- Alanis Morissette takes the cake with no fewer than three list songs her album Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie [Buy from Amazon.com]:
- Thank U (Thank you India/Thank you terror/Thank you disillusionment…)
- Are You Still Mad? (Are you still mad i kicked you out of bed?/Are you still mad i gave you ultimatums?/Are you still mad i compared you to all my forty year old male friends?…)
- That I Would Be Good (That I would be good even if I did nothing/That I would be good even if I got the thumbs down/That I would be good if I got and stayed sick/That I would be good even if I gained ten pounds…)
- Sting has two (or three) list songs on his album Sacred Love [Buy from Amazon.com]:
- Inside (Inside the doors are sealed to love/Inside my heart is sleeping/Inside the fingers of my glove/Inside the bones of my right hand…)
- Whenever I Say Your Name (Whenever I say your name, whenever I call to mind your face/Whatever bread’s in my mouth, whatever the sweetest wine that I taste…)
- (Honorable mention: Dead Man’s Rope (Walk away in emptiness, walk away in sorrow/Walk away from yesterday, walk away tomorrow…)
- 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover by Paul Simon, from the album Still Crazy After All These Years [Buy from Amazon.com] (You just slip out the back, Jack/Make a new plan, Stan/You don’t need to be coy, Roy/Just get yourself free…)
- 52 Girls by the B-52’s, from the album The B-52’s [Buy from Amazon.com] (Effie, Madge and Mabel and Biddie…)
- Daves I Know [Windows Media link] by Bruce McCulloch, from the album Shame-Based Man [Buy from Amazon.com] (David Hoffman/He works in my dad’s store…Dave Gort/I’ve known since I was six…Dave Jadiski/Man, this cat can swing…)
- Feel Good Hit Of The Summer by Queens of the Stone Age, from the album R [Buy from Amazon.com] (Nicotine, Valium, Vicodin, Marijuana, Ectasy and Alcohol…)
- Johnny Saucep’n by Moxy Früvous, from the ‘b’ album [Buy from Amazon.com] Basil endive parmesan shrimp live lobster/hamster worchester muenster/Caviar radicchio snow pea scampi…
- Sodomy by Galt MacDermot, James Rado, and Gerome Ragni, from the musical Hair [Buy album from Amazon.com] (Sodomy/Fellatio/Cunnilingus/Pederasty…)
- Subterranean Homesick Blues by Bob Dylan, from the album Bringing It All Back Home [Buy from Amazon.com] (Johnny’s in the basement/Mixing up the medicine/I’m on the pavement/Thinking about the government/The man in the trench coat/Badge out, laid off/Says he’s got a bad cough/Wants to get it paid off…)
- Sweet Old World by Lucinda Williams, from the album Sweet Old World [Buy from Amazon.com] The breath from your own lips, the touch of fingertips/A sweet and tender kiss…
August 21, 2006
August 21st, 2006 at 12:42 pm
How about Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire”?
August 21st, 2006 at 1:13 pm
Michelle: Good call! Yes, that certainly counts. I knew when I wrote this list that I could only barely scratch the surface. There must be plenty of other songs that just didn’t occur to me. Please feel free to point out others in the comments!
August 21st, 2006 at 6:19 pm
“Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3” by Ian Dury and the Blockheads. (“Summer Buddy Holly, the Bolshoi Ballet, Good Golly Miss Molly, and boats…”)
“People Who Died” by the Jim Carroll Band (“Teddy sniffing glue he was twelve years old / Fell from the roof on east two-nine / Cathy was eleven when she pulled the plug / On twenty-six reds and a bottle of wine…”)
“88 Lines about 44 Women” by the Nails (“Sarah was a modern dancer / lean pristine transparency / Janet wrote bad poetry / in a crazy kind of urgency…”)
“Happiness Is” from “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” – Clark Gesner, composer
Bonus points to you if you can closely estimate my age from these answers… : )
August 23rd, 2006 at 10:07 pm
One of the first songs we all learn as kids, is The ABCs : http://www.google.com/search?q=abc+song
Tom Lehrer wrote a song with all the names of the elements, that had been discovered, at the time of his composing the piece. The Elements is animated here: http://www.privatehand.com/flash/elements.html whence you can click a link to Amazon, to buy Tom Lehrer CDs.
August 25th, 2006 at 10:29 am
John and Mercury: Thanks for those excellent additions!
And John, you’d be…let’s see…over 21. Close? 🙂
October 2nd, 2006 at 5:16 pm
Violent Femmes – Kiss Off
“i take one one one cause you left me and two two two for my family and three three three for my heartache and four four four for my headaches and five five five for my lonely and six six six for my sorrow and seven seven no tomorrow and eight eight i forget what eight was for but nine nine nine for the lost gods ten ten ten ten for everything everything everything”
How was this forgotten?
February 15th, 2007 at 1:23 am
Savage Garden – Affirmation
😀
June 27th, 2007 at 7:59 am
It’s the end of the world as we know it. by REM