Lyrics meme

[pedanther]

Memed from justice_turtle and lost_spook:

1. Open up your music player. Hit shuffle.
2. Record the first few lines of the first thirty songs that come up that do not give away the name of the song. Skip instrumentals, but don't skip the embarrassing ones.
3. Make hapless LJ denizens guess the song names and artists. Google is cheating. For musical songs, the name of the musical is acceptable in place of the artist.

There's a smattering of songs from albums that I bought for only one song which isn't the song that ended up in the list. Otherwise, it's a pretty fair sampling of my collection, I think.

Some of these are live recordings; I've skipped spoken lead-ins and used the first sung lines.

Some of these are covers; I won't insist on the correct artist (some are pretty obscure).


#1.
It was just after dark when the truck started down
The hill that leads into Scranton, Pennsylvania
("30,000 Pounds of Bananas", Harry Chapin - identified by arcadiagt5)

#2.
Small pleasures, small pleasures
Who would deny us these?
("It's a Fine Life" from Oliver! - identified by splanky. Original London Cast recording)

#3.
A wim oh weh, a wim oooh weh
A wim oh weh, a wim oooh weh
("The Lion Sleeps Tonight", trad./controversial - identified by arcadiagt5. There's still a bonus point in it for anybody who can narrow down which recording)

#4.
No-one to talk with, all by myself
No-one to walk with, but I'm happy on the shelf
("Ain't Misbehaving", Fats Waller - identified by igenlode. Strictly speaking, it's Combo Fiasco's Fats Waller medley, but you can't tell that from the opening lines)

#5.
Come, my love, I'll tell you a tale
Of a boy and girl, and their love story
("Storybook Love", Willy DeVille - identified by arcadiagt5. The obligatory award-bait end-credits song from The Princess Bride, for anyone having trouble placing it)

#6.
I'm a-gonna take you down to the railway line
I'm a-gonna take you down to the railway line

#7.
I've paid my dues
Time after time
I've done my sentence
But committed no crime
("We Are The Champions", Queen - identified by arcadiagt5)

#8.
I've been in this town so long
That back in the city I've been
Taken for lost and gone
And unknown for a long, long time

#9.
When I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me
("Let It Be", The Beatles - identified by justice_turtle, lost_spook. The Nick Cave cover from the I Am Sam sountrack)

#10.
People say I'm no good
And crazy as a loon

#11.
I was takin' a trip out to LA
Toolin' along in my Chevrolet

#12.
Every time my tears
Have ever fallen
Keep 'em in my pocket
For a rainy day

#13.
Familiar with his kind
He'll beat someone down for fun

#14.
We're leaving together
But still it's farewell
("The Final Countdown", Europe - identified by ariaflame)

#15.
Circa mea pectora
multa sunt suspiria
("Circa mea pectora" from Carmina Burana - identified by arcadiagt5. I was concentrating so hard on getting the words I failed to notice this is one that has its title as an opening line)

#16.
Every day you walk
With stronger step
You walk with longer step
The worst is over
("A Heart Full of Love (reprise)" from Les Misérables - identified by igenlode. The 10th Anniversary Concert recording)

#17.
Well, I think it's fine
Building jumbo planes

#18.
I hear the train a-coming
It's rolling round the bend
("Folsom Prison Blues", Johnny Cash - identified by justice_turtle. The Folsom Prison live recording, naturally)

#19.
I found the answer, but I never liked it
I took my baby to the ten-step platform

#20.
Six o'clock already
I was just in the middle of a dream
("Manic Monday", The Bangles - identified by arcadiagt5, lost_spook)

#21.
All the late-night bargains have been struck
Between the satin beaus and their belles
("Your Latest Trick", Dire Straits - identified by arcadiagt5. Until I did this meme I had no idea what the words in the second line were)

#22.
There's just a few more hours
That's all the time you've got

#23.
Ah yee oh koe
Ah yoh koe
Ah yee oh koe
Ah yoh koe

#24.
Watching every motion in my foolish lover's game
On this endless ocean, finally lovers know no shame
("Take My Breath Away", Berlin - identified by lost_spook)

