musical parlor game
Feb. 4th, 2009 09:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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fauxklore's fault. :-)
There is a parlor game called Encore, in which the object is to sing a portion of a song containing the challenge word. You have to include at least eight consecutive words (including the challenge word) for it to count. What makes this fun for the challenger (in this case, me) is to try to come up with words that aren't found in a lot of songs. (And where I fail in that, maybe I'll learn about some previously-unknown music. :-) ) I promise that I have not used any language-analysis or statistical tools in assembling this list (which I mention because I used to work for a company that did such things).
You are, of course, supposed to do this from memory, not via Google or your music collection. Let's keep this Google-free to start and we'll see what happens.
Rules: Use the challenge word as the subject of your comment, and use the comments to include your snippet of lyrics + citation. I will award 1 point each for lyrics, name of song, and source (performer, author, name of show for soundtracks, broad categorization if you think it's anonymous, etc, as appropriate). If you come up with a snippet from a song other than the one I had in mind, I'll give a bonus point. I reserve the right to award other bonus points for any extraordinary cleverness I think deserves them. Winner just gets bragging rights, unless I get organized enough to actually come up with small prizes or something. (Physical mail is my bane...) Contest is open until everything's identified or this goes three days without additional guesses.
None of the words are in the titles of the songs I have in mind. All of the songs are primarily in English (loosely speaking). Capitalization and punctuation in challenge words matter. I used a different source for each song on this list, but some performers on this list do covers of other songs on this list. All songs were at one time available in published sources. These are all songs I enjoy listening to. A few of these should be insanely easy, but a couple are pretty obscure. You might find clues in past journal entries.
asthma'sbutt- conjugation
Dionysusexortum- fuligin
- gerbil (partial)
HeauimiereintermammaryjarlK-Mart- lifeline
- meatloaf
- Nabisco
ophthamology- Pedder
- quislings
- Reuben (partial)
Suvla- tingaling
uncontrolledvarlotswearyxenon- yeti
zip!
fauxklore gave hints of arguable utility every day or two, so I'll follow suit. (Next hints will probably not be before the end of Shabbat.)
- I spent a year or so going to hear the performer of one of these songs every week.
- I spent about 15 years going to hear the performer of one of these songs every year.
- I once got a private hammer-dulcimer lesson from the performer of one of these songs.
- One of these performers stopped doing folk music to become a minister. (This one has been identified.)
- One of these songs is from a show I will see this year in Pittsburgh. (This one has been mostly identified.)
- One of these songs was on a tape given to me by Eric Bogle.
- One song title contains the name of a state.
- Two song titles are names of specific people.
- The American activist in this song should be known to most schoolkids north of the Mason-Dixon line.
- The Australian photographer/conservationist in this song was unknown to me until I heard the song, but hearing the song made me want to know more.
- This light-hearted folksong is from the Vietnam era.
- This heavy-hearted war song is from Ireland.
- This song contains the title of at least one Gene Wolfe novel.
- This song is a send-up of a pretty dreadful (IMO) poem by Rose Hartwick Thorpe.
- The author of this song has a filk "disease" named after him, and it would be either ironic or fitting if this one is not identified.
- This song is about three vices, but not quite the usual three.
- This song is not "Beware of the Sentient Chili" or "When Did We Have Sauerkraut?". (This one is likely to be hard.)
- I considered using "Fifty-Nine Cents (for every man's dollar)" instead of this song.
- Winter outings aren't always good ideas.
Weary
Date: 2009-02-05 05:27 pm (UTC)O Holy Night
"A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn"
I don't know the author for this piece and can't think of a specific discography.
Re: Weary
Date: 2009-02-06 12:16 am (UTC)Uncontrolled
Date: 2009-02-05 05:28 pm (UTC)Re: Uncontrolled
Date: 2009-02-06 12:16 am (UTC)Ophthalmology
Date: 2009-02-05 05:30 pm (UTC)Austin Lounge Lizards
" ... I cannot see
Your plan, sir doesn't cover any ophthalmology"
Re: Ophthalmology
Date: 2009-02-06 12:17 am (UTC)Butt
Date: 2009-02-05 05:44 pm (UTC)On the Mark (I think "Between the Lines")
"... on my butt
Oh I don't know if we can get it up the stairs"
I'm sensing a theme to the sources of many of these words ... now if I could just remember all the lyrics / song titles :)
Re: Butt
Date: 2009-02-06 12:19 am (UTC)I'm sensing a theme to the sources of many of these words ...
