Friday Five : \’frī-(,)dā,-dē ‘fīv\ : On the sixth day of every week, I hit the shuffle button on my iTunes, then share the first five tracks and thought for each track. Sometimes there is a playlist involved, occasionally we’ll have a guest, but most of the time it’s just me. The rest is up to you, our friends and readers! Fire up your media player of choice and share the first five random track of your shuffle in the comments.

The Five:

“Home Sweet Home (demo)” by Mötley Crüe (from Theatre of Pain, 1999)

The one benefit — depending on how you look at these sort of things — to the trend of releasing remastered and “deluxe editions” of older records is the inclusion of demos and alternate takes of songs you know and love. While I doubt anyone would claim to really want to hear the primal versions of Crüe tunes, there are a few interesting things to note here: Mick’s guitar solo is nearly identical to the final cut; there slight, but noticeable, difference in the opening piano figure, making the tune sound more like John Lennon’s “Imagine” than I’d picture the band wanted; and finally, Vince Neil’s vocal delivery still sucks.

“Desire” by Zwan (from Mary Star of the Sea, 2003)

This record is a perfect example of the reason why Billy Corgan pisses me off, to no end. While it’s clear that, to some extent, the band was just another vehicle for his massive ego, there seemed to be a balance that wasn’t there in his previous efforts. This tune, in particular, recalls the quiet mid-tempo goodness of “Mayonnaise,” in both message and melody. David Pajo’s atmospheric guitar work adds a subtlety to Corgan’s normally blunt delivery. There exists, somewhere, a second record of Zwan material that Corgan has publicly stated would never see the light of day.

“Lovesong” by The Cure (from Paris, 1993)

After nearly 8 months, I have finally started to rebuild my iTunes library. In the process, I’ve come to find that there are a few bands that I was, at one point or another, a die-hard fanatic for. The Cure is a prime example of this. In my physical collection I have just about every single thing that the band has put out from 1984′s “Head on the Door,” forward. As I’ve gone about converting them into iTunes, I’ve stopped to listen to tracks here and there. This track is from one of the band’s trio of live records released that year — the other two records, Show and Sideshow, contain more of a “greatest hits” selection — which captured the band at the height of their resurgence in the early ’90s.

“Lady Madonna” by The Beatles (from Anthology 2, 1996)

Another peek behind the curtain, this time from the Fab Four. This specific track is a composite of takes recorded at Abbey Road Studios in February, 1968. Stripped down to the piano, Ringo’s skiffle drumming, Paul’s vocal and Ronnie Scott’s full sax solo, it sounds like an entirely different tune from the one you know. While there are traces of the grand production of the single, you have to wonder if this is the “truer” version.

“Your Head Is on Fire” by Broken Bells (from Broken Bells, 2010)

The Broken Bells record is finding its way to a top 10 spot in my list for 2010, and this song specifically, is part of the reason why. Bringing elements of electronica, and psychedelia together with it’s odd droning vocal bed — “look behind / your head is on fire / whirling masses / rolling ashes” — looping in the background, it has a hypnotizing, almost worldly feel to it. Hopefully the collaboration was not just a one-off, because it’d be a damn shame.

What’s on your shuffle today?