Garrison Keillor

Speaker 30:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

Speaker 30:08

The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen ninety four, and the presenter was Sue Lawley.

Presenter0:28

My Castaway this week is a storyteller. He was brought up in Minnesota in a Protestant fundamentalist family where alcohol, television and parties were all forbidden. But telling stories wasn't, and in his thirties he began to enchant the American public with a radio programme in which he delivered folksy accounts of life in a small Midwestern community.

Presenter0:50

Since then the stories have become the subject of best selling books on both sides of the Atlantic, but their author still keeps himself apart. I grew up, he says, with a powerful wish to be invisible.

Presenter1:02

He is the author of Lake Bobigonday's Garrison Keeler.

Presenter1:06

It's difficult to be invisible once you become a celebrity, Garrison. Haven't you effectively cramped your own style?

Garrison Keillor1:12

No, and that's why I'm looking forward to this desert island.

Presenter1:15

Yeah.

Garrison Keillor1:15

Uh

Presenter1:15

Yeah.

Garrison Keillor1:15

I um I need to be sent there, but once there I'm sure I'll enjoy it.

Presenter1:20

But surely you can't walk down the main street of your home town any more, or anywhere near it, and and be the invisible witness which you want to be.

Garrison Keillor1:29

I can be.

Garrison Keillor1:30

In my hometown, they don't look at you, they look away from you. So it's like uh the parting of of the waves.

Presenter1:39

But do they come up to you and pat you on the back and say, Hey, you've really done well, Garry?

Garrison Keillor1:43

I do not come from backpatters.

Garrison Keillor1:47

These people

Garrison Keillor1:49

do not bring up their children on heavy doses of praise. They believe that it would corrupt us, that it would turn our heads, that we'd get too large an idea of ourselves. We'd become foolish, and that would be the worst thing that would happen to us.

Presenter2:04

That must make it very difficult for you ever to accept a compliment with any grace.

Garrison Keillor2:08

Can't, ever, with any grace at all, so you shouldn't even think of offering me one.

Presenter2:13

Well, I will, because of course the stories are are brilliantly written, which is why they've become such a success, I think. But h do you think they've also

Presenter2:21

become a success because they're on both sides of the Atlantic, which is unusual considering what a small canvas you write on really have they become so popular because there are universal truths about people from small towns.

Garrison Keillor2:35

I don't think so. I wouldn't be the judge of that. But I've I think that

Garrison Keillor2:40

The beauty of the stories is in a way

Garrison Keillor2:43

Their emptiness, which

Garrison Keillor2:46

allows the reader, but but especially the listener.

Garrison Keillor2:51

Two.

Garrison Keillor2:52

place themselves into the story and to put

Garrison Keillor2:56

Their own

Garrison Keillor2:57

Relatives and people from their past into the stories.

Presenter3:04

We should just say that that Lake Wobegon, for those who aren't familiar with it, is a fictitious small town in the Midwest where not a lot happens. Indeed, every story begins. It has been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon. It is essentially your own story, isn't it? It's your life. It's your childhood. Your upbringing.

Garrison Keillor3:24

Yes, in a way it is, although

Garrison Keillor3:28

I am always glad to receive gifts from

Garrison Keillor3:32

Other people.

Garrison Keillor3:34

and from strangers, to overhear conversations

Garrison Keillor3:38

And to use them.

Presenter3:40

So the stories have become more fictitious than they were in the beginning, maybe?

Garrison Keillor3:40

But the stories have become

Garrison Keillor3:44

I think that I've always stolen from

Garrison Keillor3:47

other people. I've always been a pack rat of other people's uh accounts.

Presenter3:54

Okay, well let let's get down to the business in hand here, which is casting you away alone on a desert island with eight records and a gramophone for company. Now what what kind of music will you want to hear?

Garrison Keillor4:05

I certainly want to hear some hymns. That's what I grew up with. And

Garrison Keillor4:10

I'd want to have some recordings by my friends who are musicians, and I'd want to have um a little country music for the sadness of it.

Garrison Keillor4:21

Because

Garrison Keillor4:22

If you are alone, you might as well learn how to enjoy loneliness and

Garrison Keillor4:27

Nobody can enjoy loneliness so much as country singers.

Presenter4:31

So the first record is

Garrison Keillor4:34

It's a record by Leo Kotke, a wonderful guitarist, who

Garrison Keillor4:38

began his career

Garrison Keillor4:40

In Minneapolis when I was a student in college.

