Radar is a pretty cool technology that we take for granted all the time. It warns us of dangerous things like storms, enemy bomber planes, speeding motorists, or fastballs through the use of radio waves. Of course, musicians are pretty in tune with radio waves, so it makes sense that radar has been included in many worthy songs. Big Joe Turner describes his girl as having "radar eyes", meaning that if he fools around, he'll surely be detected. Golden Earring used radar to describe a spiritual love affair with lyrics like, "She sends a cable comin' in from above / We don't need to talk at all / We got a thing that's called radar love". And The Bottle Rockets tell the story of an over zealous cop and his beloved "Radar Gun". These are just a few excellent songs that use radar as a main theme, but there are many others. This playlist includes 15 in total, and I've certainly overlooked a bunch.

So, what would you add?

Radar Songs

1. Radar Love - Golden Earring 

2. Radar Gun - The Bottle

It's a sad fact of a changing world -- magazines don't have the power they once did. There is an incredible amount of excellent and focused content available for free on the Internet today, and magazine circulation has been in a steady decline for years because of this fact. And there doesn't seem to be any relief in sight for the decline in hard copy sales of magazines. Some believe tablet computers, specifically the iPad, may be a saviour for the magazine industry, but no matter how they're delivered, magazines will always have a place in popular culture. Along with newspapers, they're a great way to read up of subjects that interest you without having to invest too much time. The magazine has been used by the songwriter in thousands of songs, and for this playlist I've pulled together 15 magazine related tracks. There are certainly a lot more.

So what would you add?

Magazine Songs

1. Cover Of The Rolling Stone - Dr. Hook

2. Magazine - The Hold Steady

3. Dirty Magazine - Joe Henry

Rock and roll and poison go way back. Most music historians believe that the legendary bluesman Robert Johnson was murdered after succumbing to strychnine poisoning at the hands of a lover's jealous husband. And throughout the history of popular music, over-protective parents and ne'er-do-wells have accused music they don't understand of "poisoning the minds of youth". It's quite an image. After all, poison has a reputation of killing slowly and painfully, and it can be given on the sly. The skull and crossbones symbol for poison is also about as rock and roll as it gets. So, I suppose it makes sense that "poison songs" tend to be on the heavy side. That's what I chose to include in the set of songs that sing the praises of poison -- tracks with big electric guitars and grit. And no, I did not include the poser metal band from the 80s who really don't belong in a list of heavy songs. 

What would you add?

Heavy Poison

1. Poison - Alice Cooper

2. Poison Arrow - Sonic Youth

3. The

Johnny Marr has always been a favorite guitarist of mine -- for many reasons. I've been a Smiths fan from the time I first heard Meat Is Murder, circa 1985, and would immediately buy, and put on heavy rotation, every future Smiths album from that point forward. Sometimes I would just focus on Marr's guitar playing as I listened, trying to figure out what the hell he was doing. Much of his work was like nothing I had ever heard. But his technical brilliance is not what makes him a great guitarist, it's his ability to play what's appropriate for the song. He'll provide acoustic guitar chords when that's all the song calls for, he'll provide atmosphere when the guitar should not be out front, he'll provide intricate interest to fill gaps, or he'll just plain rock out when appropriate. Marr always struck me as a brilliant player who cared more about the music than bringing attention to himself. That sits  well with me, but if you decide to listen to the full body of his work, Johnny's