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Post-Thankgsgiving Friday Random Ten

I haven’t done this in a while, but it’s a long holiday weekend during which time I’m ensconced within my Sanctum Sanctorum studying for my once a decade recertification examination in Surgery. I need tunes! So iTunes, lay them on me:

  1. The Yardbirds, Happenings Ten Years Ago (from the album Ultimate!). Not their best work, but a solid blues psychedelic piece. Personally, my all-time favorite Yardbirds tunes are Heart Full of Soul and Still I’m Sad.
  2. The Pogues, Fiesta (from the album If I Should Fall From Grace With God). I love the Pogues. True, Shane McGowan had a serious drinking problem that nearly destroyed the band at the height of its commercial popularity, but damn they could make great music anyway.
  3. The Pretenders, The Wait (from the album The Pretenders). Best Pretenders song ever, with the possible exception of Middle of the Road.
  4. Peter Case, Entella Hotel (from the album The Man With The Blue Postmodern Fragmented Neo-traditionalist Guitar). Arguably one of the best Peter Case songs ever (if not the best) from his best album ever.
  5. The Clash, The Sound of the Sinners (from the album Sandinista!). Good song, but a very uneven Clash album. Basically, Sandinista! was a three-LP album that would have made an excellent two-LP album (or an absolutely killer one LP album). Unfortunately, The Clash got a bit pretentious and flabby, leaving vast tracts of bad music in as filler on the third LP of the set. Still, any album that has songs like Police on My Back, The Magnificent Seven, Something About England, The Call Up, and Washington Bullets is well worth owning. Just ignore the last third of the album (basically every song after Charlie Don’t Surf).
  6. Ozzy Osbourne, Crazy Train (from the album Blizzard of Oz). OK, I like early solo Ozzy. Deal with it.
  7. Led Zeppelin, Custard Pie (from the album Physical Graffiti). Save me a slice of your custard pie. ‘Nuff said.
  8. Ladytron, Venus in Furs (from the the album Velvet Goldmine: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack). Strange movie that I’m not quite sure I totally get. But it had an absolutely killer soundtrack of original and new glam rock performances.
  9. Love, The Good Humor Man He Sees Everything Like This (from the album Forever Changes). One of my favorite albums of all time.
  10. David Bowie, Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing (Reprise) (from the album Diamond Dogs). Nothing much to add, other than this is another masterpiece by Bowie.

I bow down in gratefulness to the great iTunes/iPod, for it has indeed been kind to me today. A little more recent music might have been nice, but there’s always time for that later.

By Orac

Orac is the nom de blog of a humble surgeon/scientist who has an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his copious verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few probably will. That surgeon is otherwise known as David Gorski.

That this particular surgeon has chosen his nom de blog based on a rather cranky and arrogant computer shaped like a clear box of blinking lights that he originally encountered when he became a fan of a 35 year old British SF television show whose special effects were renowned for their BBC/Doctor Who-style low budget look, but whose stories nonetheless resulted in some of the best, most innovative science fiction ever televised, should tell you nearly all that you need to know about Orac. (That, and the length of the preceding sentence.)

DISCLAIMER:: The various written meanderings here are the opinions of Orac and Orac alone, written on his own time. They should never be construed as representing the opinions of any other person or entity, especially Orac's cancer center, department of surgery, medical school, or university. Also note that Orac is nonpartisan; he is more than willing to criticize the statements of anyone, regardless of of political leanings, if that anyone advocates pseudoscience or quackery. Finally, medical commentary is not to be construed in any way as medical advice.

To contact Orac: [email protected]

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