Garrison Keillor4:44

I bought this album and I took it with me when I

Garrison Keillor4:49

went to a sort of desert island of my own.

Garrison Keillor4:52

Back when I started to be a writer I moved up to a farm in central Minnesota, and I took Leo Kotke along with me, and I used to play him when I woke up in the morning. He made me feel like writing.

Presenter5:38

Leo Kotke, playing a piece called Ojio. If I understand it correctly, Garrison Keeler, the story of Lake Wobegon began its life by being lost in a lavatory, didn't it?

Garrison Keillor5:48

Yes, I was on a train trip with my then wife, my first wife, and my son.

Garrison Keillor5:55

And um

Garrison Keillor5:57

Our train had been derailed.

Garrison Keillor6:00

And I was a little thrown off by this derailing with a child and all.

Garrison Keillor6:08

And I took him to

Garrison Keillor6:11

use the men's toilet and I put down my briefcase and forgot about it and when I came back for it fifteen minutes later it was gone. It contained

Garrison Keillor6:21

A story. A story about a a little town.

Garrison Keillor6:26

This story remained on my mind for months and months, and I thought that if I stood up and told stories about this town,

Garrison Keillor6:40

On the radio

Garrison Keillor6:42

that it might come back to me.

Presenter6:45

Hmm.

Garrison Keillor6:45

I still sort of think that.

Garrison Keillor6:47

It might.

Presenter6:48

You don't think it has yet? I mean, all all these reams of stories that we've read about Lake Webygon are not it.

Garrison Keillor6:54

I don't know if I have told it in all the years since then. I'd I didn't recognize it as it came out.

Presenter7:02

That was 1974, and it was a few months after you lost the story that you began the radio show. And what you.

Presenter7:09

did on this radio show. It it's a two-hour show. And you still do it?

Garrison Keillor7:13

Yes.

Presenter7:14

Five o'clock on a Saturday.

Garrison Keillor7:15

In the Midwest at five o'clock.

Presenter7:17

Hm. And you in the c I mean, the centrepiece of this programme, as I understand it, is your monologue, which in those early days was the tale of or tales of Lake Webigon.

Garrison Keillor7:28

And still is.

Presenter7:29

Still is. What what happened, as I understand it, as a result o of that, and and certainly the monologue was is the centrepiece of the programme, that programme became incredibly popular. What you achieved is something phenomenal, as I understand it in American radio, which is normally all local. You became a national radio hero.

Garrison Keillor7:50

No. I I I stayed around for long enough to attract an audience, which in my country

Garrison Keillor8:00

No matter what you do, if you did a radio show

Garrison Keillor8:04

That consisted of thirty minutes.

Garrison Keillor8:08

of room noise, of silence,

Garrison Keillor8:11

It would take time, but gradually.

Garrison Keillor8:14

Among the great vast American listening public, people who really loved the idea of listening to silence from another place.

Garrison Keillor8:23

would attach themselves to the show and you would have an audience.

Presenter8:27

I haven't

Garrison Keillor8:28

I think it's a very good idea.

Presenter8:30

Yes, but through some two hundred and sixty or more, I think, local radio stations, the thing is kind of beamed around the States, isn't it?

Garrison Keillor8:38

Yes, it's beamed around the States, but uh but uh I'm trying to pay you a compliment.

Presenter8:42

I'm trying to pay you a compliment, but I'm failing as you can.

Garrison Keillor8:45

Professional wrestling is beamed around the States, and roller derbies, and uh

Presenter8:47

From the States.

Presenter8:50

Let's have record number two.

Garrison Keillor8:52

Record number two is the Huddersfield Choral Society, which is just a great old choir from over here. These are your people.

Garrison Keillor9:02

Singing

Garrison Keillor9:03

And on my desert island

Garrison Keillor9:06

Every morning I would want to improve my spirits by standing out and facing the sea and the and the rising sun.

Garrison Keillor9:15

With the Hoddersfield Coral Society.

Garrison Keillor9:18

around me. I would close my eyes, and they'd all be standing around me.

Garrison Keillor9:22

and I would stand in the bass section and sing along.

Speaker 29:30

It's the whole thing.

Speaker 29:34

That's the screen fall.

Presenter10:24

Guide me, O thou, great Jehovah, from the Huddersfield Choral Society. So that was a hymn which presumably reminds you of your roots back in this small Midwest town called not Wobegon, but Anoka.

