Theology Answers
In the end, all but three songs from my mix tape post were explicitly identified in comments on one site or another, though two or three were identified only indirectly ("That song by barenaked ladies..."), and one only by extensive Google searching. Not too shabby.
Here are the answers. You might be saying "Isn't this just a cheap way to squeeze another blog post out of this same tape?" You might be right.
Side One:
- 1) "Some are mathematicians, some are carpenters' wives." Bob Dylan, "Tangled Up in Blue." A rich source of lines for this sort of thing, but an easy one to get.
- 2) "I remember Christmas in the blistering cold, in a church on the Upper West Side." Ryan Adams, "New York, New York." I first heard this song on September 14, 2001, while driving down the Turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston for Mike Steeves's wedding. That tends to make it stick in the mind.
- 3) "See the oil fields at first light." U2, "Beautiful Day." U2 at their soaringly vague best.
- 4) "With fingernails that shine like justice, and a voice that is dark like tinted glass." Cake, "Short Skirt/ Long Jacket." I think we all want a girl like that.
- 5) "Your grandsons, they won't understand." The Strokes, "Last Nite." I have a hard time with this band, and, really, any band that are too jaded to have fun being rock stars.
- 6) "She left me roses by the stairs, surprises let me know she cares." Blink-182, "All the Small Things." These guys put at least one song on each album that's nothing but dick jokes, just to keep their fans from noticing that they're actually very talented as pop songwriters.
- 7) "We asked for Mojo Nixon, they said 'He don't work here.'" The Dead Milkmen, "Punk Rock Girl." If you don't have Mojo Nixon, then your store could use some fixin'.
- 8) "There will be no flowers flowing in the light that passes through me." Guided by Voices, "Glad Girls." In the alternate universe where I know how to play guitar, and am in a band, we do a mean cover of this.
- 9) "It's just the way that you talk, like it ain't no thing." Smash Mouth, "Then the Morning Comes." If these guys haven't been on the soundtrack of an "Austin Powers" movie, it's a travesty.
- 10) "Let's bulldoze our way to a brand new peace accord." The Halo Benders, "Your Asterisk." The guy from Built to Spill in a band with another guy who has a really deep voice. The only online lyrics I was able to find for this have this line as "... brand new piece of pork," which is just not right.
- 11) "I wish the ape a lot of success, I'm sorry my apartment's a mess." Warren Zevon, "Gorilla, You're a Desperado." Most of all, I'm sorry if I made you blue, but I'm betting the gorilla will, too.
- 12) "Most of all, my God, how does she make her eyes do that?" Blues Traveler, "Girl Inside My Head." Nobody got this one, though it was released as a single. I like it because it features remarkably little harmonica noodling.
- 13) "I never know the perfect time to hit the bedroom light." John Wesley Harding, "I'm Wrong About Everything." Off The Confessions of St. Ace, whose liner notes are a hoot.
- 14) "And I may seem all right and smile when you leave, but my smiles are just a front." Macy Gray, "I Try." Somebody guessed Smokey Robinson for this one, and it does remind me of his stuff. Which is, of course, why I like it.
Side Two:
- 15) "I need something strong to distract my mind. I'm gonna look at you 'til my eyes go blind." Bob Dylan, "Mississippi." The Sheryl Crow version is just too chirpy to be taken seriously, but when Bob croaks out the lyrics, you believe he's painted himself into a pretty tight corner.
- 16) "Patchouli oil, and motor oil, and you knew all the words." John Hiatt, "My Old Friend." Kate doesn't like this transition, but I think it's one of the best on the tape. And, hey, he mentions a Dylan song in the first verse.
- 17) "The way that you sleep is the image I'll keep always on the edge of my mind." The Old 97's, "Bird in a Cage." Somebody got that this was an Old 97's tune, but didn't name it. One of the highlights off Satellite Rides.
- 18) "Sam Cooke didn't know what I know." The Wallflowers, "Sleepwalker." There's a point where Jakob Dylan sings "I'm in your movie, and everyone looks sad," in a really nasal voice, and you say, "Yep. Bob's kid, all right."
- 19) "Lost his mind from the TV, now he's playing God." Pete Yorn, "Murray." An album track off Musicforthemorningafter, so I'm not really surprised that nobody got it.
- 20) "We're loyal, like brothers, just us versus all the others." The Get Up Kids, "Red Letter Day." Nobody got this one, though I'm pretty sure at least one regular reader has this album. A great song to sing along to while driving.
- 21) "And if I ever get another chance, I'd still ask her to dance." Blink-182, "The Rock Show." Pure. Pop. Gold.
- 22) "Left my baby and it feels so bad, I guess my race is run." The Clash, "I Fought the Law." Yeah, it's a Bobby Fuller song, but this is the version everybody knows.
- 23) "I was riding hard to meet her, when a shot rang out behind." Warren Zevon, "Jeannie Needs a Shooter." Just for you, Mike Kozlowski.
- 24) "I could hide out under there." Barenaked Ladies, "Pinch Me." A triple bill with these guys, Fountains of Wayne, and They Might Be Giants would be a veritable Lollapalooza of geek rock.
- 25) "Why do tomorrow, what you could never do?" Fountains of Wayne, "Troubled Times." A nice little song off Utopia Parkway.
- 26) "Someone's blasting me with hate and bass, sending dirty vibes my way." Ben Folds, "Rockin' the Suburbs." This made the tape only because of his dead-on Zack de la Rocha impression.
- 27) "Flags, rags, ferry boats, scimitars and scarves, every precious dream and vision underneath the stars." The Waterboys, "The Whole of the Moon." I was pretty much out of ideas, at this point, and I'd been listening to this album a lot, so what the hell?
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