Musical Games with Neil and Clive

Here's something fun from a Clive Barker interview by Neil Gaiman (from the anthology Shadows in Eden: a most informative, entertaining, and gleefully twisted volume -- thanks to Anna E. for helping me make my mind up about buying it, lo those many years ago):

BARKER: I have a game I play with dear friends. It's a great game, you need to be slightly drunk to play it. All you say is, "Do you trust me enough to tell me the truth?" and they say, "Yes" and you say, "I want you to play for me (you're in this other person's house) the song, or the three songs, that you only play when no one else is in the house; the three songs you are so ashamed of liking or being moved by that you have to be in a state of inebriation to offer up the truth to the rest of us playing here." It's a very telling game. It's a great game and great way to cut to the chase as far as emotional responses are concerned. You find people will suddenly admit to liking John Denver or something wholly outlandish...

[A lengthy digression by interviewer and interviewee concerning such musicals as It's A Bird, It's A Plane, It's Superman!, Paint Your Wagon, Camelot, South Pacific, and Guys and Dolls has been deleted here in the interests of street credibility.]

Reading about this game, I realized that even someone with a well-documented love of the Pet Shop Boys' oeuvre (i.e., me) still has music-listening secrets to hide. ;p

Half past two and it's raining and lovely outside. Have to get up in a couple of hours but who cares; not as if my new job requires me to be quick-witted or even fully conscious. Listening to a Nina Simone remix and enjoying the moment.