Six Of The Best – Ian Rankin

Craig McAllister’s post on the Scottish music blog Plain Or Pan is number 15 in the series “Six Of The Best”, in which musicians, authors and other figures pick six favourite tracks – “a mini, groovier version of Desert Island Discs”. The blogger first introduces Ian Rankin as the creator of the Rebus novels and a well-known music fan whose book titles often quote songs and albums (Let It Bleed, The Hanging Garden, Exit Music, Dead Souls), and tells a longer anecdote about how he himself came to Rebus through his father-in-law.

Rankin explains that when Desert Island Discs asked him for his top eight songs he began with a shortlist of forty; here he chooses six that may not be all-time favourites but mean something to him and should be listened to more often. They are Hawkwind’s “Silver Machine”, the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”, “Theme from Shaft”, The Cure’s “The Hanging Garden”, King Creosote’s “Ankle Shackles” and Jackie Leven’s “Exit Wound”.

On Leven, Rankin says Jackie was a fan of his books, which he did not know; he himself was a fan of Leven’s music, and so was Inspector Rebus. Eventually they became friends, made an album and toured together – “and then Jackie was gone, dead too soon”. He saw him do this song many times; it is “moving, powerful, classic Jackie”. As a bonus the blogger adds a live recording of “Exit Wound” by Leven and Rankin from their 2005 tour.