5 Songs to Get You Through the Week #167

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. The Extremist, by Joe Satriani

It always boggles my mind when people refer to Joe Satriani as just another robotic mindless, soulless technical shred robot. Anyone who has ever listened to his stuff knows that this could not be further from the truth. This tune in particular shows that. Most of it is just big bluesy riffs interspersed with some well thought out ear pleasing melody that still gets across some genuine human emotion. Not many people can accomplish that.

2. Diamonds and Rust, by Judas Priest (live 1979)

When you think of Judas Priest and Joan Baez, it's usually not in the same sentence. However, back in the late 70's Priest did a pretty smashing cover of this folk classic and turned it up to 11. Honestly, every time I put it on I get serious goosebumps and my arm hairs stand up stiff. This live version from the Unleashed in the East album is far better than the recorded version, though. This record is what all of their old 70's material SHOULD have sounded like had it been produced properly.

3. Minstrel in the Gallery, by Jethro Tull

Speaking of folk music, a bit of Jethro Tull can often be just what the doctor ordered. I've always loved Tull for the way they manage to fuse traditional European folk with late 60's/early 70's hard rock in a way that while genre bending still makes complete sense. It's not like a lot of neo-folk metal bands that just put classical folk to electric guitar and whatnot. This tune in particular kind of gives you the best of both worlds.

4. The Ballad of John Henry, by Joe Bonamassa

One more folk-like tune and then I swear I will give it a rest for the time being. This if you have not already guessed it is a more American folk tune. This is a song that Joe put his own spin on that was made famous by Mississippi John Hurt in the late 50's/early 60's despite having recorded it in the late 20's. This version is very much a more hard rocking and serious version than the upbeat, spritely, acoustic delta blues style Hurt originally played it in.

5. Altitudes, by Jason Becker

It is such a freakin' shame that Jason Becker got ALS. At such a young age, too. He only put out a handful of material while he still had control of his faculties, but what a jaw dropping catalog it is. He truly was the king of neo-classical shred. Honestly, Jason Becker was who Yngwie Malmsteen wishes he could be. Becker's technique was clean, precise, well thought out, and extremely well composed. It wasn't just mindless shred. It felt like actual classical music brought to the electric guitar.