Bob Harris

Presenter0:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Discs from BBC Radio 4. For rights reasons the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.

Presenter0:10

For more information about the programme, please visit bbc.co.uk/slash radio four.

Presenter0:34

My castaway this week is the broadcaster Bob Harris. Known affectionately as Whispering Bob, he's rarely been off our airwaves in the past forty-four years. His big break came standing in for John Peel, and he was so good that not long after he was given his own show on Radio One. Throughout the seventies he also hosted the true music fans must-see show, The Old Grey Whistle Test. His beard and tank top were almost as legendary as some of the guests. The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and John Lennon were among the line-up.

Presenter1:03

However, with the arrival of punk, things got personal and not in a good way.

Presenter1:08

The closest his family ever got to Shobiz was when his dad, a policeman, clambered on stage to arrest the singer PJ Proby when his trousers split. And young Bob did for a while follow his dad into the force, but he couldn't stick at it. Music, above all else, radio, were his obsession.

Presenter1:24

Much like his recording heroes, his own life has something of the rock and roll vibe three wives, eight children, a spell of bankruptcy, and coping with cancer. Yet through it all his skill, knowledge, and love of broadcasting has always endured. He says

Presenter1:40

I'm a music anorak, a fan who got lucky. From the moment I bought my first record, aged eleven, I couldn't wait to share music with others. And the fan who got lucky, when we talk lucky, we should probably just define how lucky. You've been right at the centre of a kind of who's who of rock, really. Led Zeppelin, the Stones, The Beatles, Bowie Van Morrison, The Who, The Beach Boys, Sandy Denny, Emmy Lou Harris. You've spoken to them all. You really you I mean you really did luck out and there's a this great broad smile across your face when I mention them all. Do you still feel like a lucky man?

Bob Harris2:05

Really you I mean you really don't

Bob Harris2:10

Do you still

Bob Harris2:11

Absolutely. I I mean, I can't believe it really that I'm still here and right in the middle of everything. You know, I just thought of thank my lucky stars.

Presenter2:20

What about live performance? I get the feeling that that in particular is something that is s central to your existence.

Bob Harris2:27

Well, here we come to one of the aspects of how lucky I am because musicians come into my studio almost week by week to perform short sets for me in the studio. People that who I've really admired through the years. It's just an incredible thing, you know.

Presenter2:41

And even in some cases, not in the studio. I understand that James Taylor and Carly Simon gave you a very private performance on one occasion. Do tell me about that.

Bob Harris2:49

We were doing filming in America for the Old Grey Whistletest, and we were invited to their house on the island of Martha's Vineyard. And we were there for three days, literally. And it was just incredible, Kirsty. It really was. They set up in the sitting room, and the two of them just sat round the piano, acoustic guitar, and just played some songs for us. It was just absolutely magical.

Presenter3:12

I am dripping with jealousy. You are famously independent when there is an integrity about what you do. I wonder what it is you are listening for when you listen.

Bob Harris3:23

Music from the heart, really. I think you can always tell when people don't really mean it, and you can always tell when they really do. There's a soul and a heart about the music. That's that's what I look for.

Presenter3:34

Bob Harris's list then. How on earth did you narrow it down to eight? Must have been like a kind of slow water torch.

Bob Harris3:37

No, ten to eight.

Bob Harris3:39

Leaving John Lennon out was the most difficult of all, but he is kind of represented by one of the tracks later on.

Presenter3:39

Did leave.

Presenter3:45

Great, and I have to say people won't be surprised to know it's a cracking list. Tell me about your first one, then. What are we going to hear?

Bob Harris3:51

Well, the first song was recorded in the late 1980s by a songwriter called Mark Gemino, and it's the story of an independent thinking American DJ. And the station is bought out by one of these big corporate companies who then impose on the station a playlist. And this particular DJ railed against this. So I really identify with this fellow. His name is Rex Bob Lowenstein.

Speaker 44:19

He guaranteed a larger audience.

Speaker 44:23

Less confusion and higher points But you drive time, Jock won't get to do his thing Hey, he's not half bad, tell me what's his name Well his name is Rex Bongo and Steve He's frequently heard, he's seldom seen His formula simple and his

Presenter4:46

That was appalling what we just did there, wasn't it?

