First lines, from blackcoat

[unixronin]

blackcoat posted this meme.  I am spoon-depleted, and don't warrant that it's original to him or even the first place I've seen it.  It works like this:

Step 1: Put your iPod or whatever on random.

Step 2: Post the first line from the first 20 [non-instrumental] songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song.

Step 3: Post and let everyone you know guess what song and artist the lines come from.

Step 4: Strike out the songs when someone guesses correctly.

Step 5: Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING.

I'm going to make one minor addition:  as I strike out lines, I'll tag them with who ... well, tagged them.  (EDIT:  And, per otherbill, I'll add the correct identification up top.)

(I run DigitalDJ on random-generation all the time anyway.  It occasionally surprises me how many double-shots it comes up with in a playlist, with almost 4,400 songs from over 200 artists in its database to choose from.)

1. All you women who want a man of the street    (AC/DC, Shoot to Thrill, blackcoat)
2. Complacent, you're growing complacent
3. You can dance, you can jive    (Abba, Dancing Queen, zeekar)
4. Flying on a free flight    (AC/DC, Let me put my love into you, gdmusumeci, partial credit to zeekar)
5. Jesse James we understand    (The Pogues, Jesse James, cymrullewes)
6. The sparks of the tempest raged a hundred years on    (Kansas, Sparks of the Tempest,otherbill)
7. Now chased by the shapes of your vows
8. Walking slowly helps your day
9. Love is blindness    (U2, Love is Blindness, blackcoat)
10. I spend half of each day just eyeing the clock
11. Wait until the war is over    (The Doors, The Unknown Soldier, mazianni)
12. I am a rovin’ journeyman, I roam from town to town    (Tempest (trad.), The Journeyman, mazianni)
13. Ayreon!  Don't you know who I am?    (Ayreon, Merlin's Will, cymrullewes)
14. You can't run away forever    (Meat Loaf, Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through, cymrullewes)
15. You know it's true we're both the same.
16. Enveloped in a sentiment    (VNV Nation, Legion,blackcoat)
17. Machines of madness    (Front Line Assembly, Transparent Species, gdmusumeci)
18. What we learned here is love tastes bitter    (Matchbox 20, Shame, cymrullewes)
19. I've been a wild rover for many a year    (Tempest (trad.), The Wild Rover, blackcoat)
20. Wherever the wind blows    (Midnight Oil, Surf's Up Tonight, gdmusumeci)

Yeah, I know, some of these are dead give-aways.  (Update:  To my surprise, it so far appears only about half of those I consider the dead give-aways have been immediately guessed.)  Eight instrumental songs were skipped during the making of this list.  ............ Well, OK, seven.  One of them has lyrics, but not in any actual human language.  There is a note to be found on one of the "lyric" pages for this song that the lyrics are spoken using Arabic phonemes with an Egyptian accent (the speaker grew up in Egypt), but most of the words are gibberish, sometimes almost resembling real words, but "altered and arranged differently so they sound meaningless".  Here, for extra credit:

21. Ibal lahl arou-sah om-yah-lee, yah al-bil kou-rou-dil menyaah

Good luck on that one.  (Oops ... accidentaly "premature disclosure" corrected.  Copy-and-paste error from my key cribsheet.)

Comments

[blackcoat.livejournal.com]

1. AC/DC - Shoot to Thrill
9. U2 - Love is Blindness
16. VNV - Legion (This song *SUCKED BALLS* live, btw. There was none of the restrained passion from the studio cut.)
19. Dropkick Murphy's - The Wild Rover. (Might be someone else, but they're the only ones I know of who do this song)

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

In this case, it's Tempest (http://www.tempestmusic.com/) on The Wild Rover. There's two songs on this list that are more or less traditional, and on both of them, I'll accept any artist who performs it. :)

(You should check Tempest out. They're excellent. I see the line-up's changed since I last had a CD from them -- Ronan and Ariane are new to me, and Robbie Wullenjohn's gone ... in fact, Lief and Adolfo are the only two original members left.)

[mazianni.livejournal.com]

I have 12 as The Journeyman, performed by Tempest.
I have 19 as Wild Rover, performed by the Dropkick Murphys, also performed by Golden Bough.

I probably have other versions of those two songs as well.

I have 11 as The Unknown Soldier, by the Doors.
Wait until the war is over / and we're both a little older
The unknown soldier

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Yup, The Journeyman is the other traditional for which I'll accept any artist who performs it. :) The Wild Rover is Tempest too, but blackcoat beat you to that one (and also called the Dropkick Murphys on it).

Am I disqualified?

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

13. Charm of the Seer - Ayreon
20. When the Wind blows - Eric Bogle

I've probably got the titles wrong but I know I've got the artists right.

