I have some things to tell you (that’s a riff on a Thomas Wolfe short story), but am putting the finishing touches on my Jesus and Mo foreword, and so—as Captain Oates said—I may be some time. But here’s something to occupy at least the rock and roll aficionados among you. It’s no fair Googling trying to get the answers to these questions; you need to rack your own brain. It’s a test of how much you know about old rock and roll, not about how well you can use Google.
Here’s the question:
Here are a few words. Name a rock song in whose lyrics they appear, as well as the singer or group who recorded the song
You’re allowed to put the answers in the comments, but if you want to participate do not read the comments.
Withers (the common noun, not the singer Bill Withers!)
Granite
Malt
Chicken (there are at least three correct answers here)
Starfish
Snuff
I’ll post the answers (the songs themselves, if I can find them on YouTube) at 2:30 p.m. Chicago time.
“Do the Funky Chicken” must be one of the three.
Now there are at least four, given that the word “chicken” appears in the song’s lyrics.
Thought it was Funky Gibbon?
“Funky Gibbon” is by The Goodies; “Do the Funky Chicken” is Rufus Thomas, who was just as much of an oddball:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lCI63H1neY
“The sun’s not yellow, it’s chicken”
Bob Dylan: Tombstone Blues.
I want someone to guess all the words! But that makes five, and there are, I think, quite a few more.
The Doors, Back Door Man “You men eat your dinner, eat your pork and beans. I eat more chicken any man ever seen, yeah, yeah.”
The Judy’s, Girls! Girls! Girls! “Take ’em to the malt shop.” [Obviously not the song you were going for, though yours probably mentions a malt shop as well.]
chicken: dixie chicken by little feat
only one I can come up with quickly
Vaguely remember “Red Rubber Ball” from my Jr HS days, “now I know you’re not the only starfish in the sea”
Ok if I googled it afterwards? I remember the recording by “The Cyrcle,” (didn’t know it was spelled that way), and didn’t know it was co-written by by Bruce Woodley of The Seekers and one Paul Simon.
Frank Zappa claimed to have written the world’s first rock opera at a very young age, called “I was a Teenage Malt Shop”, but no one wanted to perform it, for some reason.
I’d never heard of withers as a noun before, and had to google it.
Prince (the one from Denmark name o’ Hamlet, not the one from Minneapolis formerly known by a symbol) famously delivered the line “our withers are unwrung.”
My goodness, what one learns on this website!
I bodily feature of a horse or dog (I’ve only heard it used with regard to horses or dogs):
The withers is the ridge between the shoulder blades of an animal, typically a quadruped. In many species, it is the tallest point of the body. In horses and dogs, it is the standard place to measure the animal’s height. In contrast, cattle are often measured to the top of the hips. (wiki)
Sub
“The stars that we could reach were just starfish on the beach.”–Seasons in the Sun by Terry Jacks.
Oy!! Now there is song I wish I could forget.
“And the limit that was high was the ceiling not the sky.”
Yes, very good.
(Okay, I just made up that extra line for some reason.)
“And they wither with the wind” from Simon and Garfunkel’s Leaves that are Green.
Run For the Roses, Dan Fogelberg
For the Turnstiles, Neil Young
Nazareth, Local Still
Chicken Train, Ozark Mountain Daredevils
Epistle to Derroll, Donovan
Wang Dang Doodle (Howlin’ Wolf, Warren Zevon, and many others) (Does this count, it’s really blues I suppose)
If that doesn’t count, How about:
Why Don’t We Get Drunk, Jimmy Buffett 🙂
Should have retained the same order for the Nazareth song:
Local Still, by Nazareth
Malt could also be Bull Session with the Big Daddy, The Beach Boys
I admit to google help with Nazareth and Donovan.
Aaaaagh — I knew ‘granite’ line rang a bell. Shoulda got it!
1. “In the lamplight the withered leaves collect at my feet…” – Memory – CATS (not the exact word)
2. “You can’t keep us cause our eyes can see men with insight, men in granite…” – Tupelo Honey – Van Morrison
3. Don’t know. Thinking either ’50s or hip-hop but nothing specific.
4. “…and a little bit of chicken friend. Cold beer on a Friday night…” – Chicken Fried – Zac Brown Band
5. Don’t know.
6. Don’t know.
Nice try on #1, Liz, but that participial adjective isn’t even cognate with the simple noun. 🙂
Oh my goodness. I’m so sorry : )
”Here comes the Supernaural Anaesthetist.
If He wants you to SNUFF it,
all He has to do is puff it.
He’s such a fine dancer”
performed by Genesis on the double album ‘The Lamb Lies Down on Brroadway’ track ‘Here Comes the Supernaural Anaesthetist’.
Snuff said.
Supernaural=Supernatural
An almost total fail for me. At least one of the songs on Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias’ Snuff Rock EP contains the word “snuff”, though. Definitely the Sex Pistols pastiche “Gobbing on Life”, if I recall correctly, and possibly another one. Musical parody at its finest!
Doh! Just relistened – it was The Clash pastiche “Snuffin’ Like That” which I was thinking of.
I made my own assignment, one I used to give to my students in creative writing classes–namely, making up a piece of verse using the five words. Cheating only a little, here’s what I came up with using WITHERS, CHICKEN, MALT, STARFISH, and SNUFF:
You should never take it for GRANITE
That a CHICKEN has WITHERS—absurd!
Only four-legged animals have ‘em
And a CHICKEN’s a two-legged bird.
A STARFISH has five altogether
And I’ll bet you a MALTed frappé
That I could come up with some others—
But that’s SNUFF for today.
Can you hum a couple bars for us? 🙂
Very good!
🙂
A starfish leads a dance
It dreams it is a human
And falls into a trance.
Dislocated Day by Porcupine Tree
Late to the party – Granite Statue by Salad – I used to know the band –
https://genius.com/Salad-granite-statue-lyrics