Puzzle: What song's this line from? (no Googling)

Subject: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 May 06 - 04:32 PM

"My tortoise has hysteria!"

Subject: Lyr Add: LEOPOLD ALCOCKS (Jake Thackray)
From: Peace
Date: 19 May 06 - 04:35 PM

LEOPOLD ALCOCKS
by Jake Thackray

Leopold Alcocks, my distant relation,
Came to my flat for a brief visitation.
He's been here since February, damn and blast him
My nerves and my furniture may not outlast him.

Leopold Alcocks is accident prone.
He's lost my bath plug, he's ruptured my telephone.
My antirrhinums, my motorbike, my sofa
There isn't anything he can't trip over.

As he roams through my rooms, all my pussycats scatter.
My statuettes tremble, then plummet, then shatter.
My table lamps tumble with grim regularity.
My cut glass has crumbled and so has my charity.

Leopold Alcocks, an uncanny creature
He can't take tea without some misadventure:
He looks up from his teacup with a smirk on his features
And a slice of my porcelain between his dentures.

He's upset my goldfish, he's jinxed my wisteria
My budgie's gone broody, my tortoise has hysteria.
He cleans my teapots, my saucepans, with Brasso
And leaves chocolate fingerprints on my Picasso.

Leopold Alcocks never known to fail
Working his way through my frail Chippendale.
One blow from his thighs (which are fearsomely strong)
Would easily fracture the wing of a swan.

I brought home my bird for some Turkish moussaka
Up looms old Leopold I know when I'm knackered.
He spills the vino, the great eager beaver,
Drenching her jumpsuit and my joie de vivre.

Leopold Alcocks stirring my spleen
You are the grit in my life's vaseline.
A pox on you Alcocks! You've been here since Feb'ry
Go home and leave me alone with my debris.

So Leopold Alcocks, my distant relation,
Has gone away home after his visitation.
I glimpsed him waving bye-bye this last minute
Waving his hand with my doorknob still in it.

from

www.monologues.co.uk/Comic_Songs/Leopold_Alcocks.htm

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Azizi
Date: 19 May 06 - 04:40 PM

Wow! Peace solved the puzzle in three minutes flat!

Is that a record or what?!

[I mean how quickly he found and posted that request, and not the song itself]

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Peace
Date: 19 May 06 - 04:43 PM

Mr Google deserves the credit, not me.

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Azizi
Date: 19 May 06 - 04:50 PM

I'm still wondering if you set a record for how quickly 'Catters have responded correctly to a person's song query.

It doesn't matter if a person arrived at the answer through his or her recollection, or with the help of Google, or using some other resource.

Any way, good job!

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Sorcha
Date: 19 May 06 - 04:51 PM

I hold the record, I think. 1 minute with a blue clicky.

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Azizi
Date: 19 May 06 - 05:21 PM

Wonderful, Sorcha!!

What was the song?

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 May 06 - 05:39 PM

That's good, Peace, but you were not supposed to use Google to solve it. I guess I should have mentioned that.

Well, here's puzzle number 2. Which song's this line from?

"but it was no sense at all, but too much sense, that took me to the bridge..."

Now, DON'T look it up on Google, please. I want someone who KNOWS what song the line is from, not someone who uses a danged search engine.

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 19 May 06 - 05:41 PM

Hang on! That will take about 10 mins to look it up using the Cat Search emgine... :-)

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Peace
Date: 19 May 06 - 06:01 PM

AS did it. And that's all I'm gonna say. No Google, no Yahoo, not encyclopaedia, no 'cat search engine, no nothing.

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Sorcha
Date: 19 May 06 - 06:02 PM

I can't remember Azzizi

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 May 06 - 06:06 PM

You're on the right track, Peace. The record came out in 1969, and it was amazing for its time...as impressive and unique a collection of original song lyrics as anything since Dylan's 3 electric albums of '65-66, in my opinion.