Presenter4:54

Five minutes, twenty-six seconds of that beautiful music, and we cut it short. Well, we didn't hear the full story. No, I can only sincerely apologise. It was Mark Germina, we should tell people, and Rex Bob Lowenstein, and we heard him say they're frequently heard and never seen. You yourself were seen in the 1970s. You emerged out of the radio waves and onto people's television sets in 1972 with the old grey whistle test. People will be aware of this incredible voice that you have. You have two shows currently running on Radio Two on a Thursday evening and a Saturday night. The Whispering Bob. Where did the Whispering bit come from?

Bob Harris4:59

No, I can only sincerely applaud

Bob Harris5:08

Do yourself

Bob Harris5:27

Well, going into a television studio for me was an entirely different experience. And from the moment I sort of stepped into the studio, I felt slightly overwhelmed by it all. And whenever I spoke, my voice seemed to echo back off the walls at me. And there's a real kind of one-to-one feeling about radio. There's an intimacy to it that I was trying to create when I went into Whistle Test. But both of these aspects then led to me being quite softly spoken. And it was within weeks, really, that I think it was a journalist called Michael Watts in Melody Maker coined the whispering bob phrase, and it's kind of stuck ever since.

Presenter6:01

And what about the look? The tank tops, the scarves, the long hair, the beard? I'm guessing you didn't have a stylist, am I right?

Bob Harris6:07

I didn't have a stylist. I was my own, can't you tell?

Presenter6:08

I missed

Bob Harris6:11

My daughter, Flo is 16, my youngest daughter, and she looks at some of these photographs.

Bob Harris6:19

What do you look like? You know, and I I was a fashion

Presenter6:21

You look like Mumford and Sons is what you look like.

Bob Harris6:23

This is what you look like. I say to Flora, I was a fashion icon. You were ahead of your time, Bob, I think.

Presenter6:26

You were ahead of your time, Bob, I think. And over the years, with all of the people that you met and interviewed, particularly for Whistle Test, I know that John Lennon was one of your favourites, would that be fair?

Bob Harris6:36

Absolutely my favourite. It was sort of October, September, October 1974. And I went to a reception for the launch of a single called Lady Marmalide by LaBelle. And as I was walking down into the venue, Alton John was coming up the stairs. So we chatted for a while. And he said, I'm on my way to do the American tour. And then he said, Don't tell anybody, but I think John Lennon's going to join me on stage. So I said, Well, when you see John, tell him that we would love to do something with him on Whistle Test. And literally, about three or four days later, I'm sitting in the office next to Mike Appleton, and Mike's phone goes. And this voice at the other end of the phone says, Could I speak to Bob Harris or Mike Appleton? And immediately I knew it was John Lennon phoning himself to say, Why don't you guys come over? I've got this rock and roll album coming out. So we went over and spent three days in New York with him. And the day that we recorded the interview was the day that Yoko had told him that she was pregnant with Sean.

Presenter6:43

Right.

Bob Harris7:38

So you can imagine he was so happy. It was just such a fantastic experience.

Presenter7:44

We're not going to hear John Lennon. Tell us what we are going to hear now, Bob Harris.

Bob Harris7:47

Well, one of the other people that were very, very important to me then and has been actually throughout my entire life is Robert Plant. Because Robert and I first met when he was fronting Led Zeppelin. And the amazing thing is that Nashville drew us to it in sort of parallel lines. And the Americana Music Association hold an award show annually in September. And in 2011, Robert and I both got an award. He got a Lifetime Achievement Award and I got what was called the Trailblazer Award. And we had this massive, massive hug at the side of the stage, you know, both of us saying, who would ever have dreamed 40 years ago that here we would be? And of course, one of the absolute links between Nashville and Robert was Alison Krauss and the Raising Sand album. So I thought it would be very appropriate to play a track from that.

Speaker 48:41

If you change your way, babe, you might get back to stay, babe. You better hurry up, you don't wanna be alone.

Speaker 48:50

Or I'll be gone.

Speaker 48:53

Come on, Gone!

Speaker 48:55

Really go on

Speaker 48:59

Cause you done me wrong.

Speaker 49:03

It does me wrong now.

