Lyric Quiz.

[zotz]

1. By day I strangle chickens, trapped in my own bad looks

Foetus, Verklemmt. zoo-music-girl, drpyrojames, naturalbornkaos

2. People say that you'll die faster than without water

Arcade Fire, Rebellion (Lies). dypyrojames, naturalbornkaos

3. I thank you for those items that you sent me - the monkey, and the plywood violin

Leonard Cohen, First we take Manhattan. sarcaustick, kixie, devilgate (with a correction for me), drpyrojames, blackmetalbaz, devalmont, naturalbornkaos, pigeonhed (and bonus), actionreplay
pseudomonas got the artist. Venta didn't, but pointed out a cover.

4. Did you hear about the guy in New York whose dick fell off in the bath after he shot it full of coke? It's OK to run out of butter in Zambia - just smear squashed caterpillars on your toast. Waiter, there's a terrorist in my soup. Which came first, Max Headroom or Gerald Ford? Are you a man or are you a mouse? If you love your fun - die for it!

Lard, The power of lard. drpyrojames, blackmetalbaz, ciphergoth
zoo-music-girl and devilgate got the band

5. Danny Baker! Danny Baker! Danny Baker! Danny Baker!
Danny Baker! Danny Baker! Danny Baker! Danny Baker!

mclusky, Dething to survive. skullculture

6. Well, that's right! That's what I was told, anyway. And picking your feet 'till they bleed may only be the half of it.

No Means No, Everyday I start to ooze. kixie got the band

7. I don't know why I feel this way. The sky is purple, and things go right every day.

The House of Love, Shine on. sarcaustick, daevid (pointed out the Apop cover), naturalbornkaos

8. What did you say you'd find?
Then come, come, come, get the hell inside
You can close your eyes
Well, you might as well commit suicide.
[NB - I understand this lot never actually told anyone their lyrics and were a bit indistinct. This sounds about right, though]

My Bloody Valentine, You made me realise. king-prawn

9. Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; None but ourselves can free our minds.

Bob Marley, Redemption song. kixie, swisstone, devilgate, jinty, d_floorlandmine
blackmetalbaz, grendelis, original_aj got the artist

10. He's the hairy-handed gent who ran amok in Kent. Lately he's been overheard in Mayfair.

Warren Zevon, Werewolves of London. sarcaustick, kixie, devilgate, blackmetalbaz, sheridanwilde (+info), pigeonhed
joexnz got the song

11. England, 1936, in the grip of the sabbath day.

The Men They Couldn't Hang, The ghosts of Cable Street. pigeonhed

12. This land is made for you and me.

Woody Guthrie, This land is your land. kixie, swisstone, devilgate, king-prawn, nmg, naturalbornkaos, venta (with extra info), pigeonhed, original_aj
pseudomonas got the song. grendelis got the artist

13. The polaroids that hold us together will surely fade away.

Billy Bragg, St Swithin's day. swisstone, grendelis, venta (and cover)

14. Don't pierce your face. It will only look like someone's tipped the fishing-tackle bucket over your head.

Jeggsy Dodd and the Original Sinners, Grumpy old men.

15. I have a fish nailed to a cross on my apartment wall

Throwing Muses, Fish. zoo-music-girl, kixie,

16. Won't somebody sign my release?

Julian Cope, Upwards at 45°

17. You did a perfect job last night. You shaved your legs and you washed your bike.

Ballboy, Olympic cyclist. hfnuala, skullculture, jinty, original_aj

18. My hair was scorched by swirling flame
my eyes grew dim, my eyes grew blind
death came came and turned by bones to dust
and that was scattered by the wind.

I come and stand at every door. Pete Seeger, The Byrds, This Mortal Coil and apparently many others have done versions of this - I think Seeger's was the first. It's an English translation (by Jeanette Turner) of a poem by Natzim Hikmet, set to a tune by James Waters ("The Great Silkie").

19. James Joyce is fucking my sister

Therapy?, Potato junkie. zoo-music-girl, kixie, iain666, blackmetalbaz, inulro, d_floorlandmine
pigeonhed got the band

20. Trying to breathe some life into a letter, losing hope we'll ever meet again.

The Replacements, Answering machine

21. Oh darkness filled the sky as pools of water filled your eyes; they sparkled like phosphorescence in the bay.

The Organ, Memorise the city

Extra points entirely arbitrarily awarded to devilgate, pigeonhed, venta, daevid and sheridanwilde bring the scores to:

joexnz : 1
sheridanwilde, ciphergoth, actionreplay, nmg, devalmont, inulro, iain666, pseudonomas, hfnuala : 2
daevid : 3
d_floorlandmine, jinty, grendelis, king_prawn, skullculture : 4
sarcaustick, swisstone : 6
original_aj, venta, zoo_music_girl : 7
blackmetalbaz : 9
devilgate, drpyrojames, naturalbornkaos : 10
pigeonhed : 10.5
kixie : 13

Nobody knew which NoMeansNo song it was, nobody at all got the Cope or (less surprisingly) the Jeggsy Dodd, Seeger, Replacements or Organ. I'm quite impressed overall,though. Pat yourselves on the back for me.