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 May 06 - 06:11 PM

Azizi.........I can verify Sorch's record. She has actually done several times. For awhile we had a sort of informal contest going on around here and Sorch just flat smoked us. On one occasion she came in at a minute when I came back in two....actually less than that but the clock said two!

To get two or less you have to be there as soon as the thread pops up and it is helpful if you already have a second window open. I think Jeri has a two minute as well.....Sorch, did Jeri ever do a one?

Spaw

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Sorcha
Date: 19 May 06 - 06:14 PM

I don't think so, Spaw. I think I am the only one

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Azizi
Date: 19 May 06 - 06:21 PM

"Threads popp[ing] up"

"Having a two minute"

"Do[ing] a one"

"she flat out smoked us"

Mudcat creativity in action. We've even creating our own vernacular.

I love it!

But as for figuring out where the song lines come from, I'll just sit back and enjoy the contest and learn something-I'm sure- along the way.

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 May 06 - 08:20 PM

Still looking for the final answer on song lyric # 2....

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Peace
Date: 19 May 06 - 08:24 PM

I know the answer and I ain't tellin'.

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 May 06 - 08:25 PM

Yeah, I know you know it. ;-) Let's see if anyone else does.

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Bert
Date: 19 May 06 - 09:10 PM

Nope, I hold the record with a correct response in less than 1 minute.

Someone tried to beat me by posting an answer before posting the question but that didn't count.

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Peace
Date: 19 May 06 - 09:10 PM

I knew you were gonna say that, Bert.

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Allan C.
Date: 19 May 06 - 10:40 PM

think that, like so many others before me, I responded in three minutes; but can attesst to Sorcha's record of one minute.

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Rapparee
Date: 19 May 06 - 10:40 PM

I agree with Peace. I know, but I ain't tellin'.

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 May 06 - 10:53 PM

Long song, Little Hawk. (I Metacrawler-ed it--that was my engine of choice before Mr. G came along).

And I've broken the sound barrier a couple of times myself, but if I recall it was in the TECH category. Though I have a little music stuffed between my ears as well.

SRS

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Azizi
Date: 19 May 06 - 11:01 PM

Well I don't know.

And I would like to know.

So when are those who do know

tellin what they know

so we can see if they really do know

or are they just sellin wolf tickets?

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 May 06 - 11:11 PM

Yes, Stilly, it's a long one. For heaven's sake, people, an "identify this song lyric" puzzle is not meant to be done with search engines!   It's done by personally knowing and remembering the song. That's the whole point. Otherwise it would just be an exercise in the ability to tap on a computer keyboard...a completely meaningless exercise, in other words, worthy of a robot or a moderately well-trained monkey, not a human being.

I want to hear from people who KNOW what song it is from their own personal experience and their own memory. They might then have something interesting to say about the song, about the singer, when they first heard it, and so on.

To hell with Google and Metacrawler. What do YOU remember?

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Azizi
Date: 19 May 06 - 11:17 PM

Are we having fun yet?

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Peace
Date: 19 May 06 - 11:21 PM

"What do YOU remember?"

I recall falling asleep watching an Andy Warhol movie in the East Village. When I awoke, the theatre was empty and the dobermans had been turned loose. It wasn't until 4:37 AM when they discovered me and attacked. One had my stomach and its teeth were ripping at my intestines. Another mercifully got my throat and tore through my windpipe. My life flashed before my eyes, and it struck me that it wasn't my life. Frankly, LH, I don't remember jacksh#t about it. That's why I ain't tellin'.

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Azizi
Date: 19 May 06 - 11:27 PM

Does anyone else besides me expect the words "don't give a damn" after a person says "Frankly I don't"?

And what about expecting someone to say "smile" after they say "When you say my name?"

You can figure out from this what kind of books I used to love to read.

And Peace, really great imagery and all. If you aren't a writer, you should be one.

But I got a question for you: If it wasn't your life, whose life was it?

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Peace
Date: 19 May 06 - 11:28 PM

I don't know that, either.

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Azizi
Date: 19 May 06 - 11:38 PM

So must we wait until tomorrow to find out what song that line in the number # puzzle came from?

