Here’s a hypothetical question I’ve been pondering when I really should be thinking about more significant things. Let’s imagine a semi-malevolent genie offers you the following choice: you can either keep your favourite song by an artist, or all the rest of their output bar that song.
Sometimes it’s easy enough. Good as The La’s only album is, I’ll happily ditch the rest of it to keep “There She Goes”. I’m not too bothered about any Love song beyond “Alone Again Or”, and I’ve never got into Joy Division, so “Love Will Tear Us Apart” it is. There Might Be Giants can carry on churning out quirky, clever-clever pop for all eternity and it will never add up to one “Birdhouse In Your Soul”.
And the other way round: sad as I’d be never to hear “Like A Rolling Stone” or “A Day in the Life” again, I wouldn’t have a moment’s hesitation in keeping the rest of Dylan and The Beatles’ back catalogues.
What I’m interested in are the really difficult or controversial decisions. I don’t think I can imagine a world without “God Only Knows”, so I’m reluctantly ditching “Good Vibrations”, “Surf’s Up”, “Caroline, No” and all the rest. Similarly, I can’t bear to part with “Waterloo Sunset”, so everything else by The Kinks has to go (I may have the consolation of Kirsty McCall’s version of “Days” along with the rest of her stuff, at the expense of “A New England”, but that’s another tough one…). I love Pulp, but they wouldn’t be Pulp with “Common People”.
“Smells Like Teen Spirit” or the rest of Nirvana?
The Beautiful South without “A Little Time”?
Dozens of Bob Marley songs or one “Redemption Song?”
So, over to you. What are the hardest decisions you’ve had to make? Any hypothetical posers of your own?
The 'Spill 
Tricky. The first song which came to mind which I might consider swapping for the entire output was ‘Tattooed Love Boys’ by The Pretenders. It would be tough to live with ‘Precious’, ‘Talk of the Town’, ‘Kid’, and ‘Back on the Chain Gang’, but for me TLB is SO great, I might just manage.
With Bowie, it would have to be a whole album. I would chose Hunky Dory – if I really really HAD to dump the rest mind.
Throwing off anything from Forever Changes would be dang near impossible though..
Tough question. But I’d have to say, upon reflection…any band that you’d give up their entire output for one song is possibly a one-hit wonder band, and I’d give up even their one hits for the entire output of other artists. (And I’d take none of nirvana, and without a second thought (or is it “second’s thought”?) the rest of Bob Marley’s output, as much as I love redemption song. and I have to admit to not being familiar with Beautiful South)
Bowie is a good example: I’ll keep Heroes and dump the rest.
Zep? Actually, that’s easy. I’ll happily sign away ever hearing Stairway To Heaven again for the right to keep the rest.
UFO would be my hard choice. Only You Can Rock Me is the one tune most responsible for my whole lifetime’s musical preference. I hear it every time my mobile rings. But … no Love To Love, no Doing It All For You, no ROCK BOTTOM?!?!? Er, I’ll have to get back to you on that one.
As discussed in the recent Earworms week, I’m going to upset Blimpy by dumping the enormous catalogue of King Creosote so that I can cherish …And The Racket They Made for ever.
Agree with keeping There She Goes, Alone Again Or and Love Will Tear Us Apart.
Shack? OMG! Thin Lizzy? Eek. Still In Love With You vs. the rest: what a brain-melter of a decision.
Great concept, Barbryn, but I may spend much of the next two days hating you for it!!
;o)
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
I see, you’d risk lying to a malevolent genie, telling him that Stairway To Heaven was your favourite Led Zep song when it clearly isn’t ? I’m not sure what the punishment would be if he found you out… But I agree with you about the song.
Oh, I see below that the nasty genie has already meted out the punishment. Oo-er.
I’m too indecisive- I’d always choose the “rest of catalogue” option, I can’t decide which my favourite song from any given artist even is, and if I do then it varies from one day to the next.
I can easily live with the Smiths minus “That joke isn’t funny any more”- or should it be “Bigmouth strikes again”?
I’d still get a lot out of the Go-betweens without Cattle and cane or Man ‘o sand to girl ‘o sea.
It’s tougher with the less prolific artists, I think- I admit that MBV’s Loveless would certainly lose a lot of its appeal once I only said is scratched off, and short, brilliant careers like those of Clifford Brown, Betty Davis, Electronic, Mahavishnu Orchestra make this exercise the toughest. I’d say it’s the artists who only produced about 3 albums who make you suffer the most with this question.
I think, hypothetically speaking, a “maximum 3 tracks from your favourite artists” dilemma would be far harder on me, in case any semi-malevolent genies are looking for some pointers.