Presenter10:36

And the family were members of a strict God-fearing Protestant sect, weren't they? Can you tell me about it?

Garrison Keillor10:43

Yes, they were.

Garrison Keillor10:44

All members of

Garrison Keillor10:46

A group called the Plymouth Brethren, which began in Plymouth, England, as um a revolt against the Church of England and its pomp and its liturgy.

Garrison Keillor10:57

They were fundamentalists, they were millennialists, they believed that the Second Coming was imminent and that one should live one's life expecting it.

Garrison Keillor11:07

And they were a very close circle of people. They believed that one did not

Garrison Keillor11:16

Mix or mingle with the world.

Presenter11:18

But they didn't mix and mingle, as I understand it, very much anyway,'cause parties were prohibited. I mean, entertainment in that general, perhaps, fickle way they might have thought of it.

Garrison Keillor11:29

They had a different kind of entertainment, but they they did not

Garrison Keillor11:33

Believe in

Garrison Keillor11:34

lounging around rooms in their tuxedos holding dry martinis and listening to Gershwin.

Presenter11:40

and they didn't believe in dancing, and they certainly didn't believe in alcohol.

Garrison Keillor11:44

No, they didn't at all. They held a a stoic

Garrison Keillor11:48

view of life.

Garrison Keillor11:52

If you had to walk to school, so much the better.

Garrison Keillor11:55

And if you had to work after school and not hang around at the candy store?

Garrison Keillor12:02

With your pals and uh listen to rock and roll on the jukebox? Well.

Presenter12:08

But in the book Les Guobegon Days, you describe an angry son who returns home intending to nail ninety five complaints about his repressive parents on the door of the Lutheran Church. I mean, was that you? Is that what you wanted to do?

Garrison Keillor12:22

It wasn't me it was somebody whom I understood and could sympathize with and whom I gave voice to.

Garrison Keillor12:31

But those were not exactly my complaints.

Presenter12:34

But what have would have been your complaints? What was your what is your main complaint about your childhood?

Garrison Keillor12:39

The Statute of Limitations has

Garrison Keillor12:42

Past

Garrison Keillor12:44

And one is not allowed to.

Garrison Keillor12:47

Complain about it with any

Garrison Keillor12:50

fervor or any feeling.

Garrison Keillor12:53

Past, I think.

Garrison Keillor12:54

Your mid twenties. I'm way past that.

Presenter12:57

But you wanted to get away, didn't you, as a child? You were not.

Presenter13:02

You had this desire to be invisible, and this desire to escape, didn't you?

Garrison Keillor13:06

But it was easy to escape because I was the third child in a family of six.

Garrison Keillor13:12

And that being the case

Garrison Keillor13:15

I've discovered.

Garrison Keillor13:17

when I was about eight or nine years old that it was not that hard to walk out the front door and just keep walking, get on your bike, and ride down past the cornfields and ride down to the Mississippi River.

Garrison Keillor13:32

We lived uh just about a quarter mile from the Mississippi, and I spent a lot of time down there.

Garrison Keillor13:39

Fishing and uh swimming, a very strong current, it was very scary.

Garrison Keillor13:43

and uh skating on it in the winter time.

Garrison Keillor13:47

I discovered that

Garrison Keillor13:49

Oftentimes when I came back

Garrison Keillor13:52

They hadn't noticed that I'd left.

Presenter13:55

Record number three.

Garrison Keillor13:57

This is a blues tune by Jelly RoMorton.

Garrison Keillor14:02

And it's played by a friend of mine.

Garrison Keillor14:05

Named Butch Thompson.

Garrison Keillor14:07

who, though I didn't know this when we became friends, is one of the finest

Garrison Keillor14:14

Players of classical piano jazz.

Garrison Keillor14:17

In the world.

Garrison Keillor14:20

That's an amazing statement to make on behalf of one's own friend. But sometimes one's friends, despite the fact that they hang out with me, they really are very accomplished and smart people.

Presenter15:36

Deep Creek, played by Butch Thompson. But the art of story telling was strong in your house, Garrison. Who were the main performers?

Garrison Keillor15:45

The main performers were

Garrison Keillor15:47

whoever happened to be there but if my great uncle Lew Powell was there, then every one deferred to him.

Garrison Keillor15:57

He was

Garrison Keillor15:59

the person in the family who had seen the most of the outside world.

