Desert Island mixtape: 27 nummers geïnspireerd door Greil Marcus

Ik maakte deze week een nieuwe mixtape. Geïnspireerd door het herlezen van Greil Marcus’ Stranded – Rock and Roll for a Desert Island – waarin verschillende mensen gevraagd worden welke platen ze mee zouden nemen als ze naar een eenzaam verblijf op een eiland zouden worden verbannen. Het is een interessante verzameling essays over deze albums, aangevuld met Marcus’ eigen lijst van platen die hij als essentieel beschouwt voor de rock-‘n-roll-ervaring.

Greil Marcus Stranded - Rock and Roll for a Desert Island - mixtape cover

Een tijdcapsule

Het is een momentopname, toch zijn er een paar nummers bij die hoog in mijn all-time favorites scoren: Dylan’s I Want You en de weirdness van Captain BeefHeart’s Frownland.

(Door mij toegevoegd om de cassette te vullen: PJ Harvey, nog een BeefHeart: Lick My Decals Off, Baby en Kingdom Come van Pere Ubu.)

De volledige Desert Island mixtape playlist:

  1. These Dreams of You (Live) – Van Morrison
  2. Street Fighting Man – The Rolling Stones
  3. Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) – Bruce Springsteen
  4. Frownland – Captain Beefheart
  5. Who Loves the Sun – The Velvet Underground
  6. Doolin-Dalton – Eagles
  7. Fever – Little Willie John
  8. Tin Soldier Man – The Kinks
  9. Sheena Is a Punk Rocker -Ramones
  10. The Fuse – Jackson Browne
  11. Looking For A Kiss – New York Dolls
  12. Don’t You Just Know It – Huey ‘Piano’ Smith
  13. The Lord Will Make A Way Somehow – Thomas A. Dorsey with Marion Williams
  14. Tired Eyes – Neil Young
  15. Ballerina – Van Morrison
  16. White Rhythm & Blues – Linda Ronstadt
  17. I Want You – Bob Dylan
  18. You Know I Know – The Rockin’ 5 Royales
  19. Sure ‘Nuff ‘n’ Yes, I Do – Captain Beefheart
  20. Running on Empty – Jackson Browne
  21. When Will I Be Loved – Linda Ronstadt
  22. How Kind Of You – Paul McCartney
  23. Unknown Legend – Neil Young
  24. Hello, There – John Cale
  25. Bitter Branches – PJ Harvey
  26. Lick My Decals Off, Baby – Captain Beefheart
  27. Kingdom Come – Pere Ubu

Greil Marcus stranded desert island mixtape playlist

Make Your Own?

Hoe zou Desert Island mixtape klinken? Het mooie aan Marcus’ vraag is dat er geen verkeerd antwoord is.

→ 🎵Luister naar de afspeellijst op Qobuz
→ Heel lang geleden verschenen maar nog steeds in herdruk verkrijgaar: Greil Marcus’ Stranded
→ Lees hier mijn originele post uit 2015 over dit boek

Greil Marcus mixtape de cassette

Elsa Dorfman’s website

The website that photographer Elsa Dorfman (famous for her large scale Polaroid portraits) created is still such a lovely piece of work. I love Elsa’s writings. Some parts are thrilling. Like the NoHairDay project No Hair Day. Other parts are so casual about her acquaintance with famous people. Like Ginsberg and Dylan.

She was a beautiful human being.

Allen Ginsberg and Bob Dylan at Elsa Dorfman's studio - photo by Elsa Dorfman

Unreasonable Success and How To Achieve It – Richard Koch

I think it was Tim Ferriss’ podcast episode with Richard Koch that put me on Richard Koch’s trail. First I read The 80/20 Principle, then bought Unreasonabe Success.

In the book, Koch describes the wisdom he has extracted from the lives of amazing people such as Nelson Mandela, Bob Dylan, Winston Churchill, Jeff Bezos, Albert Einstein, Victor Frankl, Leonardo Da Vinci, and others. Including, of course, Bill Bain and Bruce Henderson. Who. Bill Bain and Bruce Henderson, former Koch bosses at Bain and company and BCG, respectively. Of course, it is totally out of place in this list, but let’s just say this is Koch’s tribute to his former work

From the lives of the greats, Koch has identified 9 milestones on the road to success. These landmarks form the backbone of this book. Koch describes the landmarks and illustrates them in a highly entertaining way with stories about the greats of this world.

These are the landmarks that Koch identifies.

Self-belief. The courage to get started. Related to self-doubt. Self-doubt strengthens self-confidence.

Olympic expectations. Think big, think huge. Set expectations much higher than normal. Visualize that you are a great achiever, making success much more likely.

Transforming experiences. Learn unusual things from unusual experiences. The conventional path will not lead to unreasonable success. Special experiences do. Develop these experiences.

Breakthrough achievements are mostly innovative, sometimes strategic achievements. Combine extreme determination with extreme flexibility. Be innovative and laughably ambitious, and your ideas come from the soul.

Make your own trail, create your own segment, Invent a new field, narrow that field, and develop a unique philosophy.
Find and drive your personal vehicle. Jump on a major current and stand out. Or create your own vehicle. We would call this a platform these days, I guess.

Thrive on setbacks. Be anti-fragile. Find risks and actions. No actions, no learning, no improvement. Reframe disasters and setbacks.

Acquire unique intuition. Intuition is unique when it is important, original, unproven, imaginative, and based on deep knowledge. Where is your opinion that most others disagree with? (forgot who said that – was it Peter Thiel?)

Distort reality. Apply extreme optimism and determination. Inspire others.