:smack: Apologies, I missed this important point. Your post brought to my mind long Mingus titles…I kept thinking about it…and kept going…blah blah :smack:
Around the World
- Stays in Mexico - Toby Keith
- Vienna - Billy Joel
- England Swings - Roger Miller
- Gulf of Mexico - Alabama
- River of Jordan - Peter, Paul and Mary
- He Went to Paris - Jimmy Buffett
- She Always Talked About Mexico - David Ball
- On The Jericho Road - Jerry Lee Lewis
- Gulf of Mexico - Clint Black (different song than #4)
- O Little Town of Bethlehem - The Vienna Boys Choir
(I actually thought of #10 first, but it needs to be the last song on the CD.)
Sixes (difficulty: songs from the CDs in my mini-CD-rack)
- Two of a Kind, Working on a Full House - Garth Brooks (Gets first billing, since the CD title was taken from his solo CD Sevens)
- I Know Why The River Runs - Lee Ann Womack
- Even God Must Get The Blues - Jo Dee Messina
- I Think I’ll Just Stay Here And Drink - Merle Haggard
- What If Jesus Came Back Like That - Collin Raye
- That’s As Close As I’ll Get To Loving You - Aaron Tippin
- I Won’t Take Less Than Your Love - Tanya Tucker
- Tryin’ To Hide A Fire In The Dark - Billy Dean
- Can’t Break It To My Heart - Tracy Lawrence
- I Just Wish You Were Someone I Love - Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers
- Love At 90 Miles An Hour - Ty Herndon
- Put Some Drive In Your Country - Travis Tritt
Challenge 1 is certainly the toughest one for me, I might be cheating a little with a few of the locations being from Norse mythology (well, they’re not in the US :)):
Cruachan “To Hell or Connaught”
Iron Maiden “Montsegur”
Probot “Access Babylon”
Led Zeppelin “Kashmir”
Beatallica “Blackened in the USSR”
Bathory “One Rode To Asa Bay”
Orphaned Land “The Sahara’s Storm”
Midnight Oil “Stars of Warburton”
S.O.D. “Fuck the Middle East”
Therion “Midgård”
Einherjer “Out of Ginnungagap”
Moonsorrow “Jotunheim”
Challenge 2 is so easy, being a fan of many bands from European countries, I’ll leave out bands in my Challenge 1 or 3 lists:
Lordi “Bringing Back the Balls to Rock” (Finland)
Amon Amarth “Pursuit of Vikings” (Sweden)
Finntroll “Det Iskalla Trollblodet” (Finland)
Wyrd “Daughter of the Forest” (Finland)
Nightwish “Over the Hills and Far Away” (Finland)
Falkenbach “The Heathenish Foray” (Germany)
Korpiklaani “Misdummer Night” (Finland)
Opeth “Bleak” (Sweden)
In Flames “Minus” (Sweden)
Windir “Dance of Mortal Lust” (Norway)
Elvenking “The Wanderer” (Italy)
Pagan’s Mind “New World Order” (Norway)
Challenge 3, also not repeating any of the above bands:
Masters of Reality “Theme for the Scientist of the Invisible”
Lamb of God “Now You’ve Got Something To Die For”
Dream Theater “Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence: IV. The Test That Stumped Them All”
Dimmu Borgir “Blessings Upon the Throne of Tyranny”
Exodus “Faster Than You’ll Ever Live To Be”
Helloween “Do You Know What You’re Fighting For?”
Judas Priest “Better By You, Better Than Me”
Sonata Arctica “The Boy Who Wanted To Be A Real Puppet”
Trivium “Pull Harder at the Strings of Your Martyr”
Anthrax “Out of Sight, Out of Mind”
Joe Satriani “The Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing”
Dark Tranquillity “The Emptiness From Which I Fed”
#1 - Travelling Music
- Low - Canada
- Steve Earle - Jerusalem
- Big Star - The India Song
- The Court & Spark - Suffolk Down Upon The Night
- OutKast - Bombs Over Baghdad
- Sonic Youth - Tokyo Eye
- Bob Marley - Smile Jamaica
- Jonathan Richman - Nineteen In Naples
- Texas Tornadoes - Adios Mexico
- The Extra Glenns - Going To Marrakesh
- Bob Dylan - Mozambique
- Rancid - Ivory Coast
- The Clash - Kingston Advice
- The Breeders - London Song
#3 - Keep It Simple
- Old 97’s - If My Heart Was A Car
- 764-HERO - The Long Arm Of The Law
- The Dandy Warhols - The Dandy Warhols Love Almost Everyone
- Built To Spill - Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss
- Explosions In The Sky - Have You Passed Through This Night?
