NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31

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Path: sparky!uunet!pipex!bnr.co.uk!uknet!mcsun!sun4nl!kubds1!kub.nl!wietske From: wietske@kub.nl (W. Sijtsma) Newsgroups: rec.arts.books Subject: Results WHAT ARE WORDS WORTH Message-ID: <1992Dec22.115833.21088@kub.nl> Date: 22 Dec 92 11:58:33 GMT Reply-To: wietske@kub.nl Organization: KUB, The Netherlands Lines: 282 Nntp-Posting-Host: itkdse.kub.nl ANSWERS TO THE "WHAT ARE WORDS WORTH?"-QUIZ =========================================== Dear quiz kids, here are the results for "What are words worth?", the authors-in- pop-lyrics quiz. First of all let me thank you for your time, energy and replies. The number of points scored by the winners (a relatively meagre 16 out of 50) shows that this was a pretty difficult quiz, which was of course already more or less to be expected from my sentiments about memorable-but-difficult vs. familiar-but-bland pop lyrics. Well, it's all in the game. In my answers I have generously provided the titles of the albums from which the songs were taken, to allow for some violent gnashing of teeth by those who realize that they have not been able to identify the song even though they happen to own the album. 1. I must have read a while, the latest one by Marilyn French or something in that style = ABBA: "The day before you came" (from "The singles - the first ten years") Come on! This was a huge hit, but Adri Verhoef and Ake Jansson were the only ones who got this right. 2. Kerouac, you're on the top of my shelf Up there with nobody else = Willie Alexander & the Boom Boom Band: "Kerouac" (from the untitled first album) Yes, rather obscure: only Ake Jansson got this one. This was a New Wave band from the late seventies. 3. I opened up the book And Thomas Hardy jumped out I was too stunned to be frightened As he raged and leapt about = Martin Ansell: "Hardy's England" (from "The Englishman abroad") Again, rather obscure, and no answers. 4. Dead tongues, said the poet to the daughter of burlesque Cocteau, Van Gogh and Geronimo, they used up what was left = The Band: "Last of the blacksmiths" (from "Cahoots") I used to think that these boys were something of a national institution in the USA, but no one came up with an answer. Slightly disappointing. 5. Elementary penguin singing Hare Krishna Man you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allan Poe = The Beatles: "I am the walrus" (from "Magical mystery tour") Well, I figured this would give everybody some scoring opportunities, and eight teams came up with the correct answer. Good, but no better than I expected. 6. You're having tea with Graham Greene In the coloured costume of your choice And you'll be thought in high esteem If you're seen in between = John Cale: "Graham Greene" (from "Paris 1919") Great! Erland Sommarskog actually knew this one. That's one answer more than I had hoped for, since John Cale is one of those celebrities of whom everybody seems to know the name but nobody turns out to have heard the music. 7. You were the sensitive woman I was the very reverend Freud You were the manual orgasm I was the dirty little boy = Leonard Cohen: "Is this what you wanted" (from "New skin for the old ceremony") Well, nobody wanted this, obviously: no answers. 8. She looks like Eve Marie Saint in "On the waterfront" She reads Simone de Beauvoir in her American circumstance = Lloyd Cole & the Commotions: "Rattlesnakes" (from the album of the same name) This was another one on which I had pinned some hopes. Lloyd Cole is one of the most shameless name-droppers in rock & roll; this song was the band's third single, and something of a hit. Rich Kulawiec & Deb Smith and Ake Jansson were the only ones in the know. 9. Dante's famed Inferno was a trip to Hell and back But you and a bottle and a cheap hotel, screams "pyromaniac!" The bandages come off today, really feeling sick The hardest part explaining: all those blisters on my... nose = Alice Cooper: "Workin' up a sweat" (from "Muscle of love") A funny verse, this one. But no one had an inkling. 10. Funny, it's just like a scene out of Voltaire twisting out of sight = Duran Duran: "Last chance on the stairway" (from "Rio") Again, Kulawiec & Smith recognized this one, as did Dave Mattingly who unfortunately thought the song was "Lonely in your nightmare", from the same album. (I used to think Duran Duran was a universal Big Thing when this album was released, but that may have been an error.) 11. Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot fighting in the captain's tower While calypso singers laugh at them and fishermen hold flowers = Bob Dylan: "Desolation row" (from "Highway 61 revisited") Ilan Caron thought that this was "something from Bringing it all back home, or Blonde on Blonde", but "Highway 61" is actually the album in between. Again, Kulawiec & Smith came up with the correct answer. Now there's a team I like. 12. John Webster was one of the best there was He was the author of two major tragedies: "The white devil" and "The duchess of Malfi" = Echo & the Bunnymen: "My white devil" (from "Porcupine") No answers at all! I wouldn't call these guys obscure, though. 