This one sort of tickled my fancy, so I decided I’d take a stab at it. (Thanks, Sarah!)

Step 1: Get your playlist together, put it on random, and play.
Step 2: Pick your favorite lines from the first 20 songs that play.
Step 3: Post and let everyone you know guess what song the lines come from.
Step 4: Cross out the songs when someone guesses correctly.

1. “If I said it, I meant it / I’m not really demented / I’m just saying it’s been said again and again” (Sarah herself got this one: Econoline Crush, “All That You Are”)
2. “There was a bright light / A shattering of shop windows / The bomb in the baby carriage / Was wired to the radio” (Sis got this one: Paul Simon, “The Boy In The Bubble”)
3. “The face that launched a thousand ships / Is sinking fast, that happens you know”
4. “Tell me baby how you generate longevity / Tell me baby how you really hate publicity”
5. “He likes to work with his hands / He’s an apolitical man”
6. “I’m relying on your common decency / So far it hasn’t surfaced but I’m sure it exists” (Lil’ answered: Depeche Mode, “People Are People”)
7. “Another little flare up, storm brewed in a tea cup / Imagine any mix up and the lot would go”
8. “You’ll have to take me just the way that you find me / What’s gone is gone and I do not give a damn”
9. “I’ve been stripped of everything / Except some flesh that bleeds”
10. “I’m waiting for my heroes to tell me what to dream / I’m waiting for my neighbors to tell me what’s obscene”
11. “Cause we’re cleansing our souls every night with a bar of soap opera”
12. “She smells of the sun / And she’s constantly saying / That it’s all right / Because lies sound so nice.”
13. “You stroll, you jump, you’re hot and you tease” (The recent birthday-boy gets this one: Robert Plant, “Tall Cool One”)
14. “Synchronize but don’t comprehend / ‘Cause where I stop that’s where you begin”
15. “Yes I think there were five good men here yesterday / But they were asked to leave”
16. “And what’s in it for me, my pretty young thing? / Why should I whistle, when the caged bird sings?” (A commentor called ‘gman’ spotted: Sting, “The Soul Cages”)
17. “I won’t feel guilty / No matter what they’re telling me / I won’t feel dirty and buy into their misery”
18. “Oh, father of the four winds, fill my sails, across the sea of years / With no provision but an open face, along the straits of fear” (IRQuick waited a few days to announce: Led Zeppelin, “Kashmir”)
19. “With every step you take you touch my soul / With every breath you will succeed” (My beloved twinlet got this and the next one: The Space Brothers, “Shine”…)
20. “Work it harder / Make it better / Do it faster / Makes us stronger” (… and Daft Punk, “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”)

No Googling allowed. Nobody likes a cheater!

I threw entire albums into my playlist, but I did take some creative license along the way. I skipped over instrumentals and foreign language cuts, as well as some of the really obscure stuff. (Hey, some of these songs were actually played on the radio!) There’s also only one track per artist represented here, though that statement should be taken with a grain of salt. You, of course, are free to take this and run with it in your own fashion, and you’ll probably want to make it a bit more… accessible. Me? I’m just a lawnmower, you can tell me by the way I walk.

Er, sorry about that. All these song lyrics, you understand. Ahem.