Thursday 3 November 2011

The Unexpected Lyric Quiz!!!

Most songs just use straightforward words.

But every now and again, people will insert things from dustier corners of the dictionary.

Some of the songs and artists are pretty obscure, but many of them are mainstream acts.

No artists are represented twice in my list, but the point here is to find a song that contains each word. If it's not the same as the one I have, that's OK.

Happy Hunting!

  1. Parallelogram
  2. Pentathol
  3. Pneumothorax
  4. Pacman
  5. Stickleback
  6. Aplomb
  7. Pogonip
  8. Filibuster
  9. Posthumous
  10. Boobs
  11. Dermatitis
  12. Plebian
  13. Parasol
  14. Annoint
  15. Paramours
  16. Cubicles
  17. Mohair
  18. Yonks
  19. Spiffing
  20. Pesto
  21. Pompatus
  22. Epistemology
  23. Pancake
  24. Pavlovian
  25. Facsimile
  26. Humdrum
  27. Backgammon
  28. Pneumonia
  29. Gavotte
  30. Semolina
That's the list. I've thought of another couple, that I might tag on to the end later. They are, Silicosis, deliquesce, Fecundity, Contraflow and effervescing.

Below are some answers.
  1. parallelogram, Motörhead , Motörhead , submitted by John.
  2. pentathol, 
  3. pneumothorax, 
  4. pacman, 
  5. stickleback, 
  6. aplomb,  
  7. pogonip,
  8. filibuster, Birdhouse in your soul, They Might be Giants, Submitted by Jim Bliss
  9. posthumous, Forgotten Sons, Marillion, Submitted by John
  10. boobs, 
  11. dermatitis, 
  12. plebeian,Cry me a river, Various artists, submitted by Jim Bliss

     
  13. parasol, Parasol, Tori Amos, submitted by Jim Bliss

     Monster in your Parasol, Queens of the Stone Age, submitted by John.
  14. annoint, Silver Waterfalls, Siouxie and the Banshees, submitted by Jim Bliss
  15. paramours, 
  16. cubicles, 
  17. mohair, Mohair Locker Room Pinup Boys, submitted by Jim Bliss
  18. yonks
  19. spiffing
  20. pesto
  21. pompatus, The Joker, Steve Miller Band, submitted by Jim Bliss
  22. epistemology
  23. pancake, St. Alphonzo's Pancake Breakfast, Frank Zappa, submitted by Jim Bliss
  24. pavlovian
  25. facsimile, The Collector, The Legendary Pink Dots, submitted by Jim Bliss
  26. humdrum, Humdrum, Peter Gabriel, submitted by Jim Bliss

    Humdrum, The Dean and I, 10cc, submitted by Nanook
  27. backgammon
  28. pneumonia, Dust Pneumonia Blues, Woodie Guthrie, submitted by Jim Bliss (could only find a cover version on youtube)Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu, The Flamin' Groovies, submitted by John
  29. gavotte
  30. semolina, I am The Walrus, The Beatles, submitted by Jim Bliss

    Semolina, The Residents, submitted by Nanook
Effervescent, The Effervescent Elephant, Syd Barratt, submitted by Jim Bliss


driving lessons in Wallasey?

21 comments:

Jim Bliss said...

I'm sure there's another couple that might leap to mind given time. But I got a fair few. Wouldn't have gotten the Adam Ant one if the word wasn't in the title (don't actually know the lyrics to that song, but I do own the 'Vive Le Rock' album for reasons lost in the midst of time). Same is true of the Woody Guthrie song which I'm not too familiar with, but know the title of. The rest are songs I know fairly well though.


Claymore: Several Species of Small Furry Animals / Pink Floyd (not sure if that particular rant counts as "lyrics" though)

Filibuster: Birdhouse in Your Soul / They Might Be Giants (not only are we instructed to "filibuster" in this song, but we're instructed to do so vigilantly)

Plebeian: Cry Me A River / Lots of people

Parasol: Parasol / Tori Amos (and I seem to remember the word in a Syd Barrett song, though I can't recall which one... quick google and I now know which one, but I won't add it here... google is cheating after all)

Annoint: Silver Waterfalls / Siouxsie and the Banshees

Mohair: Mohair Locker Room Pinup Boys / Adam and the Ants

Pompatus: The Joker / Steve Miller

Pancake: St. Alphonzo's Pancake Breakfast / Frank Zappa

Facsimile: The Collector / The Legendary Pink Dots (actually it's in the plural... as in: "15,934 plastic facsimilies of the Eiffel
Tower"... a gloriously weird song)

Humdrum: Humdrum / Peter Gabriel

Pneumonia: Dust Pneumonia Blues / Woody Guthrie

Semolina (easy one): I Am The Walrus / The Beatles

Jim Bliss said...