Garrison Keillor16:04

He was a salesman, and he had travelled around

Garrison Keillor16:08

And

Garrison Keillor16:09

When I knew him

Garrison Keillor16:11

He owned a candy company. They made peanut brittle

Garrison Keillor16:15

And they made

Garrison Keillor16:16

Little sugar wafers.

Garrison Keillor16:19

He brought these with him whenever he came and visited. He always came on Saturday night.

Garrison Keillor16:23

And

Garrison Keillor16:25

They sat and talked.

Presenter16:26

And what were his stories about?

Garrison Keillor16:28

Oh, they were about his

Garrison Keillor16:30

Upbringing in Iowa, they were about various disasters.

Garrison Keillor16:36

A house that burned down in Thornton, Iowa.

Garrison Keillor16:39

eighteen

Garrison Keillor16:41

eighty nine, when he was a very little boy and was awakened.

Garrison Keillor16:46

in the middle of the night and

Garrison Keillor16:48

carried out doors and stood outdoors in the snow.

Garrison Keillor16:52

in his mother's arms, watching

Garrison Keillor16:55

The frame house uh burned to the ground.

Presenter16:58

Always the same stories.

Garrison Keillor17:00

Oh, yes, yes, yes.

Presenter17:02

Is your style his style? You know, quite quite long stories, no great punch lines, sometimes no great point, but but the point is in the telling.

Garrison Keillor17:13

No, my style is not his style, because I do mine on stage.

Garrison Keillor17:19

which is an artificial situation.

Garrison Keillor17:22

And one is required to be.

Garrison Keillor17:26

More charming.

Garrison Keillor17:27

Then

Garrison Keillor17:28

Uncle Loo was required to be. To me he was utterly charming, but he was my relative.

Garrison Keillor17:35

and I was completely loyal to him.

Garrison Keillor17:39

But if I had brought you in

Garrison Keillor17:41

To lie on the floor and eat the peanut brittle.

Garrison Keillor17:44

You might have become bored after a while.

Garrison Keillor17:48

We never put Uncle Lou to that test.

Presenter17:50

But you as a boy were writing at the same time as I understand you were writing your own poetry and things, weren't you?

Garrison Keillor17:56

Yes, but I was writing exotic stories. I didn't know that anyone would ever be interested in hearing about my relatives and the people I knew, and so I was trying to write

Garrison Keillor18:08

Fantastic.

Garrison Keillor18:10

Stories about uh talking animals and uh fables and

Presenter18:15

Hmm.

Garrison Keillor18:16

That sort of thing.

Presenter18:17

But you were also uh reading The New Yorker. Wasn't that by the age of thirteen, I think you were taking it? Wasn't that rather a sophisticated thing to do in the mid fifties in Anoka?

Garrison Keillor18:27

I thought it was pretty amazing, but it came to the Anoka Public Library, and a teacher told me I should go look it up. He thought I might.

Garrison Keillor18:36

like it. I was uh amazed by it.

Garrison Keillor18:40

The writing was the most wonderful writing I ever had come across. I think in one of the first issues that I looked at were four or five writers, all in one issue, whom I grew to admire more and more, and admire today even more than I did when I was thirteen. John Sheever.

Speaker 218:59

John?

Presenter19:00

Yeah.

Garrison Keillor19:01

A. J. Liepling

Garrison Keillor19:03

S. J. Perlman and E. B. White.

Presenter19:07

Let's have your fourth record.

Garrison Keillor19:11

This is

Garrison Keillor19:13

Pinka Zuckerman, who for a time worked in St. Paul, Minnesota as the conductor of my favorite orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. This is a a little um violin romance by Dvorak, who came to the Midwest too. He came to Spillville, Iowa, to a little uh bohemian colony there.

Garrison Keillor19:41

And uh

Garrison Keillor19:42

So we consider that we own a little bit of Devorger.

Presenter20:37

Vorjek's violin romance number two in F, played by Pinker Zuckerman with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. What was the first article you wrote for The New Yorker?

Garrison Keillor20:48

It was

Garrison Keillor20:50

A tiny piece of fiction, I think it was about seven hundred and fifty words.

Garrison Keillor20:57

Called Local Family Makes Son Happy.

Garrison Keillor21:02

About a

Garrison Keillor21:03

couple with a seventeen-year-old boy and they're worried about him.