I actually hadn't realized how much I'd done that (though it's not as bad as it might seem; you're just naturally latching onto them). I started with a bunch of options for some words and then weeded for duplicate sources and variety and stuff, but then I had to make some last-minute substitutions and forgot to run the OTM filter again. :-)
K-Mart
Date: 2009-02-05 06:38 pm (UTC)Christmas at K-Mart
I must have died and gone to heaven
'Cause hell is Christmas at the Seven-Eleven"
-- Root Boy Slim, "Christmas at K-Mart"
(Not sure I've remembered exactly, and I may have let out intervening lines.)
Re: K-Mart
Date: 2009-02-06 12:20 am (UTC)Yeti
Date: 2009-02-05 06:46 pm (UTC)weary
Date: 2009-02-05 09:00 pm (UTC)There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more"
-- Kansas, "Carry On My Wayward Son"
Re: weary
Date: 2009-02-06 01:21 am (UTC)I was guessing that most of my friends wouldn't figure me for Kansas. The word was originally "wayward", when I thought the title was just "Carry On", and when I realized my mistake on the final run-through I went looking for another "w" word -- which turned out to be common. :-)
Re: weary
From:Re: weary
From:Reuben
Date: 2009-02-06 05:05 am (UTC)Judah was the eldest of the children of Israel
But Simeon and Levi were next in line
... Naphtali and Issachar
and Asher and Gad
[someone] and [someone] brought the total to nine
... Joseph Jacob's favorite son
Jacob, Jacob and sons
Re: Reuben
Date: 2009-02-06 01:56 pm (UTC)Re: Reuben
From:Re: Reuben
From:Varlots
Date: 2009-02-06 11:01 am (UTC)"Though full of flame I drank the same
To the health of all such varlets"
I don't know the writer or an album for this one.
Re: Varlots
Date: 2009-02-06 01:58 pm (UTC)Re: Varlots
From:Re: Varlots
From:K-mart
Date: 2009-02-06 11:01 am (UTC)So:
"McDonald's and K-mart. Do you know how hard it is to find kids' shoes?" from "Scott and Jamie"
Re: K-mart
Date: 2009-02-06 02:02 pm (UTC)Butt
Date: 2009-02-06 11:10 am (UTC)Peter & Lou Berryman
Re: Butt
Date: 2009-02-06 02:02 pm (UTC)weary?
Date: 2009-02-06 12:28 pm (UTC)* I have a strong feeling that "weary" is somewhere in "homeward bound", but I am not sure about the lyrics without cheating.
* I know "weary" is in Poe's the Raven, and someone must've set it to music, right?
"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary"
Re: weary?
Date: 2009-02-06 02:04 pm (UTC)Y'know, somebody must have set The Raven to music, but I can't think of an instance. Parodies, sure, but not the original.
Nabisco
Date: 2009-02-06 08:40 pm (UTC)"A Triscuit, A Triscuit, made only by Nabisco"
I don't know a title or an author, but it came from a TV commercial.
Re: Nabisco
Date: 2009-02-06 09:23 pm (UTC)The Nabisco I have in mind might go back to the late 70s -- early 80s for sure.
Lifeline
Date: 2009-02-08 02:42 am (UTC)You are my lifeline
Now I'm [something] in the [something] of our love.
And I'm sure this isn't the one you had in mind!
Re: Lifeline
Date: 2009-02-08 02:53 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-02-10 01:06 pm (UTC)"Sarge, I'm only eighteen, I got a ruptured spleen, and I always carry a purse
I got eyes like a bat, my feet are flat, and my asthma's getting worse"
Draft Dodger Rag, Phil Ochs
I feel like I should know more of these, but I'm drawing a blank.
asthma's
Date: 2009-02-10 01:10 pm (UTC)Re: asthma's
From:Re: asthma's
From:gerbil
Date: 2009-02-10 01:34 pm (UTC)Little Fuzzy Animals by Frank Hayes?
Re: gerbil
Date: 2009-02-10 01:50 pm (UTC)Answers
Date: 2009-02-13 02:09 pm (UTC)