Original Face

Suggested by Ben, stolen from Bronwyn, stolen from Edmund...

    My son, Ben's good friend, Bronwyn, posted a really fun game the other day.  She listed the first lines of the first 30 songs that randomly came up on her IPOD playlist and challenged everyone to name the artist and title of the piece.  The rules also included no use of computer databases (I used a person for one so I will close that loophole here :)  ).  Write in and if you are the first correct response your name will be listed next to that entry.  To make it a bit more fair I only included popular music--no world, serious or sacred music in my list.  Ok.  Have your thinking caps on?  Here it comes...

1.  I heard there was a secret chord
2.  Well, they're flickin' on the bar lights
3.  I can't stand it, I know you planned it
4.  Yesterday, all my troubles were so far away
5.  Voy ya cantar estos vergos, aunque yos no soy de aqui
6.  Sometimes I think about you, wonder if you're out there thinkin' 'bout me
7.  24 hours to go, I wanna be sedated
8.  I marched in the battle of New Orleans
9.  The way you wear your hat
10. I wanna meet Santa, the real, real, Santa
11. Well, I went home with a waitress, the way I always do
12. The theatre is so obsessed with drama so depressed
13. Have you seen the old man in the closed down market
14. In the summertime when the weather is hot
15. Way down south in Birmingham
16. Gallieo's head was on the block
17. There's a place I like to go, cherry bombs and cherry wine
18. I know what you want. I want to take you to a midnight show tonight
19. He was sittin' up there for more than an hour
20. We skipped the light fandango, turned cartwheels cross the floor
21.  Come on, come on, come on. Didn't I make you feel like you were the only man?
22. First thing I remember I was lying in my bed , I couldn't have been more than one or two
23. They say every man must need protection; they say every man must fall
24. Drew looks at me, I fake a smile so he won't see
25. Driving that train, high on cocaine
26. She was in the backyard and it was a little past 9 when her prince pulled up
27. I met him on a Monday and my heart stood still
28. One week since you looked at me
29. The dutchman's not the kind of man who keeps his thumb jammed in the dam that keeps his dreams in
30. Spring is here, Spring is here, life is skittles and life is beer

Some tags

Ok, other than Jonathan, no one is playing so I'll give you my ideas:

Anglican:  "We do not presume to come to this Thy table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in Thy manifold and great mercies."

Judaism: "Sh'ma Yis'ra'eil Adonai Eloheinu Adonai echad." ("Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.")

Evangelical: " Praise the Lord!" (Honorable mention to "Oh, what a friend we have in Jesus.")

Roman Catholic:  "Dominus vobiscum, et cum spiritu tuo." (Of course post Vatican II banality has reduced this to: "The Lord be with you, and also with you"  not even "and with thy spirit" which has a completely different sensibility.)

Orthodox:  This was a tough one.  I probably should go with the Trisagion: "Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us."  But the reality of Orthodox worship demands: "Now let us conclude our evening sacrifice unto the Lord." (Said when there is just 90 minutes to go in the Vespers service. Oh yeah, they aren't kidding about the sacrifice bit...there are no pews in an Orthodox church.)

Head scratchin' time

Ok, boys and girls, put your study materials away and listen up.  Here is today's examination question:

Where and how did the term "redneck" get coined?  (Hint:  It has nothing to do with the sun.)

Must read periodicals

OK, time to comment!  If you could only receive one publication--in either web or print--what would it be?

For me, no contest: Times Literary Supplement. 

While it may not comment on the issues of the day (My old professor, Dan Robinson, never read the papers.  When I asked him how he could do that and remain an active citizen, he challenged me to pull out the latest issue of the Washington Post.  He asked me if the front page had articles about armed conflicts between two countries, both of whom bear blame for the fighting, pieces about scandal and corruption in government both federal and local, some story about health scares, many of which will be dismissed in small blurbs on an inside page in a few months.  I told him that he was right.  He smiled his Cheshire cat like smile.  "Exactly." ), the TLS deals with ideas that matter in the longer term.

Cover that up!

Covers of popular music tunes have a bad reputation.  They reek of pimply faced high school bands making up in volume what they lack in talent.  But that is not fair.  Many great renditions have been covers, often better than the original songwriter/singer has done with the piece. 

Take all the songs of Leonard Cohen.  Great writer but a total downer as a performer.  Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah" or Judy Collins' "Suzanne" are the standard for those songs, not the Cohen's version of those pieces.

So question for all of you out there: What is the best cover you know? 

See that button over there?   Yes, that one.  Click on it and leave a comment.

My choice:  Ike and Tina Turner's "Proud Mary."  The original version by Creedance Clearwater Revival is such bubble gum crap, but Tina Turner's pipes make it raw and powerful.  Their band's brass and percusssion round out the driving sound.

Ok, don't be shy.

Hmmmmm

It's exam time again, so crack your knuckles, sharpen your pencils and don't stare into the soul of the person sitting next to you.

Can vegan children drink breast milk?  How about sucking their thumbs?

Discuss.

Slipped a real one by you, eh?

One of the silly questions that have been posed I would actually set on a final examination in a philosophy course.  Think about the "animal crackers" question as a real issue or set of issues.  Any takers?

Addendum to the Quiz

One of our readers, who wishes to remain anonymous, added an additional query:

And are Early Music ensembles just tribute bands?

Got to take a quiz, wicked bad

Here is today's question, everybody:

Are string quartets just cover bands?

Discuss.