Presenter9:10

That was Robert Plant and Alison Krause, and gone, gone, gone. So, Bob Harris You were born in nineteen forty six, the only child of Bryn and Doria Harris. Tell me about your mum and dad. Did did they love music?

Bob Harris9:20

They did. My dad had the most fabulous melodic speaking voice and used to sing around the house the whole time. And my mum had an amazing and really true love of radio. And I remember probably as a three, four, five-year-old, growing up with what was a radiogram in the corner of the room, quite a big chunky piece of furniture. And we used to sit round.

Bob Harris9:46

Listening to listen with mother. You know, my mum had the radio going absolutely the whole time, and I'm sure that's where my love of radio began.

Presenter9:55

And your father, I mentioned when I was introducing you, your father arresting PJ Proby when his trousers

Bob Harris10:00

P.J. Proby was touring, this is 65, I think it would have been, and there was huge controversy because he used to wear those sort of pantaloons, no underwear underneath. And the first night of the tour, his trousers split. So he's given this sort of warning. Anyway, the second night of the tour, the trousers split again, by which time, and wouldn't you know, the Daily Mail had got hold of this as a story, and loads of reporters and everything turned up for the third gig, which just happened to be the ABC Cinema Northampton. And my dad was in charge of the security. And about two numbers in, P.J. Proby's trousers split again, and my father strode across the sort of pulling the curtain two with him, and effectively kind of pulling the curtain two on P.J. Proby's career because it never really recovered from this ludicrous moment.

Presenter10:55

Your mum was responsible for your first ever mention on radio, a mention of your name. She was a a big fan, as you say, a huge fan of radio, and David Jacobs name.

Bob Harris10:59

Yeah.

Bob Harris11:03

David Jacobs, yeah. I was so sad recently when David passed away. My mum wrote to him to get a request played for me on my 15th birthday, and he did. He mentioned my name, and my mum then sent another letter to thank him. He replied to that letter, and so began a correspondence between the two of them, very occasional, that spanned all across the years. And when I started on Radio 2 at this point, David still hadn't made the connection. And I thought, I can't start on Radio 2 without coming out to David Jacobs. David was live down the corridor. So I went into the studio and said, you know, Doria Harris. I said, well, that's my mum. And he was just so, I mean, he was an absolute gentleman, David.

Presenter11:50

Let's hear another piece of music then, Bob Harris. Your third disc of the morning. What is it, and why have you chosen it?

Bob Harris11:56

Well, it's the first single I ever bought. I was on holiday with my mum and dad in Cromer, and we walked past a coffee bar and this record was playing on the jukebox, and I just thought, wow

Speaker 412:07

I'm so young and you're so old. This my darling, I've been told. I don't care just what they say. Cause forever I will pray. You and I will be as free as the birds up in the trees.

Speaker 412:30

Praise the style, Diana.

Presenter12:38

That was Paulenka and Diana, and you said, Paul Parris, that was the first piece of music you ever bought. Can can you date that? When would you have bought that?

Bob Harris12:43

1957. And I'd say that it was fairly solitary. I mean, being an only child and everything. But the one thing I did do regularly was have loads of friends over for record hops. And we used to go down into the cellar of my mum and dad's house with my little dance set record player. And they'd bring over the new buddy Holly single and I'd play them the new Everly Brothers single. And, you know, I still think, honestly, that what I'm doing now is only just a slightly bigger version of that. Honestly, I think that, you know.

Presenter13:03

Uh

Presenter13:10

Is that w that was the beginning then, was it, of your love of the new, of this is what people are doing now. Listen to this thing that people have just imagined and made.

Bob Harris13:15

Yeah.

Bob Harris13:17

Absolutely.

Bob Harris13:19

Yes, it was the love of the new, but also the love of seeing people's faces when you played them something that they really loved.

Presenter13:25

How did you get on in school? Or were studies?

Bob Harris13:28

Well, um not successful.

Bob Harris13:31

I left school in a bit of a hurry in the end. What happened? Well, I was going into sixth form.

Bob Harris13:37

And I was caught drinking at half a shandy and I got called into the headmaster's office and he brandished the cane and I I said there's absolutely no way So I pedaled home, got all my school books, pedaled back to school again and strode through to the headmaster's office and threw the books in and left school in a massive hurry.

