A Canis Hoopus Musical Ode to Corey Brewer

I'm going to start this thing out by setting a precedent that I think will help move the discussion along: I'm going to Interpret the unstated rules loosely.

First up in this pairing is a Dylan song titled "On a Night Like This" from the criminally under discussed Plant Waves album. Seriously, Bob Dylan and the Band recording a proper studio album- how do you not have this in your collection? Next is live version of "A Night Like This" which is my personal favorite cut from The Cure's 1985 The Head on the Door album. Please note the lack of the word "On" in the title of this completely different song.

Next we will explore two wonderful but very different songs both titled "Honey Bee." The first version is from Muddy Waters, a bluesman that was once described to me as having invented electricity. I think he puts it to good use here. After that I'll present a song by Grinderman, a side project band that probably should have just been called "Nick Cave and the even Badder Seeds."

Two more live songs (sorry, I often like it that way) both titled "Straight to Hell." I'll start with a cut from the Hard Working Americans who are worth checking out if you like singer songwriter /alt country/ jamband hybrid supergroups- please note the Freebirdesque outro solo from guest Jason Isbell . I'll follow that up with my favorite song by The Clash- a song that I have now loved for over 25 years and plan to love for at least 25 more.

I'm sure that there are literally hundreds of religious songs out there titled "Hallelujah" but I'm not going to spend all day looking for them. Instead I am going to post two very different and decidedly non religious songs by this name. Actually, I'm going to post three versions in total but two of these, as you will see, are closely related. I'll start with a cool live version of Leo Cohen singing the now ubiquitous song that he wrote. Next comes the Jeff Buckley cover version of the same song that is probably responsible for making this infectious melody so omnipresent. Both versions are fantastic and we could probably do a whole music thread just sharing other great versions- but that's not my intention here so I will end the "Hallelujah" portion of this with a very different song by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. The Nick Cave song, my personal favorite of the three,  comes from his 2001 release No More Shall We Part which has several similarly haunting and beautiful ballads. Enjoy!

Next up I will again bend the rules just a bit to make room for a Badfinger song that I can't seem to get enough of these days and a cool cover of a classic Dylan song.

For my last pairing I will take two song titles in which the word order has been shifted seemingly creating opposite meanings. These are also two of my time favorite bands. Judge me if you must. First up is another cut from the aforementioned The Head on the Door album titled "In Between Days." Next we have a song titled "Days Between" that almost none of you will listen to- and for many of you that's the correct decision. Early 1990's Grateful Dead were often hampered by an overabundance of the primary criticisms of the band. Sloppy play, forgotten lyrics, and loose time signatures are on full display here but, despite all this, the song is worthwhile in that it is Jerry's Garcia's last epic ballad and fans of his will be treated to a wonderful example of how emotion can often trump technical ability when it comes to the art of song making.

So that's what I have folks. What different songs with the same title are on your playlist? Please share some music in the comments below because, as you can see, I need some updates to my collection. I'll also end with one more song and a challenge of sorts to all the songwriters out there. This fantastic and uniquely named Elton John song needs a counterpart in order to qualify for this post so I guess it's up to one of you to write a song and title it "Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters" to bring all this together. I'll empty my savings account of Hoopus points for anyone who posts an original composition of this title in the comments.

Go Wolves!