5 Songs to Get You Through the Week #174

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. Helter Skelter, by Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson

This song has been covered to death by every rock and metal band since the 60's, but for good reason. It is a loud, raunchy, balls to the wall howler of a tune. Recently Shock rockers Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson teamed up to do their own take on the Beatles classic and it actually isn't too shabby. It's slowed down some, but the lack of speed is compensated for with towering walls of sound and creepy, yet delightful vocal performances.

2. Perry Mason, by Ozzy Osbourne

This is a song from Ozzy's solo catalog that I feel does not get anywhere near the amount of attention it deserves by the general public. Honestly, it's one of the best songs he has ever done with Zakk Wylde pinch harmonic bending away at the guitar. Unfortunately, the album it came from Ozzmosis was a confusing album because of how many stylistic directions Ozzy's label was pulling him in at the same time, so this kind of fell through the cracks.

3. Pull This Blanket Off, by The Raconteurs

This is not really much in the way of a rock n' roll song at all, but I find the melody and harmonies in it so goddamn ear pleasing that I find myself listening to it over and over and over again when I come across it in my playlist. It's a simple piano driven song with electric guitar accents here and there and no drumming, but it works so darn well. I guarantee if you give this a listen and a fair chance it will get stuck in your head pretty quickly too.

4. Wheels of Confusion/The Straightener, by Black Sabbath

Vol. 4 is where Black Sabbath had moved on from just smoking weed and drinking to the harder drugs. At the time, it was cocaine. As a result, the song writing became that much more outside the box and unorthodox. It especially shows in songs like this. The name of the song is fairly apt, as it's kind of all over the place, yet it still manages to pull together and feel like one cohesive song by the end. You won't hear it on the radio, but it's definitely worth checking out.

5. Shoot to Thrill, by AC/DC

I am honestly surprised I have not up to this point put this hard rocking classic on any of my 5 Songs posts. This song in particular speaks for itself. I don't even need to describe it, honestly because most if not all of you already know and loved it to death and have done so for decades. It is everything an AC/DC or any hard rock song for that matter should be. It's got volume, balls, flash, and sleaze. Can't ask for a whole lot more, now can you?