From Mojo Magazine's column "All Back to My Place: In which the stars divulge what sonic delights are guaranteed to get them going..."
JIM JARMUSCH is featured in the June 2000 issue (p. 28) alongside Ute Lemper and Simon LeBon of Duran Duran.
WHAT MUSIC ARE YOU CURRENTLY GROOVING TO?
Ask me three hours from now and the answers are going to be different, but most recently Henry Purcell's 'Fantasies for Viola' and 'Nigga Please' by Ol' Dirty Bastard. A good wide spectrum.
WHAT, IF PUSH COMES TO SHOW, IS YOUR ALL-TIME FAVOURITE ALBUM?
I'll have to give you two. 'Fun House' by Iggy and the Stooges because I can't get away from fiending for that music. The other is 'What's Going On' by Marvin Gaye, one of the most beautifully perfect pop records ever made.
WHAT WAS THE FIRST RECORD YOU EVER BOUGHT? AND WHERE DID YOU BUY IT?
'Strange Days', the Doors' second album, and 'Are You Experienced?' by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. I bought them both at the same place, a little record store in a suburb of Akron, Ohio, when they came out.
WHICH MUSICIAN HAVE YOU EVER WANTED TO BE?
Robert Johnson or Thelonious Monk. I'd like to feel like what it was to be inside their soul and make that incredible music. Robert Johnson was one of the greatest guitar players and vocalists and songwriters who ever lived. Monk is, for me, the greatest American composer. His music is beautiful, funny, sad. You can't imitate Monk. Categorising Monk is like looking at the ocean from a helicopter and trying to number the waves.
WHAT DO YOU SING IN THE SHOWER?
None of your business. I love to sing "You Don't Own Me' by Lesley Gore. But, I change the lyrics to make it not a chick song. "Stay" by Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs. "Spanish Bombs" by the Clash, because that song is so full of life and so immediate, lyrics about "flying in on a DC10 tonight". I sing that song in the shower. It makes me...happy. And sometimes "The Passenger" by Iggy Pop, because the low voice in the shower resonates -- sounds real cool.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SATURDAY NIGHT RECORD?
"My Way" by Sid Vicious, because it just, like, jacks me up. And anything by James Brown.
AND YOUR SUNDAY MORNING RECORD?
Anything by Miles Davis' Quintet from the mid to late '60s with Tony Williams, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Ron Carter. I love that stuff. Also any dub stuff by King Tubby and Lee Perry -- and I also like the Staples Singers.