#25.
They made something, they played something
Brand new a baby blue machine

#26.
You are wrong, and always have been wrong
I'm a man, no worse than any man
('the track listing says "Drink With Me" but the first few minutes are actually Valjean and Javert's confrontation at the barricade' from Les Misérables - identified by igenlode. The confrontation acquires rhythm and rhyme several lines before this, but these are the first lines actually sung, at least in the 10th Anniversary Concert recording)

#27.
Time, time, time
See what's become of me
("Hazy Shade of Winter", The Bangles - identified by arcadiagt5)

#28.
Madi ao
Leka sebete chia ho oele sebatha

#29.
Ring out the bells upon this day of days
May all the angels of the Lord above
("Wedding Chorale / Beggars at the Feast" from Les Misérables - identified by arcadiagt5. The 10th Anniversary Concert recording)

#30.
All the old paintings on the tombs
They do the sand dance, don't you know
("Walk Like An Egyptian", The Bangles - identified by justice_turtle)



Skipped:
7 songs that begin with the title
17 instrumentals
6 audio book segments
1 audio drama segment
1 interview


Update: Answers here.

Comments

[justice-turtle.livejournal.com]

#3: Wimoweh! Mine's a Pete Seeger cover. Is that not the title?

#9: Let It Be, right? The Beatles/John Lennon. (I've never actually heard it; yay '70s songbooks and a flypaper memory for words! XD)

#18: Folsom Prison Blues! Johnny Cash. YAY JOHNNY CASH.

#30: Walk Like an Egyptian! I wouldn't even know, except the other day I misheard one of the later lines as "the Hardy Boys call their grandmother" and had to look up the lyrics online because that would just be too weird. (Turns out it's "the Party boys call the Kremlin", which is still weird. It's a strange song. *g*)

I totally would have put in audiobook segments if any had turned up. Were yours anything people might have recognized? (I had The Lost World, Wind in the Willows, Lassie Come Home, and some classic poetry, so. *shrugs*)

[pedanther]

#9, #18, #30: Yep!

#3: It's not the title I know, which is the title on the track listing, and now I'm not sure we're thinking of the same song. Sing a couple of lines that aren't "Wimoweh", will you?

Oh yes, people would have definitely have recognised the audio book. Maybe I'll put it up as a bonus round later.

[justice-turtle.livejournal.com]

Re #3: I don't know any? It's all in African, and mostly just "Wimoweh" over and over - it's the song that "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" was based on. (And I was technically wrong; I've got the Weavers cover, not the Pete Seeger solo cover.) I see from the comment below me that yours is the English version of "Lion Sleeps Tonight", which apparently also begins with "wimoweh"?

[pedanther]

I've listened to the Pete Seeger version on YouTube now, and I see what you mean about there being no lines that aren't "Wimoweh". Nice song; I don't think I've heard it before except the bits that ended up in "The Lion Sleeps Tonight".

Depends what you mean by "begins": the actual solo part begins "In the jungle, the quiet jungle, the lion sleeps tonight", but in most versions I know with a backing part, there's a couple of lines of wimoweh before the solo part comes in. (#23 is another where the opening lines I've given are the backing chorus rather than the beginning of the solo part - not that knowing that is likely to help you if you don't know the song.)

[arcadiagt5.livejournal.com]

#1 30,000 Pounds of Bananas
#3 The Lion sleeps tonight?
#5 is the vocal track off the Princess Bride soundtrack, but I'm blanking on title and artist.
#7 We are the Champions, Queen
#15 I suspect is one of the tracks in the Carmina Burana but I don't remember which (and I'm not gonna cheat)
#20 Manic Monday, The Bangles
#21 Your Latest Trick?
#27 Hazy Shade of Winter. Judging by #21 & #30 I suspect the Bangles' version.
#29 Les Miserable - Beggars at the Feast I think

I suspect that our musical tastes are fairly similar at this point. :)

[pedanther]

All correct!

Including your suspicion about #27; I do also have the Simon and Garfunkel version, but it didn't come up in this list.

I'm not going to make you be specific about #15, because I couldn't in your place. (Also I've just realised that I was so busy concentrating on getting the words I didn't notice it's another one that starts with with its title: it's called "Circa mea pectora".)

[splanky.livejournal.com]

#2 It's a fine life from the musical Oliver. By Lionel Bart. Sung by Nancy and Beth (Bet?)

[pedanther]

Kee-rect!

(And Bet it is.)

