Back to the Classics

[vovat]

rockinlibrarian did the lyric guessing game again, so I figured that was as good an excuse as any to follow suit. Sometimes I think I do these too often, but if people keep participating, I might as well, right? There are thirty this time, and all opening lines.

1. Please don't ask me how I am. I'd have to lie and say I'm fine.
2. My daughter needs a new phonograph, she wore out all the needles.
3. To my dear, dear mother, I leave my only shoes.
4. She said, "I think there's something wrong with making out to the tunes of a Daniel Johnston song."
5. Maybe I'm a witch, lost in time, running through the fields of Scotland by your side.
6. [Title], I don't know your real name, but I love you just the same.
7. If I was the [title], I'd echo everything you say.
8. Well, she crept back in the house at half past three, shook her head to see him snoring in his sleep.
9. Oh, my beloved [title], how I long to see your face photographed in fifteen-second intervals in a bank in San Leandro.
10. I never went to the tropical island, though everybody says they saw me there.
11. The jungle was giving a party, a post-hibernation ball.
12. Just before we got up here, all the guys were having a fight.
13. At the [title], you stare right at the ocean, mountains at your back you think you've tamed.
14. I don't want to change your mind. I don't want to think about your mind.
15. [Title] when they say that you're mistaken thinking hopes and dreams that aren't there?
16. Hey, hey, remember me? Oh yeah, we've met before. I used to know the drummer who's not with you anymore.
17. Having ended all life and absorbed all other robots, ruler of the cosmos, she walks into the sunset.
18. Actually I was never conceived, and I don't expect to be believed, but I've found my mouth stitched up with glossy pink thread.
19. What is there to say? Still I can't be silent. Hear [title], and you'll be enlightened.
20. Two big babies met on a winter's day. They thought they'd get all dressed up to play.
21. About a maid I'll sing a song, sing rickity-tickity-tin. About a maid I'll a sing a song, who didn't have her family long.
22. You're one groovy gypsy man. I did this abandoned car. I slip off my flip-flops and walk past the crash pad, and step on some broken glass.
23. [Title] is where I hang. [Title] is where I am again, and don't try hard to get down or move to better company there.
24. There's a sale on our gabardine suits today. They're all 30% off from yesterday.
25. We're caught in a trap. I can't walk out, because I love you too much, baby.
26. Now, somewhere in the black mining hills of Dakota, there lived a young boy named [title].
27. Laying on the [title], my heart, it flares like fire.
28. I met someone at the dog show.
29. Good morning lethargy. Drink Pepsi, it's good for energy.
30. It's such a dreamlike view from the ceiling where every feeling is part of the fall.

10, 12, 14, 22, and 28 are all by the same band. 3 and 7 are as well, and 17 is by a related band. The band responsible for 1 and 23 has a member in common with the one that did 6. 13 and 19 are by the same artist. So are 18 and 20. I think those are all of the repeat artists, but to err is human, so it's possible I missed one or two.

I'll probably screen comments on this for about a week, and then post the answers.

Comments

[jenhime.livejournal.com]

14. Narrow Your Eyes - They Might Be Giants
21. It's a traditional Irish ballad... don't know who's covered it.
25. Suspicious Minds - Elvis Presley (although I know there have been covers, including The Fine Young Cannibals)
27. Grass - XTC

[vovat.livejournal.com]

14, 25, and 27 are all correct. It really is the Elvis version for 25, but it's NOT the original for 27, but the version from the Loser's Lounge tribute. Obviously you'd have no way of knowing that, though. {g} 21 is actually Tom Lehrer's parody of a traditional Irish ballad; he introduces it on Tom Lehrer Revisited as "an ancient Irish ballad, which was written a few years ago."

[travspence.livejournal.com]

7. Grand Canyon by Magnetic Fields
24. King of Suede by Weird Al (maybe)
25. Suspicious Minds, I think, but so many people have recorded it. I'm going to guess Elvis.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, those are all correct, and it is the Elvis version for 25.

[(Anonymous)]

10 is "Mr. Tambo/Urine Man", TMBG.
14 is "Narrow Your Eyes", TMBG.
28 is "She's an Angel", TMBG.


