Phil Gyford

Dan Hill inflicted passed me the Musical Baton, an endless chain letter of musical blather. But it would be wrong to turn down the opportunity of talking about music I like. Desert Island Discs without the drawback of Sue Lawley.

Total volume of music on my computer

12,157 songs from 1,947 artists, taking up 58GB and making for nearly 33 days of 24-hours-a-day listening.

The last CD I bought

The last album to arrive was The Roches’ eponymous debut from 1979, after Sean at Said the Gramophone posted about Hammond Song. As usual he’s picked out easily the best track on the album, but the rest is still fab.

The last album I ordered was The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, currently on its way from an Amazon Marketplace seller in Jersey. Having ignored Dylan for most of my life simply because he’s popular I’ve only recently realised what I’ve been missing.

Song playing right now

Nothing playing. But if I stick my playlist of current favourites on random it comes up with The Feeling is Right by Doris Duke from I’m a Loser, discovered at The Suburbs are Killing Us and The Number One Songs in Heaven.

Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me

Ick. A horrific proposition, the results of which I’ll never be happy with. But five songs that always make me pleased when they appear on the iPod, and that have, for me, stood the test of time:

• Buzzcocks — Ever Fallen in Love
• Elastica — Stutter
• Mamas and the Papas — California Dreaming
• The Only Ones — Another Girl, Another Planet
• Radiohead — Creep

So they’re not obscure… maybe there is something in music that’s popular after all.

Five people to whom I’m passing the baton

People whose responses I’d be interested in hearing, and who hopefully will enjoy the excuse to talk about their favourite music in public: David, Genny, Ted Mills, Tim Brayshaw and Tom Coates.