And can we have some fun with this contest, please?

After all, girls just wanna have fun.

[Now everybody knows which song that line came from]

That's too easy.

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Azizi
Date: 19 May 06 - 11:40 PM

number #=number 2

Maybe I lost my mind if not my life too.

It may dry up like a dream deferred or maybe it will die not with a bang but a whimper.

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 May 06 - 11:59 PM

Sounds like you're cribbing liner notes from Bob Dylan albums again, Peace or maybe from the notes to "Tarantula". ;-) I love spinning out stuff like that. It's a snap, once you get the rythm of the thoughts rolling.

I used to do it all the time, matter of fact.

Azizi, here are some very possible endings for those expressions:

"Frankly, I don't believe a word of it."

"Frankly, I don't think that fellow is coming back."

"Frankly, I think this position is lost." etc....

"When you say my name, say it right."

"When you say my name, put 'mister' in front of it."

For every cliche there are an infinite number of good alternatives.

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: open mike
Date: 19 May 06 - 11:59 PM

dog pile?

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 May 06 - 12:01 AM

Boy, I can see it's going to take a friggin' dog's age before we get someone (aside from Peace) who remembers that song...

Too many brains must be atrophied from depending too much on search engines.

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Azizi
Date: 20 May 06 - 12:06 AM

Frankly, maybe it's because nobody's body is still awake-

on this [air]plane anyway.

But in a parallel universe they're havin a ball with this contest not to mention doin other [shall we say] more strenuous and more exciting things.

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 May 06 - 12:15 AM

Well, Little Hawk, there's no way I'm going to "remember" a song I've never heard of. So I have to search for it.

.

I think I remember Al Stewart.
I mostly listened to classical radio back in those years. Still do.

SRS

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Bert
Date: 20 May 06 - 12:30 AM

OK, I looked it up and must bow to Sorcha's record of reponse WITH clicky.


Subject: RE: Help: EL ES TU
From: Wolfgang - PM
Date: 04 Jul 00 - 08:09 AM

You're both wrong. After having wisely decided that both Jeri's record of a two minutes delay response with a link and Bert's record of a zero minutes delay response without a link are unbeatable (Ed's four minutes for complete lyrics with line breaks are also not bad but perhaps beatable), Joe goes for the remaining records. And what you have seen here, is the fastest two links response ever (yet!).

Wolfgang ...


I can't remeber of I posted the lyrics or gave Mudcat search details.

But I still claim the record for a correct response WITHIN a minute.

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 May 06 - 12:39 AM

I understand, Stilly. This thread is for songs people remember, however, not search engine searches. I'm sure I will pick one you do remember fairly soon.

Al Stewart's music possesses many of the virtues of classical music. It's tuneful, complex, highly intelligent, full of cultural and historical aspects, often orchestral, extremely sophisticated stuff, right from the earliest recordings up to the present day. In fact, I'd say he carved out a specific niche all his own in songwriting that one one else has ever rivalled or even approached. One could say the same of many other artists...only a different niche, that's all.

At the specific thing he does, Al Stewart is the best.

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from? (no Googling)
From: freda underhill
Date: 20 May 06 - 07:18 AM

And I sit huddled at the cat, reading it in my innocence.. And it's no sense at all, but too much sense..

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from? (no Googling)
From: Azizi
Date: 20 May 06 - 07:42 AM

"And it's no sense at all, but too much sense"

So is that song lyric #3?

Or, since he started this contest, is Little Hawk the only one who can chose which esoteric lyrics are featured?

Either way is fine with me as long as he and other folks don't take this whole thing too seriously.

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from? (no Googling)
From: Azizi
Date: 20 May 06 - 08:07 AM

So what's the answer for song lyric #2? From reading the posts,
I figured out that the artist is Al Stewart{other wise known,
at least on this thread, as "AS"

But what song did that lyric come from, and who the heck is Al Stewart? From which genre of music is he [or is it a group?].

I guess I'll have to google if I really want to know. But it seems to me that this thread should clearly provide that information.

