NOISE

You have the No. 1 song in America at the moment ("Temperature"), the third time you've hit the top of the Billboard Hot 100. At this stage of your career, can you basically predict when a song you've recorded will be received that well?

It's still a mystery. I put the same energy into all of my songs ... I try [to figure out] what I liked about the songs I liked as a kid ... maybe the rhythm track is banging, it's danceable, it's very heavy, it's club-oriented, the attitude of the person, what they're saying, the tone of voice. And I try to put that type of energy in, no matter what. But it's a mystery which one is going to be a big song. All of them, I hope, can go to a top position or be a hit song, but when things happen like this song going to No. 1, I'm like, "Wow." It's an amazing feeling.

You recently became the most successful Jamaican musician of all time in terms of chart success. Does it blow your mind to go places Bob Marley, Toots and the Maytals and lots of others never went?

It does feel pretty wild. Every time that I reach a certain place in my career, I always remember the people who led the way for me to be there, Bob Marley and a lot of other people who are sometimes not mentioned. They're heroes to me, and I'm just following in their footsteps. You cannot really compare a Michael Jordan to a Dr. J, a Tyson to an Ali, in terms of what that person is achieving in their time. I have a lot of respect for Bob Marley's work, so when people put me in that category it's hard for me to understand. I understand the popularity, but I don't think I'm a great musician like him. I'm a learning musician still.

I've read that you were a member of Jamaica's national water polo team. Are you still involved with the sport now that music is your main focus?

Last year we had a competition and I was able to play because I had six weeks at home. I trained for six weeks and we invited teams down from Curacao, Barbados, Trinidad and Hungary. It's a family tradition. My grandfather was on the first team in Jamaica after World War II. My father and my mother were swimming champions. And me and my brother grew up around the pool. Swimming and water polo have taught me a certain amount of discipline in my life, showed me that I can set goals and reach them.

How irreplaceable are Jim Morrison, Freddie Mercury and Ric Ocasek? Apparently not very, in the eyes of their former bandmates, who have resurrected the Doors, Queen and the Cars minus their identifiable frontmen. The Ian Astbury-led Doors, briefly known as the Doors of the 21st Century, are now billed as Riders on the Storm, while the Todd Rundgren-fronted Cars will be known as the New Cars. And the Paul Rodgers edition of Queen? It's cleverly dubbed Queen + Paul Rodgers. Here are a few more interesting suggestions.

The Queen Is Dead

Keeping Bad Company

Crazy Little Thing Calling Itself Queen

God Save the Queen

Another Band Bites the Dust

None of these songs turn up on greatest hits or most other Dylan compilations. They are not the ones most frequently covered. But here is what makes Bob Dylan so special: Any of these songs would be the single greatest accomplishment for any other songwriter, yet Dylan leaves them largely unsung.

1. "The Ballad Of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest" (John Wesley Harding, 1967) A parable without a point, or, more accurately, simply one that points back at you.

2. "Most of the Time" (Oh Mercy, 1989)

3. "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" (Bringing It All Back Home, 1965)

4. "Mississippi" (Love and Theft, 2001) The tag words from the chorus come from a prison work song documented by Alan Lomax. But Dylan has left nothing communal about his "Mississippi"; the song is a succour to the individuality of a wise, wicked, worldly man embracing life while giving death a come-hither look.

5. "Absolutely Sweet Marie" (Blonde on Blonde, 1966)

6. "We Better Talk This Over" (Street Legal, 1978)

7. "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go" (Blood on the Tracks, 1974)

8. "Death is Not the End" (Down in the Groove, 1988)

9. "Dark Eyes" (Empire Burlesque, 1985) This beautiful, painful and brutal ballad goes at the end of the overproduced mess of Empire Burlesque. One person who noticed the song's special pull was Warren Zevon, who covered "Dark Eyes" in concert once by introducing it with the words, "This is where it all begins."

10. "Saving Grace" (Saved, 1980)

Facing New York


Facing New York (2.5 stars)

This San Francisco up-and-comer joins the modern-prog parade but sidesteps the emo/screamo scene with a restrained approach that sounds well considered even at its artiest. If only the individual songs were a bit more memorable.

THE BLED


Found in the Flood (2 stars)

Album No. 2 finds the Tucson metalcore outfit mixing in—surprise!—some discernible singing with its customary screams, along with a touch of fashionable Mars Volta prog. Commendable as the stab at diversity might be, it hardly makes Found in the Flood more noteworthy than its homogenous predecessor.