I’ve been good and not uploaded a meme FAIL.
But, y’know. I figure this will interest / infuriate at least, er, three of you. So there we go.
It’s one of those memes that has Rules, which I’ll chuck up for your benefit at the start, so you can work out what you’re doing, even if that turns out to be “thumping PgDn good and hard.”
1. Put your music player on random. (having first loaded all your MP3s into it, I assume)
2. Post the first line from the first 20 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song. (Unless it’s spoken word, or entirely instrumental, or has a first line which consists entirely of the title of the song, in which case I’ve skipped it, as it’d be unfair on yez.)
3. Let everyone guess what song and artist (or musical) the lines come from. (Comments enabled. Knock yourselves out.)
4. Embolden the songs when someone guesses correctly. (Uhm. Kay.)
Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING! (In capitals, an’ everything. Must be serious…)
I’d just like to point out that 20 doesn’t seem like very many. I mean that’s, what, 1 song opening per 3 Gb of MP3s? [62Gb/20=3.1; please correct me if that doesn’t make sense.]
Still, let’s see what kind of a mood the RNG’s in, shall we? (& nuts to Popular Culture.)
- I heard Woodrow Wilson’s guns / I heard Maria cryin’
- A cadillac stood by the house, and the Yanks they were within
- What was that bang? It was the next big thing / exploding over our heads
- They passed me by / all of those great romances
- I’m dancing on the White House lawn / sipping tea by the Taj Mahal at dawn
- My mind keeps on telling me that this is no good / and my heart is aching, and tells me I should
- [large quantities of saying “Woah”] You’re going round the circle / through another phase
- Dusk, is dawn, is day / where did it go?
- She had a bad childhood while she was young / so don’t judge her too badly.
- Turn away / if you could get me a drink of water / ’cause my lips are chapped and faded
- Everything has a beginning / everything comes to an end / Take it or leave it, you’d better believe it / be my lover, be my friend
- O is this the way they say the future’s meant to feel? / Ah, just twenty thousand people standing in a field?
- Michael wears his tan like a flasher wears his coat / he’s full of mad adventures, he’s full of anecdotes
- Isaac, nice chap / died of cancer / I gigged with him / many times
- I tried to come down from you / tried with your voice in my head, knocking me back, every inch I moved
- I still hear your voice when you sleep next to me / I still feel your touch in my dreams
- Papers in the morning / bowler hat on head
- A malady / has taken him over
- It was eyes down at the bingo / on that lucky Friday night
- Ron and Nancy got the house, but Sid and Nancy rule / I died eight years ago, I’m still a legend at my high school
–One of us / ABBA
–Life is a minestrone / 10cc
–Cancer : My chemical romance My chemical romance
–Hero (Sweden ; Eurovision, 2008) / Charlotte Perrelli
–Sorted out for E’s and whizz / Pulp.
–Dangerous / Fairport Convention
–Death song / PBH
–Curve of the Earth / Matt Nathanson
–Every time we touch / Cascada
–Cardiac arrest / Madness.
–London lives / Blur
–Tux on / Marillion
–Alleluia / Dar Williams
… Hm. I’ve erred on the side of verbosity there, because I think the RNG is in an Obscure mood. Well, I say obscure. What I mean is “Things I don’t expect you people to know.”
Comments
18. London lives, Blur
1–17, 19 & 20. Crazy folk claptrap.
Where’s the I Am Kloot? Where’s the Elbow?
The only one I can get is 12: Sorted Out For Es and Whizz by Pulp.
4: One of Us, Abba. That’s the only one I can get. See, I was good in mine and included only a few Rascal Flatts and one Deanna Durbin, plus a few folky things you’d be bound to get. AND I omitted all but one of my classical collection, thereby excluding at least one entire case of CDs. (I’m considering another one in which I describe the orchestration and give the rhythm of the first line. It says a lot about my sense of humour that I think this would be both hilarious and a worthwhile use of my time.) WIth all your folkness we all fail at being folky folks. Except Ruth, of course, who hugged trees as a child with the Woodcraft Folk or similar.
Oh, dear. I should’ve got 12.
15. Matt Nathanson – Curve Of The Earth.
16. Cascada – Every Time We Touch (I know it’s the cover and not Maggie Reilly’s original, because I’m pretty sure the original doesn’t START with those lines).
19. Afraid you’re very, very wrong, Statto – definitely not folk! It’s Marillion – Tux On.
11. COULD be just about anything – can we have another two lines from it? I’ve got vibes of something I loved at Eurovision this year (sorry!), but damned if I’ve got the stomach to listen to even the start of all the songs from it again unless I’m sure that’s the right direction, and I’m forbidden from Googling.
Statto:
Dude! Hokay I do have a lot of folk on here, but most of 1-17 aren’t really folk, y’know. Even if you count folk-rock I count either 15 or 13 (depending how wide your definition of folk-rock) that aren’t!
And it looks like I’ve got 62.3 Gb of MP3 and no Elbow. Must be my naturally sunny disposition. Not quite sure how, mind, since I’m fairly sure you gave me some. Guess it got lost when the PSU kerploded in 2005.
Closest to Elbonic Miserable Folornitude on this list is No. 10. Any offers?
Annie:
I know, I know. But this is what the thingy came up with (when it wasn’t giving me chapter 23 of Strong Poison, or something). If it doesn’t work I’ll just hack through the thing manually and see what I can do to balance it all out a bit. Frankly, there’s a couple of things on here that I don’t really listen to very much, so I left it as it was in the way of an experiment…
Dan:
Bang on, bang on, bang on, and very close. 11 is Eurovision, and it is 2008, which is impressive. I’ve given you the next couple of lines on it; they’re a bit long, which is how come I left them off the first time round!
Incidentally, you’re one of three people I expect to get No. 14…
Number 1 is Warren Zevon. Don’t know which song, though.
10 is My Chemical Romance, Cancer.
I know number 11, but it was playing on winamp when I read this so I’m going to leave it for Dan.
I also know 14, but I want to see if either of the two other people who ought to know it get it.
17 is Cardiac Arrest by Madness, and 20 is a Dar Williams song. The one with dying. That I was reading the lyrics of the other day. That I’ve forgotten the name of.
Other than that, I don’t know. Which is quite bad, given that I’ve probably heard all of these. In my defence, I never listen to the words.
It’s called Alleluia! 20, that is. I remember now.
One of the reasons I like this meme is that you’re sunk if you’re not a listening-to-the-words person. :-)
But I’ll see if I can’t hack together a playlist consisting of Things Less Obscure Than Everything On The PC in case that gives some of you a better chance.
(I had to skip soundtracks from computer games seven times; even if they had words I don’t think I could expect anyone to cite ‘Indepencence way’ from Colonization…)
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5. Life is a Minestrone – 10CC
13. Dangerous – probably the Fairport Convention version, rather than the woman that wrote it orignally?
I think No. 14 is the Death Song by Peter Buckley Hill.
Is 11 the Swedish entry, “Hero”?
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