I’m with nilpferd – my favourites keep changing. And it’s not just me – here’s a ferinstance. RT sometimes does all-request shows, where you have to write your request on a bit of paper beforehand and put it in a box, and then he pulls ’em out of the box onstage and sings ’em (or not). One night apparently he got a bit cross because lots of people had voted for Persuasion and Mingulay Boat Song and he thought it was a fix, because those are fairly new and (he thought) not especially popular. But those are the two I would have chosen myself, since the older more well-known ones are so familiar.
So I could probably manage without the one old favourite because I know it so well and can sing it in my head. Or out loud with the guitar even, should I happen to be on a desert island. (Not 1952 Vincent Black Lightning though, I’ll never be able to play that. But my current Bruce favourite, Long Time Coming, and my TP favourite, Southern Accents – I can play those. So I’ll keep all the rest, thanks, barbryn.)
Hm, great question (and amusing image – would you call that an image?). Difficult one, as perhaps a bit like Nilpferd, my ‘favourite’ song by a particular artist doesn’t tend to be fixed. Take Nick Cave. One day, it’ll be “The Ship Song”, the next “The Mercy Seat”, the next “Brompton Oratory”. The Cure? Again, is it “Catch”? Or “In Between Days”? Or “Lullaby”?
Also, if you opt for the favourite song rather than the back catalogue, does that mean you’re not allowed to investigate any new material that is released? I don’t think I could bear that. Good job this question is hypothetical!
I’d probably end up lying (to myself) and discarding the group’s most popular song and pretending it was my favourite. So I would jettison “Common People”, knowing that I would get to keep “Razzmatazz” and “Babies” and “This is Hardcore” and “A Little Soul”…
As for Joy Division, I’d keep “Atmosphere” and lose the rest, including “LWTUA”, which I’ve heard plenty of times already. (And there’s always Paul Young’s version… JOKE!) And I’d probably jettison New Order’s back catalogue for “Temptation”. Or would I miss “True Faith” too much? Argh! Bowie? I’d keep “Drive-In Saturday” and lose the rest.
Who else? Stone Roses, I’d probably ditch the back catalogue for “Ten Storey Love Song”. Controversial, I know…
“I’d end up lying (to myself) and discarding the group’s most popular song and pretending it was my favourite.”
I think that’s what I did with Led Zeppelin last night. StH isn’t even on my Walkman.
I’ll take Pulp’s This Is Hardcore and lose the rest though … there’s MY controversial one.
StH isn’t even on my Walkman.
I did wonder… In punishment, the genie has destroyed your entire Led Zep collection, leaving you only with the introduction to “Stairway” played by mediocre amateurs in guitar shops.
I just wondered if DsD genuinely still has a Walkman. How delightfully retro.
@ barbryn NNOOO! The horror !!!!!!!!!!!!
@ bishbosh A Sony Walkman 8GB Digital Media Player NWZ-A818, I’m afraid, bish, not an old-fashioned cassette one.
If pushed, I’m with you on “…Hardcore”. I mean that in a less dirty way than it sounds.
Speaking of Pulp, I went to a community theatre thing in the Old Vic Tunnels last night and Jarvis was there with a rather glamorous female companion. I believe they left at the interval. No other scandal to relate.
OK, let’s refine the parameters a bit. The songs disappears from your memory. So you can’t play it in your head or on the guitar. At best, it only exists as a Paul Young cover version. And no pretending “Shiny Happy People” is your favourite REM song – the genie knows your own mind. Perhaps better than you do.
I agree it’s not so much of a contest with favourite and more prolific artists. So let’s say it’s one album vs. the rest, including any new material.
@sourpus – I’ve survived to date with a Pretenders’ “Greatest Hits” album and had never even heard “Tattoed Love Boys”. Just listening now. Tune!
No, no – that’s no good. If you have no memory of it, you don’t know that you’ve lost it, do you?
You’re left with the nagging feeling that you’ve lost something precious, but you can’t quite remember what it is, though sometimes you get tantalisingly close.
This genie really is quite malevolent after all.
Oh God…for ever and ever?
I’m not doing it then. (We did have a choice, right?)
Lovely bodyswerve avoidance of a nasty-looking tackle there, barbryn. I’d say that the fact they’re ganging up on you to move the goalposts is proof your original premise is bang on the money.
Ooh, REM. I’ll keep “You are the everything” and lose the rest.
No more “Monster”?? I wouldn’t like that.
With more or less all the artists that I love, it’s about the total body of work rather than a single song, so I’d always take the second option regardless of what single song I might thus lose. The artists where I’d pick a single song over everything else are those that I’m actually not particularly keen on. Basically I end up in the nilpferd camp; where I’d have real problems would be in being allowed to keep just one album.
Yeah, before anyone asks me about them, DBT come into that “total body of work” category for me.
I think I’m going to look at my Walkman (when it’s recharged) to see which artists are only represented once in the 1200 songs. Those will be the bands for whom this is a true test.
I like this game; back later.
Ooooh, hard question – could I really dinghy “How Soon Is Now” for the rest of the Smiths canon? I’d always be thinking, “This is good…but….”. There’s always the Tatu cover version I suppose.
Led Zep can go, if I keep “Immigrant Song”. Smells Like Teen Spirit is getting binned immediately (I have the song on my brain hard drive) – I couldn’t not listen to In Utero ever again.
Maybe between Tatu’s version and Soho’s “Hippychick”, you’d be fine…
“Hippy Chick” or the rest of Soho’s back catalogue…? OK, so that’s quite an easy one.
Interesting seeing what people’s favourite songs are. “How Soon is Now?” probably wouldn’t make my Smiths top 5 (nor would “Bigmouth…” or “That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore”…) Nilpferd’s Go-Betweens choices are probably my #3 and 4 (“Part Company” and “Bye Bye Pride”, since you ask).
“You are the Everything” vs. the rest of Green is very hard to call.
This Is Hardcore is probably my least-listened-to Pulp album, although to some extent that’s a mark of respect (it’s a record that requires your attention).
If You’re Feeling Sinister or all the other Belle and Sebastian records?
Ha ha, poor Soho. “I’ve stopped loving you since the miner’s strike”, while grammatically a bit rum, is a great lyric.
Nah, “How Soon Is Now” was never one of my favourites either. “There is a light that never goes out” maybe. Or “Please please please let me get what I want”. Or “The Boy With The Thorn In His Side”. Any of the self-pitying ones, basically!
Or is it just “I stopped loving you…”? My point still stands!
I actually knew “Hippy Chick” before I knew “How Soon Is Now?”. Didn’t hear a Smiths song till 1993 when they released their much maligned Best ofs.
Has the genie thought about cover versions? Because I like the Mammals’ VBL and Johnny Cash’s Southern Accents.
The genie’s finding all these rules a bit confusing. But yeah, I reckon cover versions are allowed. And samples.
Going back to cover versions, there’s a catch (there always is when you try to outwit a genie).
Let’s imagine you’ve decided to keep the rest of The Pogues’ stuff at the expense of “Fairytale of New York” (too close to call for me, this one). So you still get to hear the song every Christmas – except it’s the Ronan Keating version.
Bwahahahaha!
I’m enjoying this…
Nononononononononononono…what language does this genie speak? Because I think you’re misinterpreting him.
If we were doing albums I might (given a large slug of something highly alcoholic) ditch 60-odd Miles Davis discs to keep the scant 38 minutes of In a silent way. (But I’d hate myself for it in the morning).
Smiths-wise has everybody who cares seen The Smiths Project?
http://thesmithsproject.blogspot.com/
Smiths-wise has everybody who cares seen The Smiths Project?
I hadn’t. I have now. Thank you.
Barbryn – you may have found the impossible topic. If I look at say Neil Young’s catalogue ( well over a thousand songs written and a gillion albums) I can’t imagine even one song I would wipe it out for. My favorite tends to rest on what day you asked me. I’d be sad not hear Harvest Moon again say. But solace taken in the rest. On the other hand if you ask me on the day Cinnamon Girl is at the top of the list I’d probably truck the lot over the side to keep it before I gave it enough thought. Others might be easier. Brook Benton’s Rainy Night In Georgia has never lost it’s luster after literally thousands of listens. Same thing with stuff like Jimi Hendrix & Crosstown Traffic, The Replacements & Can’t Hardly Wait, The Clash & Brand New Cadillac or Emmy Lou Harris & Satan’s Jewel Crown. The list could go on forever. There are songs so personally representative of an artist you might be able to get by without the rest. Problem is the whole idea will give me nightmares. I notice Amy & Chris haven’t weighed in on this yet. My guess is the whole premise has sent them off to the attic or basement to hunker down.
Would join the keep one-hit-wonders & sacrifice a fave for anyone with more than 2 good tunes. Albums are much harder to hold or dump. Here goes:
Queen is Dead – Dump
Unknown Pleasures – Hold
Spirit of Eden – Hold
Rattus – Dump
Bollocks – Hold (erm, the Album)
Loveless – Hold (easy)
UFOrb – Hold
Secondhand Daylight – Hold (ouch)
Book of Bad Breaks – Hold (more ouch)
Doolittle – Hold (this hurts)
() – Dump
Abbattoir Blues – Dump
Megatron – Dump (Close call)
Seventeen Seconds – Dump
The Scream – Hold
Blue Lines – Hold
London Calling – Dump
The Sunset Tree – Dump
The Joshua Tree – Keep
Seven Songs – Keep
The Wolf That House Built – Keep
Pills & Thrills – Keep
The Great Destroyer – Dump
That’s enough suffering for this sadistic post.