Presenter13:58

Yes, I imagine your sense of righteous injustice sort of disappeared when your father, the senior policeman, looked you in the eye. Uh

Bob Harris14:04

He was amazing, though. He said, Okay, well, so now what are you going to do?

Bob Harris14:09

Good question. You know, I I really want to get into radio button. I mean, I living in Northampton, how do you join the Dot?

Presenter14:14

And that's how you ended up as a police cadet, because I can't think of less of a fit.

Bob Harris14:18

No, he wanted me, very much wanted me to follow in his footsteps. And he said, If you give it everything when it comes to your nineteenth birthday, you honestly decide that it's not for you, then I'll back you in anything. And we shook shook hands on that.

Presenter14:18

Time.

Presenter14:32

And you kept to the deal, and you were there for two years. I'm wondering what your worst memory of being a police cadet is?

Bob Harris14:37

Drill was absolutely horrendous. You know, having somebody two inches away from your ear going, get your ear cut.

Presenter14:44

And did you get your air?

Bob Harris14:46

I did, absolutely. I just short back and sides, and oh, curse the honesty.

Presenter14:50

During those two years, did it really cement your idea that not only do I know I don't want to be a policeman, what I do want is to make my life in music and radio?

Bob Harris14:59

Yep, absolutely.

Presenter15:01

Let's have some more music then. Um tell me about this. It's your f Fourth.

Bob Harris15:05

Well, then, I moved to London, nineteen sixty six.

Bob Harris15:09

That's where I discovered pirate radio. Radio Caroline, Radio London, but Radio London was my station. And then.

Bob Harris15:16

As I listened into The We Small Hours, I discovered this chap doing a show.

Bob Harris15:21

Called The Perfume Garden, playing this amazing music. There was a sense of community around this program. It really touched me in a massive way. And I wanted to meet this person. I met up with John Peel at the end of 1967. I recorded an interview with him. And at the end of our meeting and conversation together, he already by this time had started calling me Young Bob. And he said, Before you go, Young Bob, I want to give you an album which I think you'll like. And he gave me a copy of Forever Changes by Love. And when I got home and put it on, I put the needle on the vinyl, and the first track that I heard was this one. And it's Alone Again.

Speaker 416:03

Yeah

Speaker 416:05

Said it's alright.

Speaker 416:24

Oh yeah

Presenter16:33

Alone Again or From Love. So this friendship that you struck up, Bob Harris, with your hero John Peel, your on-air hero, it led to you being introduced to BBC producers. You did a pilot show for them, and as a result of that pilot show, you were asked to stand in for John Peel while he was on holiday. That must have been an enormous moment for you. It was. Actually, didn't sit in his seat in his studio.

Bob Harris16:51

It was.

Bob Harris16:54

Absolutely. Just thinking about it now, you know, listening to that track again now.

Bob Harris17:00

You know, John was my mentor. He guided me through the early days of my career and shepherded me into Radio One.

Presenter17:07

And what sort of advice did he give you?

Bob Harris17:09

just to be myself. I mean, he believed in me, he was prepared to step forward and help me and put me in touch with Jeff Griffin. That was the producer that that he introduced me to. And even now, it feels like one of the biggest moments of my entire life, you know.

Presenter17:24

And were you at all gripped by nerves in front of the microphone?

Bob Harris17:27

Well, no, actually, funnily enough, it felt like the most natural place for me to be. I mean, I'd been making up my imaginary r virtual radio program since I'd been about twelve or thirteen years old. And it's like the footballers say, well, that ninety minutes I'm out on the pitch, the rest of the world falls away. You're just concentrated on that moment. And that's exactly how I feel in the studio.

Presenter17:51

Can you describe to me the the professional technique, the way that the craft works of being a good DJ? What does it take? What are the skills? What are the things that you employ to make sure you're effective on air?

