musical parlor game

[cellio]

This is 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's
• butt
• conjugation
• Dionysus
• exortum
• fuligin
• gerbil (partial)
• Heauimiere
• intermammary
• jarl
• K-Mart
• lifeline
• meatloaf
• Nabisco
• ophthamology
• Pedder
• quislings
• Reuben (partial)
• Suvla
• tingaling
• uncontrolled
• varlots
• weary
• xenon
• yeti
• zip!

Edit 2-5 22:40: 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.

Added a bit later (sorry; left these off by accident):

• One song title contains the name of a state.
• Two song titles are names of specific people.

Edit 2-7 20:25: More hints -- these ones, I think, more informative. One per unsolved word (not counting partials), but not in order:

• 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.

Please don't use Google to directly answer the challenge, but feel free to use it for fact-checks if you think it'll help.

Comments

Heauimiere

[giddysinger.livejournal.com]

Lies, by Stan Rogers

Recorded on Northwest Passage and Home in Halifax

"So this is Beauty's finish! Like Rodin's 'Belle Heauimiere.'"

Interesting side note... The liner notes in HiH confirm your spelling, but the notes for NP spell it "Heaulmiere" with an "L". www.rodin-web.org also agrees with the "L" spelling.

Re: Heauimiere

[cellio]

And giddysinger jumps into the lead with 3 points. :-)

I noticed the spelling discrepancy too (via Google, not NP), but took it from the liner notes I have. I figured the author gets to be definitive for what he meant, but didn't realize he was himself inconsistent.

[dsrtao]

Yeti: Leonard Cohen?

So this is Beauty's finish. Like Rodin's "Belle Heauimiere",
The pretty maiden trapped inside the ranch wife's toil and care.
Well, after seven kids, that's no surprise,
But why cannot her mirror tell her lies.
- Stan Rogers, "Lies"

K-Mart:
"Set up a stand outside of K-Mart with a plate full of frozen peas
and a sign reading 'Take one!' If anyone asks you what the hell
your doing, give them a button that says 'I asked about the peas!'"
- Adam Sandler, "Inner Voice"

Weary

[giddysinger.livejournal.com]

Grey Funnel Line, by Cyril Tawney

"Don't mind the rain or the rolling sea,
A weary night never worries me."

Many people have recorded this song, but my favorite is a version that is nothing like Cyril's version. Here's Tinsmith's take on the song:

http://giddysinger.vox.com/library/audio/6a00d09e68b891be2b011017a70a7d860e.html

Butt

[giddysinger.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry.

I am SO sorry.

I have to, and I really wish I didn't:

Baby Got Back, by Sir Mix-a-Lot.

Among many references to that word in the song:

"You can do side bends or sit-ups,
But please don't lose that butt"

K-Mart by Uncle Bonsai

[tc-tick.livejournal.com]

"From coast to coast we like to boast there's a K-Mart close at hand" From Myn ynd Wymyn (All vowels replaced by 'y's)

[cellio]

Yeti: nope.

Lies: correct, but giddysinger beat you by 9 minutes. If it had been closer to simultaneous I'd give you the points too.

K-Mart: ok, 4 points because I've never heard of that song. (I can see from another comment that I'm going to have trouble with that one...)

Re: Weary

[cellio]

Not the song I had in mind, so 4 points to you.

Re: Butt

[cellio]

Wow. I have heard of neither the song nor the performer.

I have you at 11 points now.

Any cheap shot in the storm ...

[akitrom.livejournal.com]

Let us dance with Dionysus
And get drunk on wine and spices
The Christians call them "vices"
But they're good enough for me!

Jarl

[hlinspjalda.livejournal.com]

"Sigurd the jarl of the Orkney Iles
Has called to his banner a Viking band
And sailed off to Ireland to make himself
King of the Irish lands."

Windborne, album title "Written on the Wind" (a cover, I guess)

Mr. Fixer won a cassette of this album at a Pennsic bardic competition. It's one of the two songs I ever sing in the SCA.

Re: K-Mart by Uncle Bonsai

[cellio]

Who knew that K-Mart was so musically common? Never heard of that one, so 4 points for you.

Re: Any cheap shot in the storm ...

[cellio]

Ok, I should have predicted that. 1 point for the snippet and 1 point for it not being the song I had in mind.

Re: Jarl

[cellio]

Yup! We digitized that Windbourne tape within the last few weeks. 2 points (snippet and source); do you know the name of the song?

Re: Butt

[giddysinger.livejournal.com]

You've... You've really never heard of that song? Oh my goodness.

I have no idea whether you should be proud or ashamed of that fact. Definitely one or the other, though. Not both.

Zip!

[goljerp]

Lyrics: "And it went Zip! when it moved, and Pop! When it stopped, and Whirr when it stood still"
Name of song: Marvelous little toy
Source: I think I first heard Pete Seeger sing it, although Peter Paul & Mary and probably others have done it too -- it's a folk/kid's song.

xenon

[fauxklore]

It's obviously Tom Lehrer's "The Elements"

"and argon, krypton, neon, radon, xenon, zinc and rhodium"

Actually, I'd have been struggling more, except Shmuel (who I ganked the game from in the first place) had used the same lyric

Re: Jarl

[akitrom.livejournal.com]

"Raven Banner" by Debra Doyle.

Suvla

[fauxklore]

"And how in that hell they called Suvla Bay / we were butchered like lambs to the slaughter"

Eric Bogle, "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda"

Re: Butt

[cellio]

Yes, really.

What genre is it? Please tell me it's not a children's song. :-)

Dionysus

[goljerp]

Lyrics: "..the world is in a crisis, he said listen Dionysis..."
TItle: Shaw
Source: Composer/Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim, from "the Frogs" (I'm most familiar with the '04 revival, but it existed in earlier versions back from his college days at Yale.)

Since Dionysis is a character in it, there are actually several songs with his name in it, but this is the one which came to mind.

Re: Jarl

[cellio]

Correct. 2 more points; I have you at 4 now.

Re: xenon

[goljerp]

Drat, I should've gotten that one. :-)

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

"So pass the amphorae
and roll up the floor; I'll
be priestessin' for Dionysus."
--"The Goddess Done Left Me", Leigh Ann Hussey (the late motogrrl)

Re: Zip!

[cellio]

Correct. I'll give you the source point for PP&M. Author point (and that's the one I had in mind) is still available.