{"id":3857,"date":"2016-03-07T08:30:07","date_gmt":"2016-03-07T08:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=3857"},"modified":"2016-03-09T11:26:10","modified_gmt":"2016-03-09T11:26:10","slug":"desert-island-dancing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=3857","title":{"rendered":"Desert Island Dancing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dance<\/a>

Dance to a different drum\/B. Gillmour\/flick<\/p><\/div>\n

One of my perennial daydreams (alongside the ones about playing the Carnegie Hall and having a completely clean and tidy house, but I\u2019ve just realised that these two are probably mutually exclusive) is being asked to go on Desert Island Discs.<\/em><\/p>\n

As this is hardly likely to happen, I\u2019m going to exploit this platform shamelessly to share my selection \u2013 or, you\u2019ll be glad to hear, an abridged selection, anyway.<\/p>\n

DID<\/em> choices are usually somewhere along the spectrum from pieces of music that are personal favourites to those freighted with the memories of certain people, or of key points in a life or career. But the common denominator in most people\u2019s choices is at least one\u00a0track that will keep their spirits up, and that often means music you can \u2013 or rather, can\u2019t help but \u2013 dance to.<\/p>\n

Researchers in Denmark have established that what makes a dance track irresistible is having exactly the right balance between predictability and complexity in the rhythms. We need to be able to perceive an underlying beat, but there should be enough breaks in it to move us to try to synchronise them with our bodies. That sort of makes sense to me, though I can\u2019t guarantee that all my choices conform to this.<\/p>\n

So here, in particular order, but with very valid reasons for being selected, are my choices.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Let\u2019s Go to the Hop<\/em><\/a>, Sha Na Na: This is fast and furious, and would keep me warm once I\u2019m no longer working up a sweat hauling logs and brushwood to build a shelter. \u00a0Let\u2019s face it, there is nothing to say it will be a tropical island. I might get washed up on Hans Island, \u2018a small uninhabited barren knoll\u2019 of 1.3 square kilometres in the Arctic.<\/li>\n
  2. \u00c7a Plane Pour Moi<\/em><\/a>. Plastic Bertrand: some mad Franglais (even though Plastic is himself Belgian) pogoing would be just the thing to put a smile on my face, and would remind me of my Francophile fellow Dames.<\/li>\n
  3. Domine Fili Unigenite<\/em>, Gloria<\/em><\/a>, Vivaldi: I sung this with a choir once, and we just could not keep still. I could belt out the words while I danced and keep my voice in good order, ever-ready to bellow at passing ships (well, coracles, perhaps).<\/li>\n
  4. Gimme Some Loving<\/a><\/em>, Traffic: I reckon this one meets all the criteria unearthed by the Danish researchers\u00a0\u2013\u00a0a driving beat embellished with variations from the organ and the bongos, and a track long enough to give you a good work-out. Good to start the day with.<\/li>\n
  5. Road Runner<\/em><\/a>, Junior Walker and the All Stars: What\u2019s not to like? An explosive drum opening, Junior Walker\u2019s fantastic tenor sax, with elastic guitar twangs in the gaps. I want everyone boogieing out of my funeral to this one.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    With this music to hand, you could turn the fundamental drawback of a desert island \u2013 that there is no one else on it\u00a0 \u00ad\u2013 into a massive advantage and let rip with your most embarrassing dancing, because it just won\u2019t matter. Whereas who\u2019s to say whether Man Friday would have hung out with Robinson Crusoe had he surprised him in the middle of an imperfectly executed watusi?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    What if you were caught executing an imperfect watusi?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,55,54],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3857"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3857"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3870,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3857\/revisions\/3870"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}