Wednesday 29 September 2010

An Autumn's Distraction

Complaining about OK Go yesterday reminded me that it's been a good four months since our last "first lines" quiz, and that I hadn't put up answers to either of the last two. This has now been rectified. Once again, these are listed according to what I consider their degree of obscurity, and no artist appears in the list more than once.

To arms, my loyal peasants!

1. "Take a boat to England baby, maybe to Spain." Simon and Garfunkel - Blues Run The Game (Jamie)

2. "Staggering home, the headlights throw a shadow up and upon." Madness - Lovestruck (Mozz)

3. "Show me show me show me how you do that trick." The Cure - Just Like Heaven (Mozz)

4. "Sail away with me honey, I put my heart in your hands." David Gray - Sail Away (Jamie)

5. "I sit at my table and wage war on myself." R.E.M. - World Leader Pretend (Mozz)


6. "When I think of heaven, deliver me in a black winged bird." Counting Crows - Rain King (Jamie)

7. "Pistols of fire, pistols of fire, pistols of fire, shatter the frame." Kings Of Leon - Pistols Of Fire (wils)

 8. "If it weren't for your maturity none of this would've happened." Alanis Morissette - Hands Clean (Mozz)

9. "Waking up at the start of the end of the world." Matchbox 20 - How Far We've Come


10. "Dearest constellation, heaven surroundin' you, stay there soft and blue." Foo Fighters - Virginia Moon (wils) 


11. "Your sorry eyes cut through the bone, they make it hard to leave you alone." Beck - Lost Cause

12. "I woke up on the wrong side of the floor." Green Day - Uptight (Jamie)

13. "Wrap me in always, and drag me in with maybes." Smashing Pumpkins - Thru The Eyes Of Ruby (JJ)


14. "I've got a dying urge to feel the way you do." Alkaline Trio - Continental


15. "It felt cold inside, so we threw the radio onto the fire." Idlewild - The Bronze Medal (Nadia)

16. "I love New York City, I love New York City." Andrew WK - NYC


17. "It covers the roadways, it covered the hillsides." Midlake - It Covers The Hillsides (Jamie)

18. "Bad news if he could choose, would he refuse to be the bearer?" The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Bad News And Bad Breaks

 
19. "I drive a truck, it carries money, and every day I dream up my fantasies." Stereophonics - Everyday I Think Of Money (Mozz)

20. "I've been a desperate man, I've been sheltered by a lonely dream." Ryan Adams - Hallelujah

21. "Here come Monday mornin', life is open wide." The Presidents of the USA - Shortwave

22. "Drums come out of boredom baby, UN exports it everyday." The Manic Street Preachers - Another Invented Disease

23. "Thought you had all the answers to rest your heart upon." Bird York - In The Deep

24. "Romeo got married on the 5th of July, in Our Lady of Immaculate Dawn." Josh Ritter - Harrisburg

25. "I will find a way to get to you someday." Cracker - Shake Some Action

 
Seventeen bands (edit: eighteen, sorry) and seven solo artists. 18 quotes are from Americans, 3 from Englishmen, 2 from the Welsh, and one each hail from Canadian and Scottish sources. Two of the lines are sung by women, and four include the name of the track within them (a fifth comes pretty close).

44% remains, as always, the score to beat. Get to work. And sorry about the "peasants" thing.

Update: Up to 52%. Your best score to date. But there's still some easy fruit for plucking.

Update II: And now a mighty 56%!

15 comments:

Jamie said...

1. 'Blues Run the Game' - original by Jackson Frank
4. 'Sail Away With Me' - David Gray
6. 'Rain King' - Counting Crows
12. 'Uptight' - Green Day
17. 'It Covers the Hillsides' - Midlake

SpaceSquid said...

It was the Simon and Garfunkel version of "Blues", but all correct nonetheless. An excellent start, my pretties!

Tomsk said...

5 rings a bell but I can't place it. That's all I can bring to the table!

SpaceSquid said...

I'm surprised Jamie didn't get that one, actually. It's from an album that went platinum in the UK and double platinum in the US, and most people our age have at least one album by the artist in question, though admittedly one released slightly later than this one.

Mozz said...

3. Just Like Heaven - The Cure
5. World Leader Pretend - REM
8. Hands Clean - Alanis Morrisette
19. Everyday I Think of Money - Stereophonics

Mozz said...

2. Lovestruck - Madness

Really should've gotthat on the first read!

SpaceSquid said...

Good work, Mozz!

We're only two away from the highest score yet, my adoring fans. Keep at it!

JJ said...

13. Thru The Eyes of Ruby - Pumpkins

I felt it calling out to me over the interwebses!

SpaceSquid said...

Good work, JJ! I knew I could count on you :)

Jamie said...

There's no way I could know which of the many versions of 'Blues Run the Game' it could have been, although I suspected it was probably S&G. Anyway, I felt like giving Mr Frank his due.

'World Leader Pretend' is one of those REM tracks that I find immensely forgettable; and that's even with the caveat that I'm not generally good with REM lyrics anyway, a lot of them just tend to flow over me.

You have an Alanis Morrisette song on your iPod. Who are you, and what have you done with Squid?

SpaceSquid said...

Which is why you got the point; I was just explaining why your answer and the one put up would differ. Stop griping. No-one likes a griping peasant.

wils said...

7 Pistol of Fire - Kings of Leon
10 Virginia Moon - Foo Fighters

SpaceSquid said...

Both correct! And with that, we cross the 50% barrier! Best score ever!

John Rhodes said...

Right. So my friend Nadia would like to add her contribution:

15 Idlewild - The Bronze Medal.

I repeat - No credit to me for this :P

SpaceSquid said...

Nadia has excellent taste.