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Friday Five : |ˈfrÄ«dā – fÄ«v| : On the sixth day of every week, I hit the shuffle button in iTunes and share the first five tracks and thought for each track. Sometimes there is a playlist involved, occasionally we’ll have a guest, but most of the time it’s just me. The rest is up to you, our friends and readers! Fire up the media player of your choice and share the first five random track of your shuffle in the comments.

The Five:

“The Ballad of Dorothy Parker” by Prince & The Revolution (from Dream Factory, 1986)

The Prince & The Revolution denomination is a bit misleading as this is pretty much a solo effort—save for Susannah Melvoin’s background vocals. Digging into the Prince bible (that’d be The Vault: The Definitive Guide to the Musical World of Prince) reveals the reason for “Dorothy Parker’s” funky sound: the tune was the first recording done at Prince’s Galpin Boulevard studio, and there were some technical issues. Rather than stop Prince from the jam that would be “Dorothy Parker,” engineer Susan Rogers let him riff and let him know about the problem after the fact.

“Disco Boy” by Frank Zappa (from Hammersmith Odeon (disc 3), 2010)

The glut of posthumous releases that have come out in recent years (courtesy of the Zappa Family Trust) has been largely uneven, and mostly for the benefit of the die-hard fans. The Hammersmith Odeon show, however, should be heard by everyone. Featuring Zappa, Terry Bozzio, Patrick O’Hearn, Adrian Belew, Tommy Mars, Peter Wolf, and Ed Mann, this is a real tour de force performance (obviously, as Zappa himself sourced performances from this show to be included on Sheik Yerbouti.)

“New Mistake” by Jellyfish (from Fan Club (disc 3), 2002)

This demo of “New Mistake” features better production than some modern records. These guys were just that talented. This is my favorite Split Milk track on every other day.

“Come Back to Me” by Janet Jackson (from Rhythm Nation 1814, 1989)

My brother from another mother, Mike Heyliger, spent the Independence Day weekend with my family, and I, and—as you could imagine—we spent many hours going down music-related YouTube rabbit holes. One such hole was a 20-minute video featuring every one of Janet’s Billboard chart appearances, reminding me (not that I needed it) just how much I love Janet’s oeuvre. That said, you all have peeped “No Sleeep,” right? Janet + Jimmy Jam, and Terry Lewis = Perfection.

“El Scorcho (live at Reading Festival 1996)” by Weezer (from Pinkerton (Deluxe Edition) (disc 2), 2010)

“I’m a lot like you so please, hello, I’m here, I’m waiting, I think I’d be good for you and you’d be good for me.”

What’s on your shuffle today?

About the Author

Michael Parr

Husband, Father, Writer, Musical Voyeur, Pop Culture Glutton, Gourmet in Training. I'm the tall guy behind all these short guys. You can find me on the Twitter.

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