Last week we looked at Best New Artist Grammy winners. There was a three-way tie for first place – Tony, Rich, and Geoff (with help from Geoff’s wife) all scored 34/40. Late Addendum: after I scheduled this post, EclecticMusicLover submitted a perfect 40/40.
This week it’s the only quiz that matters. You need to link the song titles with the opening lines of The Clash’s album London Calling. There are a bunch of these quizzes on Sporcle but I don’t want to feature too many since one-artist quizzes are always limiting if people aren’t familiar with them. Like The White Album, London Calling is a double, which makes the quiz a nice length.
www.sporcle.com/games/El_Dandy/first-lines-the-only-quiz-that-matters/
I scored 19/19 with 1:01 remaining.
In other news, I’ve been reviewing the dB’s recently. I didn’t realise that all four original members grew up in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Winston-Salem has also given the world Maya Angelou, Chris Paul, and Ben Folds. As young teens, Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple of the dB’s played in a hard rock band with Mitch Easter from Let’s Active, and recorded a six-track album. Easter and Holsapple are known for their association with R.E.M. – Easter produced their acclaimed early records, while Holsapple was a touring member of the band between 1989 and 1991. Here’s ‘King Battle of the Bands’ by Rittenhouse Square from 1972:
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10/19. I thought I knew that album better. Well, I probably don’t understand half the lyrics.
I don’t really like the second album when their record company got Sandy Pearlman in to make them more palatable for US audiences. A 19 track album with almost all of the words written by the same lyricist makes for a tougher quiz than The White Album, I think.
Pearlman’s the guy that did all that Blue Oyster Cult stuff.
I’m gonna skip this one. Although I like The Clash they were never an essential band for me, even though I’m the perfect age for them to have been the only band that mattered. Also, I tend to prefer Sandinista over London Calling, which I know is a controversial opinion.
I think there are a few Sandinista fans around – I’m in the camp where there are some great tracks but it’s way too long.
Given this is one of my favorite and most listened records, I am embarrassed to say I got two of them wrong because I had a brain fart and mixed up two songs in my head.
Still, I got 17/19 with 02:23 left, so I guess that’s good.
17 is a good effort – I don’t know how many London Calling aficionados will attempt the quiz this week.
I’m going to skip this one too, as I just don’t know the album well enough.
Sorry! Single artist quizzes are always a bit niche.
7/19. I knew I wouldn’t do good cuz I never listened to that album much. That site is really going crazy with the ads. I think that’s what slows it down. It takes like 88 years for the page to load, if it loads at all, and then more ads start up. I think they do that on purpose to try to get you to buy the ad-free shit.
Yup, the ads are pretty annoying sometime.
SCORE
12/19 It’s been a while…a long while since I listened to it all.
Good remembering then.
Oh the dB’s… I love the story where they visited Chilton and Bell in 77 or 78
Yup, I just reread that on your site.
15/19 for me. Pretty proud of myself. I’m not usually good at these lyric quizzes.
Good work!
18/19 – I screwed up on ‘Clampdown’ as I forgot about the intro section of it.
At the moment, I’m starting the second episode of the Beatles documentary. The first episode is interesting and you could see that buildup to George leaving.
Ooh, that’s the highest score so far. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to that Beatles documentary – I normally watch stuff with my wife, and I don’t think I could convince her to sit through 6 hours of Beatles. Maybe if I’m sick one day.
I didn’t bother to take this one. Haven’t listened to it enough.
Did you really need to ask? You know what they said – well some of it was true…
19/19 of course.
It’s like it was custom made for you this week!
Sorry, didn’t do this one. I looked at it and I don’t know many clash songs…and I even have London Calling on vinyl. Just not familiar enough with it to guess. I think I got 1.
You could add it to your “What should I review?” options for one month. It could have been worst, like a Trout Mask Replica quiz!
That is an idea!!
3/19 with 2:01 left. In my defence, it’s early. And I haven’t played LC in a good long while. And for some reason I haven’t retained the lyrics in my head. I know, I know, it’s time to go play it again. I’ll do that now.
Enjoy!
I will. Except for Lost In The Supermarket. I always found that track was the one they should’ve left off. (IMHO)
I think the 4th side tapers off a bit – never been keen on Revolution Rock or Lover’s Rock.
Fair enough! I wonder if maybe they hit us right sometimes, not so much others…
It’s actually more like 8 hours. I couldn’t love the band more and even found much of it to be a slog.
Almost decided to skip this one as just dont know the album well enough but decided to try and got 4 – which means maybe my initial inclination was right. 🙂
I have liked the dBs since I borrowed one of their CDs from the local library one time on a whim. It was a NC public library which is maybe why they had it. Also discovered the Jayhawks that way
Thanks for playing anyway! I don’t think I’d really thought about where they were from – they get a bit more country later in the 1980s, but the early stuff sounds like a New York band, where they were formed.
8 – almost a pass!
Yup, there’s a wide range of scores this week.