"midst of time"? What an odd phrase! Pretty certain I meant "mists".

Paul said...

The adam and the ants one is a different but equally valid choice to what I have :)

Ditto, Pancake, Mohair, facsimile, humdrum, pneumonia, and annoint!

Having several answers to each word is fine though. I will try to fill out this post with links or embedded videos or copied and pasted lyrics, etc as answers come in.

Paul said...

My apologies by the way. I had two Pink Floyd ones, and I replaced Claymore. Your post crossed with this.

That is a small clue to one of the words of course.

Jim Bliss said...

Glad you posted that 'They Might be Giants' video. It's a while since I heard the song and hearing it now took me right back...

Ella Fitzgerald's version of 'Cry Me a River' is amazing. In a dream I had while back, I was in a club listening to Tom Waits singing 'Cry Me a River'. In the dream I thought to myself, "this is the *perfect* cover version" and the thought carried a weight of significance that can only be found in dreams.

Which is why I felt an irrational sense of disappointment when I checked out the track listing of the new Tom Waits album and there was no 'Cry Me a River'. Still looking forward to listening to the album though.

Nanook said...

Number 30. Semolina by The Residents from the album Duck Stab/Buster & Glen.

Nanook said...

Number 26. Humdrum from the song The Dean and I by 10cc

Paul said...

Thank you. Keep them coming :) There's at least three "humdrum"s then.

John said...

Parallelogram - Motorhead-Motorhead
4th day ,5 day marathon,we're moving like a Parallelogram

Parasol -Queens of the Stoneage Monster In A Parasol

Pacman - I'm sure PWEI mentioned Pacman but I could be confusing it with Big Macs, anyone else

Paul said...

Thanks John. It was the incongruity of a British Heavy Metal band using a word as incongruous as "parallelogram" that gave me the idea for this quiz in the first place :)

Your 'answer' for the word, 'pacman' is too tenuous to count sorry.

Paul said...

This is turning into a cool as fuck playlist :o)

John said...

Pacman - it was tenuous, I was thinking pacman, it was in fact watchmen , from Def Con One IIRC

Rockin' Pnuemonia & The Boogie Woogie Flu by the Flamin' Groovies,Aerosmith & many others

John said...

Marillion - Forgotton Sons
For a second you'll be famous but labeled posthumous - thats posthumous sorted and your great playlist knackered

Jim Bliss said...

Of the new ones you've added, one is rather obvious... Syd Barrett's Effervescing Elephant ("... with tiny eyes, and great big trunk...")

Jim Bliss said...

Maintaining the "unexpected lyric" theme...

As a result of this quiz I've just listened to Frank Zappa's St. Alphonzo's Pancake Breakfast and Adam Ant's Mohair Locker Room Pinup Boys back-to-back which - even in these days of the mp3-shuffle - probably isn't done too often.

And oddly enough, one of the things that jumped out at me was the fact that both songs contain the word "margerine".

Also, thanks to this quiz, I listened to The Crushed Velvet Apocalypse by The Legendary Pink Dots today. Seriously good album. I recommend it if you're not familiar with it.

Paul said...

lol@John.

I'm not discriminating. There's a couple of turkeys on my list I think.

Mosquitor said...

4. 'Pacman' is in Oh My God by The Kaiser Chiefs.

14. The word 'Annoint' is mentioned in a James B-side, titled Honest Pleasure.

26. 'Humdrum' is in William It Was Really Nothing by The Smiths.

I'll post if any of the others spring to mind.

John said...

annoint is also in The Conjuring by Megadeth, annoint is becoming more of an expected lyric by the minute, I'm sure it's a go to word in black metal circles 'with the blood of belphogore I annoint thy wizardly knob' etc

Can I just say the Stickleback lyric is annoying the hell out of me because I'm sure it was an answer in a pub quiz awhile ago and I just cannot remember it

I also know a couple of others because I googled the meanings and they gave the answer away but as I wouldn't have got them in a million years I'm keeping schtum

Paul said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
John said...

stickleback The Carpet Crawlers by Genesis, knew I'd heard it somewhere

Paul said...

Apologies for not updating this post for a few days. Not the most energised of states of mind at the moment. I will try to add videos for the answers I've been given, and provide the list I had over the next few days.