Thank you for the winter friendliness that's snowing down all around

[vovat]

I got a Christmas mix CD in the mail from zimbra1006 the other day. I haven't listened to much of it yet (too busy coming up with the the game that turns up later in the post {g}) has an overlap of five songs with the Christmas CD that bethje made a few years ago. One of the overlapping songs is "Thanks For Christmas," which, for some reason, can be heard quite a bit at stores at this time of year. I even heard it at the Wawa gas pumps recently. I think it's on the Generic Store Christmas Tape. While it's cool to hear, it bugs me that these stores never play XTC at any OTHER time of year. Okay, I remember hearing "King For A Day" once or twice at the grocery store where I used to work, but that's hardly what I'd call a good example of the band. I also once walked by an Abercrombie & Fitch (or some comparable store) that was playing Mandy Moore's cover of "Senses Working Overtime." In general, though, I'd say XTC is drastically underplayed, EXCEPT for "Thanks For Christmas." I'm sure the fact that it's a Christmas song helps matters, but a lot of bands do Christmas songs that never get played anywhere. Someone who compiles those store tapes or runs the store radio feeds must be particularly fond of that song.

Speaking of music, I just recently found out that the Meat Purveyors CD that I bought for Beth's birthday includes a cover of "Middle Of Nowhere," which I knew from the Dusty Springfield tape that my mom has. It's pretty cool when that kind of think happens. It's like, "Hey, I know that song! One of my parents had that album!" I had the same kind of feeling hearing John Linnell's version of "North To Alaska," which actually came up randomly on Winamp the other day.

And, while on the subject of songs coming up randomly on Winamp (nice transitions, huh? {g}), zaph did this, and I might as well follow suit. Basically, I played a set of songs randomly, and chose a line from each one. Your job is to guess what song each line is from. I cheated a little, in that I skipped songs that I didn't know very well, or that I didn't think anyone would be able to guess. I also made sure that no artist was represented more than twice. I'll give a hint and say that four bands/artists have two songs each.


1. Ran into the henchman that severed Anne Boelyn.
2. Tried to buy your love, but I came up short.
3. If his contradictions should attract you, should he distract you, heaven help you then.
4. One thing on which you can depend is, he sure knew who a boy's best friend is.
5. And I bought the right one just for you.
6. And did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
7. Last night I dreamt I'd forgotten my name.
8. Want to be upside-down, maybe thrown from side to side.
9. My spell of hours will make you fall.
10. When the sun clocks in we'll still be talking and champaigning.
11. I'm not that vain little boy that I was.
12. Ezekiel's wheel spins; I'm borne upon a throne by Red Cross crusaders who wave from Galilee.
13. When I saw your fine physique, I was into you like a train.
14. She thought it would be fun to try photography. She thought it would be fun to try pornography.
15. Bells are ringing, we are singing, joyous in our industry.
16. Shout from the rooftops and address the press.
17. Some big friendly polar bear might want to take you home.
18. There's this crazy thing in my head; I don't know if it's true.
19. Repetition's got you down, nothing but your engine sound.
20. We'll buzz this town, see what makes them tick.

This was more fun when I did something similar, but where I picked the songs. Maybe I'll do that again someday.


Expect a political post later today!

Comments

[tisok.livejournal.com]

3 - tmbg - dr. evil
9 - the dukes - 25 o'clock
13 - frank black - i love your brain
19 - muckafurgason - nightdriver

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yes, those are all correct.

[bethje.livejournal.com]

1. Tori Amos "Talula"
15. Tori Amos "Happy Workers" or whatever it's called
17. Sloan "Waterfalls" or whatever it's called

I also knew 3 and 9. I bet I'll be embarrassed about some of the others that I didn't get.

[revme.livejournal.com]

It's funny -- I've never actually heard Thanks For Christmas anywhere except for when I listen to Rag and Bone Buffet. (In fact, last year, when I'd get bored, I'd occasionally try/fail to get one of my friends to play it on the radio show he works on.) Although I've actually heard XTC in other places... on the radio, I've heard "Senses" and "Generals & Majors", and my mom said that one time she was on hold and heard "Grass". (I can't recall, but I think it was the real one, rather than a Muzaked "Grass".) I seem to remember hearing a Muzaked "King for a Day" or "Mayor of Simpleton", but I can't recall for sure. (And, well, I think this kinda counts, pretty much every day at work, I have to listen to "Roll to Me" by Del Amitri, and that is a _shameless_ ripoff of "Mayor".)

The Mandy Moore "Senses" is... surprisingly not as awful as I was expecting. I was really shocked. I downloaded it out of a sense of morbid curiosity, and... yeah. Could have been much, much worse.

Also:
4. Oedipus Rex - Tom Lehrer
5. You'll Miss Me - TMBG
6. Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
11. Miniature Sun - XTC (dang, all talkin' about Oranges & Lemons today...)
18. Do you Ever Think Of Me - Laura Cantrell


(I had the band on 14, but I forgot the song, so I looked that up, but I haven't looked up the other ones. And also didn't include 14, so as not to ruin the game on that one.)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yep, all of those are right. There are some others where I know you know the song, but I didn't choose a very obvious lyric. To be honest, I probably wouldn't have gotten some of them myself, if I hadn't just listened to them to make the quiz today.

Do you know where that Sloan song is from, anyway? I think I either got it from you or from 3x1minus1's blog, but I mean where it was from originally. A B-side or something, maybe?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I know I've heard "Earn Enough For Us" on WXPN (http://www.xpn.org/). I think they might have also played "Peter Pumpkinhead" at some point, and, while I didn't hear it, "Dear God" was in their list of the Top 885 Songs of All Time.

I don't think I've ever heard the whole thing of Mandy Moore's "Senses" cover, but yeah, what I heard wasn't that bad.

And all of your guesses (using that term loosely, since you were probably sure of most of them) correct. For #6, I was actually listening to Rasputina's cover version, but that's neither here nor there, since the lyrics are the same. I have heard the original, but I don't have a recording of it.

[tisok.livejournal.com]

oh damn. it's a mccartney cover, from the mccartney tribute album (the very same one that ram on appeared on). i knew it sounded familiar.

[tisok.livejournal.com]

6 is another that i knew sounded familiar. i have (and enjoy) both versions.

[revme.livejournal.com]

Ah, tell you the truth, I thought it was a little odd that you'd have a Floyd mp3. (Of course, I'm not into Floyd either, and that's one of the... 5? I've got, so...)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I used to have an MP3 of "Bike" (which I got because it was one of the influences on the Dukes of Stratosphear mentioned in the Song Stories book), and I thought that was a pretty good song. But yeah, I'm not into Pink Floyd in general.

[zimbra1006.livejournal.com]

Odd, I've never heard Thanks for Christmas on the radio, but Dear God was huge on the airwaves here when I was a kid, as well as Mayor of Simpleton. Senses and Nigel are pretty frequent too. I've also heard Grass and Peter Pumpkinhead. My mom always listened to our (formerly) awesome alternative station when I was growing up though. Same reason I heard TMBG at a very young age.