The crankables

Thanks to the iPod-compatible stereo we recently had installed in our car, commuting has suddenly become a personal learning experience. Left on shuffle with 5,000+ songs at its disposal, the iPod has been treating me to a kind of ongoing Rorschach/free-associative/reflex-response test.

The question: Which songs cause one (me) to reflexively crank the volume to window-rattling levels? A few controls to observe:
1) I must be alone in the car, as the presence of a wife in the car (usually) activates the self-policing subroutine.
2) The volume-cranking reflex must be instinctive, immediate, involuntary.
3) The volume spike must be considerable — I do not generally drive with the music turned way up, so the cranking response must fall well outside the norm to qualify.

The results are interesting — no direct correlation between the crank-response and my conscious affinity for a specific song is apparent. Only a handful of these songs would actually make my "Top 100" list, and a number of them betray an apparent and unfortunate Pavlovian conditioning to 80s rock. Nevertheless, personal dignity must be set aside if science is to be served.

Should you pass me on the road and see my head bobbing convulsively, and hear the steady whumm-whumm-whumm of rattling speakers, it's a fair bet that the iPod has served up one of the following selections:

1. Wild Thing - X
2. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - Rolling Stones
3. Wreck of the Old '97 - Johnny Cash
4. Danger Zone - Kenny Loggins
5. Wild Flower - The Cult
6. Jump Around - House Of Pain
7. Yin and Yang and the Flower Pot Man - Love and Rockets
8. White Wedding - Billy Idol
9. Goin' Out West - Tom Waits
10. Cocaine Blues - Johnny Cash
11. Panama - Van Halen
12. One Week - Barenaked Ladies
13. Been Caught Stealing - Jane's Addiction
14. What a Day That Was - Talking Heads
15. Blaze of Glory - Bon Jovi
16. Save Me - Remy Zero
17. Blood on the Coal - The Folksmen
18. Wild Wild Life - Talking Heads
19. Punk Rock Girl - Dead Milkmen
20. Jumpin' Jack Flash - Rolling Stones
21. Man in the Box - Alice in Chains
22. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald - Gordon Lightfoot
23. Sharp Dressed Man - ZZ Top
24. Suicide Blonde - INXS
25. Lust For Life - Iggy Pop
26. Surfin' Bird - The Trashmen
27. Smoke on the Water - Deep Purple
28. A Girl Like You - The Smithereens
29. Sweet Young Thing - The Monkees
30. Up on Cripple Creek - The Band