A friend pointed me at this rant about why year-end top ten music lists are bad. It’s an amusing read whether or not you agree with the author. But I view something like that as a challenge. I’m not going to do a top ten list, instead I’m going to post number songs. You can put them in whatever order you like.

Stacy Phillips and Paul Howard “If 6 Was 9” (Jimi Hendrix)
In last week’s widely-ignored Captain Beefheart tribute I included a song that emphasized the good Captain’s strong blues influence. Jimi Hendrix is another artist who took blues musical forms and warped them almost beyond recognition. Here we have a country blues version that brings Jimi back to his roots.

Pacific Ocean “16 Tons” (Tennessee Ernie Ford)
I was originally drawn to this album because actor Edward James Olmos sings on it. But I’ve gotta admit that it’s pretty good heavy organ-based rock.

Goldfinger “99 Red Balloons” (Nena)
I must have not been paying attention in 2006 when VH1 Classic let folks make contributions to Hurricane Katrina relief for the chance to program the station. Some guy gave them $35,000 for the rights to choose the videos they’d play for an hour. He decided that he wanted the German and English versions of this song played continuously for an hour. He could have made the programming easier by just requesting this bilingual version be played on a loop for an hour.

Jason And The Scorchers “19th Nervous Breakdown” (Rolling Stones)
The differences between this version and the original are a little subtle. The Scorchers feature a slightly more aggressive guitar sound and a slightly more swinging backbeat. All in all, a very nice effort.

Ford Blues Band “59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)” (Simon and Garfunkel)
Earnest folk songs always sound better when they’re played as smooth blues numbers. There’s some real nice guitar work on this one.