Which person would you miss the most?

What one other inanimate object would you take with you on the island if you could?

What ONE album would you save if the tide started washing them away and you only had time to retrieve just one?

Evening: I was looking for an inanimate object there, my telly control.

I'm thinking you aren't allowed compilation albums, so I'll avoid them. Also, most of the music I'm into is 'older', as I'm reaching the stage of not really knowing much about present music/media/tv/film artists. In fact, it's a big birthday for me next Monday, and at the start of the season we booked hospitality for the Hearts game on Saturday.

Have I to go in for the meal, and more importantly the drink, 15 minutes late?

My pal, best man at my wedding, as I was at his, had this album at school. The cover caused all sorts of offence and comments, with Bowie wearing a dress. 

I've known Jim since before primary days: we both stayed in Tryst Road Stenhousemuir, in wee houses with outside toilets and wash houses. And still we meet up twice a week for a drink, two opposites in many ways. Jim is a raging fascist, while I'm of the left. He's totally uninterested in football, and really doesn't look after himself as well as I'd like. Now divorced, he had a heart attack in 2010, and has become a right miserable pessimist. I'm normally quite jolly. He's also one of Scotland's top artists, while I can hardly draw a stick man.

But we are great pals, and have similar tastes in music, bonding over records (and later beer and fags) since the 'sixties. 

This was a heavy album by Bowie's standards, but (right now) my favourite.



 

A Nod Is As Good As A Wink To A Blind Horse, released in 1970 by The Faces, was probably one of the main albums which made me take up the guitar. I love every track, and think bass player Ronnie Laine was much underrated.

However, it was Ronnie Wood's guitar sound which drew me in, and I often play this album in the car. Don't particularly like Rod Stewart now, but the he was unique, and Ronnie and Rod cut each others, and their own, hair. So I decided to cut my own as well, and still do today. If you saw me, you'd know........

The album had a huge poster inside made up of hundreds of small photos, and some were scuddy women. Today, lads at 15 just go on the internet to see tits and fannies, but in 1971 you had to do a bit more work to glimpse nudity.


This is Too Bad from A Nod Is As Good As A Wink To A Blind Horse:




 

Joy Division were a band which I was unsure of initially, and it's only since I became a New Order fan that I look back on their music, and Ian Curtis, with fondness.

However, I'm choosing a New Order album next, from 1985, the year I got married. Managed to escape until I'd reached my late twenties, but the union endures.

I enjoy repetitive sounds, and some of New Order's tunes could be made to last for ages. Quite a few bands of the time can fall into that category, such as Simple Minds, who were another big favourite of mine. I see they covered The Man Who Sold the World a few years ago, as an aside.

Anyway, I've always enjoyed the bass of Peter Hook and the dance styles the band introduced, so here is the ten minute long version of The Perfect Kiss from Low-Life.



 

Soft effeminate pofs from Basildon, Depeche Mode grew and grew on me over the years, and here I'll choose the album Violator from 1990. Great songwriters, and a fantastic singer in Dave Gahan. They recovered from the loss of the highly talented and driven Vince Clarke, with Martin Gore producing even more memorable songs.

Violator was their seventh studio album and it varies, as already stated, which is my favourite. But now, stck here on the roasting sands, Violator is my only choice. Can't change my mind.

Here's Policy of Truth from that album:





 

Last but not least, it had to be Julian Cope. He can produce some fucking noisy stuff, but, imo, is also a great melodic songwriter. I've liked him since the Teardrop Explodes days, and, although he might appear on the wrong side of madness, he, as I've often stated, is a multi-talented individual, not just a musician. He is a well respected author and lectures on matters such as Neolithic culture, the occult and pagan religions. He's also a champion of German and Japanese rock music. Recently, he released a novel, 'One Three One'. I admire his prolificity.

Of all the artists I'm picking, choosing one album by Cope is the most difficult. However, Twenty Mothers from 1995 has twenty fine songs and this is Try, Try, Try from it.



 

Who would I miss most?

I'm quite content in my own company, but have quite a lot of friends, and of course I'm married. I'd miss both my children, and would like to think they'd try to find me. But I'm only allowed one person to miss, and although I relentlessly appear to annoy her, we are still married after almost 31 years.

So I'd miss my wife.

The drink would have to be lager (I favour Polish stuff the now), if it's going to last for my lifetime. If I'm just allowed a bottle, then some whisky would do.

With a 50 year supply of batteries, that song might not get played until 2066. By which time I'll be 110 years old. So maybe the song is still to be written.

Initially I thought of 'I'm Alive' by Don Fardon (1969)




but I'm choosing 'The Best Day Ever', as performed by another of my favourite artists.






'So it goes'.