OK, as promised yesterday, my top five songs from Radiohead's Hail to the Thief (2003). I'll be using the original double titles: 1. "Scatterbrain. (As Dead as Leaves)": (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2uIQ2SoxhU) A great example of the contrapuntal quality of their music. As I've mentioned before, the biggest factor in determining how a piece sounds is the way that it's written. 2. "A Punchup at a Wedding. (No no no no no no no no)": (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upJuupWjcx8&feature=related) I can never understand why this tune isn't mentioned with their best tunes more often: I think it's great. What a groove. 3. "A Wolf at the Door. (It Girl. Rag Doll.)": (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg4q_ZUiTNA) A beginning like one of Mendelssohn's Songs without Words which leads into their first attempt at rap - and they pull it off. A remarkable (and scary) song. 4. "There There. (The Boney King of Nowhere)": (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6ZkWBjgnIY). Just a great rock song. Ed's backups are haunting, as usual. 5. "Myxomatosis. (Judge, Jury & Executioner)": (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgeKRbmUBns) A rhythmic powerhouse of astonishing originality.

So there it is. As I said yesterday, this album is very under-rated. If you think you don't like it, give it another listen.

I've got to be more careful in doing my top ten lists, because when I did my Radiohead one this past Saturday and Sunday, I completely forgot to consider songs from Hail to the Thief, their under-estimated release from 2003. This happened because of my working procedure, which has been to check out artist websites, fan websites and Wikipedia to jog my memory, and work from there. Well, obviously there are still a few bugs in the system, because I forgot about the album entirely, which kind of makes the list that I posted not entirely accurate. So what I'll do is call that one my top ten Radiohead songs that are not from Hail to the Thief, and post my top five that are from Hail to the thief tomorrow. Not an ideal solution, but the best I can do at this point.

In yesterday's post about early Marvin Gaye classics, I mentioned that Martha and the Vandellas sang backups (really well, by the way) on "Stubborn Kind of Fellow". Well, they did so on quite a few of his other records as well, and on both these and their own masterpieces, they bring an astonishing intensity - what one writer (I can't remember who) called a political quality - to their vocals and music. I think you'll hear it right away in these two examples: "Nowhere to Run" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQRIOKvR2WM&NR=1) and "Dancing in the Streets" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdvITn5cAVc) (which became code for rioting in Watts and elsewhere during the sixties).