The iconic British songs that inspired Danny Dyer: “This is the greatest rock and roll tune”
Danny Dyer’s face was sprinkled into a catalogue of beautifully shit British films that I watched during my childhood.
I never really paid much mind to it then, I just passed him off as another entertaining cockney caricature. But then I watched him in Human Traffic, sitting on the toilet, shouting “nice one brother!” down the phone to John Simm, and this might just be the most unintentionally funny man on the planet.
Of course, he was trying to be intentionally funny in that scene, and most of his public behaviour is performed with a knowing wink, reminding us all that his irreverence is part of a character. But there is also a large part of Dyer that wholly believes in the persona he adopts. The persona that allows him to play Moff in Human Traffic, or Frankie in The Business. He is the kid at school who is definitely not hard, but vehemently believes he is, while simultaneously enjoying making people laugh for thinking so.
He’s everything wrong and right with British culture, bundled up into one, and as such, is heralded as an obscure modern national treasure. As the years have rolled on, his movies have become cultural relics, and the rose-tinted glasses of retrospect have allowed us to understand Dyer as more than just a cinematic jester and instead an artist, one who we are curious to find out about.
Naturally, when any artist or figure reaches this stage of their career, Desert Island Discs is their first PR stop. A place where they can delve into the depths of their psyche and indulge in something we all secretly want to do: curate a nationally publicised playlist. While Dyer rattled through a list of songs that felt connected to his upbringing in one way or another, there were two that seemed to perfectly portray the double-edged sort of his persona.
Of course, how could a man whose torso seemed custom-made to adorn Sergio Tacchini pick anything other than Oasis? London and Manchester’s differences aside, there seemed to be a shared spirit between Oasis and Dyer, so it’s easy to picture them soundtracking the bravado of his everyday life.
He said: “‘Columbia’ being my favourite tune of all. I feel like this is the greatest rock and roll tune that’s ever been written. They’re a huge part of my life. That’s why I’ve chosen Columbia, because I feel that it got a whole generation of working class people into guitar music again.”
Guitar music is clearly an unlikely source of comfort for Dyer. While his filmography existed in tandem with Britain’s underground rave scene, there is something spirited about the worlds of guitar music that speaks to the hidden depths of his unlikely soulful demeanour.
Because his second choice is perhaps one of the most soulful rock songs of all time, ‘Wish You Were Here’ by Pink Floyd. In its wistful sentimentality, Dyer lost himself to the thought of his own ambition and aspiration. Whether or not the actual lyrical content of the song is about that or not is irrelevant. The fact that the sonic arrangement instilled a sense of personalised belief just goes to prove how powerful a piece of music can be.
“I know this is from the 70s, this tune, but I sort of discovered this in the 90s,” he said. “And I started to smoke sort of weed around this time when I discovered Pink Floyd. And it was me fantasising about a bigger world out there. I feel like I can achieve something. I don’t know what it is, and I’ve probably got no right to. I’ve got no scholarship for drama schools or anything like that, but I just, this is a song that takes me to that place of going, I’m gonna back myself. I feel like I can do something with my life.”
Whether you think it’s credible or not, there’s no arguing that making something of his life is certainly what he did.
