Well, I was late to the lyrics-meme party, so it only follows I’d be late to the lyrics-meme-answers party as well.
Nevertheless, here they are:
1. I’ll say goodbye to Colorado, where I was born and partly raised.
This is Man Of Constant Sorrow. I was listening to Bob Dylan‘s version, from his first album.
2. You hold the percentage, but I’m the fool paying the dues.
Those who know me would find it highly unlikely that my CD player could choose 25 random songs without picking something or other by Fleetwood Mac. The Stevie Nicks song is coming up later. This particular song was actually a hit: Hold Me, from the Mirage album. I had always thought this was “you want a percentage”, but apparently not.
3. Think of ice cream sliding into a crack.
The Jesus And Mary Chain — Here Comes Alice. The one that came up happened to be an acoustic version, but the original is from Automatic.
4. Some things that happened for the first time seem to be happening again.
This is Where Or When, a Rodgers and Hart song from the show Babes In Arms. I was listening to Bryan Ferry‘s version, from his lovely album of standards, As Time Goes By.
5. Oh, let’s blame it on the Yanks. (So sorry, boys.)
No surprise to me that this one went unguessed — it’s the song London, from Roger Hodgson‘s long-out-of-print second solo album, Hai Hai.
6. Brace yourself: I’m bent with bitterness.
Probably the most non-mainstream selection in the whole thing: For What Reason by Death Cab For Cutie, from their album We Have The Facts And We’re Voting Yes. This is a band my sister got me into — thanks Jenny!
7. I’m living in an empty room, with all the windows smashed.
As so quickly and ably determined, that’s a line from Walking On Broken Glass by Annie Lennox, from the Diva album.
8. Under his nose was a dream come true.
Howard Jones — Pearl In The Shell, from Human’s Lib. Okay, so maybe I’m sorta stuck in the 80s.
9. Fear not, for you’re still breathing.
came close enough for me by determining that this is a cut from Sarah McLachlan‘s first album, Touch. And he came ever so close to actually identifying it as Ben’s Song.
10. As far as I can tell, I’ve been gone for miles now.
I’m a big Tori Amos fan, but I don’t know that I would have been able to identify this song as Sugar, a b-side whose live version showed up on the To Venus And Back album.
11. Oh, Mr. President, can I tell you a secret?
It’s John Mellencamp, or rather, back in those days, John Cougar Mellencamp, at the height of his “spokesman for the heartland” role, with Down And Out In Paradise from The Lonesome Jubilee.
12. Dive down deep down to save my head.
Barracuda was one of Heart‘s biggest hits, but unless you looked up the lyrics, you might never know this line was in it. The original was from Little Queen, but I was listening to the “unplugged” version from The Road Home.
13. Don’t give me that do-goody-good bullshit.
cut right through the bullshit to identify this as Money, from Pink Floyd‘s Dark Side Of The Moon.
14. In secret she says she needs to see him, but no words are spoken.
Now here’s that Stevie Nicks song: I Can’t Wait from Rock A Little. Yay Stevie!
15. Well you lied to me, cos I asked you to.
I’m a bit surprised nobody got this. There must not be any big U2 fans reading this journal, or they’d have identified this as Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses, from good old Achtung Baby.
16. I used to need your love so badly; then I came to live with it.
Another super-duper-mainstream song, from Tom Petty‘s Full Moon Fever album: The Apartment Song.
17. Will this be our poisoned legacy?
Sacred Ground, which is hands down the most irritating song on Living Colour‘s newest album, Collideoscope. I actually wrote a lengthier review of this album on Amazon, in case anybody cares.
18. And he rubbed the pot roast all over his chest.
It’s difficult to find a line from Warren Zevon‘s Excitable Boy that doesn’t actually have the title in it, and nailed it. I heard in on A Quiet Normal Life, his greatest hits album.
19. It’s a different sport that is on its way.
This is another pretty obscure one, even if you’re a Joan Armatrading fan: The Game Of Love from The Key, though it was a live version that my carousel dialed up.
20. Right and wrong — it never helped us get along.
Hooray for my namesake Paul Simon, sometimes described as “the Paul Simon of songwriters.” Tenderness comes from the There Goes Rhymin’ Simon album.
21. I’m willing and able, so I throw my cards on your table.
Bob Marley — Is This Love? Lively up yourself, ! The disc in my player was Legend, a greatest hits album.
22. Like day from night, suddenly I saw a thousand faces.
Joe Jackson is another artist who had an excellent chance of coming up on my player’s random mode, and Another World had very good odds too, since I’ve got a few versions of it in there. This one was played by a piano-bass-drums trio on the excellent live album Summer In The City, but the original is on, appropriately enough, Night And Day.
23. She’s killer diller when she’s dressed to the hilt.
Beatles-lover had very little trouble identifying this as Polythene Pam, from Abbey Road.
24. Millions of kids are looking at you — you say, “Let them drink soda pop.”
This is one of many great lines from The Pretenders‘ scathing indictment of Michael Jackson, How Much Did You Get For Your Soul?, off of Get Close.
25. There’s frost on the graves and the monuments, but the taverns are warm in town.
A lovely line from What It Is, the single from Sailing To Philadelphia, charmingly mumbled by Mark Knopfler.
Thanks for playing, everybody!
