Musical Memories
Many moons ago, my Famous British Actor friend came to town to do a piece of theatah. He was asked by a high-brow radio station to come onto a program of theirs, one which interviewed high-brow talent while playing the ten songs they would bring with them to a desert island. I believe they expected FBA to bring some pretty high-brow stuff with him. But FBA — never being one to travel with scores of record albums, or even being much for making useless high-brow lists — asked me, his old chum, if I wouldn’t compile this list for him. He was well prepared for me to provide him something … avant-garde (read: bratty), and lower-brow than any-other-kind-of-brow. I’m not sure the snooty radio station was prepared, however.
The list included:
“Turning Japanese” by The Vapors
“Tapedeck in His Tractor” from the Nashville soundtrack
“I Like ‘Em Big and Stupid” by Julie Brown
I would like to stress that all of my choices — with the possible exception of the grand finale — were chosen carefully, and with symbolic impact in mind: e.g., since ‘turning Japanese” is a euphemism for masturbating, I felt this was an important song to have on a desert island, and since FBA did like them big, if not stupid, I felt that this was also a sound choice. (Get it? Sound choice? hahahahaha)
As I said, perhaps the grand finale wasn’t chosen for its resonance, but more because it was utterly and completely the last thing a Famous British Actor — one expected to be of the high-brow ilk — would ever be expected to listen to. Needless to say, when asked which of his ten tunes he would leave for the next castaway, that was the one he mercilessly chose. And here it is, just for you: