Marooned: The Next Generation of Desert Island Discs

by Phil Freeman (Editor)

Featuring original contributions from today's leading music critics, Marooned is a revealing snapshot of the current state of pop music criticism. A follow-up and homage to Greil Marcus's rock-and-roll classic Stranded , Marooned asks the same What album would you bring to a desert island, and why?WITH ESSAYS Matt Ashare * Tom Breihan * Aaron Burgess * Jon Caramanica * Daphne Carr * Jeff Chang * Ian Christie * Kandia Crazy Horse * John Darnielle * Laina Dawes * Geeta Dayal * Rob Harvilla * Jess Harvell * Michaelangelo Matos * Anthony Miccio * Amy Phillips * Dave Queen * Ned Raggett * Simon Reynolds * Chris Ryan * Scott Seward * Greg Tate * Derek Taylor * Douglas Wolk

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Essays

352 pages, Paperback

First published July 9, 2007

Reviews

[Paul Bryant]

ON GROWING OLD

In Britain there’s a radio show that’s been running since dinosaurs roamed the earth called Desert Island Discs. Persons of note get invited on the programme and are asked – if you were cast away on a desert island, which eight gramophone records would you want to take with you? The concept was rendered quaint by the invention of long playing records, never mind ipods, but no matter, every week they plough on with the formula. At the end of the show the guest is asked which book they would want to take to the island – and here’s the thing – the silkyvoiced interviewer tells the guest “the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare are already provided”. It’s so obvious that any literate person from the West would never in their wildest dreams consider being wrecked on a desert island without making damned sure that they have their Bible & Shakespeare strapped to their person that it would be an affront, it would be ill-mannered, it would be ffrankly grotesque to imagine someone like Sir Fortescure Mainwairing-Ffrench-Blenkinplonker, Keeper of the Queen’s Underthings, cast away all alone for five years without being able to reread The Merry Wives of Windsor or The Book of Revelation whenever he wished. Sir Fortescue is running about in a loincloth made of wombat skin and is eating small animals he has to manually strangle and has some ghastly skin condition and is quite insane from the relentless heat but he has his Bible and Shakespeare, so all is not lost.
Oh, right, this show is a polite smarmy middleclass fantasy! I nearly forgot.
Well, whenever anyone asks me what eight gramophone discs I would take to a desert island I never mention The Beatles and I never mention Bob Dylan. Because as far as 20th century popular music is concerned, they’re the Bible and Shakespeare. They were the boys who built the house that everyone then moved into. Yes, it was Chuck Berry and Elvis and Jimmie Rodgers who – working as a committee – decided on the location where the house should be built – it was between two great rivers and just on the wrong side of town, seemed quite unsuitable at the time (but look at it now) – anyway, hats off to the committee but they didn’t actually build the house.
Time rolled along and by the 1990s the people who the BBC invited onto Desert Island Discs were no longer Sir Fortescue because they’d all died. The movers and shakers were now people like Malcolm Maclaren and Vivian Westwood, and people like that were inclined to say to the silkyvoiced interviewer “look mate, you can take your Bible and Shakespeare and give em to Oxfam, I hate all that crap, I got all that in school, my favourite book is Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh so stick that up your Pringle sweater” – I heard sentiments like that a few times. Just like now, to my pained ears, I hear modern day youth say Look mate, the Beatles and Bob Dylan? Overrated tossers. I’ve had it up to here with old gits like you telling me what’s good. We all live in a yellow submarine? That’s great music is it? The answer my friend is blowing in the wind? So profound. They built the house? Get back in your old fart’s home.
Like the guy in Kafka’s story, it’s been my experience to wake up and find myself transmogrified. I am now Sir Fortescue, Keeper of the Queen’s Underthings. But I have an escape plan. I’ll bring the complete set of Beatles singles (oh my god, original Parlophone and Apple pressings too) and melt em all down in the relentless sun, and turn the resulting black plastic glop into a speedy raft. And then I’ll paddle back to civilisation. And I'll reconnect with what's happening. I believe it's called Hippety hop. And I'll be young again. I can't wait.

[Jeff Jackson · Rating 2 out of 5]

**1/2 stars. Good pieces by Jeff Chang on the Meters, Simon Reynolds on John Martyn, Douglas Wolk on Stereolab, John Darnielle on Dionne Warwick, plus a far too short bit from Greg Tate on Miles Davis. But there's also reams of forgetable writing and some outright dreck. Even the best essays here can't touch the cream of 1979's similarly themed "Standed." This book inadvertently makes the case for rock criticism's precipitous decline.

[Seth · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.75. A few of the essays are good but there’s a steep drop between those and the rest. I mistakenly just thought since I liked stranded I liked this and maybe that just made my expectations to high.

[Cindy Widner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Much like Stranded, the original exercise, which came out in 1979: uneven but with some great, great, inspirational stuff that reminds one why being a crit-nerd's not all bad.

[Jonny Brick · Rating 3 out of 5]

One or two unreadable essays are balanced out by excellent eclecticism and fine authorship, especially Tom Breihan on Brand Nubian, Simon Reynolds on John Martyn, JOhn Darnielle on Dionne Warwick and Laina Dawes on Skunk Anansie.

[Less_cunning · Rating 5 out of 5]

it seems like basically now the only books i can devour w/ any real enthusiasm are music-criticism books like these; overall, the majority of the essays/selections are very good and the best ones seem to be the ones that are heavy full-on personal narratives (or perzine-like...). i think the biggest one for me was the Divine Styler essay moreorlessbecause i was shocked/mad that i had no idea who Divine Styler was let alone that he put out that record at the time that he did when hardly anyone was putting out leftfield hip-hop records--

and of course this book also makes me want to someday read the Greil Marcus desertislandbook considering that i have only read Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century. and although i have read some reviews/crit./work by some of the authors in this book i should hope that i will eventually more of their individual work inthefuture...

[Peveril · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars or four, a collection of essays of varying interest. A couple i might rate five.
The short piece by the guy who just needs the first sixty seconds of the Car's You're Just What I Needed was joyful, and almost sold it. A few others communicated an admirable love for music i would be unlikely to give house room, a couple i skimmed or skipped.
Overall three- plus and a pleasant investment of time.

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perfectly entertaining, though didn't make me want to track down almost any of the albums being raved about. My fave essays were by Douglas Wolk & John Darnielle, and are worth reading if you happen across a copy.

[Eric Hines · Rating 3 out of 5]

VERY idiosyncrtatic selection, but some of the essays offer very interesting insights into the role of music and fandom in our lives, particularly in how we construct and remember our adolescent selves.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anthony Miccio's Dio essay is the greatest piece of writing ever. Kandia Crazy Horses Stephen Stills is the worst piece of writing ever. What a coincidence they are in the same book.

[Galindo]

this currently is my bedside reading.

[Zane Scott-Tunkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read entirely for John Darnielle.