He plays Billy Bragg and a bit of Green Day, and I'm so bored of the USA

[venta]

It's Thursday! That's, like, practically Friday and thus sounds like a good time for a lyrics quiz.

Simple scoring system: one point for every correct song-title. You can go for extra credit and add the artist if you want, but it will only gain you honour and glory. Please note: correct title. There is a link between all the songs in the quiz, I'm sure you'll work it out.

Responses from my stringent beta-testing and product-development team (or ChrisC, as he's also known) suggest the quiz has come out rather more difficult than intended, but we'll give it a whirl...

[Poll #1834706]

Comments

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

...music isn't my strong point :)

[venta.livejournal.com]

... but spotting large polls shortly after they are posted is ;)

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

If by that you mean 'aimlessly hanging around on the internet when I should be working' then yes, yes it is :)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Speaking as someone who's posting lyrics quizzes when they should be working, I don't know what you mean!

Anyway, er, my code's compiling (http://xkcd.com/303/).

[sushidog.livejournal.com]

Ah, I've spotted the link, but I'm better with bandnames than song titles! (Especially song titles that fit the link, for obvious reasons!)

[kauket.livejournal.com]

Sadly proud of 24.

[lnr]

Hmm, 3 points I'm fairly sure of is rubbish. I may come back to this later as many are faintly familiar.

[sammason.livejournal.com]

Er... Dr Mason here claiming 2/25. Please may I win a prize anyway? Chocolate will do just fine, thank you.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yes, me too - I always knew that it was going to be tricky to actually answer the question, but I hoped people would at least think "oh, you know, that one that goes...". Sadly, for some "obvious" (YMMV) songs I tried to pick a not-totally obvious lyric, and seem to have succeeded a bit too well.

[venta.livejournal.com]

That makes me happy :)

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I got the link (suggesting a fun variation on Russell's Paradox? Is that saying too much?) but feel like I should have known more of them - a couple in particular sound familiar but I can't place them...

[venta.livejournal.com]

I don't see why not. Highest score by an entrant called Sam?

[lnr]

Heh, and I've just realised I can selectively cheat - and just look at other people's answers for the ones I know, and not at the others :)

[venta.livejournal.com]

That's kind of the reason I do lyrics quizzes as polls rather than just letting people comment... easy to look if you want, and not look if you don't want.

(Also me and emacs are dead good at writing polls quickly, don't think I could necessarily be bothered if I had to do it all by hand!)

[venta.livejournal.com]

suggesting a fun variation on Russell's Paradox?

That's a considerably more sophisticated way of putting it :)

I don't mind if people spell the link out, by the way, by the time people have got to this point in the comments they're probably going to have solved it (or worked out they don't know if enough of the songs to solve it).

[ar-gemlad.livejournal.com]

Oh- dammit. Just got number 24.

[ar-gemlad.livejournal.com]

Or not. Can't think of the title!

You win again, venta!

[venta.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of allergic to white fluffy cats, but please imagine me stroking a nice albino lizard or something while gloating :)

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

You could always make them as polls people can't see the answers to...

[sammason.livejournal.com]

Oh all right then.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I could, but that wouldn't meet criterion A above (ie "easy to look at if you want to").

[venta.livejournal.com]

Obviously we need to wait and see if sampiano comes out of the woodwork, but I reckon you're a shoe-in :)

[sammason.livejournal.com]

Really? How is that done?

Yesterday I posted an LJ cut saying 'I trust you NOT TO CLICK ON THIS' and then a poll for people to confess or lie about having clicked. Several people spotted a loophole: as soon as there were any comments, the poll results became visible to all.

[sammason.livejournal.com]

You're doing wonders for my self-esteem. Natch. If sampiano is reading this, I can only hope that phe takes pity on this academic whose idea of culture is something that's done with cells in a containment lab.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Ohhhhhhhh, I get the link. Took me a lot longer than it probably should have!