Garrison Keillor21:08

being injured in a traffic accident or

Garrison Keillor21:11

going off and drinking with friends. So they hire a prostitute to come and live in their home. It's a very strange piece of fiction for me to write and for the

Garrison Keillor21:23

New Yorker, too.

Garrison Keillor21:24

Bye.

Presenter21:25

But they didn't.

Garrison Keillor21:25

But they liked it. I have no idea why.

Presenter21:28

And you've been writing for them, or you went on writing for them for some twenty two years. It was actually a piece you wrote for The New Yorker which inspired you to branch out into radio, wasn't it?

Garrison Keillor21:38

Yes, I wanted to write a non-fiction piece for them and

Garrison Keillor21:42

And so I got them to send me down to Nashville.

Garrison Keillor21:47

to write about a radio show called the Grand Ole Opry, which is the oldest

Garrison Keillor21:51

Continuous radio show in America began back in 1927.

Garrison Keillor21:57

I'd listened to it often when I was uh a child found a big Zenith floor model radio with with a tuning knob the size of a grapefruit.

Garrison Keillor22:09

And the Opry was a live radio show.

Garrison Keillor22:12

in which country singers came and

Garrison Keillor22:15

did their piece and the fans clapped and

Garrison Keillor22:18

And now, won't you please welcome Bill Carlisle and the Carlisles. And they all came up and sang.

Garrison Keillor22:24

On came Minnie Pearl with her big straw hat with the price tag hanging down.

Garrison Keillor22:30

off the brim and she said, Howdy I'm just so proud to be here And we I we really like that show. So I got to write about it for The New Yorker.

Presenter22:38

But what you also got to think was, hang on, I could do that, or perhaps even, dare I say, I could do better than that.

Garrison Keillor22:47

Not better.

Garrison Keillor22:48

But I thought

Garrison Keillor22:50

Watching the Opry from

Garrison Keillor22:53

Backstage

Garrison Keillor22:55

The easiest job

Garrison Keillor22:57

Of any of them was the job of the announcer.

Garrison Keillor23:01

So I thought I could do that. I could be the guy who stands off to the side at the podium.

Garrison Keillor23:07

But he's the guy who said that. And now please give a big warm welcome here to the country gentleman himself, Mr. Chet Atkins. I could do that.

Presenter23:08

But he's the guy who says

Presenter23:16

But why do you think it is that a man who's obviously quite shy by nature, if if I can say so um should enjoy fronting a two hour live radio programme? I mean that's the kind of thing that extroverts do.

Garrison Keillor23:28

It's not really fronting.

Garrison Keillor23:30

It's siding. He's he stands off to the side.

Presenter23:31

He stands off to the side.

Garrison Keillor23:41

That came later.

Garrison Keillor23:43

And it's not hard to say here's Chet Atkins, and then when Chet Atkins is done with his tune, you say, Thank you, Chet We'll be right back with more of our show right after this word from Rudy's Farm Sausage.

Presenter23:58

But then you made up the ads, don't you?

Garrison Keillor24:00

Yes, I did.

Presenter24:01

Yes. Let's have some more music. Are these two of the people who come on this show of yours?

Garrison Keillor24:05

Yes, these are two whom I started out doing the radio show with, and they're wonderful, wonderful performers, Bill Hinckley and Judy Larson.

Speaker 224:15

The boatswain's mate was very sedate, yet fond of amusement too. He played hopscotch with the starboard watch, while the captain tickled the crew. And the gunner we had was apparently mad, for he sat on the after-rail. And he fired salutes with the captain's boots, In the teeth of the booming gale.

Presenter24:39

Bill Hinkley and Judy Larson singing A Capital Ship. Tell me about Garrison Keeler on a desert island. Will he find it relaxing or terrifying to be alone for an indefinite period?

Garrison Keillor24:48

I sometimes uh fall prey to um

Garrison Keillor24:53

gloom and so one would have to um

Garrison Keillor24:57

keep gloom at arm's length, and one would have to take things very slowly to avoid uh frustration.

Presenter25:08

There there's a guy in your recent most recent work, the Book of Guys, called Lonesome Shorty, who I think is you, isn't he?

Garrison Keillor25:16

Yes, he is me. He's a cowboy.

Garrison Keillor25:19

And uh like a lot of American guys, including me.

