New rotation for the same old tunes

[vovat]

Mark Haas, a quite frequent contributor to the Oz Club message board died recently. It's always sad and disturbing when that kind of thing happens. I get a weird feeling when going back in the archives of the Oz lists and finding posts by Rich Morrissey and James P. Doyle, both of whom also died within the time I was subscribed to said lists.

On a much lighter note, I got this from arfies. I've done a lot of these lyric guessing games in the past, but this one has an added twist. Here are the official rules:

Step 1: Put your iTunes or equivalent on random.
Step 2: Post the first line from the first 30 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing.
Step 3: Bold out the songs when someone guesses correctly.
Step 4: Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING!

(I actually DID skip a few, mostly because April March songs in French kept coming up. But I didn't choose any of the songs myself; they all came up randomly.)

1. And I can do the ____, I can do the Robocop.
2. Said you found a way to end it peacefully.
3. Here I sit, feeling low, wishing I had anywhere to go.
4. Cry to me from wooden benches, purses.
5. Love is like a ______. The more you feed it, the more it grows.
6. Well, it seems about my whole life, I've been kind of depressed.
7. Well, guy in a skeleton costume comes up to a guy in a Superman suit, runs him through with a broadsword.
8. When we met we still had innocence, and we did things because they made sense.
9. Sometimes I feel like I need a vacation.
10. It's raining so hard, and the cabs, they won't stop.
11. It takes photon power eight minutes of an hour to make it to our sun.
12. Cease to resist, giving my goodbye.
13. What are you staring at, in that hospital bed?
14. Pinwheel spark, break loose and roll.
15. _____, o carefree days that fly, to thee we sing with our glasses raised on high.
16. Well, we know where we're going, but we don't know where we've been.
17. I've been praying all the week through, at home, at work, and on the bus.
18. Somebody invented a gun that shoots flowers.
19. My name is ____, and I excel. I can open the gates to Heaven or Hell.
20. I don't know, I don't know, where I'll go or what I'll do.
21. It's your _____, your ______. So you want to tie the knot.
22. Standing in the dock at Southampton, trying to get to Holland or France.
23. Blinking on and off, it's the _____, with a carapace shell and her black lace thighs.
24. I finally won the game. My friends are such bloody idiots.
25. Let us be lovers, we'll marry our fortunes together.
26. Everything is catching on fire.
27. Here's the sad story about a deer and a man.
28. He shouted out his last word, and he stumbled through the yard.
29. You might as well just give up trying, 'cause you can't stop it with all of your whining.
30. On the Ferris wheel, looking out on Coney Island, under more stars than there are prostitutes in Thailand.

As you may notice, I left blanks where the lyrics included all or part of the title. Incidentally, I know that both 5 and 23 are covers (and both covers by the same band, although the original artist in different in each case), so you might know a different version from the one that came up for me, and that's fine. And if nobody gets 26, I'm going to be VERY disappointed. {g}

And here's another meme, courtesy of unclemilo:

This is a list of the 50 most significant science fiction/fantasy novels, 1953-2002, according to the Science Fiction Book Club. Bold the ones you've read, strike-out the ones you hated, italicize those you started but never finished and put an asterisk beside the ones you loved.

1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov
3. Dune, Frank Herbert
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
11. The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
12. A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
13. The Caves of Steel, Isaac Asimov
14. Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
15. Cities in Flight, James Blish
16. The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett *
17. Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison
18. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison
19. The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
21. Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey
22. Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
23. The First Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, Stephen R. Donaldson
24. The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
25. Gateway, Frederik Pohl
26. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J.K. Rowling *
27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams *
28. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29. Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
30. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
31. Little, Big, John Crowley
32. Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny
33. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
34. Mission of Gravity, Hal Clement
35. More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
37. On the Beach, Nevil Shute
38. Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke
39. Ringworld, Larry Niven
40. Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
41. The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
42. Slaughterhouse-5, Kurt Vonnegut
43. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
44. Stand on Zanzibar, John Brunner
45. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
46. Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein
47. Stormbringer, Michael Moorcock
48. The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks
49. Timescape, Gregory Benford
50. To Your Scattered Bodies Go, Philip Jose Farmer


Is the first book in a series automatically considered more significant than the others? I mean, that would explain why both 16 and 26 were chosen over far superior sequels. Oh, well.

Comments

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

My favorite game! You know I have to use this excuse to put it again on my own lj even though you're the only one who ever plays it.

I'll probably have some comments about the booklist once I read it, but I want to play the game first.

