Sine Qua Non

More 70's Music!

One more time... 28* new entries. Song and artist please. Nothing up for grabs but blogosphere bragging rights. This time, I'll put the answers in the "More" section as they are discovered, but I'll italicize the ones that have been solved here -- when artist and song have both been correctly identified. Avert your eyes from others' comments to keep it fair. No cheating! As some have noted, these are a bit tougher. If any remain unsolved in a couple of days, I'll start adding more lyrics each day until they are all solved. As of Sunday night, that's 13 down and 15 to go.

* One song has been taken off the original list since it was released in 1982. My bad for misreading a label.

MONDAY NIGHT: Still only 13 out of 28. More lyrics added. Try again and tell me you aren't kicking yourselves a little. Some of these are pretty big hits. Please don't make me add more lyrics...

TUESDAY NIGHT: Contest Over. 26 out of 28, with a little help from my friends. The only ones you didn't get were "Cry Me a River" by Joe Cocker and" Floy Joy" by the Supremes. But the thread is getting dated, so I hereby declare victory and move on. I am, as always, open to your comments. Too hard? Should I do it again in a few weeks? Months? Decades? As much as some people have bitched about this period of music, I'd rather be stuck alone with it than alone with what has been published the last ten years.

Who needs TV when I've got T-Rex? (Mott the Hoople, "All the Young Dudes") Written by David Bowie (rhymes with Howie, according to Neal the hippie).

To live in this town you must be tough, tough, tough, tough, tough! (Rolling Stones, "Shattered") It took nine years, but the Stones finally put out a decent album in the 70's.

Well I got nothing against the press, they wouldn't print it if it wasn't true (Joe Jackson, "Sunday Papers") Ah, but it all depends on what we mean by "truth", eh? Say, now that Al Gore has a media outlet of his very own...

Welcome to the lion's den, temptation's on its way (Madness, "House of Fun" -- 1982) Sorry.

Pulled out of San Pedro late one night, the moon and the stars was shinin' bright.
We was drivin' up Grapevine Hill passing cars like they was standing still (Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen, "Hot Rod Lincoln") Cover of Charile Ryan's song, first made popular by Johnny Bond in 1959 -- which I had a 45 of when I was a kid!

This is the kind, this is the kind of stuff to make you feel like you want to do something nasty like waste some chicken gravy on your white shirt. (Rufus Thomas, "Do the Funky Chicken") Memphis legend, whom remarkably few people seem to know about today.

Child like the one I once knew, made my grass green and my blue skies blue.
Lord was time when two was one. Tell me now girl, where've all the good times gone? (Joe Cocker, "Cry Me A River") John Belushi lookalike.

Why can't we brothers protect one another?
No one's serious and it makes me furious.
Don't be misled, just think of ... (Curtis Mayfield, "Freddie's Dead") Fred, damnit! It's Fred!

And the gold rolled through his veins, like a thousand railroad trains.
And eased his mind in the hours that he chose, while the kids ran around wearin' other peoples' clothes... (John Prine, "Sam Stone") I passed on the easier "Illegal Smile" in favor of harder drugs. That's also why the New Riders of the Purple Sage and "Panama Red" and his white horse Mescalino didn't make an appearance this time. Nor could Jesse Winchester lamenting "Stems and Seeds" find a way to sneak into the list.

I mean was he a heavy doper or was he just a loser? He was a friend of yours.
What do you mean he had bullet holes in his mirrors? (Neil Young, "Tired Eyes") OK, so maybe it was one of Neil's least successful albums, but still -- this and "The Needle and the Damage Done" are as good as it gets. You better start bookin' on Neil if I keep this up.

For every eye that passes by, you know the world gets a little bit older.
It's time to realize that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. (Ray Stevens, "Everything is Beautiful") He ain't crude, he ain't lewd, he's just in the mood to run with Kofi Annan and utopians everywhere.

