Top 10 most popular On The Flip-Side posts of all time.

It was five years ago today that we posted our first On The Flip-Side post. Look at yesterday's post to hear that first song posting. Today we are looking at the Top 10 most clicked on posts in the five year history of On The Flip Side. It's quite an eclectic mix. Explore. Enjoy.

10.  Nirvana and Leadbelly -- Where Did You Sleep Last Night? [original post here] = 1504 hits.

9.  Pete Townshend - Is It In My Head (demo) [original post here] = 1603 hits.

8.  Howlin' Wolf featuring Hubert Sumlin (RIP) - Smokestack Lightnin' [original post here] = 1675 hits.

7.  Junior Kimbrough - Meet Me In The City [original post here] = 1725 hits.

6.  Bill Haley and the Comets -- Razzle Dazzle [original post here] =  2048 hits.

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5.  The Byrds - Have You Seen Her Face? [original post here] = 2081 hits

4.  Happy 90th Birthday to Bettie Page [original post here] = 2081 hits.

3. The Velvet Underground -- Sweet Jane (alternate version) [original post here] = 2570 hits.

2.  Blind Willie McTell - God Don't Like It [original post here] = 3931 hits.

And the number 1 post of all time, in a runaway is...

1.  The Runaways -- Cherry Bomb [original post here] = 12,940 hits!

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

Song Of The Week: Junior Kimbrough -- Meet Me In The City

Entrancing. 

Song of the Week: "Going To The River", Mississippi Fred McDowell

After World War II, in the northern hills of Mississippi, a music sub-genre grew like the honeysuckle vines that predominate the small farms of that area. It came to be known as Hill Country blues, and like it's older kissing-cousin to the South, delta blues, it incorporates finger picking, a healthy dose of bottleneck guitar, and stories of murder, deception, hard days working and, of course, the frustrations of love.

If anyone was to stake a claim on being the grandpappy of Hill Country blues, it would perhaps be Mississippi Fred McDowell. McDowell played a mean sounding, repetitive, rhythm-heavy solo blues that owed much to Son House and Charlie Patton. For much of his life McDowell worked the evening in local juke joints in and around his hometown of Como, Mississippi while working the days on his small farm. He had been doing this since the 1920's but it wasn't until 1959 that McDowell was "discovered" by folklorist Alan Lomax. For Lomax and a small number of blues fans, it was like opening a time capsule. Blues had moved North, had become upbeat, incorporated full bands and was edging into what was about to become Soul Music. But in the rural northern hills of Mississippi, a handful of musicians in abutting farms, perhaps unaware of the trends of the day, were still playing it the old way. Arguably, nobody did it better than McDowell. Mississippi Fred incorporated insanely catchy riffs with his his edgy slide playing as he would double the vocals and the guitar melody in perfect pitch and timing. As he once said in a recording: "What I sing, the guitar sings." The two instruments were one. And so it was, starting at the age of 55, McDowell made his first recording, filmed his first appearances, traveled abroad for the first time and became blues royalty overnight. He would be dead 12 years later. But in that brief time, his traditional country blues left a major imprint. McDowell's neighbors, Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside would soon get recording sessions and Bonnie Raitt and the Rolling Stones were just a couple of the popular acts who would pick up his style and would go on to have success covering McDowell.

In 1965, McDowell traveled to Germany with a group of blues musicians. Most of his tour mates, like Matt Murphy, had completed the transition to upbeat urban blues. Fred McDowell was still playing it old style. Sitting down and letting the guitar and voice sing it together. The song filmed in '65 Germany, Going Down to The River, is our Song of the Week.