Desert Island Discs Revisited

by Peter Saint-Andre

2005-04-26

Last July I speculated that the combination of my new PowerBook and iPod would enable me to make a short list of music that I couldn't do without. The results surprised me a bit:

  1. Mellow Candle -- Swaddling Songs
  2. J.S. Bach -- Goldberg Variations
  3. Chuck Mangione -- Children of Sanchez Overture
  4. J.S. Bach -- The Well-Tempered Clavier
  5. J.S. Bach -- Keyboard Partitas
  6. J.S. Bach -- Two- and Three-Part Inventions
  7. John Bayless -- Bach Meets the Beatles
  8. Yes -- Fragile
  9. Yes -- Close to the Edge
  10. Dougie Maclean -- Craigie Dhu
  11. Eric Clapton -- Me and Mr. Johnson
  12. John Bayless -- Bach on Abbey Road
  13. Jacques Loussier -- Plays Bach
  14. Mark Knopfler -- Golden Heart
  15. Yes -- Time and a Word
  16. J.S. Bach -- English Suites
  17. James P. Johnson -- Snowy Morning Blues
  18. Renaissance -- Tales of 1001 Nights
  19. Abbey Lincoln -- You Gotta Pay the Band
  20. Yes -- Yes

The preponderance of Bach is no big shock, but I would've expected more Yes and at least some Ellington. But the foregoing list reflects only what I've been listening to most in the last eight months or so -- I got a bit burnt out on Yes there for a while, listened to Mellow Candle's Swaddling Songs a few times a week last fall (!), went on a similar John Bayless kick, and often listen to some recordings via CD at home so they don't get counted (I'm thinking especially of Joe Pass, Ella Fitzgerald, Mollie O'Brien, Paul Desmond, and Marian McPartland). It'll be interesting to observe the long-term trends (say, over three or five years).


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