Great list shoegazer, but don’t think you’re getting away with all of Loveless and Never Mind the Bollocks…
*whimper*
Talk Talk – I Believe In You vs the rest of Spirit Of Eden, Laughing Stock, Colour Of Spring etc., etc.
ANXIETY OVERLOAD!!!!!!!!!!!!
*DsD last seen in the corner by his CD collection, rocking back and forth in a foetal position, sucking his thumb and moaning*
Now look what you’ve done, barbryn, you and your horrible genie. I hope you’re proud of yourselves.
I think we may have broken the record for number of “NOOOO!”s in one thread.
Pingback: Here are 10 songs I could not live without « Tincanland
Brilliant topic barbryn! You’ve pulled (down boy) some quality tunes out of the woodwork. But you’re a bastard, you know, ’cause it unleashes the hounds of musical war. Or something like that. Here’s 10 songs that, if absolutely pressed, I would give up the singers’ back catalogue to keep:
[audio http://tincanland.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/al-green-how-can-you-mend-a-broken-heart.mp3, http://tincanland.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/joe-bonamassa-bird-on-a-wire-cohen-cover.mp3, http://tincanland.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/dave-van-ronk-the-old-man.mp3, http://tincanland.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/jeff-buckley-satisfied-mind.mp3, http://tincanland.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/etta-james-id-rather-go-blind.mp3, http://tincanland.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/ella-fitzgerald-they-cant-take-that-away-from-me.mp3, http://tincanland.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/kate-wolf-back-roads.mp3, http://tincanland.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/guy-clark-maybe-i-can-paint-over-that.mp3, http://tincanland.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/steve-earle-nothing-but-a-child.mp3, http://tincanland.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/aretha-franklin-never-gonna-break-my-faith-with-mary-j-bilge.mp3|titles=How Can You Mend A Broken Heart, Bird on a Wire, The Old Man, Satisfied Mind, I'd Rather Go Blind, They Can'T Take That Away, Back Roads, Maybe I Can Paint Over That, Nothing But A Child, Never Gonna Break My Heart (with Mary J Blige)|artists=Al Green, Joe Bonamassa, Dave Van Ronk, Jeff Buckley, Etta James, Ella Fitzgerald, Kate Wolf, Guy Clark, Steve Earle, Aretha Franklin]
hmm, that didn’t work. sorry all. Perhaps someone with powers can delete it.
I had to approve it – comments with that amount of links are regarded as possible spam by the ‘spillbots, y’see?
It was supposed to be a playlist lol
the first one, which seems to have been auotgenerated, links to my blog where the playlist is. live and learn (slowly) I guess
I think for a favourite artist, the genie could always home in on one track (even more so one album) that you couldn’t give up – even if you don’t call it your “favourite”. As barbryn says, the genie might know your own mind better than you do. For example:
I don’t have one favourite Curtis Mayfield song, or didn’t think I did, but MummyP and I had “I’m So Proud” at our wedding and I’d have to hang on to that.
How many Beatles fans could really live without “In My Life” ? I’m thinking of the DJ at Roker Park who played it after Sunderland’s last home game there, as the fans had a last wander around, before they moved to the Stadium of Light. (Sorry for English cultural reference).
I read your posts nilpferd, and wondered if you’d really let Bill Evans”Lucky To Be Me” go ?
Very thought provoking indeed.
ah, but I’ve also posted about my love for Evans’ versions of Suicide is painless, Love theme from Spartacus, My Romance, among others.
And I think Evans in particular is one artist whose brilliance was sustained over longer periods, rather than emerging in bursts, so yes, I’d theoretically sacrifice Lucky to be me if I could keep Peace Piece and Some other time from the same album. And I’d still have Sundays at the Village Vanguard up my sleeve.
You can’t hurt me, Genie!!
Malevolent genie immunity – lucky to be you indeed !
Impossible –
I could dump Pixies ‘Monkey gone to heaven’ and keep the rest- but the bloody spirit would know it’s not my favourite track!
Noooo, going to have to dump Tindersticks II. This cruel post has prompted me to get some backup for my plastic box of tunes (not a big deal, now you can buy a terrabyte for $100, so some good has come from this cruelty.
I had to lose Tindersticks I. Maybe we can swap some time when the genie’s not looking.
That might work. Was going to try to convince the genie to take all Beatles so I could keep everything else, but it was unconvinced of my degree of suffering.