Garrison Keillor25:25

He's uh s something of uh

Garrison Keillor25:27

A loner

Garrison Keillor25:29

something about the life on horseback

Garrison Keillor25:32

appeals to him.

Garrison Keillor25:34

Though it's cold, it's lonely, it's miserable it's like being on a desert island.

Garrison Keillor25:40

But it appeals to him once out there

Garrison Keillor25:43

Then he longs for society.

Garrison Keillor25:46

and longs to hear

Garrison Keillor25:48

voices and have companionship, so he gets on his horse and he comes into town and he enjoys that for a while. In fact, for a while it's bliss. But then something happens. Somebody tries to rope him in. He feels constricted. He feels people are staring at him.

Garrison Keillor26:05

And he gets back on his horse and he heads out.

Garrison Keillor26:08

To the prairie, where he begins to miss society.

Garrison Keillor26:14

Once again.

Presenter26:15

You in fact left the Midwest uh when you were about forty five and went to live in New York, and now you've gone back home again. I mean, is that part of the same

Presenter26:23

Pendulum

Garrison Keillor26:24

Yes, it is. That psychology is really embedded in my life the work that I do, writing.

Garrison Keillor26:31

is uh is solitary work. It's a real lonesome shorty.

Garrison Keillor26:35

kind of a career.

Presenter26:37

Record number six.

Garrison Keillor26:39

Well, this is Merle Haggard and um he just is the greatest country singer there is. And if you're out on a desert island, you're bound to feel a little self-pity, so you might as well really get into it.

Garrison Keillor26:52

If you have a bottle of whisky on this desert island, here's the time when you want to pour yourself a glass.

Speaker 226:59

Uh Tonight I'd leave the barroom when it's over

Speaker 227:06

Not feeling any pain at close in time.

Speaker 227:14

But tonight your memory found me much too sober.

Speaker 227:21

Couldn't drink enough to keep you off my mind.

Presenter27:26

Merle haggard, and the bottle let me down.

Presenter27:30

Was one of your reasons for leaving New York, Garrison, also that you fell out of love with The New Yorker itself after twenty two years of writing for it?

Garrison Keillor27:40

I fell suddenly out of love with The New Yorker. A new editor came in, came in suddenly. We had no intimation of it.

Garrison Keillor27:51

And the new editor was Tina Brown, who had been the editor of Vanity Fair, which was one of my least favorite.

Garrison Keillor28:00

Magazines in America.

Garrison Keillor28:04

She came in with a sort of a flurry of pronouncements about how the old magazine needed to be sort of tatted up a little bit. My heart sank, and I'd decided

Garrison Keillor28:18

After twenty some years, I really do not want to go through this. What this woman believes in, editorially, is evident to anybody who looks at Vanity Fair magazine.

Garrison Keillor28:31

I don't want to have to fight those battles. And so just quietly pack up your tent, I thought, and walk away. And I did. And with amazingly few

Garrison Keillor28:45

Regrets

Presenter28:47

So you've gone back to your roots not that they were ever severed really to your to a log cabin and some eighty acres in Wisconsin. Is it a is it a kind of listening post, too, of a kind? Are you collecting more material all the time, more lake woebegone news while you're there?

Garrison Keillor29:05

It's out in the country in Wisconsin, and it's within close range of little towns like Prescott and River Falls, where one could go and sit quietly in dim light over a beer and probably collect some

Garrison Keillor29:21

Material

Garrison Keillor29:22

But more than that it's a beautiful place.

Garrison Keillor29:25

With

Garrison Keillor29:26

a log cabin that sits in birch and aspen trees, and a little studio that sits up in the woods on the edge of a meadow and faces east, so you see the sunrise in the morning, and it's on the shores of

Garrison Keillor29:45

A beautiful river, the St. Croix River. I've always loved.

Garrison Keillor29:49

Rivers

Garrison Keillor29:50

And um the combination of um birch trees and meadow and a river has an emotional depth to it that can't be explained. I feel wonderful whenever I drive down uh that road again.

Presenter30:10

More music.

Garrison Keillor30:12

We're on a desert island.

Presenter30:14

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 230:14

Yeah.

Garrison Keillor30:14

And there's surf that's

Garrison Keillor30:17

Rolling in, so I thought

Garrison Keillor30:22

The Beach Boys would fit in here. The Wilson Brothers of Hawthorne, California, and surf music from the early 1960s in America. We used to listen to these songs on our cars as we drove around.