5. I don't know what this is, nor if it's a cover, who did either version, but I sort of think it is on one of the CDs you made me, unless I'm totally off...
22. The Ballad of John and Yoko, the Beatles. My giveaway question of the game!
25. America, Simon and Garfunkel
26. I know this is They Might Be Giants, but I don't know what it's called. Josh stuck it on the tape he made for me without labelling it.

Okay, I went back and read the booklist before I sent this after all. Cool, I've read more of those than you have, ha ha!* ;) And seriously about the last part (more superior sequels). I guess I decently loved Sorceror's Stone (okay, Philosopher's Stone) enough to asterisk it, but I didn't love Colour of Magic at all-- if it had been almost any other book in that series! Something like Night Watch might have even gotten TWO asterisks!

*Although can you believe I haven't read Fahrenheit 451 yet? Someday I will, I swear.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you're right about 22, 25, and the band for 26 (obsessical correctly identified the song). I never put 5 on a CD for you, but there's one other one that I did.

Colour of Magic definitely isn't one of my favorite Discworld books, although there's stuff I enjoy about it, particularly the Bel-Shamharoth and Krull segments. But I really don't get how it's especially influential, unless it's simply that its popularity INFLUENCED Terry to write some better books.

[majellen.livejournal.com]

9 - californification, Red Hot Chili Peppers

As you might notice, I suck at these games. :)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

No, but you got the band sorta half-right. As revme said, it's from "Bedrock Anthem," Weird Al's RHCP parody. (I actually looked up the lyrics to "Californication" to make sure it didn't also start the same way, but it doesn't.)

[travspence.livejournal.com]

I believe #16 is "Road to Nowhere" by the Talking Heads.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

You are correct, sir!

[obsessical.livejournal.com]

1. Rilo Kiley - The Frug
13. John Linnell - Montana
26. TMBG - Fingertips

Whoo! I was worried that everyone would have gotten the only ones I knew already.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's why I prefer to do this game with screened comments, because I don't like giving an unfair advantage to people who read the entry first (especially considering that I'm often notoriously late at reading other people's entries). The instructions said to do the boldface thing, though, so that's what I'm doing this time around.

Those are all correct, by the way.

[vilajunkie.livejournal.com]

For the book list, un-bold #5 and #7, and add Interview with a Vampire--with a strikeout. Then you have my list. I'm surprised at the list though. Most of them I've never heard of and probably aren't that important or influential. I wish they had picked best of the series rather than the first in the series. Dune is another one of the series. I haven't read it, but I heard the second book was better than the first.

[countblastula.livejournal.com]

>17. I've been praying all the week through, at home, at work, and on the bus.

Earn Enough For Us - XTC

21. It's your _____, your ______. So you want to tie the knot.

Big Day - XTC

23. Blinking on and off, it's the _____, with a carapace shell and her black lace thighs.

Queen Of Eyes - Soft Boys

30. On the Ferris wheel, looking out on Coney Island, under more stars than there are prostitutes in Thailand.

Don't know the title but I think it's a Magnetic Fields song.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

>17. I've been praying all the week through, at home, at work, and on the bus.

Earn Enough For Us - XTC


Aaah, there it is! And to think of the four CDs I got from you that that's the one I've even listened to the most!

(uh, yeah, sorry, countblastula, this comment is directed directly at Nathan, if you couldn't tell)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, those are all correct. As I mentioned, 23 is actually a cover, by the Fastbacks. I don't believe I've heard the original, but I'd like to.

[countblastula.livejournal.com]

http://download.yousendit.com/6F8BDC41767FC7D9

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It sounds like the Fastbacks' version is actually pretty faithful to the original.

[revme.livejournal.com]

7. Mountain Goats - erm... Damned if I know the title. It's not like the dude ever names songs sensibly.
9. Weird Al - Bedrock Anthem (possibly RHCP - Under the Bridge, but I don't recall if that lyric's in the original.)
12. Pixies - Wave Of Mutilation


I did poor! And I swear I know #29, but I cannot place it.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, those are all right, and I know you do know 29. As for "Under The Bridge," I believe it starts with "sometimes I feel like I don't have a partner," but I'm no kind of RHCP fan.

[revme.livejournal.com]

DUR. "Rotation" - YFF. DURRRR. I WIN AT LIFE.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's it.

[jenhime.livejournal.com]

I think #5 is "Ramblin' Rose" but I only know the versions by Nat King Cole and Johnny Mathis

[vovat.livejournal.com]

You got the title right, but I think the Nat "King" Cole version might actually be a different song. At least, I tried looking it up on Google, and it gave different lyrics for his song of that title. The version I have is by the Fastbacks, but it looks like the original artist was some band called MC5.

[annarama.livejournal.com]

is 28 "50 ways to leave your lover"? (simon/garfunkel)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

No, sorry. You can find out what it actually is in my forthcoming post!