that first lines meme

[coraa]

I've done this meme before, like, twice? But I really like it, so again (ganked from gwyneira this time):

1. Open your music collection and set the songs to shuffle/random.
2. Take the first 25 and write the first line or two from each. [In addition to skipping instrumentals for obvious reasons, I did skip things without English lyrics, and I only did one song per artist.]
3. Have people guess the songs.
4. Strike them out as people guess.

It actually wound up being not a bad cross-section of my musical taste, serendipitously.



1. all the boys, voices cracking, oh the moaning half-tones
2. in a house by the tracks, i want, i want you back (donaithnen)
3. thousands of people, way down below, wandering to and fro
4. i don't want to clear the cobwebs from my head
5. i've been normal mailered, maxwell taylored (gwyneria)
6. i sit two stories above the street, it's awful quiet here since love fell asleep (gwyneira)
7. when i was a lad in a fishing town, me old man said to me.... (thegreatgonz)
8. i saw the one go out the window, i saw the one go up the dam
9. i'm starting to fashion an idea in my head
10. go on and close the curtains, 'cause all we need is candlelight (epj)
11. i know you think that i shouldn't still love you, or tell you that (polyfrog)
12. when in the springtime of the year, when the trees are crowned with leaves (donaithnen)
13. something ugly this way comes, through my fingers sliding inside
14. there's an old, old giant sneaking around inside this house (polyfrog)
15. no more carefree laughter, silence ever after (gwyneria)
16. i can't believe i've let you in, and now here i am telling you i'm suffocating in here
17. blackbird claw, raven wing, under the red sunlight (donaithnen)
18. it's poetry in motion, and when she turned her eyes to me (gwyneria)
19. today is gonna be the day that they're gonna throw it back to you (marvinalone)
20. this was an accident, not the kind where sirens sound
21. you think that i go home at night, take off my clothes, turn out the lights (donaithnen)
22. one autumn, you once said to me, "there's too much stuff around"
23. she gave you everything she had (artemis_lizzie)
24. i've got this little problem that i cannot control: you put my heart in jail but now it's on parole
25. psychic spies from china try to steal your mind's elation (marvinalone)

And then, bonus points, the ones I eliminated because the title (or a significant chunk of the title) was in the first line:

a. it's a crime to fall in love, heart and mind and soul in love
b. my name is tarzan, i am jungle man (donaithnen)
c. do you hear the people sing, singing a song of angry men (gwyneria)
d. every morning there's a halo hanging from the corner of my girlfriend's four-post bed (epj)
e. i'm coming up so you'd better get this party started (epj)

Comments

[gwyneira.livejournal.com]

5. Simon and Garfunkel, "A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I Was Robert McNamara'ed into Submission" (one of my all-time favorite song titles)
6. Indigo Girls, "Least Complicated"
15. ABBA, "Knowing Me, Knowing You"
18. Thomas Dolby, "She Blinded Me with Science"

c. Les Miserables, "Do You Hear the People Sing?"

We seem to have quite a bit of musical taste overlap here. :)

[coraa.livejournal.com]

All correct!

:D I am always mildly embarrassed by my music collection, so it's nice to find people with whom taste overlaps.

[gwyneira.livejournal.com]

I might be a little ashamed to admit how much ABBA I have. :)

[coraa.livejournal.com]

I have a bunch too, and some of them twice, thanks to the Mamma Mia soundtrack. ;)

[erik]

11 - White Flag by Dido
14 - Shimmering, Warm and Bright by Bel Canto

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Yes to both!

And hurrah for someone else who knows Bel Canto.

[erik]

Thanks for reminding me of them! My musical tastes are so broad, and I'm so ADD, that I forget about musical artists I used to listen to all the time. Then I'm reminded and I'm like "Oh yeah! I have all their albums! They're great!"

[erik]

(And two more already guessed)

[jmpava.livejournal.com]

I'm rather disturbed that the one's I recognize on a quick glance (with the exception of Tarzan ;-> ) are songs that I detest ;->

I'm actually quite certain that there are other one's I SHOULD get, but they aren't immediately making their presence known - well, aside from Bel Canto, but that's already been called.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

so, are you gonna guess or not? ;)

[jmpava.livejournal.com]

Nah, I'll let you guess which ones I immediately found that I can't stand ;->

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Actually, now I'm curious which ones you detest (besides the one that's on there that I know you detest...)

[triath.livejournal.com]

Ditto.

[willworker.livejournal.com]

I've heard 19 countless times on the radio, but couldn't tell you the name of the song, or who it's by.

:P
Steve

[marvinalone.livejournal.com]

19. Oasis - Wonderwall
25. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication
e. No Doubt - Something something something dammit! "Hella Cool" or something like that?

