ED2013 Columns ED2013 Comedy

Benny Davis: A Playlist

By | Published on Thursday 15 August 2013

bennydavis

So, let’s team up once again with our sister media CMU for an Edinburgh Festival-themed addition to its regular guest playlist slot. And following on from last week’s Edinburgh International Festival playlist, today we move back to the Fringe to meet one third of The Axis Of Awesome, Benny Davis.

Going solo for this year’s Festival with his show ‘The Human Jukebox’, Davis shows off his ability to play any song he’s heard just once. For part of the show he plays mash ups similar to (and indeed including) The Axis Of Awesome’s ‘Four Chords’, then for his finale he crams as many audience suggestions as possible into one improvised mix – a skill apparently honed as a busker in Sydney.

‘The Human Jukebox’ is on at 10.45pm at Gilded Balloon Teviot in Edinburgh until 25 Aug. We caught him on a break from playing music and asked him instead to pick some. Handing the list over, he said: “Everyone should listen to all kinds of music all the time. Here’s ten songs to get you through the longest month of the year”.

And he meant it, having themed the playlist to line up with the cycle of being a performer at the Edinburgh Fringe. At this point, we make it about half past Bon Jovi.

BENNY DAVIS’ ULTIMATE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL JUKEBOX
Subscribe to this playlist on Spotify or listen via multiple sources on Tomahawk, and then read on to find out more about Benny’s choices.

01 Daft Punk feat Pharrel Williams – Get Lucky
Whoo festival time! Let’s face it, whether you like this song or not, you won’t be able to escape it for a while, so you might as well learn to enjoy it. Let’s all stay up all night til the sun, up all night for good fun, up all night to get some, and up all night to get lucky! Gonna be the best month ever! Whoo!

02 Knife Party – Centipede
Let’s hit this festival hard! If you can think of a more bangin way to start partying at the biggest fringe festival in the world it’s probably illegal.

03 Smash Mouth – All Star
Think positive! Be all that you can be this festival! Hey now…you’re an all star. Get your game on! Go, play. Remember, the water’s getting warm so you might as well swim, your brain gets smart but your head gets dumb, judging by the hole in the satellite picture, so what’s wrong with taking the backstreets? Dylan, eat your heart out. Cowabunga everybody!

04 Bare Naked Ladies – One Week
It’s been one week. Treat yourself with some 90′s rock. Throw a house party, watch ‘Waterworld’ and reminisce about Bill Clinton. Ah Slick Willie, how me miss your kind of scandal.

05 The Bee Gees – Stayin Alive
I can do this. So the crowd’s aren’t great, I’m an artist and I love what I do. That’s why I do it. Because I want to bring my art into the world, it’s my calling and…I need another drink.

06 Bon Jovi – Livin On a Prayer
WHOOOOOAAAAA WE’RE HALFWAY THEEE-EEERE we made it over the hump! Let’s go karaoke and scream our lungs out! Nothing can stop us now!

07 The Beatles – Help!
I spoke too soon. The month is a blur; one day melts into another in this never-ending oblivion. Literally, my calendar looks like it’s melting. Man I gotta stop hanging out with the tech crew, those guys take having fun to a whole new level.

08 Michael Jackson – Keep The Faith
Oh God, what was I THINKING?! This city is like a vacuum for my soul. Is this what I wanted? I’m miles away from my girlfriend, my family, my friends, my home… what am I doing with my life? Keep the Faith, Michael? Easy for you to say, you’re dead.

09 Tool – Ticks & Leeches
Look at them all, filthy parasites crawling all over this city like a PLAGUE. Sweeping in, soaking up all the resources and then moving on like some siphoning tornado. Oh why won’t you let me be?! Please come see my show. Please?

10 Earth, Wind And Fire – September
We made it! Okay forget what I said about the tornado thing, let’s all celebrate good times with a proper old school funk jam. Yeah who’s with me? …hello?



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