Speaker 230:43

Well, she got her daddy's car and she cruised to the hamburger stand now.

Speaker 330:44

Alright.

Speaker 230:49

See she forgot all about the library like she told her old man now.

Speaker 230:55

And with the radio blast to go cruising just as fast as she can now.

Speaker 231:00

Can't you have fun, fun, fun, dude, that it takes a tea? Fun, fun, fun, dude, that it takes a tea

Presenter31:10

The Beach Boys and fun, fun, fun. We've talked about how you left your hometown. You left it many years ago behind you. You've learned to drink since then, to entertain. You've been married twice and divorced. But now in your fifties you're back where your roots are. What about your religion? How much has that stayed with you or have you left that behind?

Garrison Keillor31:32

I've left the the Plymouth Brethren behind and I have

Garrison Keillor31:39

definitely left behind the separation theology that I grew up with, the idea that

Garrison Keillor31:47

One must

Garrison Keillor31:49

Separate oneself from the non-believing world to avoid contamination.

Garrison Keillor31:56

The Great Sin

Garrison Keillor31:59

That

Garrison Keillor32:00

was not preached uh about when I was

Garrison Keillor32:04

A child, the great sin is

Garrison Keillor32:08

Smugness

Garrison Keillor32:11

and uh self-righteousness.

Garrison Keillor32:15

And the failure

Garrison Keillor32:17

to recognize joy and to respond to it, and the failure to use one's own gifts. I think that I have

Garrison Keillor32:32

Used

Garrison Keillor32:34

gifts of my own that I don't even have. I mean, I I think I have I have lived far beyond my gifts.

Presenter32:42

And do you see yourself, in in years to come, becoming a kind of garrulous and lovable grandfather or great uncle, with children gathered at your knee listening spellbound to your stories, and sucking their peanut brittle?

Garrison Keillor32:56

I'm not sure. My children have been very slow about uh providing me with with adoring grandchildren.

Presenter33:02

But that's what you'd like.

Garrison Keillor33:04

Well, I don't want to bring it up. I mean, it's uh it's entirely up to them. And if I

Garrison Keillor33:08

Don't become a grandfather, then I guess I'll just become

Garrison Keillor33:12

A reclusive and eccentric

Garrison Keillor33:15

OLD MAN In a log cabin at the end of a long road.

Presenter33:20

Last record.

Garrison Keillor33:21

These are the Huddersfield singers, the Huddersfield Choral Society, singing Abide with me, fast falls the eventide.

Garrison Keillor33:31

This is the

Garrison Keillor33:33

Hymn that was sung at

Garrison Keillor33:35

Every funeral in our family that I can remember.

Garrison Keillor33:41

And if on this desert island

Garrison Keillor33:44

It's a good thing to be able to cry once in a while. This is the hymn that should that should make me cry.

Presenter34:47

The Huddersfield Choral Society again, singing Abide with Me. If you could only take one of those eight records, Garrison Keeler, which one would it be?

Garrison Keillor34:55

It would have to be the Huddersfield Coral Society.

Presenter34:58

Which which of the hymns would they be singing there? The one that makes you cry, or?

Garrison Keillor35:02

Sure. Abide with me. I know the words to um two or three of the verses. So

Garrison Keillor35:08

That would be as good.

Presenter35:09

You could sing along before you burst into tears.

Garrison Keillor35:11

Yes, of course.

Presenter35:12

And then on the beach, you should understand, there is the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare waiting for you, and we can put another book on the top of the pile.

Garrison Keillor35:22

I would choose

Garrison Keillor35:23

The latest edition of Roger's Thesaurus, so that I could have the

Garrison Keillor35:30

English language at my fingertips.

Garrison Keillor35:34

And so that my vocabulary wouldn't be too reduced by

Garrison Keillor35:41

Lack of somebody to talk to.

Presenter35:43

and a luxury.

Garrison Keillor35:45

I would like

Garrison Keillor35:46

A set of

Garrison Keillor35:48

China

Garrison Keillor35:50

Probably four place settings. We could set a table and um sit up at the end of it.

Garrison Keillor35:59

And

Garrison Keillor36:00

Imagine.

Garrison Keillor36:01

people sitting there with me.

Presenter36:04

Garrison Keeler, thank you very much indeed for letting us hear your Desert Island discs.

Garrison Keillor36:08

It's a pleasure. When do I get to go?

Speaker 336:18

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk/radio4.