Blog Posts by Robert of the Radish

The name "Melissa" comes from the Greek work meaning honey bee. And it was the nymph Melissa who cared for an infant Zeus by feeding him honey. One could say that a Melissa is capable of creating sweetness, or delivering a sting. In popular music, no song about a girl named Melissa is more famous than The Allman Brothers Band tune of the same name. It's so popular, and relatively easy to play, that it's one of the first songs new guitar players add to their repertoire. It's a great song, even if it is overplayed, but there are other songs inspired by girls names Melissa, and this playlist includes some of them. So if you know a girl named Melissa be sure to pass this list on to her, she'll surely find something here to like.

Songs About Girls Named Melissa

1. Melissa - The Allman Brothers Band

2. Mudboat Melissa - Tab Benoit

3. Sweet Melissa - Willie Stradlin

4. Gary And Melissa - King Missile

5.Melissa - Mercyful Fate  

6. Hey There Melissa - Marcus Ray Cook

7. Melissa's Tune - Time

Thurston Moore has some serious artistic cred among the music elite as someone who has pushed the boundaries of rock music without ever compromising. He also has a nod from mainstream outlets like Rolling Stone magazine who ranked him number 34 on their Top 100 Guitarist of All Time list. Thurston is most known for his prolific output in the alternative/experimental rock outfit Sonic Youth, but you can also find his fingerprints all over high-art value musical projects -- most I which I'm quite sure you have not heard on the radio. For this playlist I've selected 15 tracks where Thurston Moore lends his playing talents. If you're a fan of Sonic Youth, or of Thurston Moore, this is a playlist that simply cannot be missed.

Thurston Moore Side Projects

1. Lesson No. 1 For Electric Guitar - Glenn Branca

2. Pope - Thick Pigeon

3. Needle Gun - Ciccone Youth

4. Talk So Mean - Moe Tucker

5. The Crumb - Lydia Lunch

6. Dim Star Theme - Dim Stars

7. Butterfly Boy - Shonen Knife

8. Tuff Gnarl -

Waterloo is a city in Belgium with a population of only about 30,000 people. But it became famous 196 years ago today (June 18th, 1815) for the Battle of Waterloo, which saw Napoleon's Imperial French army defeated by the armies of the Seventh Coalition. The historic fight left 65,000 soldiers dead, missing or wounded, and it became synonymous with defeat, retreat, failure and/or surrender. Many songwriters have used Waterloo as a metaphor, and for this playlist I've selected 10 tracks that use Waterloo as a main theme, or mention it somewhere in the lyrics.

What have I missed?

Waterloo Songs   

1. Waterloo - ABBA

2. Walking Back to Waterloo - Bee Gees

3. Paris - Dido

4. Waterloo Sunset - The Kinks

5. Return To Waterloo - Ray Davies

6. Waterloo - Stonewall Jackson

7. Waterloo Lily - Caravan

8. The Boy Who Ran Away - Mystery Jets

9. Pink Frosty - Fugazi

10. Waterloo For Two - Nate Brown

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A songwriter can use the balloon to symbolize many things in song. A rising balloon can be used to describe something uplifting, newly found freedom, or reaching new heights. A balloon floating downward can represent the end of something good, and a popped balloon can mean an abrupt ending, or unrealized goal. Balloons can also represent the temporary nature of life itself, including a birth (inflation), youth (upward rise), old age (decline) and death (deflation). Balloons are usually good, unless you're a sea turtle who mistakes one for a jellyfish, or a world leader who mistakes one for a nuclear weapon, as Nena describes in the 1980s hit "99 Luftballons".

There have been a myriad of songs that use the balloon as a device to get  a point across. This playlist includes 26 of them. What would you add?

Balloon Songs

1. 99 Luftballons - Nena

2. Bridges & Balloons - The Decemberists

3. Sunship Balloons - The Flaming Lips

4. Screaming Lead Balloons - Yo La Tengo

5. Balloons - Foals

6.

It's no secret that Apple Inc. has changed the music industry with its ubiquitous iTunes music store and iPod portable digital music players. The company recently announced that it was going to allow people to match their digital music files with songs kept on the cloud. These songs would then be available for paying subscribers ($25 per year) to download again and again, whether or not they obtained the files legally. This is just part of Apple's upcoming iCloud service. I'll probably pay for it simply because it's a cheap way to back up my music files. But as far as music on the cloud goes, Rhapsody has been doing it for a decade, and I've been a fan from the beginning. In fact, I've been using Rhapsody music streams from the cloud for years right here on this blog. Although Rhapsody keeps subscriber numbers close to the vest I've heard we are around a million strong. Do you pay for any digital only music? If so, what's your favorite service?

This playlist includes the top 10 songs

Bonnaroo 2011 winds down today and this year's artist lineup was as diverse as ever. Rock, funk, R&B, gospel, country, bluegrass, indie, electronica, comedy, Americana and hip-hop were all represented. Out of the 175 acts who performed at the festival this year, nine were hip-hop acts. That makes Bonnaroo 2011 5.14% hip-hop. I'll leave it up to you to decide if that's a good representation. But of these nine acts, three headlining mega name rappers were included this year -- Eminem (who had top billing for the event), Lil Wayne and Big Boi. But there were other recognizable names who performed, as well as some that may be new to you. If you're a hip-hop fan, these are the acts you would have heard at 2011's Bonnaroo festival.

Back in the 1980s Hall & Oates were huge. They have an incredible six number one hits under their belt according to the Billboard pop song charts.  They also have 7 platinum and 6 gold records hanging on their walls. When I was younger, I was part of the crowd that shunned Hall & Oates as "chick music", and am probably guilty of teasing those I discovered to be fans. But now that I'm older and more mature it's easy to hear why Hall & Oates were so successful. Simply put, they wrote some incredibly catchy songs. Many of which, have soaked deep into the popular culture. Oates has shaved off his trademark mustache, but the music lives on, and they are still performing today, most notably on last year's American Idol season finale. 

For this playlist I've pulled together 14 songs that sample the music of Hall & Oates. Can you pick them all out?

Songs That Sample Hall & Oates  

1. Ghetto Smile - B-Legit

2. Say No Go - De La Soul

3. Sugar - Fun Lovin' Criminals

4. Method Man - Wu-Tang Clan

Politicians and sex scandals -- it seems that we can always count on our elected leaders to provide material for 24/7 tabloid cable news and late night talk show monologues. Recently we found out that Arnold Schwarzenegger had a love child with his long time maid (yep, I made a playlist for that one too), and now Rep. Anthony Weiner has been caught lying about tweeting photos of his junk to young women -- behind the back of his new wife no less. You'd think this would be the last thing a politician named Weiner would do if he had half a brain. Yes, truth is indeed sometimes stranger than fiction. I'm sure Mr. Weiner has endured unfair jokes about his surname for most of his life, but this time he kinda deserves it. After all, he's left the door wide open. We should expect many more jokes and Saturday Night Live skits in the near future. Heck, just the words "Weiner Tweet" are enough to make a comedy writer salivate. And now that I think about it, "Weiner Tweet" may just enter the