“Hi, this is Chris. I've had two and one-quarter hours' sleep this morning: I cannot get any more sleep. This is very bad, because tonight's a night where I particularly need sleep and cannot get it, er, and I'll tell you why soon.
Um, so, I've noticed the playlist meme going around all the time and, er, it's kind of cool, um, on the downside, the music I tend to listen to doesn't really have [m]any lyrics so I can't really play along. But what this reminded me of was, when I went to the airport the other day, I bumped into Phill Jupitus, who is one of the team captains on Never Mind The Buzzcocks. And Never Mind The Buzzcocks has got a round in which people - the teams - sort of sing or hum or communicate introductions to pieces of music and other contestants have to try to get them.
Now the point of this is: nine times out of ten they're rubbish and eight times out of ten they can't get them. And everyone knows it's rubbish and that's part of the fun, and you get the host, Mark Lamarr, singing across going Da da-da, da da-da, ba ba-ba-ba-ba, and saying everything's actually, ah, the theme tune to The Sweeney. Nevertheless, I feel masochistic, so we're going to try and do this as a LiveJournal PhonePost. I'm only going to do 10, not 25, because I think it's going to be quite self-indulgent enough with 10 already ... yeah, and they're going to vary between four seconds and about forty seconds. Your pass mark is 0.1 out of 10, in that if you manage to get even one, you are doing far better than you ought to be (unless you are Nick [<lj user="ericklendl">] or Rob [<lj user="chocaholic7">] who are the usual suspects for this, as far as this goes.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this, and I hope it isn't, um, isn't too boring. Have fun.
...
If anyone manages to get even one out of them then they're doing remarkably well. I hope you enjoyed this in some strange context. Have fun and good luck. I'll remember to try and give you the answers before long. Hope I can get back to sleep now I've got these blinkin' tunes out of my head. Have fun, take care, love you all, bye!”
I'm fairly sure I picked out the ZX Spectrum loading sequence, The Muppet Show and Combine Harvester somewhere out of that lot. The Christmassy sounding thing may have been Have A Cheeky Christmas, but on the other hand there was a vaguely recognisable tune which makes me think it may not have been... ooh, Another Rock 'n' Roll Christmas perhaps? One of them sounded sufficiently dissimilar to the Countdown clock theme to make me think that may have been what you had in mind.
You know, if you actually made some proper guesses, then you might just score yourself three points there. :-)
I think I am going to declare you WINNER! for naming #2 as "Another Rock'n'Roll Christmas" and CO-WINNER! for naming #7 as "I've Got A Brand New Combine Harvester". The Muppet Show is also correct.
OMG am *dying* here. You nearly made me snort Instant Breakfast out of my *nose*! *giggles uncontrollably* And you made Elsa cry!! Which, admittedly, is not a difficult thing to do...but still. :)
Oh, lord. I'm fairly sure I heard the Muppets somewhere in there, and number 7 sounds a bit like "I've got a brand new pair of roller-skates..." but somehow I don't think that's what you were going for. ;) Several sounded somewhat familiar to me - as in, I think I may have heard you hum them before - but I'm not fitting any names to tunes here. Ah, well.
Off to work now, shall return your mail before my review begins. :) Love you!
The Muppet Show is indeed correct. But as for #7 and "I've got a brand new pair of roller-skates"...? Judges. A ruling. Now! The intended answer, I've Got A Brand New Combine Harvester is a parody of I've Got a Brand New Pair Of Roller-Skates, so your answer is correct through being a predecessor to presumably the same tune, though unintended. (Haven't we had the "combine harvester" / "roller-skates" discussion before, too?) Ha ha ha ha! The winner - it's you!
You made me late for work... again! Still listening to the post for the third time and I have ten minutes to shower and drive 15 mins to the office. Hmmmm.... definitely recognized Muppets as #5 and #6 is now going to drive me crazy all day. Thanks Chris.... thanks!
Meh. I planned to revise the transcription with careful attention to the precise number of bas, bums, das, dums, las and whee!s, but it's strictly one transcription per Friend. Someone else care to take up the baton?
#1 is a big ericklendl/radinden favourite. Might it be giving too much away to say it's a topical song at this time of year?
#2 has been identified as "Another Rock'n'Roll Christmas" by Gary Glitter. Specifically, minus Glitter G. and ensemble singing "Christmas!" over the intro.
#3 is partly there - you've identified the non-traditional instrument used, but haven't worked out in which tune it is used. The six chords immediately afterwards, in conjunction with the unusual instrument, should give it away. addedentry, at least, has definitely heard the tune.
#4 nobody has touched. This is the wild card in that this is a genuine credible pop "choon" which might actually have been used as an intro on the show. It's pretty famous. I think that, at the very least, expetesso and leiabelle will know it.
#5 everyone has got; I declare "The Muppet Show" to be the most famous song out of the ten, or at least for my rendition thereof to have been closer to the mark.
#6 is causing you difficulty, but it's a #21 UK "cult" "novelty" hit from 1988. radinden definitely should know it; the_maenad has good reason to do so too, even if she's too cool to admit it. ;-)
#7 you have - in fact, you have twice, which is at least once more than I was expecting. I was thinking of "I've Got A Brand New Combine Harvester" and this makes the song it parodies, "I've Got A Brand New Pair of Roller-Skates" correct as well.
#8 has no takers, but it's a platter which has been frequently spun by, at the very least, daweaver. It's not actually all that good a rendition, unfortunately, but I've got the most recognisable bits in there. Sort of. Almost in the right order, even.
#9 is the deliberately blinking obscure one - it's the start of a piano remix of a not-very-long-lived US game show. I just like it because it goes ZabbadabbaDABBAdabbaDABBAdabbaDABBAbadow!, which more tunes really should do. In the US "short opening sequence" game show tradition, it gets more or less straight into the melody after about four seconds, so you don't get very much of it.
#10 comes from my DDR folder, though I wouldn't like to say anything more specific than it being some sort of Bemani game. (It might be Beatmania IIDX or Session Mode Guitar Freaks only, for all I know.) Accordingly this is one likely to be recognised by dr4b, brakusjs or xnera - most likely from the repeated-four-times stab rather than the end of the intro, which I slightly overelaborate.
I am, alas, hampered by having no sound on this computer. But even I can get #6 from that description. (I've got the record you know, picture sleeve and all).
I giggle at the news and wholeheartedly approve. :-) (And imagine you headbanging to it for some reason.) I missed the second part of the reception, but I am told that Nick Parish had it spun at his wedding last year, and it didn't clear the floor. It would certainly have got me out of my seat had I not had to rush off in order to beat the closing of Left Luggage.
DOUBLE WINNER! That's like a double showcase winner, except without any showcases.
6) As well you know, or at least you have been able to convincingly bluff, this is the strumtastic "John Kettley Is A Weatherman" by A Tribe of Toffs. Ooooooohhhhhhh!
8) Indeed. I was attempting to "do", very specifically, "Rock Revolution" by Zack "Last of the Summer Wine" Lawrence.
I worked #1 out last night. It is, in fact, the theme from THE SWEENEY. No it isn't. It's the opening bars and some extra ones of F.L.Y.'s classic song Hello From Mars. So there!
I'm sure that I *used* to be the maddest person I know
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