13. I looked up in the sky, there was a phantom plane a-comin' Shinin' in the dead of night, I heard the pilot saying Poems that were written by John Keats and Robert Browning But he didn't know the words so I suppose that it was nothing = Electric Light Orchestra: "Illusions in G major" (from "Eldorado") I suppose I ought to be ashamed of myself for including this band in my quiz. Well, I can't help it. (Actually this was the first "rock" concert I ever saw, and a disgraceful experience it was too: all the string parts turned out to be pre-recorded, so when the cello player broke a string it didn't make any difference to the overall sound. Now there's a live performance for you.) 14. Marshall McLuhan, casual viewin', head buried in the sand = Genesis: "Broadway melody of 1974" (from "The lamb lies down on Broadway") Two correct answers. Ola Rinta-Koski knew the band, but thought it was "In the cage", from the same album. 15. I feel like Kojak sitting in a Cadillac I gotta eat, I gotta eat a Flapjack A stack, a rack, a six-pack, Jack, Just call me Jack Kerouac = Godley & Creme: "Snack attack" (from "Ismism") Joe Panfil got this one right. He was the only one. 16. Some guys are born to Rimbaud, some guys breathe Baudelaire = Don Henley: "Drivin' with your eyes closed" (from "Building the perfect beast") Two correct answers, from Adri Verhoef and Kulawiec & Smith. Good. 17. John and Yoko, Timmy Leary, Rosemary, Tommy Smothers, Bobby Dylan, Tommy Cooper, Derek Taylor, Norman Mailer, Allan Ginsberg, Hare Krishna... = John Lennon: "Give peace a chance" (from "Live peace at Toronto") Well, this is of course a very obscure song from an extremely obscure performer, so I shouldn't really be surprised that there were no more than three correct anwsers on this one. Interestingly, the First Eastbourners thought that this was R.E.M.'s "The end of the world", and James J. Smith came up with "Life is a rock (but the radio rolled me)" from Tracy Ullman. There's no telling what some folks will think up. 18. While Lenin read a book on Marx The quartet practised in the park = Don McLean: "American pie" (from his album of the same name) Yes, we're on Familiar Quotations ground again here: seven correct answers. 19. Everybody say God is a good man Everybody say 1, 2, 3 Set up those gunsights in H.G. Wells' backyard = Midnight Oil: "Minutes to midnight" (from "Red skies in the sunset") Something from down under, but only the guy up there (Mr Sommarskog) came up with the right answer. 20. William Blake and the Eternals Standing with the Sisters of Mercy Looking for the Veedon fleeces = Van Morrison: "You don't pull no punches, but you don't push the river" (from "Veedon fleece", ha ha ha) Well if a clue like this doesn't get you going, nothing will. Adri Verhoef got up and went, but he was lazy and stopped half-way: there's no song called "Veedon fleece". Ake Jansson, on the other hand, stopped when he had found the performing artist. 21. So you quote her Omar Khayyam But she says "What d'you think I am?" You're a big man now, shine on = Brian Protheroe: "Enjoy it" (from "Pick-up") Another obscure performer. Actually he's an actor who's also something of a singer/songwriter and who made some slightly 10CC-oriented albums in the seventies. 22. Keats and Yeats are on your side But you lose, 'cause Wilde is on mine = The Smiths: "Cemetry gates" (from "The queen is dead") Ah, what beauty! Again, only Adri Verhoef and Ake Jansson knew this one. Disappointed! 23. A Hitler wearing heels, a soft Simon Legree A Hun with honey skin, De Sade who makes good tea = The Sparks: "Don't leave me alone with her" (from "Propaganda") Only Ake Jansson got this one. 24. Whatever happened to all of the heroes, all the Shakespearo's? = The Stranglers: "No more heroes" (from the album of the same name) This is really and truly incredible. Obviously "I am the walrus" and "American pie" were much bigger hits, but I really thought that this line would be easily the best- known in the whole quiz. But only one of you recognized it (that damned Adri Verhoef and Ake Jansson again, will they never stop?). 25. Norman Mailer Waits to nail her He's under the bed And he's waiting for her to be dead = 10CC: "Somewhere in Hollywood" (from "Sheet music") Erland Sommarskog was the only one to get this one right. Slightly disappointing too. THE SCORES ========== 0--------10 11-------20 21-25 12345.67890.12345.67890.12345 1. Kulawiec & Smith 2. 2 2.2 2 .222 . = 16 2. Adri Verhoef et al 2 2. . .222 1. 2 2 = 15 3. Ake Jansson 22 2 1 222 = 13 4. Erland Sommarskog 2.2 . 2 . 2 . 2 = 10 5. Ilan Caron 2. .1 . 2 . = 5 Dave Mattingly 2. 1. . 2 . = 5 7. First Easterners 2. . . 2 . = 4 Lunatic Fringe 2. . . 2 . = 4 Joe Panfil . . 2. 2 . = 4 James J. Smith 2. . . 2 . = 4 11. Ola Rinta-Koski . . 1 . . = 1 So a victory for Rich Kulawiec and Deb Smith. Congratulations! (If Adri Verhoef and his co-stars had checked on his "Veedon fleece" answer he would have made it to the number one spot as well.) Thanks to the Lunatic Fringe (and Ray Hamel). I did indeed miss out on the Police's "Don't stand so close to me": I know the song, but it just didn't come to mind at the appropriate time. And yes, Joe Panfil, this was a very difficult quiz: even the winners knew less than a third of all the answers, and there were no answers at all to no less than seven questions. Well, such is life, and a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. To wrap it all up, I'd like to wish everybody pleasant holidays, and maybe next Christmas we can make up a quiz consisting of quotes from Xmas songs: "Oh what fun it is to ride...", "...with ev'ry Christmas card I write...", "Let them know it's Christmas time again..." See you in 93! Casper Oliemans -- **************************************************************************** Wietske Sijtsma I.T.K., SPIN MMC Programme P.O. Box 90153 5000 LE Tilburg The Netherlands email: wietske@kub.nl ****************************************************************************