Lauren Laverne: “Our guest today is Rick Johansen. For nearly 39 years, Rick was a nondescript civil servant in the Department for Work and Pensions. He went on to be one of most prolific bloggers in Britain, albeit one of the least successful. Rick, welcome.”
RJ (for it is he): “Thanks Lauren. You’re absolutely gorgeous. Can we run away together?”
LL: ” So, what was your childhood like?”
RJ: “Pretty shit.”
LL: “Was music a large part of your life?”
RJ: “Yes it was. We had a radio in the living room which was the size of a small car. We listened mainly to the BBC Light Programme, a sort of early version of what Radio 2 turned out to be, but with much worse music. I remember some songs from the early 1960s, ones like She Loves You by the Beatles and Not Fade Away by the Rolling Stones. I loved them and even though I was about seven my mum bought them for me and I played them to death.”
LL: “So, what’s your first choice?”
RJ: “In 1964, the Beatles released A Hard Day’s Night. For Christmas that year, my mum bought me the LP, the first one I ever owned. I played it on our little record player in the front room and soon I knew all the words. Many of the tracks have been my favourite but this one endures. My first song is Things We Said Today.”
LL: “Your parents were divorced when you were very young. Despite that, was yours a happy upbringing?”
RJ: “No.”
LL: “What sort of things were you interested in?”
RJ: “Music. My mum would buy me some records if she could afford them, bands like The Monkees and The Move were among my favourites. Unfortunately, the internet hadn’t been invented, nor Sky, so there wasn’t much to do apart from listening to music, watching trains go by and playing football and cricket alone in the back garden.”
LL: “What’s your second choice today?”
RJ: “I would save my pocket money and sometimes our neighbour Mr Parry might give me sixpence, possibly because he felt sorry for me. Anyway, I was very grateful. In 1970, I heard a record that changed the way I thought about music. When I was in town with my mum we bought Ride A White Swan by T Rex.
LL: “What was school like?”
RJ: “Shit really. I never understood any of the subjects except English Language and I hated it. The times I liked best were when I was with my friends Mike and Andy and we’d talk about and listen to music. Music was my life when I got home from school and in 1972 I discovered the band who would become my favourite and still are to this day, Steely Dan. Their first album was almost a revelation which songs like Do It Again and Reelin’ In The Years. Incredibly, they got even better in the following years. My third choice is the title track from my favourite Dan record Aja.
LL: “How were your relationships with your parents?”
RJ: “Distant. My dad lived in Canada, my mum was a stranger in a strange land all her life, a simple Dutch woman in a place that never really became home. In 1975, I flew to Canada to meet up with my dad and we drove around New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Unforgettable. And he liked some of the music I liked.”
LL: “What’s your fourth choice?”
RJ: “My dad really liked All Things Must Pass by George Harrison and he played it when we were there. Later, in 2009, when I went to stay with him again in Canada, for his 80th birthday he was playing the same vinyl album and it stopped me in my tracks. In fact, the album was playing as I left him. I never saw him again. It’s a truly great album and for my fourth choice I am going to play Awaiting On You All, which is very religious and I am definitely not religious: quite the opposite.
LL: “What was your working life like?”
RJ: “Pretty shit. The highlights were away from work – music, football, girls. I was never a clubber but I did go to the ‘heavy night’ at Tiffany’s in Bristol, a club full of plastic palm trees. Luckily, we got someone to drive us. He was called Pete and he loved David Bowie. I thought Bowie was good but when Young Americans came out, I realised he was great. And there was one track we would listen to in Pete’s Hillman Hunter: Win, which always takes me back to Tiffanys. That’s my fifth choice.
LL:”What happened to your mum?”
RJ: “She remarried and moved to Portishead. Unfortunately, she carried on smoking and ended up with loads of smoking related diseases which finally killed her in 1999. She ended up in a care home with my step dad who had Parkinsons and then dementia. I had to arrange her funeral myself and hardly anyone came because she didn’t really know many people and most of her relatives were dead. I chose the music, none of which she knew or had even heard. When her coffin came in at the start, they played Til I Die by the Beach Boys, the Steve Desper mix. The words summed up her life and, to be fair, everyone else’s. I’d like to play it as track number six.
LL: “How are things now?”
RJ: “I’m mental as anything but luckily I ended up with my partner who for the last 33 years has been my best friend, too. Her musical tastes, though still dubious, have improved over the years and this is the song, number seven, which always makes me think of her. It’s This Guy’s In Love With You by Herb Alpert.
LL: “And what’s your final choice?”
RJ: “My Desert island Discs change every hour, never mind every day, but this one never does. It’s Since I Left You by The Avalanches.
LL: “You’re allowed to take the bible and the complete works of Shakespeare, but which other book would you like to take?”
RJ: “The bible and the Shakespeare books would come in handy for firewood. The book I would choose is Illusions: the adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach. Absolutely crackers but a wonderful literary escape.
LL: “And what about a luxury?”
RJ: “I wouldn’t be allowed a computer so it would have to be a typewriter, with plenty of ink and paper.
LL: “And if you could choose only one piece of music from the ones you have chosen, what would it be?
RJ: “It’s going to be Since I Left You by The Avalanches.
LL: “Rick Johansen – thanks for being our castaway.”
RJ: “My pleasure. Can I buy you a pint?”
MY DESERT ISLAND DISCS:
- Things We Said Today by The Beatles
- Ride A White Swan by T Rex
- Aja by Steely Dan
- Awaiting on You All by George Harrison
- Win by David Bowie
- Til I Die (Steve Desper remix) by The Beach Boys
- This Guy’s In Love With You by Herb Alpert
- Since I Left You by The Avalanches
Since this list was compiled, my favourite Beatles song has returned to Getting Better and Steely Dan to West Of Hollywood.
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