Your real name may be Smith or Jones but not your claim to fame.
Oh, it's a ... boy! Any girl who knew you at all would have to call you ... (The Supremes, "Floy Joy") The Supremes sans Diana Ross in 1972 (when Michael Jackson did not yet look like her). Damn I feel old now.

Red lights are flashing around me, good Lord it looks like they found me (R. Dean Taylor, "Indiana Wants Me") Wander-lust.

Well, I got one foot on the platform, the other foot on the train.
I'm goin' back to New Orleans to wear that ball and chain. (Eric Burdon and the Animals, "The House of the Rising Sun") Shocking.

Well the first time I got it I was just ten years old (Ted Nugent, "Cat Scratch Fever")The Motor City madman himself.

I give a little muscle and I spend a little cash, but all I get is bitter and a nasty little rash (Squeeze, "Cool for Cats") In and out of Wandsworth...

And while the future's there for anyone to change,
Still you know it's seems it would be easier sometimes to change the past.
I'm just one or two years and a couple of changes behind you
In my lessons at love's pain and heartache school. (Jackson Browne, "Fountain of Sorrow") Jeebus, I must not have been much fun to be around as a sophomore in college.

Why do people break up, turn around and make up?
I just can't see. You'd never do that to me (Would you, baby?) (Al Green, "Let's Stay Together") I thought this one would be too easy. Wrong again.

You search in your bag, light up a fag, say it’s a drag, but you’re so glad to be alive (Van Morrison, "Blue Money") The Belfast Cowboy.

Better find another girl, better find uh, another place (Lee Michaels, "Do You Know What I Mean") Wooo! Help me!

Misty morning eyes, I'm trying to disguise the way I feel but I just can't hide it (The Fortunes, "Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again") Raindrops keep fallin' on our heads...

And daddy doesn't understand it, he always said she was as good as gold (Boomtown Rats, "I Don't Like Mondays") Monday, Monday, don't like that day.

God made man but he used the monkey to do it.
Apes in the plan, we’re all here to prove it. (Devo, "Jocko Homo") Are we not men? I ran out and bought Devo's first album after seeing them perform "Satisfaction" on Saturday Night Live (way back when it really was really good). My dormmates thought I was nuts. (See Jackson Browne above.)

Then one by one the stars would all go out and you and I would simply fly away (Bread, "If") Baby, I'm a running out of the room screamin' everytime I hear anything by Bread.

Jesus freaks out in the street handing tickets out for God (Elton John (and Bernie Taupin), "Tiny Dancer") Sing us a song you're the piano man, he takes a stand in that auditorium.

All I had to do was send ten dollars to the church of the sacred bleeding heart of Jesus, located somewhere in Los Angeles, California, and next week they'd say my prayer on the radio. (Rolling Stones, "Faraway Eyes") The Stones did an awful lot of what sounded suspiciously like country music to me back then, but I liked it, I liked it, yes I did.

After all this time of bein' alone we can love one another, live for each other from now on (Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, "Never Ending Song of Love For You") Feels so good I can hardly stand it.

'Cause you know that I mean what I say,
So don't go and take me the wrong way.
You know you can't go on gettin' your own way,
'Cause if you do it's gonna get you someday. (Dave Mason or Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, "Only You Know and I Know") Of course, I was looking for Dave Mason in 1970, but Delaney and Bonnie had a hit with it as well. I wouldn't have put them back to back if I hadn't learned this after looking it up since multiple people kept flagging it as D&B&F.

Barefoot girl sitting on the hood of a Dodge
Drinking warm beer in the soft summer rain.
The Rat pulls into town, rolls up his pants,
Together they take a stab at romance
And disappear down Flamingo Lane. (Bruce Springsteen, "Jungleland") Michele may detest him, but I knew a girl in college named Michele who fantasized about Bruce stopping in the middle of a concert, looking out and saying, "Michele, is that you?" and calling her up on stage to dance with. Color me shocked this one wasn't picked out much earlier.

Well, that was fun.

Posted by Charles Austin at May 1, 2004 12:09 AM