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:

“Paradise City” by Guns N’ Roses (from Can’t Hardly Wait, 1998)

Wasn’t 1998 too early to be ironically listening to Guns N’ Roses? At any rate, I’m scratching my head a bit as I think that this might be the first time G N’ R has shuffled up on a Friday Five. To be fair, their space in my library is pretty limited, (as they really only have two records—three if you count Use Your Illusions twice—and an EP) but well-loved all the same. I wore out at least three copies of Appetite for Destruction in the late ’80s, and my CD copy is holding on for dear life.

“Don’t Mean Nothing” by Richard Marx (from Greatest Hits, 1997)

Marx may be unilaterally relegated to the “wuss rock” category, but some of his up tempo numbers were just as strong as the ballads. “Don’t Mean Nothing” is definitely a decent pop-rock tune. Side note: if you haven’t followed him on Twitter, do so. He’s definitely entertaining (at times.)

“Desire” by The Gaslight Anthem (from Handwritten, 2012)

As much as I loved The ’59 Sound, I found the follow-up, American Slang, a bland—admittedly, by comparison—effort. Handwritten went a long way to bring back the heart of the band, without the overt Springsteen worship. Unfortunately, by the time it came out I had already moved on. I’ll have to go back and dig into this record again.

“December 4th” by Danger Mouse (from The Grey Album, 2004)

The mash-up record that made Danger Mouse a star (yep!) producer/artist. Which reminds me, he just dropped a new Broken Bells record that I have to check out. Word is there is another Gnarls Barkley record in the making, as well. Dude’s busy.

“Undressed” by White Town (from Women in Technology, 1997)

It’s a song from that guy who sang that song about being your woman. I’m pretty sure that almost no one listened past “Your Woman,” and judging by the fact that White Town was just another ’90s one hit wonder, I’d say I’ve got good empirical data to back that up. It’s too bad, actually, as this record had a few decent tunes on it. You know, other than that one where that guy sings about being your woman.

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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