Remember, we all aren't from the same cultures.

I think it would be helpful if after the correct answer is given, the featured lyric is repeated and the specific song, and the artist/group who performed it {but maybe there are a number of artists/groups-what happens then?}

And-because it adds to the fun- I also would suggest that the name of the person who won that "round" and the time it took him or her to identify that lyric be noted on that same post with the information about the lyrics.

Again, I'm not playing this game. I'm just trying to keep 'score'.

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from? (no Googling)
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 20 May 06 - 11:46 AM

So, Azizi, I'm having trouble with "not with a bang, but a whimper." Coulk be "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"(Eliot), or maybe something by Ogden Nash? Poems--don't know if music's been put to them.                Tw

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from? (no Googling)
From: Azizi
Date: 20 May 06 - 11:51 AM

HEllo, Tannywheller!

Well, you're close but no cigar.

Not that I had any intention of starting a contest within a contest.

Seriously.

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from? (no Googling)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 May 06 - 12:46 PM

We all take some things too seriously, Azizi... ;-) And thus are our various hangups...or our deepest loves and loyalties...revealed.

Al Stewart is a brilliant songwriter who hails from England. He began recording in the late 60's and is still performing. His songs are unlike anyone else's at all, and they reflect a very keen mind, combined with a very keen grasp of history and western culture. His early albums were all on the most personal of themes (his love life, mostly)...perhaps a bit too self-revealing...and they seem to have centered around his relationship with a young Englishwoman named Mandi. When he broke up with her, around 1969-70, he seems to have gone through a real personal crisis...which resulted in him virtually abandoning the personal revealing lyrics and themes altogether, and instead writing a series of remarkable songs on things like Nostradamus, the French Revolution, the history of England and much of Europe, the early days of aviation, and various philosophical takes on the decline of western civilization and the developing world crisis that accompanies it.

Heavy stuff, to be sure, and brilliantly written. In fact, you have to hear some of those songs to believe it. A couple of them are what I would call absolute masterpieces....particularly the incredible "Roads To Moscow", an epic about the Russian-German conflict in WWII that could well serve as a permanent Russian national anthem, if it translated well...and if they needed a new one (which they evidently don't).

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from? (no Googling)
From: Snuffy
Date: 20 May 06 - 01:14 PM

Perhaps I don't take things seriously enough, but I've managed to live in England for almost sixty years without Al Stewart ever registering on my radar. (I probably have heard the name at some time, but it means nothing at all to me). I must move in the wrong circles.

May the longtime sun shine upon you, all love surround you ...

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from? (no Googling)
From: georgejsmjr
Date: 20 May 06 - 01:42 PM

"I got those tadpoles and minnows all over me."

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from? (no Googli
From: JennyO
Date: 21 May 06 - 11:21 AM

By the way, Azizi's one "not with a bang but a whimper" is TS Eliot, but it's from "The Hollow Men". We did a lot of TS Eliot at school. It's good stuff!

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from? (no Googli
From: JennyO
Date: 21 May 06 - 11:25 AM

Also, it's poetry. As far as I know, it's never been done as a song. Of course, you never can tell what is going to be turned into a song. I've heard Jabberwocky done as a song. Now that was WEIRD......

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from? (no Googling)
From: Azizi
Date: 21 May 06 - 11:30 AM

JennyO, you won the prize!

That is if that line was [were?] part of a contest- which it wasn't.
And if there were [was?] a prize-which there isn't.

I want to make that clear, cause I don't want LH getting angry at me for attempting to hijack this thread-which I wasn't doing.

Seriously.

Subject: RE: Puzzle: What song's this line from? (no Googli
From: open mike
Date: 21 May 06 - 11:36 AM

this line:
"May the longtime sun shine upon you, all love surround you ..."

which is followed by :
"and the pure light within you guide your way home.."

is from a Sufi poem/writing/saying.

I do not know who has recorded it,
but i often sing it at funerals..

the first time being at my grandmother's
funeral in 1978

...What was the question?