete Trojan boxes.
One original, one compilation
Astral Weeks - Van Morrison
Floored Genius Vol.1 - Julian Cope
Almost impossible
to say; one man's Bible and all that.
If pushed, I'll take the Beatles catalogue (I'm with Simon L on this, it's the complete works) and Shawn Colvin's Fat City.
The thing about a desert island...
...is there's no electricity. So I'd stick with a pile of 78s and a wind-up gramophone. A big heap of early jazz sides and the kind of 78 discs Robert Crumb enthuses about, would do nicely.
Don't worry, there's electricity aplenty.....
....on the Desert Island......of Rock !!!
I'm really enjoying saying that.
you're saying it in a
Jeremy clarkson voice, aren't you?
Don't you mean Fluff?
Not 'arf.
naw - i think the pause between
'Desert' and 'of Rock' is pure Clarkson. I can imagine Fluff doing it as well, mind!
2 true
bryter layter and astral weeks
I think the reason they give you...
....the Bible and the Complete Works Of Shakespeare is because that represents a massive, inexhaustible slab of the accumulated wisdom of Man right there. They contain multitudes.
I' m not sure there are any pop records that do that. There are huge compilations like the Atlantic 7-CD history of R&B, which I note Amazon are currently selling at a giveaway £2.98 per CD. I shall think further and report back. Bet you can hardly wait.
The reason they give you the
The reason they give you the Bible and Shakespeare isn’t necessarily because they “represent a massive, inexhaustible slab of the accumulated wisdom of Man” but because they’d otherwise be chosen by quite a lot of people, making the feature a bit pointless. They knock out the two overwhelming favourites to make it interesting.
For a few years now Ken Bruce on Radio 2 has run “Tracks Of My Years”, a feature in which, over the course of a week, musicians pick ten favourite songs and talk a bit about why they like them. An interesting spot, on the whole. From hearing this on and off over the years (but without the actual lists in front of me, though I’m sure they‘re online somewhere) the obvious Shakespeare and Bible in terms of music (i.e. artists that often get picked) would be The Beatles and some compilation of Motown and other ’60s soul artists (Sam Cooke, Aretha, Ray Charles, Wilson Picket etc.) A lot of older artists also pick some ’50s rock’n’roll pioneer (Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry lee, Eddie Cochran). Other really popular picks are Bowie, Stevie Wonder (who seems to exists as a separate category from soul/r’n’b in general), the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys (who seem, proportionally, to be more highly regarded by musicians than the public at large and are often picked by people you wouldn’t expect).
I'm not making the connection...
The Bible/accumulated wisdom... accumulated wisdom/The Bible...
Nope, it's not happening for me.
Much mirth narrowly avoided....
I toyed with Eureka (by the Bible) and The Best of Skakespeares Sister, but that was neither true nor funny.
Bible would be Blood on the Tracks, and the complete works of Shakespeare would be Decade (Neil Young). At least it would today!
Alas....
this thread was hijacked by tweakers and pedants