An Influence Chain playlist can start with any song you wish. In this case we begin with "The Stand" by The Alarm. For the next selection we choose a song by a band that is known to have influenced the previous band. So I've selected a song by The Clash, who were a big influence on The Alarm. The third song is one that influenced The Clash, and so on. Continue with the playlist until you cannot come up with any more influences.

Create your own or expand on the following list in the comments!

Influence Chain Playlist: The Alarm To Guy Lombardo

1.
The Stand - The Alarm - Declaration (1984)
The Alarm were directly influenced by The Clash, therefore The Clash will be the next selection in our influence chain playlist. The Alarm were formed after seeing the electric way that The Clash delivered their political messages on stage. During their heyday in the 1980's, The Alarm were compared more to U2 than any other band, but I would say that besides the big hair and spiritual fuzziness they

Mice and rats have somehow entered my life in an unprecedented manner lately, so I did what most music-obsessed people would do. I built a playlist.

I have just returned from a week in Walt Disney World, so the most famous mouse of all (Mickey) has been looming large in my life. My family has also watched the new rat-centric Ratatouille DVD three times in the past week.

But in addition to this, rodents have crossed my path elsewhere. One of which has me feeling immense amounts of guilt. You see, I am a mouse killer. I fear my Peta contributing friends may disown me, but I need to get this off my chest. It all started as I was getting ready for work one morning. When I put on my shoes I noticed one of them had a handful of dry dog food inside. Our dog, Winslow P. Caloomper's food bowl is in the master bath, but how did his kibble get into my shoe? Of course the only answer was my four year old daughter. When I asked her if she did it, she said, "no daddy, maybe it was Winslow". I

Numbers are an interesting subject for songs. They can represent all kinds of things, and as such, can be used as a lyrical device to give significance without over speaking. Here at the Radish we've already done playlists on the numbers 666, 3 and 7. Most of us are aware of the significance these three numbers have, mostly because of their religious or spiritual context.

For this playlist I have chosen songs that use the number 99 to get their points across. The most obvious use of 99 is to convey a sense of impending change as in Prince's 1999, which looked forward to the year 1999 as an event that would spur serious celebration. 99 can also be used to convey a sense of being close to perfection. If 100% is a perfect score than 99% is just a hair shy of perfect. If someone is 99% sure, they are conveying certain odds while leaving themselves room to be incorrect.

It's also interesting because it's a palindromic number, a repdigit and a Kaprekar number. However, finding these

As admitted  previously, I have some metal in my past. And although it's not a genre I follow closely, I do turn to it from time to time. There's simply nothing better when you're ticked off and need to release some stress. When you really want to let off steam, try some metal songs about the glory of war. Not all of the songs in this list are pro-war. In fact, many condemn violence better than the most pacifist-minded folk singers. Black Sabbath's timeless "War Pigs", for example, is a scathing indictment of war. As Ozzy sang:

Politicians hide themselves away
They only started the war
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that role to the poor 

Lyrics like this are as powerful as anything Pete Seeger could dream up. However, unlike folk music, in metal, it's not hard to find songs that glorify war. Music that brings you down to the trenches. The power and aggressiveness in metal can present hatred and death to the listener more vividly than any other style of music ever created.