- Broken Social Scene - Anthems For A Seventeen-Year Old Girl
- Wu-Tang Clan - Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nothin’ To Fuck With
- Guided By Voices - As We Go Up, We Go Down
- Spoon - All The Pretty Girls Go To The City
- A Silver Mt Zion - Ring Them Bells (Freedom Has Come And Gone)
- The Fiery Furnaces - My Dog Was Lost But Now He’s Found
- Band Of Horses - I Go To The Barn Because I Like The
- Wolf Parade - You Are A Runner And I Am My Father’s Son
- Sufjan Stevens - They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From The Dead!! Run For Your Lives!! Ahhhhhh!
Challenge 1 – I’ll try to stay away from mythical places (Valhalla) and made up places (pretty much all fantasy oriented stuff)
Karelia - Amorphis
How many miles to Babylon - Yngwie Malmsteen
Egypt - Symphony X
London - Porcupine Tree
Hail to England - Manowar
Going to California - Led Zepplin
Hotel California - The Eagles
Song for America - Kansas
Woodstock Jam - Joe Satriani
Colorado Incident - The Gathering
Notes from Africa - The Devin Townshend Band
Lake Bodom - Children of Bodom
Challenge 2 & 3 – These two alone aren’t too difficult, but they might be if I put them together. I’ll also try not to repeat any countries
Picturesque: Cataclysm Saviour: And the Little Things That Make Us Smile - …And Oceans (Finland)
The Shooting Company of Captain Frans B. Cocg - Ayreon (Holland)
The Maiden and the Minstrel Knight - Blind Guardian (German)
With the Flaming Shades of Fall - Dark Tranquility (Sweden)
For the World to Dictate Our Death - Dimmu Borgir (Norway)
The Magic of the Wizard’s Dream - Rhapsody (Italy)
Slaughtergarden Suite: I. At Dawn; II. The Dead Are Born; III. Destiny; IV. Slaughtergarden; V. Aftermath - Sigh (Japan)
Thus My Heart Weepeth for Thee - Saturnus (Denmark)
Every Day is Like a Thousand Years - Passengers in Time (The Netherlands)
Divine White Light of a Cumming Decadence - Anorexia Nervosa (France)
The Kindom Is Mine (I Saw the Beginning) - Lux Occulta (Poland)
Oops… apologies. I forgot to delete the quote at the beginning.
Also, missed one of the rules, so get rid of my cheating entries for Challenge 1 and replace those four with these two, that’ll give me 10 instead of 12:
North Berwick Witch Trials - Cathedral
Kulu Valley - Led Zepplin
Nice! 
#1, which I ordered approximately from west to east and which contains a disproportionate number of songs about Spain:
Kate Bush - Oh England My Lionheart
The Decemberists - Kingdom of Spain
Venus Hum - Beautiful Spain
Mecano - Quédate en Madrid
Rufus Wainwright - Barcelona
“Weird Al” Yankovic - Genius in France
They Might Be Giants - Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
Piñataland - Flying Down to Moscow
Dido - Mary’s in India
Splashdown - Asia at Odd Hours
#2 I could have done if not for the “no Canada” specification, as the vast majority of my music by non-English-speaking artists is Québécois. Here’s all I could come up with (I also could have done it if I included classical, but that seemed like cheating):
Mecano - Naturaleza Muerta (Spain)
Emiliana Torrini - Today Has Been Okay (Iceland)
Mario Frangoulis - A La Luna de Valencia (Greece)
Gackt - Sayonara (Japan)
#3, in which I thought I was being clever with the Weird Al song but like five people have put it already, and which I ordered by the number of words in the titles:
“Weird Al” Yankovic - (This Song’s Just) Six Words Long
Avenue Q - My Girlfriend, who Lives in Canada
Rufus Wainwright - My Phone’s On Vibrate For You
LittleHorse - Running Just Ahead of the Devil
Belle & Sebastian - It Could Have Been a Brilliant Career
Simon & Garfunkel - The Only Living Boy in New York
Tarkio - My Mother Was a Chinese Trapeze Artist
Dar Williams - Southern California Wants To Be Western New York
Barenaked Ladies - Tonight is the Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel
The Decemberists - Everything I Try to Do, Nothing Seems to Turn Out Right
(note: I’m using the Beatles/Paul McCartney loophole–Tarkio was Colin Meloy’s band in college, and they actually did “Chinese Trapeze Artist” first.)
It was fun putting these together as actual podcasts using real music. I put them together using Winamp and Sound Forge. I doubt anyone in this thread is going to like mine, but if someone has a mind to try they can be heard via streaming audio or downloaded (titles are links).
I haven’t tested all of them yet. We had some glitches in our phone line while I was uploading them, so any glitches you hear within the “CDs” are because of that.