Bob Harris18:04

Well, I build my own programs. I still do pick every piece of music you hear me play. And so the first aspect of it is programme building. And the imprint in my mind, if you

Bob Harris18:15

Can picture it as a wave shape. Each piece of music somehow blending and lending itself to the next piece of music. And you've got moments of high tempo or intensity, and then you bring that back down again. You can hardly even tell where one track ends and the next begins. To me, then, that's most of the work done, if you know what I mean. All then I do on air is just provide a turning of a page as I move you from one track to the next. And then it's about the amount of information that I'm giving you. So you're able to follow through on it. And if you like it, then you can get it yourself.

Presenter18:49

Um there would have been a time when you were at Radio One when you would have been working there at the same time as uh Jimmy Saville, and of course uh we are entirely aware of of the appalling details of the crimes that he perpetrated over the years. At the time, did people talk about him? Were people aware that there was something that was going on that shouldn't have been going on?

Bob Harris19:07

I don't think so. I th you know, for me personally, it was just this was somebody I didn't like. I mean, I never spent any time in his company. Um

Bob Harris19:17

I mean, the last time that that I saw him at all was about probably six or seven years ago. There was a Radio Academy event.

Bob Harris19:26

He was in his shiny jumpsuit with medallions and everything, and I was sitting with my wife Trudy, and he came up and sort of grabbed her arm, kissed up her arm. And you know, it's just there, you just didn't get a good atmosphere off him at all. So he was never somebody that I spent any time around.

Presenter19:29

Yeah.

Presenter19:47

Let's have some music now, Bob Harris. Tell me what we're going to hear next.

Presenter19:52

Well

Bob Harris19:52

John having introduced me to Jeff Griffin and Jeff giving me this four-week stint sitting in for John, this was the very first track I played on that very first paragraph.

Speaker 420:03

I wanna live with a Sereman girl

Speaker 420:08

I can be happy the rest of my life with a singing girl.

Speaker 420:17

A dreamer of pictures, I run in the night.

Speaker 420:21

You see us together, chasing the moonlight, my sister.

Presenter20:33

That was Neil Young and Cinnamon Girl. So, Bob Harris, tell me about the arrival of punk then, because that did not sit at all easily with you. It's true, is it, that you got in a proper dust-up with the sex pistols?

Bob Harris20:43

Yeah, and there's always been a kind of misinterpretation of this because at the time, Whistle Test was an album programme, and you had to have an LP out to appear on the show. Punk and New Wave exploded on singles that we weren't playing on the program. Plus, I mean, if you're a young kid coming through and you're seeing this guy on Whistle Test, who's now 30 years old, long-haired, hippie, white, middle-class, stadium rock-loving, I represented to them everything that they were trying to break away from and despised. And so, this all then eventually reached a moment where a friend of mine, George Nicholson, a recording engineer, and I called into a place called the Speakeasy in central London. And it was the day that the Sex Pistols had signed their contract, and they'd been down at the AM offices during the day fueling up is probably the best way for you. When we arrived at the Speakeasy about 10 o'clock, I don't know who it was. It was a guy taller than me in a green boiler suit. That's what I remember of it. But somebody came over to me and said, when are the Sex Pistols going to be on Whistle Test? And I said, Well, give us a call in the office. It didn't matter what I said. He took this haymaker swing at me, and all hell broke loose. George and I got separated, and I got pulled around the other side of the bar. And I had my back against a wall with half a dozen, eight, nine people coming towards me with broken bottles and broken glasses and stuff. And I thought, oh, this is it. I really thought that I was going to be badly damaged in the experience of this.

Presenter22:14

So

Speaker 422:14

Yeah.

Presenter22:14

Uh

Speaker 422:14

Right.

Presenter22:14

Yeah.

Bob Harris22:21

Symbolically, a group of people got in between them and me, and it turned out to be the Prokulharan road crew. I mean, it's just the perfect snapshot. I know. So they surrounded me and got me out of the building. And people ever since have said, oh, Bob Harris hated punk. Well, no, I didn't. But it's hard to remain objective when what's happening to you is everywhere you go now there's an element of violence being directed towards you. It's not an easy thing to cope with.

Presenter22:31

Not shut.

Presenter22:52

Yeah. Um, no sex pistols on your list, we should note. Let's hear another piece of music then, Bob Harris. Tell me about this. It's your uh sixth track of the morning.

