Anthony Bourdain Visits KCRW’s Music Library!

From KCRW DJ Eric J Lawrence:

As KCRW’s Music Librarian I have many duties, but none more unique that collecting the music selections chosen by visiting luminaries selected as part of our Guest DJ Project.

I always get a sneak peak into what their song picks are, so I can make sure we have everything – our guests sometimes pick some pretty out-there stuff! It’s been a busy week for guest DJs this week, with visits from actress Malin Akerman (who knew she had such a potty mouth!) and presidential photographer Kwaku Alston (it took a moment to decide which version of John Lennon’s “Love” he wanted to use).

Today, celebrated foodie Anthony Bourdain stopped by, which was exciting enough on its own. But when I saw the list of the songs he has selected, I was very pleased to see he chose a Richard Hell & the Voidoids track. Their guitarist, the late Robert Quine, has always been my favorite player, so it was cool to know my opinion was shared by a famous chef/TV personality.

In fact, after recording the full Guest DJ session with our own Liza Richardson, Anthony poked his head in our voluminous music library and we had a nice chat about Robert Quine and how he wanted the theme song to his TV show to have the same sort of cutting guitar sound in which Quine specialized. The conversation then veered from memories of classical records blasting from his father’s hi-fi to the virtues of Roy Budd’s soundtrack to the 70s film “Get Carter.” It’s pretty cool to shoot the breeze with such interesting, celebrated people and to watch them let their inner music nerds out.

You too can share an intimate moment with Anthony, as well as with Malin and Kwaku, appearing in the near future as part of KCRW’s Guest DJ Project (not to mention all of the fascinating sessions already archived on our website). And tell us who you’d like to hear share their favorite tunes!

EJL