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Influences
Music

John's Desert Island Top 16

whalesong.
The Songs of the Humpback Whale and Deep Voices

verdi.
Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves

flying down to rio.
Flying Down to Rio

paul robeson.
The Canoe Song

jan and dean.
Surf City

tambourine man.
Mr Tambourine Man

the beach boys.
Good Vibrations

jefferson airplane.
White Rabbit

it's alright ma, it's only witchraft.
It's Alright Ma, It's Only Witchcraft

the rolling stones.
Jumpin' Jack Flash

the beatles.
Revolution

the pretenders.
Back on the Chain Gang

bob dylan.
Bye & Bye

norah jones.
Cold, Cold Heart

 

1977
The Songs of the Humpback Whale and Deep Voices
Dr Roger S. Payne
Out of date order, perhaps, but whales have been singing in the oceans far longer than we have been singing on land. The songs of humpbacks were an unbelievable mind-opener, particularly the notion that they too have musical fashions, changing year to year. Roger Payne started recording whales with hydrophones in 1968, annus mirabilis. I used to play these albums to Gaia and Hania when they were very young, at night, in the dark. Like being in deep space, with alien intelligences nuzzling all around. Picking a single track would be virtually impossible, though I love the second side of Songs, 'Three Whale Trip'. And I also love the Deep Voices takes, including: 'Whales Charging a Boat', 'Left Over Sea Running', 'Deep Voices', 'Blue Whales in Range', 'Surrounded by Snoring' and 'Deep Breathing'. These animals were icons of environmentalism, Payne the oracle through whom we could commune with them.

1842
Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves
Verdi/Nabucco

It's odd that more or less every time I like a piece of opera I haven't heard before it turns out to be Verdi. And the politics reflected in the music are moving, too. When Nabucco was first performed, there was no Italy; it was a part of the Austrian Empire. Because the plot was about an evil king, the government wanted to ban the opera. Instead it finally demanded that there should be no encores. When the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves ended, the audience gave a standing ovation. Worse, in direct defiance of the government's order, it insisted on an immediate encore.

1933
Flying Down to Rio
Fred Astaire

The first film to put Fred and Ginger (Rogers) together on the dance floor. The combination of aircraft, exotic places and Fred and Ginger was irresistible. I love the title song, but by far the best sequence is the 'Carioca' scene, with singing from Alice Gentle, Movita Castaneda and Etta Moten.

1935
The Canoe Song
Paul Robeson

When I watched the film Sanders of the River (1935) on TV in the early 1960s, Paul Robeson's voice really hooked me. It was probably around the time that I was studying for 'O' level History, aged around 14. I got a severe case of chickenpox and ended up in the sanatorium, where I read Gone With The Wind. Largely as a result, with several questions in the exam linking to the American Civil War, I ended up with an A - or whatever the top score was in those days. The plight of the African Americans never left me. Some of the sentiments in this song - lauding aspects of colonialism - don't bear thinking about these days, but Robeson rose above it all.

1963
Surf City
Jan & Dean

The idea of "two girls for every boy" no doubt appealed to my pubescent mind, but the surf culture was almost unbearably seductive. Having grown up alongside Americans, the Marches (particularly their daughters, Molly, Terry and Peggy) and Johnny Sanders, in Cyprus, all things American had a strong appeal. I still recall first hearing Jan & Dean's Dead Man's Curve when the Marches were later based for a couple of years in London.

1964
Mr Tambourine Man
The Byrds

I also remember the first time I heard this track on the radio: the jetstream harmonies made my hair stand up on end. Eventually saw The Byrds in their Sweetheart of the Rodeo stage in 1968, at Middle Earth, Covent Garden, and Roger McGuinn in 2001 at the Jazz Café, Camden Town. Few debut singles in the history of rock'n'roll have had such an immediate and overwhelming impact. The Byrds brought Dylan a wider audience and re-established an American rock & roll presence in the face of the British Invasion. The chiming sound of McGuinn's 12-string guitar was key: I have played 12-string more or less ever since. Gene Clark, an early Byrds member, was a great songwriter in his own right - I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better, The World Turns All Around Her and Set You Free This Time are old favourites. And I love most of what Chris Hillman has done since, with bands like The Flying Burrito Brothers and The Desert Rose Band.

1966
Good Vibrations
The Beach Boys

At Bryanston, people were into the likes of The Who, so The Beach Boys were considered a somewhat lower order of musical existence. But Surfin' USA was the first LP I ever bought, in 1964. Having cut my teeth on such music, Pet Sounds - now considered one of the greatest, if not the greatest pop LPs of all time - was a real shock when I bought it while at Bryanston. Not at all what I had expected when I had ordered the album, though it soon grew on me. Of all Brian Wilson's work, Good Vibrations remains my favourite, though it marked his zenith. Next came the tribulations of Smile, after which the band had to rebuild itself over many years. A later album, 20/20, was part of the soundtrack to my one and only LSD trip, in 1969.

