SIDE SALAD - Everything crunchy is good.

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After two-plus weeks, I figured the music in the Radio Blog was getting a little stale, so I've changed out the playlist.

I asked last time for some suggestions on what you'd want to hear. I got bupkiss. So everything you see on the list is from the personal CD archive.
Like last time, there are plenty of different aural croutons on which to munch. There's some acoustic, a little old-school rap, a nibble of country, some rock, some new wave, some piano ballads, even a little ska.

I like finding acoustic or live versions tracks of songs you probably already know. Gives them a different flavor. This version of Duran Duran's "Ordinary World" is one of those. It isn't often you hear Simon LeBon sing in a low register. I think it beats the studio version. I like the Seven Mary Three track of "Lucky," too, for the same reasons. And the acoustic version of Chris Isaak's "Baby Did A Bad Thing." What a great song. I also like the live version of John Mayer's "Why Georgia." You can hear some great fingering technique in the beginning of the song. (No fingering jokes, please.)

Some of these are just memory strolls. Madness' "One Step Beyond," Run DMC's "It's Tricky" and Kurtis Blow's "Basketball" just remind me of the early '80s. (Hearing the names Moses Malone and Daryl Dawkins in that song is enough to make me feel ancient.)

The Knack's "Good Girls Don't" is a song I used to sing in the car with my buddies in high school. The Vines' "Get Free" is a song that makes me wish I was in high school so I could sing it in the car with my buddies.

John Lee Hooker's "Boom, Boom, Boom" reminds me of the time I saw him play on the back of a flatbed truck behind the student union at Florida State University. Guy sat in a lawn chair wobbling on the tailgate and played two hours of hellacious blues as the sun went down. People could barely see him in the dusk. He didn't give a damn.

But the best song on here is the Foo Fighters' "Times Like These." Damn thing has been running on a loop in my head for weeks since I saw them kill on the Grammy's with it. It was an awesome performance, especially since St. Petersburg resident Chick Corea was playing piano melodies through it. Dave Grohl is a god. I hope he gets his recognition outside the shadow of Nirvana one day.

Anyway, let me know what you think. And again, if you have any requests, the DJ's listening.