5 Songs to Get You Through the Week #84

5 Songs to Get You Through the Week is a feature I run on Young Ears, Fresh Perspective on Sundays/early hours of Monday morning where I pick out 5 tunes that I think are notable and tell you a bit about them. The point is to give you some rocking music to help you deal with your weekday blues. You can either listen to one each day, listen to them all at once, or any other combination that you feel. As long as you can get through the week without the man getting you down, that's all I care about. Without further ado, here are the 5 tracks I've picked out for this week:

1. Egypt (The Chains Are On), by Dio

I've always been a fan of the big long epic tunes with multiple distinct parts that flow well together. This is one of those songs. It has a big rolling thunder type persona, but at the same time there is a mysterious and ancient under tone to it as well. You can tell that this was one of those tunes that the band just jammed away at and had the best time putting together. Plus, Ronnie James Dio's powerful operatic voice and lyrics make it that much more of a legendary experience.

2. I Am Become Death, by Joe Satriani

Before guitar god Joe Satriani put out his debut album Not of This Earth back in 1986 he actually recorded, pressed, and distributed an EP independently where he played absolutely everything himself. The interesting part though is the only instrument on there is guitar. All sounds, even the percussive ones were made doing various things on the electric guitar. I feel that I Am Become Death is probably the cream of the crop as even with low budget and minimal instrumental featuring it has this larger than life feel to it.

3. Slow & Easy, by Whitesnake (UK version)

There are actually two different versions of this song because there is the original version put on the initial UK release of Slide It In and then the remixed one with guitar parts rerecorded by John Sykes and bass parts by Neil Murray that got released in the US. Personally I think this song works better with original guitarist Micky Moody because slide guitar has always been the man's personal specialty when it comes to guitar. Sykes is great at what he does, but this style is more suited to a blues man.

4. Perfect Strangers, by Deep Purple

This is definitely the most notable track from Deep Purple's reunion in the mid-80's. While most of what they have done since then hasn't been anywhere near the level of the stuff they did in their 70's heyday this track is definitely one of the better songs from the reunion period. When Jon Lord's opening organ riff cuts the silence and opens the song, it makes the hairs on your arms and neck stand completely at attention because you know that something fantastic is about to follow.

5. Scuttle Buttin', by Stevie Ray Vaughan

If ever you wanted to hear a blues guitar player with some real prowess and proficiency at what he does, then you'll want to put this song on your player IMMEDIATELY. The first time I ever listened to Scuttle Buttin' my eyes popped open and my jaw hit the floor. This guy though sadly not among us any more will put countless amounts of guitar players for generations to come in the two minutes this song goes on for.