Conan O’Brien reveals his five favourite songs
Writer and talk show host Conan O’Brien is one of the biggest names in contemporary American entertainment. He started out writing for The Simpsons and for Saturday Night Live before going on to host Late Night with Conan O’Brien and Conan, in which he interviews several big entertainment stars.
Back in 2008, O’Brien appeared on the KCRW Guest DJ Project to discuss some of his favourite songs and selected some of the greatest tunes from the world of rock. He began with ‘Wrong Em Boyo’ by The Clash for the reason that he used to it “psyche” himself up when he first got his late-night TV show.
“I always thought that song has a lot of meaning for me for that reason. To this day, when I think about that song,” he said. “I remember the Conan O’Brien who wasn’t sure he could ever have his own show, and it puts me in touch with that time.”
Next for O’Brien is the White Stripes’ bluesy classic ‘Ball and Biscuit’. It’s well known that O’Brien is a big fan of Jack and Meg White, and he said of the song: “This song contains a lot of what I really like about The White Stripes, which is they are not interested in polish. It’s the honesty of what they are doing, and they are really in touch with, you know, the force behind the music, rather than technically, getting the cleanest sound.”
O’Brien couldn’t help but pick out a Bob Dylan number and went for ‘Buckets of Rain’. “I love this song,” he said. “This song haunts me, but also, I love crazy lyrics. And Bob Dylan has written a lot of hard-to-decipher lyrics over the years, but I actually believe this is the song that contains the craziest lyrics of all.”
British guitar music looks to be a big love of O’Brien’s too, though, for not only does he select The Clash, but also Radiohead, one of the most significant alternative rock bands of all time. There are many Radiohead masterpieces to choose from, but for O’Brien, the best is ‘Fake Plastic Trees’.
The talk show host told a story of having the band on his show: “I remember Jim Pitt saying to me, ‘if you could have anybody, who would you want?’ And sure enough, Radiohead said that they would do it. They did ‘Creep’ the first time they were on the show, but they did a performance on my show of ‘Fake Plastic Trees’, and I just think… it’s just a song that gets to me.”
Conan O’Brien’s favourite songs:
- The Clash – ‘Wrong Em Boyo’
- White Stripes – ‘Ball and Biscuit’
- Bob Dylan – ‘Buckets of Rain’
- Radiohead – ‘Fake Plastic Trees’
- The Beatles – ‘My Bonnie’
Finally, O’Brien rounds off his list with another legendary British band, The Beatles. He said of ‘My Bonnie’, “You can hear the energy of the young, starving Beatles in the background in this song, and they’re also doing the harmonies. So, this is sort of an oddity, but I think it works. It stands on its own merit.”
