Eine Kleine Nichtmusik

Witty and pertinent observations on matters of great significance OR Incoherent jottings on total irrelevancies OR Something else altogether OR All of the above

Monday, July 31, 2006

Twenty-five more first lines

Rules as before. Guess song and artist, and put your guesses in the comment box. Soon I'm going to have to start repeating artists, but not yet....

Middling difficulty this time, with only two that you couldn't cheat by Googling (but you wouldn't do that, would you?)

1. It's a fact, at the most uninvolved unexpected moments,the most inopportune,some see the flesh before they see the bones
Stereolab: "Super Electric" - Phil
2. It's true that all the men you knew were dealers who said they were through with dealing
Leonard Cohen: "Stranger Song" - Sam
3. She came without a farthing, a babe without a name
Queen: "All Dead, All Dead" - Gordon
4. He's the kind of guy puts on a motorcycle jacket and he weighs about a hundred and five
5. She sits alone, waiting for suggestions
Rod Stewart: "D'Ya Think I'm Sexy?" - Gordon
6. Sun so bright that I'm nearly blind
Spiritualized: "I Think I'm In Love" - Phil
7. Cast your mind back ten years to the girl who's next to me in school
The Move: "Fire Brigade" - Phil
8. And the slightest confrontation was dissolved before the start
9. LA's fine, the sun shines most of the time, and the feeling is laid back
Neil Diamond: "I Am...I Said" - Phil
10. And the night comes again to the circle-studded sky
Phil Ochs: "The Crucifixion" - Lisa
11. The coat she wore still lies upon the bed
Gerry Rafferty: "Her Father Didn't Like Me Anyway" - Sam
12. When I was a young man I used to dress so neat
Mr Fox: "The Hanged Man" - Ted Amos
13. Her new name was tattooed to her wrist; it was longer than the old one
14. I was just sitting there, eating a salmonella sandwich
15. Another suburban family morning, grandmother screaming at the wall
16. Me no bubbleicious, me smoke heavy tar
Robbie Williams (with Kylie Minogue): "Kids" - Gordon
17. I used to wake up in the morning, I used to feel so bad
The Who: "Pictures of Lily" - Phil
18. I used to have a notion, I would swim the length of the ocean, if I knew you were waiting for me
The Only Ones: "The Whole Of The Law" - Phil
19. You've seen life through distorted eyes, you know you had to learn
Black Sabbath: "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" - Tim
20. There's no point in asking, you'll get no reply
Sex Pistols: "Pretty Vacant" - Phil
21. When I was a young man I carried my pack and I lived the free life of the rover
The Pogues: "And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" - Gert
22. On a night like this I deserve to get kissed at least once or twice
Boomtown Rats: "Someone's Looking At You" - Kate
23. My, my, the clock in the sky is pounding away
24. The sky is crying, the streets are full of tears
25. You are drunk and you are surly in Latino lover mode

22 Comments:

At 01 August, 2006 04:09, Blogger Sam, Problem-Child-Bride said...

#2 is Leonard Cohen. Gaddang it if I can't remember the name of the song but I can sing all the words. The first finishes:

"..every time you gave them shelter/I know that kind of man/It's hard to hold the hand of anyone/ Who's reaching for the sky just to surrender/And he wants to trade the game he knows for shelter/So you say "OK, the bridge or someplace later"

Best image from the song - "the highway that is curling just like smoke above his shoulder"

Damn! Why can't I remember the name!

 
At 01 August, 2006 04:17, Blogger Sam, Problem-Child-Bride said...

I think #11 is a Pogues song. it goes on "The book you gave her that she never read"

The main part of the song I remember was "her father never liked me anyway", and at the end "her father was an old cunt anyway."

 
At 01 August, 2006 04:18, Blogger Sam, Problem-Child-Bride said...

A couple others are familiar. Hmm - I'll kick myself when they're revealed, I know it.

 
At 01 August, 2006 04:20, Blogger Sam, Problem-Child-Bride said...

Is #17 Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive"?

 
At 01 August, 2006 09:34, Blogger Phil said...

These are getting easier...

1: Stereolab, "Superelectric" [the song that got me into them - shame they never improved on it]
6: Spiritualized, "I think I'm in love"
7: the Move, "Fire Brigade"
9: Neil Diamond, "I am, I said" [took me a while - I was stuck between Albert Hammond and "Like a rolling stone"]
17: the Who, "Pictures of Lily"
20: Sex Pistols, "Pretty Vacant"

 
At 01 August, 2006 11:29, Blogger Kate said...

