Nose In Your Blow

[jwgh]

Got this from sanspoof, though I think I've seen it elsewhere also. Basically you are supposed to put your MP3 player on shuffle, play 20 songs, transcribe their first lines, and ask your friends to guess what songs they are.

As a courtesy, I've eliminated instrumentals, songs in foreign languages, and recordings of me or one of my music projects. To make it more challenging, I've also eliminated songs whose first lines contain the song title (such as the Van Morrison song whose title is the same as this post's).

In a couple of days or so I'll post the answers to anything anyone doesn't guess, I suppose.

1. Now if you've ever been down to New Orleans / then you can understand just what I mean -- littleamerica
2. You may be an ambassador to England or France / You might like to gamble, you might like to dance
3. I got nasty habits, I take tea at three / Yes and the meat I eat for dinner must be hung up for a week -- littleamerica
4. This is not my house / But I know you both so well / Feels like it could be / But I can hear the bell -- pjamesharvey
5. Everybody's got a thing / But some don't know how to handle it / Always reachin' out in vain / Accepting the things not worth having -- fredfred
6. My life, my life, my life, my life / in the sunshine ...
7. I saw you last night in my dreams, love / I woke as the clock was striking four / but I didn't think that I'd meet you / and now as you walk through the door ...
8. When I see the sun arisin', and the birds begin to sing their mornin' song / They celebrate a brand new day, and these days I can't help but sing along
9. Once upon a time there was a engineer / drove a locomotive both far and near -- kerri9494
10. There's been rumors circulating that the time has come around when the boys in uniform will be on call / The wheels will start a-turning and the flames aborn [?] a-burning and the bombs once again about to fall
11. I come home this morning, my clock was striking two / come home this morning when my clock was striking two / The first thing I saw was another man's hat and shoes
12. Say you work for Jimmy Brown, he ain't got nothin' at all / Not the shirt right off his back, he ain't got nothin' at all. -- flummox
13. Edna million in a drop dead suit / Dutch pink on a downtown train / Two-dollar pistol but the gun won't shoot / I'm in the corner on the pouring rain -- stumpsforhands
14. Julie at the station says, "They'll be here any minute now" / But she's running out of records and her show is ending anyhow -- cgoldfish
15. Hurricane Bob is petering out / and Charlotte's on the way!
16. Wasted and wounded, it ain't what the moon did / I've got what I paid for now / see ya tomorrow, hey Frank, can I borrow / a couple of bucks from you -- waider
17. Every day, I get up and pray to Jah / And he increases the number of clocks by exactly one -- fredfred
18. Oh, great intentions / I've got the best of interventions / But when the ads come / I think about it now -- catherinejulian
19. You always howlin' about where I been / You always screamin' about the money I spend / What's buggin' you?
20. I'm lucky, I can open the door and I can walk down the street / Unlucky, I got nowhere to go and so I follow my feet -- pjamesharvey

And that's about it. I think some of these should be pretty easy, although some are absurdly obscure. Good luck!

Comments

[fredfred.livejournal.com]

Just two, but they're songs I love:

5. Stevie Wonder - Don't you worry 'bout a thing
17. Camper van Beethoven - Take the Skinheads Bowling

[jwgh]

Right both times!

[waider.livejournal.com]

16 = tom traubert's blues, by tom waits

[jwgh]

Yup.

[littleamerica.livejournal.com]

1. B.B. King(?) -- Saturday Night Fish Fry
3. Rolling Stones -- Live With Me
15. (something from My I'm Large) -- The Bobs

[jwgh]

(1) -- I was listening to the Louis Jordan version, but yes. (2) -- Right. (3) -- also correct, but I'm going to give someone else a chance to get the title (I'm looking at you, vardissakheli!).

How the HECK

[vardissakheli.livejournal.com]

did I miss picking that out as the only sentence I even recognize in this whole collection? The only other songs that are even familiar to me are the two that fredfred got, and I'd probably only recognize the choruses of those.

Having friends with lots of different good music in their collections is très cool.

Re: How the HECK

[jwgh]

I think if someone had posted the exact same quiz in their own journal I would have gotten significantly less than half of the answers right.

[flummox.livejournal.com]

#12 = Oh Sweet Nuthin! (Velvet Underground)

[jwgh]

Correct.

[kerri9494.livejournal.com]

#9 Monkey and the Engineer (Grateful Dead & others)

[jwgh]

Yup, Chris gave me the Grateful Dead CD in question for my birthday a couple of years ago ...

[cgoldfish.livejournal.com]

14 - they might be giants got lost. . . drivin' around!

[jwgh]

they sure did!

[stumpsforhands.livejournal.com]

#13 is Tom Waits. It's something off of Rain Dogs for sure, but I'm not positive which. I'm really bad with lyrics. I think it's "Jockey Full of Bourbon."

[jwgh]

You got it!

[pjamesharvey.livejournal.com]

Holy crap, I know one.

Number 4 is The Actress by The Delgados, from Peloton. A most excellent song, from a great album.

[pjamesharvey.livejournal.com]

And number 20 is Dirty Dream Number Two by Belle and Sebastian, from The Boy With the Arab Strap. Another great album.

[jwgh]

Both correct!

[catherinejulian.livejournal.com]

18: Come on! Feel the Illinoise!: Pt 1: The World's Columbian Exposition from Sufjan Stevens' Illinois album. Right?

[jwgh]

That's the one!