In Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity, my favorite novel, the protagonist Rob Fleming is obsessed with making lists. Lists about life, love and art — mostly about art.
At one point in the book he, as a record store owner, is asked to provide his top five favorite songs for a column in a local magazine. The prospect of having one of his lists set in stone and published for all the world to see scares him to death.
As with Ben Folds, the presence of Bob Dylan on this list of desert island songs was a no-brainer, but the specific song was the struggle.
I was tempted to go with a track from one of Dylan’s early albums — specifically The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan or Bringing it all Back Home — because those are the records I devoured as a young teenager first discovering the Bard.
When picking my five desert island songs, or however you want to characterize this list of essential tracks, I knew I had to include a Ben Folds Five tune.
The harder question was which one.
Something from the debut album — ‘Jackson Cannery’ or ‘Philosophy,’ perhaps, or ‘Alice Childress’? Or one of the lush standouts from their sophomore effort — ‘Selfless, Cold and Composed’ or ‘Missing the War’?
A couple of weeks back, I posted a week’s worth of songs that fun. guitarist Jack Antonoff listed as essential in the Rolling Stone Guest List column.
Naturally, I wondered which five songs I would pick if asked to contribute to the same sort of list. This week I’ll give my answer.
There is no such thing, for me at least, as a top five, top ten or even top fifty “favorite songs” list. My favorites are fluid depending on my mood. A burst of pop adrenaline might sound like perfection one day and overkill the next. So I wouldn’t consider this a list of favorites.
This past week I dedicated a lot of time to the crop of pop divas who dominate the charts. But I’d trade every one of them for Pink, who doesn’t sell as many records but produces much more resonant music.
I’ve been meaning to buy (do I have to say “download” these days?) Pink’s early albums because I’m a huge fan of her most recent releases, Funhouse and The Truth About Love. Usually when I latch on to somebody’s new material I start digging back into their earlier work but I haven’t gotten around to that with Pink. Gotta do that.
Meet Me In Montauk 