Monday, May 19, 2008

When I Name My Masterpiece

Miss Helen Strauss launches the USS Reuben James, 1919
Another week, another quiz. What makes you want to listen to a song? There's a definite knack to choosing an apposite title; one that stops you dead and makes you think "What the... Must hear that!" Some are better at this game than others... as will become clear.

So here's a selection of 5 song titles apiece from 10 artistes: some well-known, some less so. But who the dickens are they? And what were they ingesting at the time? No prizes; answers sometime, anytime. In the words of one master of this dark art -To Nkroachment: Yarbles!

1) Needles In The Camel’s Eye
Burning Airlines Give You So Much More
Seven Deadly Finns
Dead Finks Don't Talk
I'll Come Running (To Tie Your Shoes)

2) A Serious Of Snakes
I Feel Mysterious Today
Kidney Bingos
The Queen Of Ur & The King Of Um
Field Day For The Sundays

3) Life At A Top People’s Health Club
Come To Milton Keynes
I Was A Doledad’s Toyboy
The Gardener Of Eden
It Just Came To Pieces In My Hands

4) You Done My Brain In
Rhinocratic Oaths
Look Out, There’s A Monster Coming
My Pink Half Of The Drainpipe
I’m Gonna Bring A Watermelon To My Gal Tonight

5) Hair Like Monkey, Teeth Like Dog
Eating Salt Is Easy
When You Laugh At Your Own Garden In A Blazer
The Barafundle Bumbler
Kevin Ayers

6) The Adventures Of Brian Glider
Another Song About Motorbikes
Bard of Woking
Judas Sheep
Bastard Hat

7) Vampire State Building
Since I Lost My Head It’s Awl-Right
Just Like Pooh Bear
Kolly Kibber’s Birthday
Not Raving But Drowning

8) Former Phonebox Vandal
Julie Profumo
Ilya Kuryakin Looked At Me
I Was A Teenage Idiot Dancer
Incident In A Greatcoat

9) Big John Wayne Socks Psychology On The Jaw
Fitter Stoke Has A Bath
Your Majesty Is Like A Cream Donut
Gigantic Land Crabs In Earth Takeover Bid
Going Up To People And Tinkling

10) …for a change of pace: which teen heart-throb singer’s album contains the following sequence of song titles…?
Track Three
Sleepwalker’s Woman
Track Five
Track Six
Track Seven

11 comments:

saneshane said...

2 is WIRE kidney bingos is great!

ToffeeBoy said...

3 is The Style Council
9 is the magnificent, genius-like Hatfield & The North

Tim (Kalyr) said...

1 is Brian Eno
4 is The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band

saneshane said...

I didn't know 3 8 and 9..
but now it's just 8.
so I'll keep quiet for now.

TracyK said...

5 is the mangnifique Gorky's Zygotic Mynci. My friend went to Barafundle the other week, her pics were amazing. Diolch yn fawr!

DarceysDad said...

Speechless ... I didn't know ANY of those. I've double-checked my 2 Wire albums and none of those five are there!

:o(

saneshane said...

DsD I had two Wire tracks on the cd
'On returning'
but 'Kidney bingos'
was on a Melody maker tape you had to send off for called Gigantic!
Someone has nicked the track listing and I don't want to play the tape until I can work out how to download it to the computer.
It's also on a Mojo cover mount 'beyond punk' april 05.


and J.A.P should be here for 7 I think and teen heart throb when? for 10.

ShivSidecar said...

You're all doing splendidly. We await positive IDs for 6 (clue: a one-time associate of the To Nkroachment:Yarbles bloke hinted at in the preamble); 7 (one time mainstream artiste - had hits! - who now finds himself on the verge of the road); 8 (probably the most obscure: a duo, both of whom have also written books about their r'n'r lifestyle, and one of whom is, I think, also a Grauniad contributor); and the elusive multi-Tracked 10.

If it helps, they're all (a) British and (b) male. No reason, they just is.

Proudfoot said...

6 is the Creepers (Marc Riley's band)
10 is Scott.
I'm dead chuffed. Normally SO bad at these.

Proudfoot said...

7. is Julian Cope. Sorry, thought you'd got that one. No ideas at all for 8.

ShivSidecar said...

Bravo, everybody. Wasn't too painful, was it? The mysterious no.8 was The Cleaners From Venus, who I recommend to the Kinks/XTC constituencies - one half was Martin Newell, also a poet and author of the glam memoir "This Little Ziggy"; the other was Giles Smith who wrote "Lost In Music" and is now the Guardian's motoring correspondent...

I may do this again in a few months; you have been warned.