Check out Dodson & Fogg's excellent debut here.
"I tried to choose 10 albums for this challenge, but then there were others I just couldn't miss out. I have also cheated a bit really, as I've got 2 albums by some bands and put them in as 1. Naughty I know... I basically chose the albums I am playing most regularly through the average week. Lately I've been listening to a lot of Incredible String Band and Simon and Garfunkel, so they could have made the list too. Also been loving Gong lately as well, but I think I might go mad being stuck on an island with a load of Gong albums."
1. Trees - On the Shore and Garden of Jane DelawneyAs a kid I always heard the two title tracks from these albums. my dad used to play them off his Fill Your Head with Rock and Rockbusters samplers. Classic records. We both got the Trees albums a few years back and I really got into them. On the Shore is my favourite, I just love the moody atmosphere of tracks like Fool and Murdoch, while Sally Free and Easy is just amazing stuff. It was a thrill to have Celia from Trees on my Dodson And Fogg album as she is one of my favourite singers. Always listening to On the Shore in my office.
2. Jethro Tull - AqualungI love a lot of Tull, especially the Living in the Past compilation, but Aqualung is a masterpiece. Weird really, as Ian Anderson often says he doesn't think it sounds like a great record, as they had some difficulties getting it recorded. Listening to it now though, it's just an absolute classic. There's the epic greats (title track, My God and Locomotive Breath) but I love the weird little ones like Wondering Aloud (a lovely song), Moother Goose and Cheap Day Return. Cross Eyed Mary really conjures up some images too. The lyrics are so strong, he's a great lyricist.
3. Donovan - A Gift from A Flower To A GardenI know a lot of folk people dont like Donovan, and some people find him too quaint, but I think he's bloody great. Saw him at Varieties in Leeds a few years ago and he did some tracks off this album, which has always been my fave of his. Enchanted Gypsy and the rest of the second vinyl (or the second half of the Cd edition) is just sheer perfection. The simple songs, arrangements and Donovan's voice put you into a trance. I can always listen to this, as well as Open Road and HMS Donovan too.
4. Black Sabbath - ParanoidThis was my favourite album when I was very young, like 9 or 10, and I still play it a lot now, on my old vinyl copy and the CD. It's the one album I love to play along to as well. The flow of the songs is just sublime, the crashing of War Pigs, to the iconic title track, the chilled out oddness of Planet Caravan to Iron Man's epic clashes. And that's just side one. Ozzy never sounded better and Iommi proved he was master of the metal riff.
5. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon and Piper at the Gates of DawnIt's much cooler now I think to like the Barrett stuff, but you can't deny the brilliance of Dark Side... I used to shun the post Barrett stuff when I was younger, trying to be cool I suppose, but when you listen properly to DSOTM it's easy to see why the album has connected with so many people and continues to do so. Gilmour's solos just send shivers up your spine.
6. Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention - We're Only In It For The MoneyI love all the early Zappa and Mothers albums, as well as Hot Rats, but this Beatles parody really does it for me. The cover alone grabs you (even though it was originally placed on the inner sleeve due to legal nonsense) and that weird start, Are You Hung Up? with Eric Clapton muttering away fires you into Who Needs the Peace Corps? and you're off on a mad high speed journey! Some of the lyrics are so savage, especially when he's having a go at the cops, but I also love the little piss takes of flower power and the weekend hippies. He even ends it all with an avant-garde piece too. Amazingly clever album.
7. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson KingThis was another one I heard growing up, in particular 21st Century Schitzoid Man, which was on another of dad's old samplers. It's just a masterpiece and no wonder it's so acclaimed. It has a doomy but emotional feel to it, gorgeous stuff. I Talk to the Wind is one of my favourite songs at the moment. But the massiveness of the title track is really something too, really powerful.
8. The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour
I love Revolver and Abbey Road too, but I play this more often. I love the weirdness, the imagination of it, the fact that nothing was impossible for them in this phase. I love other bands but I'm not sure you can be honest and say they're not the greatest band we've ever seen. Just listen to this album. If it were out today people would go ape shit. I think people take the Beatles for granted a bit these days.
9. The Kinks - The Village Green Preservation Society and Arthur...Cheating I know. Village Green used to be my absolute fave. Ray Davies was at his peak here, writing for himself and no one else. The title track is now a well deserved classic, but I just adore the Englishness of Do You Remember Walter and my all time fave Kinks song Animal Farm. It's such a sad album but totally beautiful as well. Thankfully it's the band's best selling original album now, greatest hits aside. The follow up Arthur... is also a strong album, totally English and eccentric. Funny to think they were at their lowest commercial dip here. Shangrila is a masterpiece, tragic that it didnt chart as a single.
10. Cat Stevens - Mona Bone JakonI love all the early Stevens albums, Tea for the Tillerman and Teaser and the Firecat, but I always come to this one more often. Lady D'Arbanville is one of the best opening tracks ever and I love how Mona Bone Jakon sounds like something from Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack. He is such a great songwriter and his voice is one of the best for me.
11. Leonard Cohen - The Songs of Leonard CohenThe songs! I just love this album. Anything that starts with Suzanne is going to be good. It's so bare and haunting and perfect. He never got it this good again, I don't think. You could tell he'd been writing novels, the words are just so full, not a syllable is wasted.
12. Amy MacDonald - This is the LifeMaybe not too cool a choice, but I loved this album when it came out and still think it's one of the best albums of recent years. She's a great songwriter; Run, LA, Poison Prince, all haunting melancholy sounding stuff and her voice is fantastic. The follow ups weren't as good but this stuff is hard to beat.
13. The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland
Another favourite of mine since I was very young. I was obsessed with Hendrix as a kid and this was one I bought on CD, with the different cover of course, the close up of his face rather than all the nudies and boobs. It's just an amazing album, so epic, and ending with such iconic tracks, Voodoo Chile and Watchtower... he was amazing, god what a waste!
If you want to share your Desert Island Discs e-mail them through to me at nford150@gmail.com