- Dead Can Dance - Song Of Sophia (Bulgaria)
- Happy Rhodes - Just Like Tivoli (Italy)
- Kate Bush - Brazil
- Loreena McKennitt - Tango To Evora (Greece)
- Style Council with Tracey Thorn - The Paris Match
- Heather Nova - Verona
- Amazulu - Cairo
- Dave “not that one” Stewart and Barbara Gaskin - Leipzig
- Charlie Chan - Prayer For Israel (no political statement intended, it just fit the theme)
- Bel Canto - Bombay
- Kirsty MacColl - A New England (meaning a brand new England, not the American region)
- Tori Amos - Jamaica Inn
Notes:
- Lisa Gerrard on vocals. From The Serpent’s Egg.
- From Building The Colossus
- Not used in the Terry Gilliam movie, but it was on the soundtrack.
- From The Visit.
- Tracey Thorn is from Everything But The Girl. From The Style Coucil’s album Café Bleu.
- From Oyster
- From a 12" single.
- Not the same Dave Stewart from Eurythmics. This Dave was in National Health and Hatfield and the North. This was a vinyl single.
- An enigmatic Australian artist. This is from her album Wild Swans.
- Anneli Drecker on vocals. From Magic Box.
- There are many different Kirsty versions of this Billy Bragg song. This is from What Do Pretty Girls Do.
- From The Beekeeper.
I had had one already put together with foreign-language songs when it was clairified that they could be singing in English, and I had one of those almost done just in case, so what the heck. Here are both of them.
Eva Ayllon (Peru) - Bandida
Eleftheria Arvanitaki (Greece) - Dinata (album version)
Dulce Pontes (Portugal) - Cantiga da Terra
Le Mystere des voix Bulgares (Bulgaria) - Polegnala E Todora
Zap Mama (Zaire, Belgium) - Din Din
Márta Sebestyén (Hungary) - Szerelem, Szerelem
Adriana Calcanhoto (Brazil) - Esquadros
Madredeus (Portugal) - O Pastor
Emma Shapplin (France) - Vedi Maria
Yma Sumac (Peru) - Cuncho
West India Company/Asha Bhosle (Asha’s from India) - My Shooting Star
Akiko Yano (Japan) - Rose Garden
Notes:
Title is a play on silly people who think forgeign-language speakers are deaf and will understand better if it’s all louder.
- From Rebeca.
- From I Still Remain An Outcast (I think).
- From Caminhos.
- From Vol. I.
- From self-titled album, Zap Mama. Group was started by Marie Daulne (hence the Zaire-born and Belgium-raised).
- From Aprocrypha. Márta has also sung with Muzsikás.
- From Senhas.
- The singer is Teresa Salgueiro. From a Greatest Hits compilation, Antologia.
- From Carmine Meo.
- From Voice of the Xtabay.
- From New Demons, which is a soundtrack to a dance show by a Canadian troupe called La La La Human Steps. Asha’s one of the most famous Bollywood singers ever. She has about a billion albums.
- Akiko is also Mrs. Ryuichi Sakamoto. This is from her album Tadaima. If you didn’t love this delightful song, I don’t want to know you.
ESL-opia (my favorite)
Hector Zazou with Anneli Drecker (France and Norway) - I"ll Strangle You
Velvet Belly (Norway) - Wide Open Spaces
Sugarcubes (Iceland) - Planet
Komeda (Sweden) - Flabbergast
Ephemera (Norway) - Last Thing
Takako Minekawa (Japan) - Fantastic Cat
Rainbirds (Germany) - Big Fat Cat
Anne Pigalle (France) - The 1000 Colours Waltz
Bel Canto (Norway) - Shimmering, Warm & Bright
Bjork - One Day (Iceland)
Stina Nordenstam (Sweden) - Another Story Girl
Emiliana Torrini (Iceland) - Unemployed In Summertime
Notes:
Title is play on English as a Second Language.
- This is from Hector’s album Sahara Blue. The male voice is Gerard Depardieu.
- Anne Marie Almedal on vocals. From Window Tree.
- Bjork of course on vocals. From Planet 12".
- Lena Karlsson on vocals, from What Makes It Go.
- Christine Sandtorv, Jannicke Larsen and Inger Lise Størksen are Ephemera. From Balloons And Champagne.
- From Recubed.
- Katharina Franck on vocals, from Two Faces.
- From Everything Could Be So Perfect.
- Anneli Drecker on vocals, from Shimmering, Warm & Bright.
- From Debut.
- From Memories Of A Color.
- From Love In The Time Of Science.
I have no idea what emo is, so I hope I didn’t include any. I kinda doubt it.
