Desert Island Discs – Mr Corby
Desert Island Discs – Mr Corby
Disc 1 – Status Quo, Rocking All Over the World – Live Aid version.
This is the track that started it all for me. Music, especially rock & pop simply weren’t played in my house growing up. My father was extremely strict so the only music that he permitted to be heard was Gilbert & Sullivan (which I cannot even consider to be music). One sunny day in 1985 around lunchtime I sneaked the tv on with the sound down very low and saw the Quo opening the greatest rock concert in history. A combination of the delicious piano riff at the start along with a driving rock n roll beat played behind 3 simple chords as well as my first ever sight of a stadium full of people having an amazing time listening to music simply blew my 12-year-old mind. In that moment I realised just how powerful and uplifting music could be as well as just what I’d been missing. Moment’s later my cover was blown, and the TV was forcibly turned off accompanied by my father’s favourite put down of anything vaguely musical ‘If I had a machine that made a noise like that, I’d oil it!’ but by then the die was cast, I’d started my musical journey and Status Quo had found a permanent place in heart. I would never look back.
Disc 2 – Fleetwood Mac – Go Your Own Way
Great teachers shape lives forever and I have my English teacher to thank for my lifelong devotion the mighty Fleetwood Mac. He ran our school debating society where we would frequently debate the merits of a work of art, a theatrical performance or a concert. One afternoon he chose to show us a video of Fleetwood Mac’s 1982 Mirage tour. I tore it to shreds in the debate, my father taught at my school so I still had to portray the image of a single minded Gilbert & Sullivan devotee (yeah right !), but I persuaded my teacher to lend me his cassette tape of the legendary Rumours album. By some miracle I’d convinced my parents to buy me a Sony Walkman ( look it up – the iPod of the 1980s) for my birthday, oddly enough it came with some Gilbert and Sullivan tapes but that night I sneaked my headphones on and played Rumours for the first time. The album is a masterpiece, and Go Your Own Way is an utter banger, It’s Lindsey Buckingham’s snarling, vindictive break up song directed at fellow band member Stevie Nicks. Regardless of the sentiment of the song its one of the best driving tracks ever. I’ve loved Fleetwood Mac ever since that night, they were the pivotal band of my teenage and adolescent years and even today my cat is called Fleetwood Cat and its all thanks to Mr Giddens, my English teacher.
Disc 3 – Queen – It’s a Kind of Magic
I couldn’t be stuck on my island without something by Queen and this track has all of the group’s best hallmarks, a driving beat, a blistering guitar solo from Brian May and the legendary Freddie Mercury’s soaring vocals; it’s another total banger. Looking back from the enlightened viewpoint of the 2020s its hard to appreciate just how deeply homophobic many sections of society were in the 1980. I come from a very conservative family and Queen represented a total conflict that many people felt during that time. The music was outstanding, the band could lift the roof off a stadium like no other (see their Live Aid performance) but Freddie was, shock horror, GAY!!! Queen’s utter brilliance made many people challenge their upbringings and prejudices and they made many more shift their views to help to create the kinder and more inclusive society that we live in today.
Disc 4 – Frank Sinatra & Count Basie – I Won’t Dance
Whether you want to call him the Governor, the Chairman of the Board or just the Legend, there’s never been voice quite like that of Frank Sinatra and I couldn’t imagine being stuck on my desert island without just one example of Frank’s genius. In this particular track, Frank is backed by the equally legendary Count Basie and his big band who are on song and the overall effect is just mind-blowing. This track is superb slow foxtrot which my wife and I regularly use in our practice sessions, so it has a very special place in my heart. Frank’s vocal skills and timing are so remarkable that It’s almost impossible to sing along with him. Frank plays with the beat on every bar, sometimes ahead of it and sometimes behind but the overall effect is just perfect. I challenge any budding singers to have a go at keeping up with the master.
Disc 5 – Benny Goodman – Sing Sing Sing
The quickstep is always the last dance to be performed in a ballroom competition. After putting your body through a waltz, tango, Viennese waltz and a foxtrot you use all your remaining energy (and more) to fly around the floor going full pelt to a tune playing at 50-51 beats per minute. If you’re going to give your best, then that tune has to a good one and Sing Sing Sing is the absolute gold standard. Benny Goodman’s band was one of the tightest and best of the big band era made all the better by having Benny, a clarinet maestro leading the proceedings. Sing Sing Sing was so popular in dance halls that Benny would often let the track run to between 11 and 14 minutes allowing every member of the band to play a solo and have their moment of glory. I’m told that Sing Sing Sing is too difficult for many big bands to attempt but if you happen to play in a big band and have never had the opportunity to let rip with your own blistering tuba solo then please feel free to prove me wrong.
Disc 6 – The Ying Tong Song – The Goons
In 1945 a proud British gunner found was removed from active service after being injured in combat and drafted into a concert party in newly liberated Naples, that gunner was Spike Milligan and his best mate in back in the Royal Artillery was Gunner Edgington. One of Spikes newfound friends in Naples, a Gunner Secombe kept on referring to Edgington as ‘Edgerton’ much to Gunner Milligan’s great annoyance. Milligan found himself shouting at Secombe ‘Its Edgington, YING TONG, you GOON!’, and so the YING TONG song was born. A few years later and Gunners Milligan and Secombe joined forces with Leading Aircraftsman Peter Sellers (demobilised) to create one of the most seminal works of British radio comedy in the form of the Goon Show (available on BBC Sounds, give it a try). The Ying Tong song was released in 1953 and made it to number 3 in the charts. The song is utter nonsense in its purest form, and it’s guaranteed to put a smile on my face which will be very welcome on my desert island. Stupid songs have played a large part in my life, so it was a tough call to choose just one, in this case the Goons have only just beat off stiff competition from Chas n’ Dave and the Wurzels. I credit these songs with saving my life on many occasions as I once had a sales repping job where the boss made me drive the length and breadth of the county to see clients. I was often driving late into the night when tiredness can take its toll. I utterly guarantee that it’s almost completely impossible to fall asleep at the wheel if you’re listening to the Goons, Chas n Dave or the Wurzels, thanks lads!!
Disc 7 – Various, but in this case the band of HM Royal Marines – Jerusalem.
Quite simply the best hymn of all time. It was the hymn that my wife and I chose for our wedding and Jerusalem is the anthem of the Women’s Institute, a formidable body of women who, like my wife, it’s best not to argue with. More to the point, Jerusalem is the unofficial anthem of English cricket, and nothing is more stirring and evocative than hearing Lords or Trent Bridge spontaneously erupt into the national hymn. If I had my way, then we would sing Jerusalem in chapel at least three times a week so it’s definitely coming with me to the island.
Disc 8 – Chesney Hawkes – I Am the One and Only
Personal anthem enough said!!
So which one of these would I save from the waves? Whichever one was nearest to hand, they’re all special.
My Luxury Item
A drum kit. I’ve ways fancied having a go on the drums and with no one to hear me on my island I can be as awful as I like.
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