It has been going for about 200 years, and involves someone 'famous' (quite often someone with a grand title or obscure claim to fame of whom you have never heard) talking about themselves to the accompaniment of 8 records.
The records are often quite revealing, though of what it is hard to say. Anyway, on the assumption that you are reading these pages because you want to know something about me, here are a few lists of my top 10 (or so) of various things, in no particular order.
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| Beethoven | Symphony no.3 ('Eroica'), 4th movement
Conducted by Arturo Toscanini & performed by NBC Symphony Orchestra (1949 recording) |
| | Symphony no.5, 4th movement
Conducted by Carlos Kleiber & performed by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra |
| | Symphony no.6 ('Pastoral'), 5th movement ('Shepherds' hymn after the storm')
Conducted by Otto Klemperer &
performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra |
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| | Symphony no.7, 2nd movement (Marche Funebre)
Conducted by Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt & performed by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra |
| | Egmont overture |
| Bizet | Au fond du temple saint (The Pearl Fishers)
Sung by Jussi Björling & Robert Merrill, performed by RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Renato Cellini |
| Philip Glass | Akhnaten & Nefertiti (Akhnaten)
Sung by Paul Esswood & Milagro Vargas, performed by the Stuttgart State Opera Orchestra, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies |
| Mahler | Symphony no.3, 4th movement
Conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas & performed by the London Symphony Orchestra |
| Mozart | Voi che sapete (Marriage of Figaro)
Sung by Tatiana Troyanos |
| Schubert | Piano sonata in B Flat, D.960, Andante sostenuto
Played by Alfred Brendel |
| Shostakovich | Symphony no.8, 2nd movement |
| Sibelius | Symphony no. 2 |
| Wagner | Siegfried's Funeral March (Götterdämmerung)
Conducted by Otto Klemperer & performed by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra |
| | Prelude, Act 1 (Lohengrin)
Conducted by Otto Klemperer & performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra |
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| Laurie Anderson | Let x=x, It tango |
| Beatles | Eight days a week, Mr Postman |
| Blur | On your own |
| The Crystals | Then he kissed me |
| Georg Danzer | Komm, zieh Dich aus |
| Miles Davis | Back seat Betty (from The Man with the Horn) |
| Eurhythmics | Sweet dreams |
| Fairport Convention | The Deserter |
| Philip Glass | Freezing (lyrics by Suzanne Vega) |
| Jefferson Airplane | Bear melt |
| Glenn Miller | In the mood |
| Joni Mitchell | Blue, Cold blue steel & sweet fire, Woman of heart & mind, Sweet bird (and about 10 others) |
| Quicksilver Messenger Service | Mona - Maiden of the Cancer Moon - Calvary |
| Radiohead | Let down & hanging around, Sulk, Fake plastic trees, Lucky |
| Bruce Springsteen | Highway 29 |
| Die Toten Hosen | Lovesong, Whole wide world (with Wreckless Eric) |
| Velvet Underground | Herion |
| Tom Waits | Jersey girl, Heart of Saturday night, Downtown train |
| Who | Magic Bus, A quick one, while he's away (both from Live at Leeds) |
| Frank Zappa | Doreen, Joe's garage |
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| Kurt Vonnegut | Cats Cradle. This is also the novel I would most want to have written myself. |
| Jane Austen | Pride and Prejudice |
| Tolstoy | Anna Karenina |
| Elias Canetti | Auto da Fé |
| Robert Graves | I, Claudius |
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| Casablanca |
| Napoleon (by Abel Gance) |
| The Maltese Falcon |
| Some Like It Hot |
| Richard III (the Ian McKellen version) |
| The Good, the Bad & the Ugly. My favourite opera. |
| Magnolia |
| High Noon |
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| Beethoven | The only person of whose work I am forced to say both a) 'I would love to have done that', and b) 'I couldn't have done that'. If you cannot hear the French Revolution actually taking place in the 5th Symphony and the 9th doesn't make you proud to be a human being, then you are probably dead. In Beethoven's music, we become giants. |
| Karl Marx | If Beethoven portrayed human beings as giants, Marx helped us see that this was not just poetic fancy - we really could be giants, if only we could take our destiny into our own hands. And then he showed us how to do that too. |
| The 300 Spartans | What can I say? They went willing into certain death to save their world. Hundreds of anonymous heroes willing to give their lives for what they believed in. Of course, there are millions of people who have been equally willing to lay down their lives for something more important. The Spartans at Thermopylae are just the most powerful example. |
| Hegel | Maybe the one other person whose work I cannot imagine having done. The great revolutionary of reason. |
And the one luxury I would take to my desert island? A seaplane.