Why Did I Make These Titles So Goddamn Long? (my 2nd favorite)
Happy Rhodes - If Wishes Were Horses How Beggars Would Ride
Crystal Gayle - Is There Any Way Out Of This Dream (Tom Waits song)
Eddi Reader - What You Do With What You’ve Got
Kirsty MacColl - We’ll Never Pass This Way Again
The Sundays - You’re Not The Only One I Know
Cocteau Twins - Throughout The Dark Months Of April And May
Kate Bush - The Man With The Child In His Eyes
Eva Cassidy - How Can I Keep From Singing?
Feist - When I Was A Young Girl
A.C. Marias - One Of Our Girls Has Gone Missing
Wendy MaHarry - How Do I Get Over You
Jane Siberry - Everything Reminds Me Of My Dog
Notes:
- Slightly edited, this is from Many Worlds Are Born Tonight.
- Written by Tom Waits for Crystal, from the soundtrack of One From The Heart.
- From one of the best albums of the 90’s, Mirmama.
- RIP, oh brilliant songwriter who was killed unnecessarily. From Electric Landlady.
- Harriet Wheeler singing, from Reading, Writing & Arithmetic.
- Elizabeth Fraser singing, from Victorialand.
- From her first album, The Kick Inside.
- RIP, oh beautiful-voiced one. From Eva By Heart.
- Leslie Feist is from Canada. This is from Let It Die.
- A.C. Marias is Angela Conway’s band. The album is the same name (“One of Our Girls…”).
- From Fountain of Youth.
- Another Canadian, now known as Issa. From Bound By The Beauty.
I. The Cure - Fire In Cairo
II. Air - Lost in Kyoto
III. Damian Marley - Welcome To Jamrock
IV. The Clash - Guns In Brixton
V. The Arcade Fire - Haiti
VI. Mirah - Jerusalem
VII. R.E.M. - Flowers of Guatemala
VIII. Billy Bragg - Ontario, Quebec and Me
IX. U2 - One Tree Hill
X. Toby Keith - Stays In Mexico
I. K’naan - Soobax (Somalia)
II. Bjork - Hyperballad (Iceland)
III. Nadiya - Tous Ces Mots (France)
IV. t.a.T.u - Not Gonna Get Us (Russia)
V. Mohammad Rafi - Jaan Pehechan Ho (India)
VI. C.S.S - Paris Hilton (Brazil)
VII. Annie - Heartbeat (Norway)
VIII. The Knife - Heartbeats (Sweden)
IX. Vladislav Delay - Kainuu (Finland)
X. Pizzicato Five - Nonstop To Tokyo (Japan)
I. The Smiths - Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want
II. Casiotone For The Painfully Alone - Casiotone For The Painfully Alone Joins The Foreign Legion
III. Sufjan Stevens - Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head (Rebuild! Restore! Reconsider!)
IV. Nirvana - Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through The Strip
V. UGK - Cocaine in the Back of the Ride
VI. Stars - What The Snowman Learned About Love
VII. The Sleepy Jackson - I Understand What You Want But I Just Don’t Agree
VIII. Radiohead - Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box
IX. Final Fantasy - This is the Dream of Win and Regine
X. Dntel - (This is) the Dream of Evan and Chan
Bork! Bork! Bork!
Kinky - El Presedente (Mexico)
Gus Gus - Starlovers (Iceland)
General Elektriks & Maroons - Facing That Void (France)
K’s Choice - Everything For Free (Belgium)
Erlend Oye - Sudden Rush (Norway)
Flunk - Probably (Norway)
Bettie Serveert - Balentine (Holland)
Jose Gonzalez - Crosses (Sweden)
The Cardiagans - I Need Some Fine Wine (Sweden)
Beseech - Come On In (Sweden)
Kent - Heavenly Junkies (Sweden)
Husky Rescue - City Lights (Finland)
B-Sides
Kenna - Love Hate Sensation (Ethiopia, orginially)
Bif Naked - I Love Myself Today (India, originally)
challenge 3: (all in my iTunes, and done without looking at anyone else’s answers)
Huh? (57:06)
- Take Up Thy Stethoscope And Walk - Pink Floyd
- “Get A Shot of the Refrigerator” - Stereolab
- Be Thankful For What You Got - Massive Attack
- Now I Can’t Find The Door - Sam Phillips
- Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic - The Police
- The Ballad Of the One Eyed Man - Mark Seymour
- Everybody Wants To Rule The World - Tears For Fears
- How Can I Sing Like A Girl? - TMBG
- How The West Was Won And Where It Got Us - R.E.M.
- You Don’t Know Where Your Interest Lies - Simon & Garfunkel
- How Can You Live In The Northeast? - Paul Simon
- Six Days At The Bottom Of The Ocean - Explosions In The Sky
and if Frou-Frou counts as two words, the bonus track:
13. Frou-Frou Foxes In Midsummer Fires - Cocteau Twins