[thisbluespirit]

3 & 14 sounds a bit familiar, but other than that:

9. Let It Be - The Beatles
20. Manic Monday - The Bangles
24. Take My Breath Away? (can't recall the artist)

[pedanther]

Yes, yes, and yes. (Berlin, not to be confused with Europe.)

[ariaflame.livejournal.com]

14 - The Final Countdown (Is that Europe?)

For a while it was trying to morph into a song from Labyrinth, but I'm pretty sure it's not that.

[pedanther]

Yes, it's "The Final Countdown", and it is by Europe.

[igenlode.livejournal.com]

Nos 16 and 26 are also "Les Miserables", which seems to have got over-represented by the randomiser :-) (16 is sung by Cosette to Marius and 26 by Valjean to Javert -- the actual singers could be anyone, depending on who recorded your version!)

I'm tempted to say that 12 comes from "Catch a Falling Star (and put it in your pocket)", but I'm pretty sure it doesn't -- a mere similarity of sentiment :-p

No. 4 looks like "Ain't Misbehaving", though again it's anyone's guess whose recording you have here...

The others (save for some of those already named) I can confidently say I don't know.

[pedanther]

You are correct about #16 and #26, and also in the implication that there's no more Les Mis to be identified. It's the 10th Anniversary Concert recording with Colm Wilkinson as Valjean and Judy Kuhn as Cosette.

#4 is indeed "Ain't Misbehaving", in a recording by the cabaret trio Combo Fiasco.

You're also correct that #12 isn't "Catch a Falling Star" (and I venture to suggest that the song as a whole isn't all that similar in sentiment, though of course I can't prove it without revealing what the song is).

[igenlode.livejournal.com]

I can't post my own lyrics meme as I'm currently locked out of posting new entries to my journal (by what I suspect is an LJ software 'upgrade' to the way in which posting dates are generated) so I'll add a quick run-down of my own ten-song lyric experiment here, as the semi-coherent progression amused me:

Don't want my mammy, I don't need a friend
My heart is broken, it won't ever mend

I'm a very ordinary man
Trying to work out life's happy plan

I love to climb an apple tree
Though apples green are bad for me

Listen to my tale of woe
It's terribly sad but true

If I were queen for a day,
To my advisers I'd say:

"Chicks do it, Japs do it,
Up in Lapland little Lapps do it

She's my lady-love
She is my dove, my baby love

You made the river flow, the flowers grow
You made the weak and the strong

Come, dearest heart, 'mid the flow'rs of June,
Come out in my garden so gay

When I remember every little thing you used to do, I'm so lonely --
Every road I walk along, I walked along with you"




The songs were in fact presented in alphabetical order of title although randomly selected: skipped 5 give-away openings, some repeats (due to the title sorting)and a fair few instrumentals. And I wouldn't expect anyone to recognise more than one or two at most (at least four of those samples even I wouldn't, despite knowing the choruses quite well!)

[pedanther]

"The Dutch in Old Amsterdam do it
So do Siamese twinges
In Dorset, even doors do it
Though they fall off their hinges

Birds do it, bees do it
In Afghan hounds little fleas do it
Let's do it
Let's fall in love!"

(Frank Muir's semi-extemporised version, from an episode of "My Music" I was listening to earlier this week)

...that's the only one I recognise for sure, although a couple of the others give me the impression I'd recognise their choruses too.

[igenlode.livejournal.com]

That was the one I would have put my finger on as universally recognisable, yes :-)

They're mostly 78rpm recordings, and I wouldn't expect anyone to get No. 8 (Lord, You Made the Night Too Long -- although some Googling seems to show that it was later covered by both Bing Crosby and Dean Martin -- or No.1, I Must Have That Man.

No.2 comes from "No, No Nanette" and might be familiar, No. 3 is a Deanna Durbin number from "Spring Parade", No. 4 is quite well known, and No. 5 I've actually got the sheet music for, though it's another Jack Hylton recording: Let the people sing.

No.7 is one of the others that might be guessable... No. 9, "Love's Garden of Roses", is written by Haydn Wood (composer of "Roses of Picardy"), who specialised in parlour songs about gardens, flowers and birds, and was recorded here as a duet by Anne Ziegler and Webster Booth, famous married singing partners; No. 10 I associate with Evelyn Laye (who first sang it on stage in "The New Moon") though the actual recording I was listening to is by Rudy Vallee.