22. is the Boomtown Rats - I'm singing it now I'll tell you the title in a mo. Someone's Looking At You?

I thought number 7 was Centerfold by the J Geils Band I might be wrong about that.

 
At 01 August, 2006 12:13, Blogger Tim said...

#19 is Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.

 
At 01 August, 2006 18:40, Blogger Rob said...

Sam: #2 is "Stranger Song". #11 is in fact a Gerry Rafferty song and it's his version I've got, but Shane McGowan and the Popes (his post-Pogues band) covered it, wth the changed last line you mention. As you will see from Phil's guess, you were wide of the mark with #17.

Phil: they may be easier, but I'm impressed that you got Stereolab so quickly. "Super Electric" is my favourite too, I think. All your other answers were spot on too.

Kate: right on with #22 but I'm afraid #7 is The Move.

Tim: yup, Sabbath it is. I always like the bit in the middle of that song where all the instruments are put out of phase so they get shunted off to the edges of the stereo image while Ozzy remains all alone in the middle.

Plenty of easy ones left, people, including two mega-hits which I thought would have been the first to go, and one which Lisa can Hoover up when she comes back from her holiday if nobody else beats her to it.

 
At 01 August, 2006 19:46, Blogger Tim said...

That Sabbath song leaves every punk band standing when it comes to writing about being very, very pissed off. Who else could have come up with the classic line "Bog blast all of you!".

 
At 02 August, 2006 12:03, Blogger Gordon said...

3. Is All Dead by Queen from the wonderful News of the World album. Includes a fav of mine, Sleeping on the Sidewalk.

5. Might be Rod Stewart, Do you think I'm sexy.

 
At 02 August, 2006 14:23, Blogger Rob said...

Gordon - Yup. My favourite on NOTW is "It's Late", with "All Dead, All Dead" running it a very close second. But a marvellous album anyway. And with #5 you shot down one of the two mega-hits I referred to, leaving only one (and some other fairly well-known stuff).

 
At 03 August, 2006 11:21, Blogger Lisa Rullsenberg said...

The only one I can get is number 10: Phil Och's Crucifixion which is just such a mammoth track... in a good way of course

 
At 03 August, 2006 20:25, Blogger Udge said...

I thought that 24 was Elmore James, but the words don't match. Sigh. Can't get a single one this time.

 
At 04 August, 2006 00:49, Blogger Rob said...

Lisa - that's the one. I knew you had the album so I reckoned you'd get it.

I'm going to post some hints....

 
At 04 August, 2006 09:01, Blogger Phil said...

18 - the Only Ones, "Whole of the law" [not their most memorable song, in my defence - if you'd posted Now I know what you want, but I don't know how to give it I'd have been there in a second]

 
At 04 August, 2006 15:46, Anonymous Gert said...

21 is the Pogues And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda/Tom Traubert's Blues. Or June Tabor. Or Tom Waits

 
At 04 August, 2006 18:50, Blogger Tim said...

Your clues have identified a couple of bands, but I still can't identify the actual songs. Bah!

Once everyone has guessed them all, I've done another one on my own blog :)

 
At 08 August, 2006 21:05, Blogger Gordon said...

Balls.

16.

Robbie bloody Williams, ain't it... Kids. Kylie sings the opening line..

How the HELL did I not get that.. and yes, the MBIAT clue was a give away.

 
At 08 August, 2006 23:53, Blogger mike said...

I just popped in to say #16 is "Kids" by Robbie & Kylie, but Mr Bloody Ubiquitous Bloody McLean has bloody beaten me to it...

 
At 09 August, 2006 11:02, Blogger Rob said...

Phew! Now I don't have to slit my wrists. Now then: #25, anybody? or #8? #15? #23? I thought the hints for those might dredge them out of someone's memory...

 
At 11 August, 2006 14:52, Blogger Ted Amos said...

No 12 - 'When I was a young man I used to dress so neat'- are the opening words of "The Hanged Man" by Mr Fox (Bob and Carolanne Pegg) recorded on their eponymous album sometime in the early '70's.

 
At 12 August, 2006 11:56, Blogger Rob said...

Go Ted! I really thought that one would elude capture until the end. Welcome to the happy band of EKN-sters. Or even "Join us in our game"....

 

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