In addition to listening to the songs, reading the lyrics, and thinking of ideas for discusion, send me before 8 am Mon. a rank ordering of the songs, ordering them by the order you think we should discuss them in. Your ranking can have ties, and you needn’t include all the songs. (I’ll count the ones you don’t include as tied for the bottom of your rank.)

In case it helps to have a list to cut and paste, here’s one in chronological order:

Bessie Smith
Billie Holiday
Nina Simone
James Brown
Gil Scott-Heron
Grandmaster Flash
N.W.A