Bob Harris23:00

Well, going back to what we were saying earlier about how fortunate I've been in my career, and one of the absolute sort of turning point moments was when Radio 2 asked me if I'd like to take over the country program. And I'd never been to Nashville before. I'd always loved Nashville music. In fact, the theme tune from the old Grey Whistle Test was recorded by a group called Area Code 615, which is the Nashville Area Code. And I don't know how I can explain this, but from just about the moment I touched down, I thought, this is my home. I just loved it there so much. And this track was released in 1950, soon after WSM, the greatest country music station in the world, had coined the phrase music city USA to explain what Nashville actually is. So this song really kind of just explains all that.

Speaker 323:58

You can hear them on your radio wherever you are

Speaker 324:05

Find the jump

Speaker 324:06

Yeah.

Speaker 324:09

So if you're living in some distant town, brother, pack your rags and come right on down. They used to call it Nashville, but I'm here to say that now we call it Music City, USA.

Presenter24:26

That was Dick Stratton in Music City USA. You said that was released in nineteen fifty, Bob. Can we talk for a moment about what I am euphemistically calling your rock and roll life? Because you've got eight children, you've been married three times, you now have many grandchildren, seven granddaughters, all granddaughters.

Bob Harris24:30

Yaps, yeah.

Bob Harris24:40

Yeah.

Presenter24:41

Do you feel like you've lived a rock'n'roll life?

Bob Harris24:44

No, not really. I don't. I would say that at certain times my work has taken me away.

Bob Harris24:51

Particularly to America. My first wife, Sue, and I are still really, really good friends.

Presenter24:53

No.

Bob Harris24:57

We've stayed really close throughout. And it did get a bit crazy towards the end of the 1970s. Suddenly, my radio career is taking off. I was going out to gigs a lot, staying out late. Meanwhile, Sue, you know, we've just had our first two girls, Mary and Emily. So there was Sue at home with the girls, and me out and about. As things grew, I find myself more and more and more in the center of where I really want to be, particularly going to America. But it and my family life didn't.

Bob Harris25:31

Sit together easily at all.

Presenter25:34

What was the moment? Was there a moment? Maybe it was gradual. When you thought, that's not good. That's not quite ill.

Bob Harris25:39

I got ill, seriously ill, in the winter of 78 into 79. It was a form of Legionnaire's disease, and it was unbelievably vigorous. I've never been in so much pain. I then went into a five-day coma out of which then, when I emerged, I thought, you know what? Maybe I should straighten up my lifestyle. I've just got to get well, clear my head, and sort of go again.

Presenter25:41

BLM

Presenter25:45

Yeah.

Presenter26:04

And for a number of years you've been dealing with prostate cancer. As as I met you today, you couldn't have seemed more bouncy and cheerful and positive. What's your attitude to dealing with it on on a sort of weekly or daily basis?

Bob Harris26:18

Well, it was devastating to get the news originally. And not only that, but the cancer was particularly aggressive. I mean, I was fortunate, very, very fortunate to catch it in time. And then it was a question of arresting the growth and then treatment. I had two

Bob Harris26:34

Months of radiotherapy.

Bob Harris26:37

And then it's since then it's just been management. Every now and again, you know, all the readings will go shooting up. And that happened to me a couple of years ago where it looked as if it really got serious again. And I really needed to talk to somebody about this. And I phoned Robert Plant. He offers such unbelievably good advice. And he really saw me through that moment. And then once I got the all clear again, he said, Fine, okay. Well, I'm not going to be phoning you every single day now. So, you know, each person has their own way, don't they? And I just, I don't know, I just get on with it basically.

Presenter27:06

In your day mail.

Presenter27:15

Let's have some music now, Bob Harris. We're on your penultimate disc. Tell me about this.

Bob Harris27:20

Well, I'm spending so much time in Nashville now and discovering new artists all the time and this time last year a young artist came into the studio. I just absolutely fell in love with her music and it turned out that the session she did for my programme was the first radio session she ever did and she represents the new generation of country artists, Casey Musgraves.

Speaker 427:44

Merry, merry, quack and shwery, We get bored, so we get merry. Just like dust, we settle in this town.

Speaker 427:54

On this broken merry-go Round, round, round we go, Where it stops, nobody knows.