Re: Am I disqualified?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Actually .... on #13, you're correct that you have the wrong title. On #20, the artist is also wrong, but I can understand the error; the line is very close, but in When the Wind Blows, it's not the first line.

I'll leave it up to you whether to consider yourself disqualified, but I see no particular reason to. :)

Re: Am I disqualified?

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised Geo didn't chime in.

Merlin's Will - The Final Experiment - Ayreon

Re: Am I disqualified?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

He doesn't seem to read or post much though.

[otherbill.livejournal.com]

6. "Sparks of the Tempest", Kansas (off "Audio-Visions", right?)

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Correct identification, but it's off Point of Know Return.

[zeekar.livejournal.com]

3. "Dancing Queen", Abba. Come on, people. It's a classic!

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I'd expected that to be one of the first to go. :)

[blackcoat.livejournal.com]

Ok, so I tried several times to figure out what they were, then gave up and googled.

I have to admit, I'm embarrased about numbers 4 and 14. I have pretty full collections of *both* artists.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I love #14. It's one of my favorite songs by, um ... that artist. :)

[zeekar.livejournal.com]

Argh. 4 is by AC/DC. It's on "Back in Black". Last song on side 1. (Yes, there was this thing called a "cassette", and it had sides, and... oh, never mind.) Argh! What's the title? Where's the fast-forward button for my brain?

[gdmusumeci.livejournal.com]

It's "Let Me Put My Love Into You." Man, I love AC/DC. :)

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Nailed. (So to speak.)

That's it!

[zeekar.livejournal.com]

Wasn't ther a big scandal about that song?

Re: That's it!

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Uh ...... couldn't prove it by me. But I'll take your word for it. AC/DC didn't ever, to my knowledge, become famous by going out of their way to avoid offending anyone. :)

[gdmusumeci.livejournal.com]

#17 is, I think, Front Line Assembly's Transparent Species.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

It is exactly that. :) One of the more obscure ones on the list....

A burst of memory

[gdmusumeci.livejournal.com]

#20 is, I think, Midnight Oil's Surf's Up Tonight.

Re: A burst of memory

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Indeed it is. :)

Right . . . on tip . . . of tongue . . .

[zeekar.livejournal.com]

14 and 18 have been niggling at me all day. I can't quite place them, though. They both feel like unreleased tracks on albums that I got because of other hit singles. On the adult contemporary chart, or at least getting airplay on Star 94. Unfortunately, that being about all that Jody and I listened to at that time, this doesn't narrow it down much...

I guess I'll have to give up and Google. But maybe I'll sleep on it first.

Re: Right . . . on tip . . . of tongue . . .

[zeekar.livejournal.com]

///"that time" being the late '90's. Got lost in an edit.

Re: Right . . . on tip . . . of tongue . . .

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

#18 is newer than #14, and may be more obscure to you. But the artist of #14 had a reasonably high-profile release during that time period.

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

18. Matchbox 20 - Shame

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I'd expected you to get that one sooner. :)

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

It isn't one of my favourites and I'm distracted. If you had picked Kody I would have gotten it sooner. That one's going through my head, a LOT.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I didn't pick them. :)

Ah-ha!

[zeekar.livejournal.com]

I stand by my original impressions here. "The #14 artist had a high-profile release during that time period" - what do you mean "high-profile"? Matchbox 20 certainly had some very popular releases from the album containing "Shame" - "Real World", for instance. Or a little obscure song called "Push"...

Hmph.

:)

Re: Ah-ha!

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

You said "late 90s." During which time period Meat Loaf released Bat out of Hell II, his long-awaited reunion album with Jim Steinman. It got a pretty good-size splash and a couple of heavily-played singles...

Re: Ah-ha!

[zeekar.livejournal.com]

Indeed. And Matchbox 20 debuted - with "Yourself or Something Like You", the album containing "Shame" - in 1996, and were popular throughout the late 90's...

Re: Ah-ha!

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I'll take your word for it. :) i don't know enougn about matchbox 20 to have given a hint about #18, but I could give a small hint about #14. :)

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

14. Rock And Roll Dreams Come Through - Meatloaf

and I think 5. Jesse James - Flogging Molly or Adam Ant but can't recall a title.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

14, correct of course; 5, right title, wrong artist, but Flogging Molly is on the right track.

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

The Pogues

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Yup. :)

Egad.

[zeekar.livejournal.com]

The Pogues? No wonder I didn't get that one. What's next, the Smiths? :)

Re: Egad.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

The Who? :)

Re: Egad.

[zeekar.livejournal.com]

No, no. Completely different group. :)

♫ Whoooooooooo are you . . . . whoo-oo, whoo-oo . . . . ♫