Readers recommend: songs about rodents - results

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2012/oct/18/readers-recommend-rodents-results

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This week's playlist has been selected by Chris Bishop.

Given that they account for 40% of all animal species and inhabit every continent bar Antarctica (thank you, popular web-based encyclopedia), it's hardly surprising that rodents have inspired multitudes of musicians over the years. So how do we feel about the furry little critters? Do we love 'em or loathe 'em?

Well, rats – far and away the most musically inspirational of rodents, if RR nominations are anything to go by – get a rather bad rap. (And no, this isn't about Roland.) Spreaders of plague, vicious vermin, filthy scavengers … Sleepy John Estes is feeling so blue about the mean ones in his kitchen pinching his groceries that he's ordered him a mountain cat. "Eek!" I hear you (and them) cry. And Big Mama Thornton menacingly vows to find the trail of the black rat who's done her wrong. Things aren't looking good for rodent-human relations.

But hallelujah! Other musicians come here not to bury rodents but to praise them: in Rats, Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder lists the many evils anthropomorphically attributed to them by us humans, the genuine culprits. "Ben, the two of us need look no more," he moans over the song's outtro, referencing pop's most famous rat-fan. Take that, Big Mama and Sleepy John! Rats can be our friends! Mark Eitzel certainly thinks so. My Pet Rat St Michael finds him imploring the doctor to help his depressed pet. Even Mariah Carey records can't cheer the little fella up. Imagine that.

Maybe Mark should have taken St Michael to see Jilted John's doc, who recommends that he take up a hobby to distract him from his acne-based teen angst – perhaps breeding fancy mice would do the trick? We humans are clearly fonder of the smaller members of the muroid family (that's mice to you and me). In a song based on the Daniel Keyes sci-fi tale, Kathy Mar's protagonist touchingly eulogises a particularly fancy laboratory mouse, Algernon – possessor of super rodent intelligence and beloved friend.

Meanwhile, Louis Armstrong and Louis Jordan jazzily celebrate a couple of less domesticated rodents: a rambling muskrat and an industrious squirrel (and his missus) respectively. Nuts to you, rodent-haters! Taking a ramble towards some less popular rodents (at least among musicians), we come across the capybara, the largest extant member of the family with "a roly-poly body shape" and "two round ebony eyes", as Shonen Knife inform us. "Try to live our life like capybara," they chirpily urge. "You don't need to be greedy." It's not just rats whose morals and lifestyle are worth emulating, then. And who knew porcupines were rodents – and such wonderfully funky ones? Not me. And not RR contributor alexito, who had to look them up before nominating Nature Zone's Porcupine.

King Missile are clearly fans of rodents too – as accessories at least. In Hamsters, they provide helpful advice on the numerous potential faux pas involved in jazzing up one's belt with balloons and, yes, hamsters. Apparently, the vital thing is to "radiate an aura of control". And finally, Stephen Lynch is another rodent-lover. Gerbils, in his case. If only he didn't love them in such a wrong way …

Maybe rats don't have it so bad after all.

The list:

Sleepy John Estes – Rat in my Kitchen Big Mama Thornton – One Black Rat Pearl Jam – Rats Mark Eitzel – My Pet Rat St Michael Jilted John – Fancy Mice Kathy Mar – Flowers for Algernon Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five – Muskrat Ramble Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five – Two Little Squirrels Shonen Knife – Capybara Nature Zone – Porcupine King Missile – Hamsters Stephen Lynch – Gerbil

• Listen to these songs on a YouTube playlist.

• See all the readers' recommendations on last week's blog, from which Chris selected the songs above.

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• Here's a Spotify playlist containing readers' recommendations on this theme.