Friday Five : ˈfrī-(ˌ)dā,-dē ˈfīv : On the sixth day of every week I hit the shuffle button on my iTunes and share my five and drop a little knowledge and insight for each track. Sometimes there is a playlist involved, sometimes there isn’t. Sometimes we have 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:

The Band – “Up on Cripple Creek”  (from Greatest Hits, 2000)

I’ll admit that I’ve heard this track covered more often than I’ve heard the original.

Phish – “The Divided Sky” (mp3) (from 2009-03-06: Hampton Coliseum, Hampton, VA, USA, 2009)

In this case, I’ll let the music do the talking.

John Mellencamp – “Jack and Diane” (from The Best That I Could Do 1978-1988, 1997)

Pop Quiz: What unique quality does “Jack and Diane” have in common with Prince & The Revolution‘s “When Doves Cry”?

Jellyfish – “Will You Marry Me” (mp3) (from Fan Club, 2002)

I recently acquired this fantastic collection of demos, outtakes, b-sides and live material from what could easily be my favorite band of the early 90’s. As evidenced by my last.fm chart, I’ve been on a steady diet of Jellyfish ever since. “Will You Marry Me” is easily one of the band’s strongest unreleased tracks and was only performed live.

DJ Shadow – “Mashin’ on the Motorway” (from The Private Press, 2002)

I’ve been a fan of DJ Shadow from the first moments of Entroducing…. in 1996. In the years between solo outtings he released an early singles collection and worked as part of the U.N.K.L.E. project but nothing could compare to what he does best

Side Note: The first person to correctly guess the “Pop Quiz” question gets a copy of Assembly of Dust‘s Some Assembly Required.

What’s up next on your shuffle?