the rules: you can select 8 pieces of music (not albums - actual tracks), 1 book, and one luxury item, to keep you happy on your desert island. explanations of them would be nice, as would youtube links 
song 1: nina simone - ne me quitte pas
song 2: the the - august and september
song 3: pink floyd - comfortably numb
song 4: tower of power - soul vaccination
song 5: metallica - master of puppets
song 6: massenet - meditation from thais
song 7: miles davis - blue in green
song 8: sly and the family stone - if you want me to stay
[spoiler]nina simone - ne me quitte pas this is a heartbreaking track. obviously the title is “don’t leave me”. i have no idea what any of the lyrics are, apart from that, but her voice and emotion shine through far more than any lyrics would do. she’s probably my favourite singer of all time, and this song is a decent example of why. a dose of nina makes me wonder why i bother listening to anyone else. i love her scat singing (esp after the trumpet solo in “i put a spell on you”), i love her terrorising her audiences, i love her.
the the - august and september in the various attempts i’ve made at songwriting, the work of matt johnson has been at the forefront of my mind. he’s probably the best songwriter i’ve ever heard. emotionally honest, intelligent, with a great turn of phrase, artistic and yet understandable (i struggle with masked meaning). his heart is out there for all to hear. this is so honest it terrifies me. he shows himself as the coward he is, and the coward we all are. it puts the chills up me every single time i hear it. so beautifully delivered too. “was our love too strong to die, or were we just too weak to kill it?” - jesus! people love morrissey and the smiths. for me, johnson beats morrissey all ends up. i could have picked any song in the four albums between soul mining and dusk, and they’d have all been worthy of a place. outstanding.
pink floyd - comfortably numb i had to put this. the wall is probably my favourite album, if i had to pick one. i was also at this very gig - the one with david gilmour - so excited! (me, not him). it was epic. what a solo. what a chord sequence. what a song. spine… tingling…
tower of power - soul vaccination ok, this was getting depressing. time to pick it up. this funk band’s been going since 1968, and is still unknown by most people. tragic. (although they were good enough to hire out the brass section for any band that needed it. huey lewis? power of love? you know it). the drummer is a legend. hard to pick a song. if you like this, check out the soul vaccination live album, 1998. just phenomenal. why this band isn’t better known, i have no idea. they are all funk legends…
metallica - master of puppets the greatest metal song of all time. i wanted to post some bon scott era ac/dc, i wanted to post black sabbath’s 1970 war pigs, but this won out easily. this was a band at the peak of their powers, and they were living up to the description they get too often now when they don’t deserve it as much - behemoth. this is a band with style, with swagger, with everything. amazing stuff. hetfield’s an underrated frontman. just watch him control the crowd. listen to the complicated time signatures, riffs, lyrics. it’s all there. with extra.
jules massenet meditation from thais probably the most personal choice from me. my mum, who died when i was young, was a professional violinist, and used to play this a lot. i remember her doing so, and this is undeniably personal to me. it’s also a gorgeous tune, to the point of heartbreak. there are lovely versions of this on youtube with no vision, but i wanted to see someone playing it, with the heart that a violinist should put into it. this is the best version of that that i’ve come across on youtube. beautiful work, on a beautiful piece. i don’t allow myself to listen to this much.
miles davis - blue in green wow. just wow. so powerful. bill evans, the pianist, just nails this in every way. the chords, the little solo breaks, with chords that make your soul ache. if you’re in any kind of mood for mellow jazz, this is basically a case of “fill your boots”…
sly and the family stone - if you want me to stay end on a high note. one of the greatest bands of all time, led by one of the most talented, charismatic front men of all time. awesome. always makes me laugh the way he stresses random words like “message”. the “message” is typically confusing and enigmatic. heartbreakingly, this was about the last great thing he ever did, disappearing behind a paranoid wall of drugs and suspicion. come back to us, sly, you’re the king.[/spoiler]
book: beginners, by raymond carver. bollocks to the editing by lish - who knew that he was better all by himself. i love every single story in this book - the pinnacle of short story writing for me.
luxury item: i’d have to be able to create, somehow, so i’d choose a laptop, so i can write, but otherwise i’d choose a piano, overlooking the sunset. as long as i work out a way of creating alcohol from the fruit, i reckon i’d survive…