Granite Island Discs: Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald

What five songs would you take to a desert island?

1. God – ‘My Pal’

2. Joy Division – ‘Transmission’

3. The Cure – ‘Close To Me’

4. Eddy Current Suppression Ring – ‘Which Way To Go’

5. The War On Drugs – ‘Under The Pressure’

If you could only pick one, what would it be?

It has to be ‘My Pal’ by God. Such an iconic Australian song and I think the lyric ‘you’re my only friend / you don’t even like me’ hits you in the guts. It’s also been covered by so many good bands and the Bad//Dreems version is brilliant.

What’s your favourite album?

10 to 1 by Midnight Oil. ‘Read About It’, ‘Short Memory’, ‘US Forces’, ‘Only The Strong’, ‘Power and the Passion’. You can’t get a more powerful album than that, and it’s even better live.

What’s your favourite song by an SA artist/band?

‘Jack’ by Bad//Dreems. Really love what Bad//Dreems stand for and how well they express their views in their songs. Our education of Indigenous history in this country is seriously lacking, and lyrics like ‘at my school, they taught the Russian revolution, the stump jump plough and the Roman constitution / No Bennelong, Namatjira, no William Barak, Beds Are Burning, always will be, gotta give it back’ really struck a chord. I thought this would be their legacy song, but knowing the boys, I think their best is yet to come.

Favourite music-related memory?

Big Day Out at Wayville was some of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had – like seeing Cosmic Psychos in 1995 on a tiny side stage before going to Silverchair at age 16. But the highlight my mates and I still talk about to this day was Rage Against the Machine in 1996. Watching 20,000 people jump up and down in unison absolutely blew my mind. We walked out of there just shaking our heads.