Speaker 428:05

It ain't slowing down.

Speaker 428:07

It's Mary Go Round.

Presenter28:12

That was Casey Musgraves and Merry Go Round. In twenty eleven, Bob Harris, you were awarded an OBE for services to music broadcasting. And you were honoured recently with an Americana Music Association Trailblazer Award, which is really a very big deal indeed. The fact that Trudy, your wife, is very much involved in your career you mentioned there that you've been travelling, you travel a lot to and from America to make documentaries and so on. Does she ever say to you, Bob, I think probably this year, just slow it down a bit.

Bob Harris28:40

Well, Trudeau's a driving force, and I do work very hard. I don't think you can do it without the support of your family, you know, and she is absolutely one hundred percent by my side.

Presenter28:47

You know.

Bob Harris28:52

I mean, she's 20 years younger than I am.

Presenter28:54

She is actually, you know, making sure that

Bob Harris28:55

She is actually, you know, making sure that the engine doesn't run out of petrol.

Presenter28:58

Yeah.

Bob Harris28:59

Yeah.

Presenter29:01

To be cast away to a desert island, then. Of course you'll have your eight disks, but you won't have much else. How will you cope on this island, do you think? Are you a doer?

Bob Harris29:09

Yes, and being brought up as an only child will give me some idea of how to cope with the solitude.

Bob Harris29:18

And I have developed over recent years, and this is very on rock and roll, a love of gardening.

Bob Harris29:26

There's tubs of flowers all round the edge of the house, up on our balcony. There's color everywhere around my studio. And over the last three or four years I've got phenomenal pleasure out of just doing this.

Presenter29:37

Not very rock and roll, but very satisfying. Let's have your final track then. Tell me about Disc8.

Bob Harris29:42

Simply, this is my favorite record of all time. Is it? This is.

Presenter29:44

Is it? You can narrow it down to one. Absolutely.

Bob Harris29:46

Absolutely. Yes. And from the moment I first heard it. This is where a John Lennon connection comes in, because I I was hovering on playing John Lennon's version of this. But this is the original version. This is nineteen sixty one, and this is Benny King.

Speaker 430:00

Win the night.

Speaker 430:03

Has come

Speaker 430:06

And the land is dark.

Speaker 430:09

And the moon

Speaker 430:11

It's the only

Speaker 430:13

Light will see.

Speaker 430:18

No ah

Speaker 430:20

Be afraid.

Speaker 430:21

Oh I won't

Speaker 430:24

Be afraid.

Speaker 430:26

Just as long.

Speaker 430:29

As you stand

Speaker 430:31

Stand by me.

Speaker 430:33

So die

Presenter30:34

Benny King and Stand By Me. So, Bob, it's time for the books. The Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare are yours. What else are you going to take along?

Bob Harris30:43

I've been giving this a huge amount of thought. I need a little advice on this, Kirsty, but there's a website called Cricket Ratings. You can call up any player in history and get their stat, the way that bowlers and batsmen have been rated through the years.

Bob Harris31:03

I would like to be able to copy off the information from this site and take that information in the form of a book.

Presenter31:11

Now people can't see how pleadingly you're looking at me right here, and I'm afraid I'm putty in your hands. I'm go I will get I'm going to get into trouble for this. I will allow you that. It will be a book and it will be yours. And and a luxury too.

Bob Harris31:13

Yeah, and I'm afraid

Bob Harris31:21

Perfect.

Bob Harris31:23

Well, bearing in mind my now love of gardening, I was thinking I can begin to kind of grow stuff on the island and become more and more sort of self sufficient in that way. So I'd like I'd like to take a greenhouse.

Presenter31:36

Yes, you may indeed have a greenhouse. And I think I know the answer to the next question. Which one track would you say? If you sort of gave it away there as you were introducing the track. It would have to be Stand By Me. Right, it's yours. Bob Harris, thank you very much for letting us hear your Desert Island discs

Bob Harris31:43

It would have to be stamped.

Bob Harris31:45

It's yours.

Presenter31:49

Yeah.

Bob Harris31:49

Thank you very much.

Presenter32:31

You've been listening to a download from the BBC. You'll find more information on the Radio 4 website: bbc.co.uk slash Radio4.