5 Random Songs

I was in the gym the other day and threw my iPod on full random. All 12,000+ songs randomly jarbled together coming at me like a shit cannon. As someone who's worked in music for a long time I have tons of albums I've never listened to that random people have given me to listen to. At one point I put everything on my iPod. That is until it filled up. It's been a couple years since that happened and my taste has changed dramatically since I started collecting the albums on my iPod (going back to the early 90's).

So I decided to go back and review the first 5 songs that popped up when I hit random. Some might be new(ish) and some might be old. Some might be shitty pop and some might be shitty metal. Who knows? Here we go...

Track 1: "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" Nirvana, MTV Unplugged In New York

• One of my all-time favorite covers, ever. I got into Nirvana right around the same time I started listening to old blues and roots music. I was watching the Unplugged episode when it first aired and remember recognizing the song but not being sure what it was exactly. Anyway, I fucking love this song and I will always love this song. It only gets better with age. Kurt just pours his heart out on it and you have to appreciate that. 

Track 2: "My Love Is A Gentle Thing" Crosby Stills & Nash Stephen Stills

• My girlfriend had the entire CSN collection on a couple of burned discs, which I dumped on my iPod, so I'm not sure what album this is from but I don't really know this song. It's okay, I guess, but far from their best stuff. Sounds like they were strung out when they made this. The vocals, of course, are fucking beautiful - even if they're not up to par for CSN. ***Update: Apparently this is a Stephen Stills solo track included in the CSN box set. 

Track 3: "Fear" Heaven & Hell, The Devil You Know

• When I was younger I would have fucking hated this. I wouldn't care that the Sabbath dudes are behind it, I just hated operatic metal vocals. That said, I fucking love Dio now that I'm older. I don't know why but one day it just all made sense. This track has a pretty cool little riff and Dio fucking murders it on vocals, as he ALWAYS does. Fuck yeah, Dio! 

Track 4: "Ohio" Crosby Stills Nash & Young 

• 12,000+ songs and out of the first five I get two fucking songs by these guys. Well, at least this is a good one - scratch that, a great one! This might be one of my all-time favorites. It's just so god damn passionate and apparently Young just whipped it up overnight after the whole Nixon-Kent State troop shitstorm. I could listen to this song forever. 

Track 5: "Boss Hoss" The Sonics, Here Are The Sonics

• The Sonics are perhaps the most underrated band in music history. Sure, there's been a resurgence of interest in the past 10 years or so but damn it man, they're fucking great! They should be a legendary rock n' roll band but instead they're best known for a track in a car commercial. Bullshit. Anyway, "Boss Hoss" is one of my favorite tracks by them. Oh, and I saw them live recently and they were 100x better than any hipster garage band and they're like 70 now. 

Okay, not the most eclectic choices here but random is as random does. Hopefully next time around I get some pop garbage to trash or some obscure punk rock to rant about how mind blowing it is. Until next time...