Lyrics quiz
Scrivener April 22nd, 2008
[I've given you more to work with now. Any help?]
Step 1: Put your MP3 player or whatever on random.
Step 2: Post the first line from the first 25 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song.
Step 3: Post and let everyone you know guess what song and artist the lines come from.
Step 4: Strike through when someone gets them right
Step 5: Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING. So is looking at my last.fm feed for the last hour or so…
Go easy now
Go easy now
Later on the road I’m gonna lay my body down
We’ll meet along the way, I knowGrow straight and true
Grow straight and true
Later on the road is gonna break your world in two (We’ll Meet Along the Way – Hem)I try to stay busy
I do the dishes, I mow the lawn
I try to keep myself occupied
Even though I know you’re not coming home (Hate It Here- Wilco)Voc precisa saber da piscina
Da margarina, da carolina, da gasolina
Voc precisa saber de mim
Baby, baby
Eu sei que assim (Baby – either Gal Costa or Os Mutantes)- Did you clean yourself
for me last night
put the water out and donned a marigold
in your hair to bring me here
and tie one on you
did you dress me down and liquor me up
to make me last for the minute
when the red comes over you
like it does when you’re filled with love
or whatever you call it (Available – The National) This city is silver in the moon
And mountains heaped with sugar spoons
The click and clatter of my feet
On lonely crooked cobbled streets
Like castanets (Castanets – Bishop Allen)- Bed is for sleeping
Love is for making
You know love I am yours for the taking
My eyes are for seeing
The wind is for blowing
And you see love I am yours for the knowing (Bed is for sleeping – Matt Sweeney and Bonnie “Princ” Billie) If you ever change your mind
About leaving, leaving me behind
Bring it to me, bring your sweet loving,
bring it on home to me, yeah
You know I tried to treat you right
But, you stay out, stay out every night
Bring it to me, bring your sweet lovin
Bring it on home to me. (Bring it on Home to Me – Sam Cooke, though mine was the Britt Daniel cover)My love was like a seed that you had planted(Timber – Neko Case)On and on and on we’ll stay together yeah
On and on and on we’ll be together yeah
You and I will try to stay together yeah
On and on and on we’ll be together yeah (On and On and On – Wilco)Small stakes give you blues(Small Stakes – Spoon)- Winter time is coming
All the sky is grey
Summer birds aren’t singing
Since you went away
Since you’ve been gone, end of the season (End of the Season – The Kinks) - take me down from the ridge
where the summer ends
we’ll watch the city spread out
just like a jet’s flame
I’ve got a secret for you
I cut your angel in two
I left her bleeding
and soaked it with a dry sponge
no life has singed her now (No Life Singed Her – Pavement) Oh, do I have to put my hand cuffs on you, mama?
Do I have to keep under lock and key?
Do I have to put hand cuffs on you, mama?
Now we both know that’s not how it should be
Do I have to put my hand cuffs on you, mama?
You’re a sweet fine sexy woman and you’re good to a man
Cause if I have to put my hand cuffs on you, mama
I hope that you will understand (Hand Cuffs – Parliament)Damn good Mr. Jam(Damn Good Mr. Jam – Guided By Voices)Tall and tan and young and lovely(The Girl from Ipanema – Getz & Gilberto)First I saw her on TV then later in a magazine.
She was charming and I was charmed.
These things I know:
Her mother was an actress.
She likes boats, dogs and horses.
But she doesn’t like guys who are a turn off.
But maybe, just maybe.
She’ll make an exception for one who really cares. (Later in a Magazine – Half Japanese)- In time you’ll know.
In time you’ll grow to say
Tomorrow will not be another day (Tomorrow Will Not Be Another Day – Robert Pollard) Everybody wants 2 know what’s wrong with U(Loose – Prince)- You have to do it running but you do everything that they ask you to
cause you don’t mind seeing yourself in a picture
as long as you look faraway, as long as you look removed
showered and blue-blazered, fill yourself with quarters
showered and blue-blazered, fill yourself with quarters
You get mistaken for strangers by your own friends
when you pass them at night under the silvery, silvery citibank lights the very last time that I saw stu
he was on his way out west
he said that he was trying to find himself and something else
having a helluva good time trying (Stu – Superdrag)I was five and he was six
We rode on horses made of sticks
He wore black and I wore white
He would always win the fightBang bang, he shot me down
Bang bang, I hit the ground
Bang bang, that awful sound
Bang bang, my baby shot me down. (Bang Bang [My Baby Shot Me Down] – Nancy SinatraWe spotted the ocean at the head of the trail(Walk on the Ocean – Toad the Wet Sprocket)You look so good in the clothes of a poser
And when you smiled all the kids fell apart here
I know a place where it’s warm and it’s dry, dear
Let me take you there
North of the river all the streets are the same
We can pretend that they don’t know our name
And the heat is turned all the way to full
So don’t pretend that you don’t feel the pull (“What I’m Trying To Say” – Stars)I’m bound by the fire(Bound by the Beauty – Jane Siberry)- Just like the way that you ran to wine
when they made the new milk turn
Jesus, a friend in the better times
let your mother’s bible burn
freedom, a fever you suffered through
and the dog drank from your cup
frozen, the river that baptized you
and the horse died standing up
but when a southern anthem rings
she will buckle to that sound
when that southern anthem sings
it will lay her burdens down (Southern Anthem – Iron and Wine)
I have to go to class, or I’d play along, but these are hysterical!!!! The songs are probably not all that funny, but these first lines….. I think I’ll further this meme (is it a meme? it is now!) over at my place later today.
