5 Songs to Get You Through the Week #182

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. Miracle Man, by Ozzy Osbourne

Since I went to go see Ozzy in concert last Friday for the first (and possibly only) time, I decided that this week was going to be Ozzy Week. I can trace a lot of the stuff I have listened to over the past decade back to him, so I feel he deserves it. That said, I feel this tune in particular is an overlooked and under rated gem. It's about a televangelist from the late 80's who got caught with his pants down. The riffs are killer, the soloing fast and melodic, etc. One of Zakk Wylde's best songs from his early career (as this was his first album with Ozzy).

2. Flying High Again, by Ozzy Osbourne

Over the years I have grown to appreciate the Diary of a Madman album a lot more. The Blizzard of Ozz will always be my number one Ozzy album, but this album has some AMAZING material. A lot of it is pretty musically complex upon closer listening. Lots of odd time signatures, classical chord progressions, brilliant melodies, and more. Ozzy might be a party animal clown, but his band (especially when Randy Rhoads was alive) really knew how to write some great stuff. This song in particular was one of Randy's crowning achievements, as he spent two days in the studio with no sleep, food, or water working tirelessly until he could come up with the perfect solo. The final product speaks for itself.

3. No More Tears, by Ozzy Osbourne

For a brief moment at the concert, I honestly thought Ozzy wasn't going to do this song. I was disappointed. However, he came back on for a few encores, with this being one of them. If you haven't heard it by now, you clearly have had your head in the dirt for the past three decades. It's a classic and some of the best song writing Zakk Wylde and the band Ozzy had at the time had ever done. Like I said, Ozzy may be a clown but his band has always had his back with great music.

4. You Can't Kill Rock and Roll, by Ozzy Osbourne

I absolutely LOVE this song. I didn't always care for it, but as I've gotten older I notice more of the complexities of it and can adore the way everything gets put together. The layered vocals that Ozzy does in this are tasty as fuck. The acoustic arpeggios played throughout the verses are a treat to the ear, and the choruses are larger than life. This is a song I always crank whenever I drive past a billboard for the Christian radio station that bought out the local classic rock station.

5. Electric Funeral, by Black Sabbath

And to end this list, a Black Sabbath tune. This has always been one of my favorite Black Sabbath tunes. I don't understand why it doesn't get any radio airplay, as the riff is just as catchy as any of the other songs on Paranoid. It's so evil, monstrous, and foreboding. However, it picks up at certain moments and then seamlessly transitions back into the lumbering, wah-wah evil riff. Definitely a hidden gem for sure.