What Would You Bring to Your Lonely Desert Island?

I was recently asked an interesting question. Someone told me that I was packing to go on a trip that I knew would end in a plane crash and I would be stranded all alone for the rest of my life on a lonely desert island. However, I would be allowed to bring 10 CD’s and listen to them. So, this person asked me, what ten CD’s would I bring, and why. Please note, they do not have to be real released CD’s, I can make up my own.

My answer…

Well, I'm packing up for my disastrous trip. While I know that this trip will be tragic, ending in a horrible crash with only one survivor (me of course) I decide to go along for two reasons. First, it's better to have a crash with one survivor than for everyone to die. Second, I like desert islands and if being stranded there for the rest of my life would mean no more final exams, research papers, or lectures than it would be preferable to my life as it is now.

I decide to bring a book of matches, an axe, a knife, a Calvin and Hobbes book, a clean pair of underwear, a can of sardines, and ten of my favorite CDs.

Here are my selections:

The Counting Crows, Live Across a Wire. This is a two CD set, my favorite album of all time. The Counting Crows are incredible live! A song never quite comes out the same way twice. Each of these songs is chocked full of solos, spontaneous verses, sung conversations, and most of the memories from the last 3 or 4 years of my life. This music would really bring me home, making me remember summers in New York, road trips, falling in love, and growing into the man I am becoming.

Michael Hedges, Aerial Boundaries. This CD is all instrumental so I don’t get tired of it very quickly. It’s brilliant acoustic guitar work, very creative, very inspirational.

The Look Machine, Unreleased, Unrecorded Greatest Hits. So maybe it doesn’t exist... yet. This is another one that would be full of memories. Writing the music, playing shows, hanging out with band, rocketing up the charts to number one (or not). It would make me smile.

James Taylor Greatest Hits. Sometimes you just need a little bit of fire and rain in your life, what else can you say?

Rich Mullins, A Liturgy, a Legacy, and a Ragamuffin Band. I was on this music. My mom cranked me out in the delivery room, the doctor slapped my butt and dried me off, and my dad put some headphones on me and turned up the tunes. Rich Mullins is probably simultaneously the most honest and most optimistic artist I know of. He sings about life as it really is, but always manages to turn the focus back to hope, back to God.

U2, Greatest Hits as Defined by Ian Palkovitz. When you get right down to it, there’s just nobody quite like them. I’ve always listened to them, and they have always rocked! 25 steady years of hit music, always fresh, always daring. It just can’t be beat!

The Appleseed Cast, Two Conversations. This CD has incredible instrumentation and lyrics. It’s rather atmospheric, soothing, detached put poignant. It has the same feeling of when you are half awake on a Saturday morning (or early afternoon), dreamy and a little listless.

Boy Sets Fire, Greatest and Most Melodic Songs as Defined by Ian Palkovitz. These guys are one of my favorite bands. Passionate, driving, heartfelt, but sometimes a little more hardcore than I want to listen for the rest of my life all alone on my desert island. This CD would be 80 minutes of their best music of the more chilled out variety.

Various Artists, African Odyssey. There is something about lyrics in another language. I just love it, its mindless but exciting. Always makes me think of something foreign and intriguing. You know, perhaps after a while on my Island, it will make me think about civilization, which will soon become foreign and intriguing.

So I’m on the doomed plane, looking around and feeling bad for all the people who will soon die. I’m checking my bags to make sure I have everything I need. Looks like I’m in good shape... Wait... It can’t be!... I for got my CD Player!
Now for your answer…