Oh, and I don’t know how to spell it, but is #15 the “girl from iponema”?
15. The Girl from Ipanema (Joao Gilberto, Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto)
25. Bound by the Beauty (Jane Siberry)–well, look at that!
I am so not cool enough for you.
oh wait…23 is toad the wet sprocket. I might be a little bit cool.
Of Course #19 is Prince, but I couldn’t say which song…
#23 is Walk on the Ocean, by Toad
Most of these I doubt I could identify from the first line of lyrics, though (at the risk of giving hints) the song title is included in the first line on a number of these. #19 is Prince, but it’s from the album Come.
I thinks it’s probably more fun as found poetry than as a quiz. I should have done it more Overread style and included whole stanzas.
8. Neko Case – Timber
19. Prince – Loose (that’s one of my favorite Prince albums)
That’s all I know – your quiz is a lot harder than Kaitlin’s!
You’re going to post the answers eventually, right?
Yes, I will. But not immediately. I mean, no one’s even gotten the Wilco songs yet.
14. “Damn Good, Mr. Jam” by Guided by Voices
10. “Small Stakes” by Spoon
This is a totally hard game. For me, the music leads the way and the usually the singing is just an instrument (which means that I don’t really tune into the words as language, but as sounds). But like Billie said, the lines themselves, out of context, are really odd and funny.
Scrivener–recent lurker delurking to ID the ones from my recent favoritest album: 2) is “Hate It Here,” and 9) is “On and On and On, ” both from Wilco’s Sky Blue Sky. fun meme–thanks!
Thanks for commenting, bekala!
# 20 is Superdrag.
16. Half Japanese, “Later in a Magazine”
I’m humming #3, now that I’ve looked at it again, and it’s from the Getz/Gilberto album, too–Desafinado?
gah. never mind. I was fooled by the Portuguese.
It’s not also by them, but it is also from the 60s.
I don’t know the names of the songs, but number 7 was covered by The Commitments in the movie and number 21 was in one of the Kill Bill movies.
Stepping out of lurkerdom to say…
#21 “Bang Bang” by Nancy Sinatra (also on the Kill Bill soundtrack)
Holy crap! I knew one!
Yes, Nancy Sinatra from the Kill Bill soundtrack.
Liz, #7 is an oft-covered song. The version in my iTunes is a cover by Britt Daniel from Spoon. It’s fron the 60s & has also been covered by Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Sonny & Cher, Van Morrison, Paul McCartney, Michael Bolton, and Joan Jett, among others.
Holy crap I’m mortified. I didn’t know A SINGLE ONE of those except Girl from Ipanema, which was already crossed out.
Wow.
23. What I’m Trying to Say by Stars
Is no one a fan of The National? Or Bishop Allen?
oh! oh! Number 3 is by Os Mutantes. Is it just called “Baby”? They’re old now but they still rock, big time. I saw them play an outdoor show in San Francisco last summer and it was one of the best times of my life. They had a different girl singer but the two brothers in the band were there.
I’m a lurker too.
Minerva, the version I have is by Gal Costa, but it looks like she and Os Mutantes recorded versions right at the same time. I wonder who is covering whom? Thanks for saying hi! I’ve seen stuff by Os Mutantes on the music blogs; now I’ll have to actually check them out. I think I have one or two singles by them.
Hi Scrivener–I checked and it looks like “Baby” was written by Caetano Veloso. I didn’t know about the Gal Costa version and will have to check it out. I love the late 60′s Os Mutantes, don’t know about the later stuff. Try the first, self-titled, album, of 1968.
13 is Handcuffs by Parliament.
That probably the only one I will get since it’s one of five or six bands we both listen to.
FYI: “Baby” is by Caetano Veloso. Those Brazilian folks in the 60′s used to borrow and steal each others music like crazy.
I didn’t read all the comments. I am a goon.
Didn’t read them all, but two unguessed ones popped out at me:
7. Bring It On Home to Me: The Animals; also covered by Status Quo
13. Handcuffs: Parliament
Damn; just noticed that Justin beat me by 36 hours. I really need to get online more often.
#7 is Bring it on Home to Me by Sam Cooke – hubby’s old band used to play that one! I’m getting ready to go do this on my other blog.
#1 is We’ll Meet Along the Way by Hem. One of my favorite artists. Have you heard their version of Rainy Night in Georgia? Haunting.
Yay! Someone got Hem, that makes me happy. Oh, and Rainy Night in Georgia.
#5 is Like Castanets, by Bishop Allen!
I posted the answers to the few no one ever got. I’m impressed that y’all figured out so many.
I only paid attention to this now that it has the answer and I was SO pleasantly SURPRISED to see Caetano Veloso’s song interpreted by Gal Costa. So, what else of Brazilian music do you have or know??? I’d be happy to chat about Brazilian music sometime.
Do you have all of that Gal Costa CD (it’s a live CD, I forget the title and I’m too lazy to go to the living room to look or google it, sorry)? If you don’t, I happen to have picked up an extra copy in Brazil last year thinking it’d make a great gift, but I haven’t found an recipient yet. I’d just LOVE to mail it to you if you want! Do let me know.