I'm ashamed for not knowing 12 and 22 off the bat.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Those are all right. You didn't get the title right for 10 (it's actually "Weep Day"), but it's obvious you knew which song it was. 12 and 22 are a little more obscure, so it's not too surprising those would be the ones you wouldn't know.

Who is this, by the way?

[colleenanne.livejournal.com]

8: Ben Folds Five, The Last Polka
28: They Might Be Giants, She's an Angel

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Both correct. I actually thought you might be able to get #5 as well, but I guess not.

[revme.livejournal.com]

Man, I wanna know what 4 is, because that line is awesome. And so's Daniel Johnston, for that matter.

10. TMBG - Weep Day
14. Ditto - Narrow Your Eyes

18 is a great line, too.

21. Tom Lehrer - Irish Ballad.
24. Weird Al - King Of Suede
25. Elvis - Suspicious Minds (or a cover thereof)
27. XTC - Grass
28. TMBG - She's An Angel


I'm actually probably the most intrigued for the answers than I've been. Partially because I did sorta poorly, but mostly because there are some REALLY GREAT opening lines in here, and I wanna know who they are.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, all of those are right. Do you have any idea about 1, 6, or 23? I think you might be the only person on my friends list who's heard them. I actually left out a word from 1, but I've fixed it.

Since this comment is screened, I might as well go ahead and tell you that 4 is from "Robert Wilson," by Muckafurgason. You'll have to wait on the others, though. Or you could look them up yourself. Whatever. {g}

[revme.livejournal.com]

Those three that you mentioned sound REALLY famliar, and it's one of those cases where I've probably heard them and SHOULD know what they are, but am drawing a blank.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

10 sounds really familiar. Not that that helps
25 is Suspicious Minds, which I always thought was Elvis, but I'm not sure, and maybe you have a remake anyway
26 the Beatles, Rocky Raccoon, hah! My brother made a video of this song with his stuffed animals (he had a lot of raccoons) when he was little and I can't hear the song without seeing them dancing across the screen!
28 This is TMBG, and it's one of those ones thats a weird little pseudo-romantic story, oh dangit, something about an angel?

And the artist clues indicate that 10 is also after all TMBG, so now I can sort of hear the lyric in my head but can't think what the song is. It's sung really fast...?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, 25 is the Elvis song. Other people have indeed covered it, but I'm not sure I've heard any of those other versions.

26 is right. Your story reminds me that I had a raccoon puppet named Rocky when I was a kid, but I hadn't actually heard the song at that point. One of my parents probably came up with the name.

And while you didn't get the titles for 28 and 10, you did get the band and the descriptions right. 28 is actually called "She's An Angel," which is pretty close to what you said.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Okay, I couldn't reply to the reply so I'll try again here.

10 kept singing itslef in my head after I went downstairs and finally managed to root out the rest of itself while I was doing the dishes and thinking of something else entirely: "Weep day"! there, I win the world.

You know what probably messed me up was I have always misheard that lyric and was under the impression that he HAD been to a tropical island and no one believed it or something

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's right. And I don't think anyone really knows what the lyrics to that song mean, so your interpretation is probably just as good as any other. {g}

[arfies.livejournal.com]

2. "I want to break her records in half. I hate the Beatles!" (WHAT????!!!!!)
21. "Irish Ballad" by Tom Lehrer
25. "Suspicious Minds" by Elvis Presley
26. "Rocky Raccoon"- The Beatles

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, those are right. It's Allan Sherman who sings the first one, by the way.

limited

[jiminysocks.livejournal.com]

18 and 20 are both by rasputina... although, i have no clue what 20 is, but i can answer 18.

18. "Our Lies" - By Rasputina

i love those ladies. rusty the skatemaker is my absolute fay-vor-it song of theirs. it bottles me up like a narcissistic genie, with no magic lamp...only legos.

Re: limited

[vovat.livejournal.com]

20 is "Crybabies," from Thanks for the Ether. All of the answers are now here (http://vovat.livejournal.com/300758.html).

My girlfriend bethje got me into Rasputina. We saw them live back in April (http://vovat.livejournal.com/286464.html), and it was pretty cool.