FutureBaby Guess-the-Lyrics

I’m typing this on the tablet in my in-laws’ kitchen, while Kate sleeps in– we’re in Boston for a wedding, heading back home this afternoon. I need some sort of post to keep things going on our travel day, and I see Scott doing the guess-the-lyrics thing, so that’s as good a topic as any.

The following songs are taken from the FutureBaby playlist on iTunes. I’m not doing the first line of each, because the first lines aren’t necessarily memorable enough to identify, and because I’m too lazy to go through all of the tracks and confirm the lines.

Internet fame and glory will accrue to those who correctly identify the songs from the lyrics. Or something.

  1. It’s stupid to live and it’s useless to bawl, about a rusty tin can and an old hurly ball.
  2. If you ask them maybe they could tell you what I would say.
  3. People say believe half of what you see, son, and none of what you hear.
  4. And all throughout the years, I’ve never strayed from you my dear
  5. Ask for things you shouldn’t miss, tape hiss and the modern man, the Cold War in card catalogues, to come and join us if they can.
  6. It was worth it just to learn some sleight of hand
  7. I used to drive you to work in the morning, Friday night I’d drive you all around.
  8. Cup of coffee in a shaking hand, waking up in a foreign land
  9. Summer, summer, summer, it’s like a merry go round.

  10. I’ll be over at ten, you told me time and again.
  11. We’ll run away together, we’ll spend some time together, we’ll never feel bad any more.
  12. Oil wasted upon our oceans and our seas, fish full of mercury
  13. What’s with these homeys dissing my girl?
  14. The hole in the screen is barely big enough for you, not near enough for me to go.
  15. Now I’m serving time for mistakes made by another in another lifetime.
  16. Left my baby and it feels so bad, I guess my race is run.
  17. Long-distance callers make long-distance calls, and the silence makes me feel lonely.
  18. Got a lot of your records, in a separate stack. Some things I might like to hear, but I guess I’ll give ’em back.
  19. I’m a-walkin’ in the rain, tears are fallin’ and I feel the pain.
  20. They said everything was sacred, nothing was profane, money was just something to throw off the back of trains.

20 comments

  1. 9 — “Magic” by the Doors

    13 — “Buddy Holly” by Weezer

    16 — “I Fought the Law” by many, most recently Green Day

    19 — “Runaway” by Dion

  2. 11 — “Island In the Sun” by Weezer

    Is this playlist used pre-birth as well (i.e. headphones on the belly)?

  3. 9 — “Magic” by the Doors

    Right song, wrong band.

    16 — “I Fought the Law” by many, most recently Green Day

    The version I have is the Clash. There’s really no way to figure that out from the lyrics.

    19 — “Runaway” by Dion

    Again, right song, but a miss on the artist name.

    The two Weezer ID’s are correct.

    I should also note that I don’t expect anyone to get #8. #4, #5, and #20 are also not as well known as they should be.

  4. #2 is KILLING me. I KNOW that line…and I just can’t pull up the source from my brane.

    The others I recognize have already (take THAT Scalzi…muahahhahha) been guessed.

  5. And now that I’ve posted that, I recognize it as Bad by U2, but you’ve got quote slightly mangled, which is why I was finding it so hard to make the match.

  6. 5 is “A Plea From a Cat Named Virtue” by the Weakerthans, and 14 “Murder (or a Heart Attack)” by the Old 97’s.

    Six is bugging the hell out of me.

  9. Ten is “Build Me Up, Buttercup” by the Foundations; 12 “Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)” by Marvin Gaye. Seventeen is off of London Calling; I’ll need more time to remember which song. “Lost in the Supermarket”? Of course, they all could be cover versions.

  10. 1 — “The Broad Majestic Shannon”, by the Pogues (pretty sure it’s “laugh”, not “live”)

  11. 3 is “I heard it Through the Grapevine”
    (by various artists, first I think of is CCR)

  12. 1) The Broad Majestic Shannon by the Pogues
    3) Is this a Lou Reed song?
    4) If I Can’t Change Your Mind by Sugar

  13. Song 3 is by Marvin Gaye (clearly a theme there)
    Comment #9 got 10 and 12 correct.

  14. I’m really bad at this — I know the lyrics to waaaay too many old songs, but I’m not good at recognizing things pulled out of their context.

    On the other hand, I can tell John that it was Dell Shannon, not Dion, who did Runaway.

    MKK

  19. #7 – sorry, “I’m Going Down” by Bruce Springsteen I had it playing in my head but wrote the wrong song down…

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