1967
White Rabbit

Jefferson Airplane

I bought Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow in late 1967 or early 1968. Loved Grace Slick's voice - and the album contained two of my favourite tracks, Somebody to Love and White Rabbit. "One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small, and the ones that mother gives you don't do anything at all. Go ask Alice, when she's 10 feet tall ..". An appropriate sound track for the recreations and explorations of the time.

1967
Waterloo Sunset
The Kinks

Ray Davies and The Kinks may have sown the seeds of Punk and Heavy Metal with some of their early songs, but their idiosyncratic English style of rock, crossed with music hall, was irresistible. Often thought of this track when walking across Hungerford Bridge to and from work with TEST in Covent Garden in the mid-1970s. Kicked off the chapter I wrote on the Thames for The English Landscape in 2000 with a quote from Waterloo Sunset.

1968
It's Alright Ma, It's Only Witchcraft
Fairport Convention

Over the years, I have seen Fairport in concert more than any other band, at Essex, in London (particularly Middle Earth) and at their annual open-air gig at Cropredy. They pioneered folk/rock in the same way that The Byrds did in the US, but gave it a very English twist. The lyrics of this track bridge the gap between the UK and the US West Coast scene. Fairport never made it into the mainstream, but made up for it by sheer longevity - and by acting like a neutron star, seeding the musical universe with elements vital to future life. In some ways, a bit like the implosion of the Earthlife Foundation in 1986-87, which led to the formation of SustainAbility, the Living Earth Foundation and other initiatives.

1968
Jumpin' Jack Flash
The Rolling Stones

If memory serves, and remember that old saw about the Sixties, this track was playing on the coffee bar juke box when I was introduced to Elaine by a mutual female friend, Frankie Crowe. A No. 1 hit, unlike Street Fighting Man, which was hit by radio bans in the US in a year of massive civil disorder there and in countries like France and the UK. Have always wondered how The Stones got the almost-bagpipe-like sound towards the end of the song. Later, we have got a huge amount of pleasure from bassist Bill Wyman's various ventures, but particularly from the albums he has done with The Rhythm Kings. This track ended the Stones gig we saw in 2003: spine-tingling.

1968
Revolution
The Beatles

1968 was a watershed. I was 18, in my first year at university. Had just met Elaine, in her final year. And what a year: January, Tet offensive, Vietnam; April, Martin Luther King killed; May, the Paris barricades; our university, Essex, erupted; June, Bobby Kennedy) who I had seen shortly before on Kingham station) killed; August, Russian tanks crushed 'Prague Spring'; September, the police riot at the Democratic Convention, Chicago. Then Revolution. Raucous, angry, but contrarian. While The Stones pretended to be ready to fight it out in the streets, The Beatles dissented. The song was branded a "betrayal" by the New Left, but for me the line of thought made sense. And I liked the way The Beatles were experimenting with business. The full, shambolic story of Apple Corps, their tax-dodge-cum-investment-plus-philanthropy company, only emerged later.

1983
Back on the Chain Gang
The Pretenders

Interestingly, Chrissie Hynde was studying at Kent State University when the National Guard opened fire in 1970 and four student protestors were killed. But the reason we listened to this track - and Gaia, Hania and I danced to it often - was simply that it is contagious. Gloriously jangling guitars. "I found a picture of you …".

2001
Bye & Bye
Bob Dylan

He's been a leitmotif in my musical life, either directly or through cover versions. But, having never seen the man in concert, I went a couple of times in recent years with an American friend, Steve Warshal of Greenpeace Business. He (Dylan) really is a noisy old man these days, but the musicianship is remarkable. 2001's Bye & Bye has a delicious lilt.

2002
Cold, Cold Heart
Norah Jones

When a Kiwi colleague, Nick Robinson, lent me a clutch of some 20 CDs, without covers, Norah Jones was among them - but didn't really catch my ear - or eye. Then I saw her play on TV and everything changed. She looks wonderful, and the Ravi Shankar genes show, but this is simply great music, beautifully rendered. Among other things, it's the bass line, the tinkling piano, the smoky, jazzy voice.

1867
An der schönen blauen Donau
Johann Strauss

A gloriously stirring - yet strangely comforting - piece. And the track closes the cycle by linking back to the spatial dimensions of the songs of humpback whales we started with (recordings of which accompanied at least one NASA deep space mission). I first really connected with Strauss and On the Beautiful Blue Danube during the space station sequence in Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Out of this world. But also an object lesson in how wildly over-optimistic we can be about the future. Still, the Danube's waters flow out into the seas and oceans, where whales swim and sing.