Comments

in kick-yourself-time this quiz...

[jinty]

7 and 16 are songs I know and like. Not sure I've ever listened to the words of number 7, but 16 is a definite kick-me-now moment.

Re: in kick-yourself-time this quiz...

[zotz]

Well, I just got tired and googled for the one I was sure I knew on yours.

Yes, indeed I did. Ah well.

[scy11a.livejournal.com]

Pyro cheated : )

Re: in kick-yourself-time this quiz...

[jinty]

's a good song though, innit?

[naturalbornkaos.livejournal.com]

That's sad. I actually own copies of some of the songs I didn't get. :(

Especially gutted that I didn't pick up on "You Made Me Realise". It's probably my favourite MBV song. I had no idea that was the lyric.

[kixie.livejournal.com]

The Nomeansno one is making me kick myself really, really hard.

Still. HAIL THE CONQUERING KIXIE :D

Re: in kick-yourself-time this quiz...

[zotz]

Absolutely. Clearly I haven't listened to it enough lately.

[zotz]

Well, that bit's very unclear, apart from "You might as well commit suicide."

[darkstones.livejournal.com]

I missed the quiz as I haven't checked LJ for several days. Ah well. For the record, I would almost certainly have got 13 (although I tend to listen to the Dubstar version more) and 21, which you know I really like anyway. I might possibly have got number 7.

I doubt I would have got the Cope lyric, despite being familiar with just about everything he's ever released - the lyric becomes strangely anonymous when seperated from it's mother song.

I'm now going to listen to the Men They Couldn't Hang, as I haven't listened to them for many years. Thanks for the reminder :)

[grendelis.livejournal.com]

Oh I should have got 11 and 18. That'll teach me!

Did I tell you I thought I saw a guy from TMTCH in a bar in Rotorua after Easter? Strange. He played 'No Mans Land' (my fav), at an Open Mike session on ANZAC day.

[zotz]

Interesting. I saw a couple of them do an acoutic set some years ago - the closest I've ever been to catching them all live. My then girfriend exhibited uncharacteristically appalling taste by calling No Mans Land "just some appalling old folk song". There's no pleasing some people.

[zotz]

No problem. Any time.

Sounds like you'd have done fairly well.

[inulro.livejournal.com]

I can't believe I missed the House of Love one!

[pigeonhed.livejournal.com]

I have FIVe of the ones I didn't get. Definitely should have had the Bragg and Marley (have been listening to Strummer's version lately too) , maybe the Replacements, not listened to Throwing Muses in ages. Never really considered MBV lyrics.

Have no time for Julian Cope.

Was once thrown out of a bar because my Lard t-shirt was 'obscene'.

[luckylove.livejournal.com]

I've only just checked my friends page. I would've gotten the Leonard Cohen one and the Organ one. I must buy their album. The last two cds I bought were The Repulsion Box, Sons and Daughters and Funeral, Arcade Fire. I don't know Rebellion (Lies) well enough to recognise the lyrics yet. I've been playing Sons and Daughters mostly.

[luckylove.livejournal.com]

Oh, and REM covered First We Take Manhattan. They missed out the last verse. Don't know why.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Heh... well I didn't read the quiz in time or didn't have time to answer, but I might have got the Cope since, obviously, I worship the arch drude -- but precious little else.

Weirdly, I was just talking about that very Therapy lyric last night -- only heard it live don't have the song on CD (that I recall anyway).

[grendelis.livejournal.com]

It had amazing poignancy on ANZAC day. The song always brings memories of hearing it as a Peel or Jensen session one evening while I was drawing/copying the cover of the Masks Bauhaus album for a school folder!

I've managed to see TMTCH a few times. Maybe best was them 'supporting' their pals The Oysterband in Cambridge in 97ish.

hehehehe Chris Marling might remember that one. Talk about eyes meeting across a room! sheesh! Sorry, that's another story. [took me 'til 2001 to pluck up the courage to speak to him! - and only then cos I was emigrating]