[marvinalone.livejournal.com]

Pink ... No Doubt ... what's the difference, really? ;-)

[coraa.livejournal.com]

True dat! ;)

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, and Pink. ;)

[epj.livejournal.com]

#10 is "Save Tonight", Eagle Eye Cherry.
#19 is "Wonderwall", Oasis.
e. is "Get This Party Started", Pink (I think...is that too easy?)

And I'm *sure* I know #4 and d, but I can't come up with either.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

All correct. :D

[epj.livejournal.com]

Ack! d is "Every Morning" by Sugar Ray! Go brain!

[coraa.livejournal.com]

And yes to this also!

[triath.livejournal.com]

19. Wonderwall, by Oasis

d. Every Morning
e. Get This Party Started

[donaithnen.livejournal.com]

*tries not to look at other people's answers*

2) I know this one, i can hear the music in my head, it's a little like Nickelback or Hoobastank, but not them, something about wanting someone or taking off clothes?... ahh! Hawksley Workman - Striptease!
5) Some Simon & Garfunkel song
10) I _know_ i know this one, but i don't know what it is, and i will kick myself when i find out =P
12) Mummer's Dance by Loreena McKennitt (how has no one else gotten that one yet?)
17) Woman King by, er, *checks* Iron & Wine
21) Liz Phair - Extraordinary
23) Oh, i know i should know this one tooo... but it's getting late, and i should go to bed :(

b) Toybox - Tarzan and Jane, except you skipped the "deep in the jungle" part :)
c) One of the Les Miserables songs
d) I know this song, it was on the radio a lot years and years ago, so i want to say something that was fairly popular and got lots of radio play like Smash Mouth or Maroon 5, but i know it's not them...
e) That one Pink song... "Get This Party Started"! (How sad is it that i actually had to go through all the Pink songs i've got in order to figure out the title? :)

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Wow, I think you get the prize for most correct answers. (Which isn't so surprising, I suppose, given the amount of mutual music-borrowing we've done...)

[artemis-lizzie.livejournal.com]

21. Liz Phair - Extraordinary
Interestingly enough, I used to use this as a theme song of sorts. It's very awesome.
23. Garbage - Go Baby Go

I recognize 25, but can't quite place it. It might be that Dramarama song, not sure.

[artemis-lizzie.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm totally wrong, 25 is Californication, by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Of course I remembered it right after I clicked "post."

[coraa.livejournal.com]

I really love Extraordinary. One of my favorites.

[paperclippy.livejournal.com]

19. Wonderwall by Oasis
d. Every Morning by those guys who sang "Fly" . . . the singer is now on entertainment tonight or something . . .
e. Get This Party Started by Pink

[coraa.livejournal.com]

All correct!

[thegreatgonz.livejournal.com]

#7 is "The Mermaid" by (or rather, as performed by) Great Big Sea.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

I was wondering if someone would get that one!

[thumbie.livejournal.com]

10. go on and close the curtains, 'cause all we need is candlelight Eagle Eye Cherry - Save Tonight

19. today is gonna be the day that they're gonna throw it back to you Oasis - Wonderwall

d. every morning there's a halo hanging from the corner of my girlfriend's four-post bed Sugar Ray - I Just Wanna Fly

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes and yes!

[thumbie.livejournal.com]

Yay late 90s songs! =)

[donaithnen.livejournal.com]

Okay! I'm done cheating! :)

In the order that i figured them out:

9. Dashboard Confessional - For You To Notice
(This is kind of ironic, considering...)

13. David Usher - Black Black Heart
(I feel really dumb about missing this one)

4. Shakira - Ready For The Good Times
(Same about this one!)

24. Prozzak, er, Simon & Milo - Infatuation
(I went through a whole bunch of Prozzak on YouTube after discovering "Strange Disease," but i haven't gotten around to ripping any mp3s from the rest of them yet, and didn't realize until i listened to it that this song was the same Simon & Milo =P)

1. StrayLight Run - The Tension and the Terror

20. t.A.T.u. - Show Me Love
(This one i kinda legitimately got, after listening to about the first three tATu songs i looked back at the lyrics and suddenly realized this line was from them, and was even able to divine which song it was from without having to go through all the rest. Still feel dumb about not having recognized it in the first place.)

22. The Servant - Liquefy
(*headdesk*)

3. Thoroughly Modern Millie - I Turned the Corner / I'm Falling in Love With Someone
(I do not feel bad about missing this one at all :)

Still no idea on 8, 16 or (a) though :(

It's also a little odd what the distribution of these was. Even given that some had been guessed already the distribution should have been fairly random, but it was very not so. About 400 songs with nothing, then 2 in the next 20, then nothing more for about 2000 songs, then 6 in the next 400 (and 4 of those in the first 200 of the 400.)