5 Songs to Get You Through the Week #155

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. Aces High, by Iron Maiden

If you're going to have a Monday, at least start it off with a bang. Iron Maiden is a pretty good way to do just that. I've always liked the dual harmonized guitar melodies as well as the harmonized vocals in the chorus on this one. Plus, it really does give you the feels of being a fighter pilot and having to scramble to the planes because of an unexpected air raid happening. Plus, aside from that this song just rocks.

2. Diamond Dogs, by David Bowie

Bowie himself played the all the guitar parts on this track as well as the entire Diamond Dogs album. You can tell he was kind of nervous about doing it, but honestly it added this sense of dirty, raw, passionate energy that just coats the whole thing. Even with that however, it still manages to maintain that gleam and shimmer that all David Bowie songs seem to have in some way or another. Too bad he quit glam rock after this album.

3. Dee, by Ozzy Osbourne

The Blizzard of Ozz was such an incredible piece of art in so many ways. One of the main reasons for it being so was a young unknown at the time guitarist by the name of Randy Rhoads. His phenomenal guitar work and writing are what gave Ozzy's solo career the kick from the ground it desperately needed. This track is one of just Rhoads playing entirely by himself on acoustic for about a minute in dedication to his mother Dee Rhoads.

4. Emerald, by Thin Lizzy

Considering Thin Lizzy was from the emerald isle of Ireland, I am not surprised in the slightest that they would have a song in their repertoire called "Emerald". This is one of their heavier rocking and less radio friendly pop sounding tunes. I first heard it through one of their live albums and thought it cool enough to check out what it sounded like in a studio environment. I like the live version better, but check this out so then the live version can blow you away.

5. Bad Rain, by Slash

2012's Apocalyptic Love in my opinion was one of the best things Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver lead guitarist Slash has ever done. It's down low and gritty in all the best ways and has this drive to it that will kick your ass while at the same time knowing when to pull back and give some suspense in order to make the choruses that much more powerful. The video is rather cheesy, but the song is awesome as all hell.