5 Songs to Get You Through the Week #89

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. City Lights, by The White Stripes

A week and a half ago Jack White opened up the vault and let one of probably countless unreleased White Stripes songs out into the world, putting the acoustic tune City Lights on his most recent album Acoustic Recordings 1998-2016 - an album of many of White's acoustic recordings in some of his bigger groups as well as some remixed and unreleased stuff. This is a pretty little gem to put on if you're in need of a good relaxing chill out song. You can really feel the emotion in White's voice here.

2.  The Sails of Charon, by The Scorpions

The Scorpions actually used to be a reputable metal band back when they had Uli Jon Roth on lead axe in the 70's. This tune in particular is where Roth really gets to flaunt some of his tremendous skill that he would later further expose when he left the band. The shredding puts to shame so many of the other big name guitarists of the 70's and even many of today's. It takes you on a big epic mystical journey and actually also somehow manages to fuse funk and metal during certain moments in a way that is still dark and heavy. It's quite creative if you ask me.

3. Cold Hard Bitch, by Jet

If you've ever had a woman that has done you wrong and you just need to scream, shout, and get it all out of your system then look no further for the perfect song to do it to. Jet was always great at putting out those loud raw rockers that spoke straight to the soul about the experiences that so many of us can in some way or another relate to. That said, even if you're not down and out this is still a great to to crank to 11 and have a kick-ass good time to.

4. Don't Ask Me No Questions, by Lyrnd Skynrd

This has always been one of my favorite tunes from the Florida based band. It's pure raw rock n' roll (though with a horn section) but has plenty of Southern soul to it without it being overly twangy or heehaw. The subject matter is pretty straightforward. Being on the road in a rocking band can be wild and tiring and can involve a lot of unmentionable stuff, so if you don't want to hear any lies about someone you care about being good while on the road then you should probably not ask them any questions.

5. Don't Eat the Yellow Snow, by Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa was always an odd one. He somehow managed to make humour and music come together in such a way that people could still get amusement out of it while still taking the songs themselves somewhat seriously. Even something as ridiculous as the concept behind this song was able to fly when you had all kinds of technical aspects thrown into the music to make it a bit more interesting than your typical pop rock radio friendly song. If that doesn't do it for you though, at least enjoy the chorus.