Your 10 Desert Island Disks?

OK -- you're going to be stuck on a desert island and can only have 10 albums to last you the rest of your life.

Whatcha gonna bring? No box sets allowed, although multidisc single titles are OK.

Here's mine (in no particular order) --

1. Brian Wilson “Live At The Roxy”
This one is in order; this is my all-time favorite album. Brian’s in excellent voice here, and his backup band, The Wondermints, supports him better than even The Beach Boys did. Musical selections cover the highlights of Brian’s Beach Boys and solo careers, standouts are “How Deep is the Ocean,” “Darlin’,” and the Instrumental “Pet Sounds.” A running highlight throughout the album is hearing what high spirits the normally stage-frozen Brian Wilson is in. What a blast it must’ve been to be there. Thank God for this record.

2. The Beach Boys “The Pet Sounds Sessions”
The greatest pop music album of the rock era. It’s a beautiful and heartbreaking work of art, its composer, Brian Wilson, calls it “a teenage symphony to God.” Highlights are the stunning “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and the heartbreaking “Caroline, No.” Paul McCartney, who routinely gives this record as a gift, claims that no one’s musical education is complete without hearing “Pet Sounds.” This three-disk set not only contains Brian's stereo remastering, but stacks and stacks of alternate backing tracks, vocals, and other fascinating minutia.

3. Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, et al. “Star Trek -- The Astral Symphony”
Goldsmith’s score for the first Star Trek film was rightly called a symphony. This album combines the best of his and James Horner’s work in the early part of the movie series. It represents some of the best American symphonic music composed in the last half of the 20th century. It’s also way-beautiful space music, perfect for listening during those starry starry nights on that desert island.

4. Talking Heads “Remain In Light”
I had to include music by Brian Eno. This collaboration with David Byrne is a masterpiece. Both musically and lyrically complex, it mixes African rhythms with ’80s American New Wave rock, achieving a kind of ecstatic groove that is almost spiritual in its intensity.

5. Sir Adrian Boult (conducting) Gustav Holst -- “The Planets”
“The Planets” is my favorite orchestral work, and Boult’s work here with the London Philharmonic Orchestra is the best recording extant. Boult was a student of Holst, and worked for him at the beginning of his career, so he had a special insight into how this material should sound. He especially nails the delicate choral work on “Neptune.”

6. David Arnold “Tomorrow Never Dies” (Original Film Score)
Being the James Bond that I am, I couldn’t very well make a list and not include some James Bond music. David Arnold writes the best John Barry scores that John Barry never wrote, and this, a rerelease of the entire score, sans the vocals, is his best. The most consistently Bondy of all the Bond film scores.

7. The Beatles “1966-1970”
Like James Bond, the Beatles represent something of my culture and of my childhood. I’m choosing this half of the compilation mostly because this phase of the Beatles career was musically richer; “A Day in the Life” and “Across the Universe” are two songs that I require on my desert island.

8. Frank Sinatra “Sings the Select Cole Porter”
Cole Porter is the god of popular music, and Frank Sinatra is his prophet. Most of these recordings are from the apex of Sinatra’s career: his recordings for Capitol Records featuring those great arrangements by Nelson Riddle. This is absolutely essential stuff.

9. Laika and the Cosmonauts “Instruments of Terror”
I love surf music, and this Finnish combo is the best surf band in the world. This is deceptively simple stuff, played with consummate musicianship and exquisite taste. This particular album contains the song “Endless Summer,” a perfect gem of instrumental rock, polished to a high sheen.

10. Stan Kenton “Kenton in Hi-Fi”
Largely forgotten today except for by big-band aficionados, Stan Kenton, in his day, was a hugely popular and controversial bandleader. A lot of people just didn’t “get” him, but to modern ears, his music just seems like really great jazz. This album was kind of a “greatest hits” project as the recording industry was changing from mono to stereo as a standard. “Intermission Riff,” “The Peanut Vendor,” and “Eager Beaver” are now all standards, and “Concerto To End All Concertos” is the type of symphonic magnum opens that Kenton enjoyed confounding the fuddie-duddies with. Way-cool, inventive, exciting, noisy big-band jazz.

That's all I'm allowed; I think I've chosen wisely. How about you?

Baack

I am also pretty eclectic in my musical tastes so my top 10 run the gamut from Jazz to Classical to Pop and Classic 60's/70's rock; in no particular order:

1. Kind of Blue- Miles Davis.
What can I say? This is maybe the seminal jazz recording of the last 75 years; with tunes like the title cut, "So what" and Freddy the freeloader", and with Davis, accompanied by John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderly and McCoy Tyner, I get chills every time I listen to it.

2. A Love Supreme- John Coltrane
I am a huge fan of Coltrane and I love all of his albums but if I could never hear this album again it would be a huge loss to me. Coltrane wrote all the tunes on this disc as his gift and love offering to God and listening to it is definitely a spiritual experience.

3. Abbey Road- The Beatles
A masterpiece of musicianship and lyricism; this is my all-time favorite Beatles album and I truly could not live without it.

4. Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club- The Beatles
This album totally changed my life, hell, it totally chaned he life of an entire generation and served as a model for every pop/rock band that came after. This album is worth having for no other reason than it makes you feel good to listen to it.

5. From The Cradle- Eric Clapton
If I could have just one blues album for the rest of my life, this would be the one.
Back in the day, it was not unusual to see grafitti reading "Clapton is God" referring to his amazing rock guitar talent but I believe that he is evena better "blues" guitarist and his vocals on this album are truly awsome. Listen to it and you will believe in blues music.

6. Blue- Joni Michell
The songs on this album are sometimes sad and sometimes introspective but always soleful and somehow uplifting; her beautiful angelic voice and superb mucianship on piano and guitar never cease to inspire me. Favorite cuts include, " a case of you" and "river". Heavenly! ( and I use that word very rarely, cuz I'm a manly man, lol).

7. Tea for the Tillerman- Cat Stevens
I love this man's music and the thought that he turned away from his career to follow an almost monastic spiritual life is to my mind the single biggest tragedy to strike the music world since the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly. With tracks like, "On the road to find out", "But I might die tonight" and "Wild World" this is my favorite of his several albums.

8. Mozart: Violin concertos Nos. 1-5; Sinfonia concertante, K. 364; Concertone, K. 190
I could never leave home without Mozart, especially if I'm never coming back and if I have to choose which of his muscial wonders to take, I'll almost certainly choose his 5 violin concertos which never cease to amaze me in their beauty and intracasy, especially when you consider that he finished the last of his violin concertos before his twentieth birthday! If you have never really listened to classical music before, Iencourage you to listen to these.

9. Forty Licks-The Rolling Stones
For those days when you just want to rock out, who better to rock out with than the Stones. This 2 disc set has all of the best of Stones songs, including, Jumpin' Jack Flash", "Satisfaction" and apropos to the situation(ie, desert island), "you can't always get what you want".

10. Best of Van Morrison- Van Morrison
Mellow and yet deep and meaningful is the music of Mr. Morrison and this disc has all of his best tunes, including, "Moondance", Into the mystic", "Brown-eyed girl" and "Tupelo Honey", this is a great album for those late nights on your island when you're blue and need a pick-me-up.

Those are my selections and I'm just glad I don't really have to make the choice, because there are just too many other great musical selections that I would really miss, A lot!