We did a few of these a few years ago but it sort of died out.
Here is your challenge; you must create for us a mix album of songs whose titles all meet a particular verbal requirement or theme. Each thread will have its own theme. Your rules are:
You must name ten songs that fit the theme, naming both song and artist.
No two songs can be by same artist. Having a person in common between two bands, or naming a band and a solo artist who was in that band, is fine; you could, for instance, have a song by Genesis and a song by Phil Collins.
There is no penalty for naming songs also named by other competitors but please make an effort to do it on our own.
The songs must be songs actually released by professional musicians or on a real record label, not something you wrote yourself.
The person with what I judge to be the best album, which is a totally subjective combination of cool music, different types of music, and adherence to the theme, wins 10 points. Second place gets 6 points, third 3. After awhile the person with the most points gets a trophy, by which I mean I will write “So and so gets a trophy, yay.”
To use an example, suppose I said the theme was “Songs with a number in it that is not just the number 1 or the number 2.” You might answer:
“99 Luftballoons,” Nena
“25 or 6 to 4,” Chicago
“Three Pistols,” The Tragically Hip
“9 to 5,” Dolly Parton
“1979,” Smashing Pumpkins
“Ten Years Gone,” Led Zeppelin
… And so on, up to ten songs.
We will start with something easy. Your first challenge is to make an album from songs…
… That name a real place that is not in the United States of America.
“I’ll Follow the Sun”, The Beatles
“Mercury Blues”, K.C. Douglas
“Venus”, Shocking Blue
“Shame on the Moon”, Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band
“Life on Mars?”, David Bowie
“Hey Jupiter”, Tori Amos
“Saturn”, Stevie Wonder
“Cast Your Spell Uranus”, Argent
“Valleys of Neptune”, Jimi Hendrix
“Pluto”, Björk
“Katmandu” – Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band
“London Calling” – The Clash
“Sinaloa Cowboys” – Bruce Springsteen
“Rome” – Phoenix
“Pompeii” – Bastille
“Stockholm Syndrome” – Yo La Tengo
“N****s in Paris” – Jay Z and Kanye West
“Alice Springs” – Liz Phair
“One Night in Bangkok” – Murray Head
“Lindisfarne II” – James Blake
Back in the USSR - Beatles
He Went to Paris - Jimmy Buffet
Born in the USA - Bruce Springsteen (the Vietnam references)
Rocket Man - Elton John (Mars)
Bummer - Harry Chapin (Vietnam)
Something Fine -Jackson Browne (Morocco)
Singapore - Tom Waits
Woman from Tokyo - Deep Purple
Scandinavian Skies - Billy Joel
Beds Are Burning - Midnight Oil ( Kintore East to Yuendemu)
Alright, trying again. This isn’t easy, especially since a lot of good ones were already taken.
Back in the USSR - Beatles
He Went to Paris - Jimmy Buffet
Singapore - Tom Waits
Woman from Tokyo - Deep Purple
Scandanavian Skies - Billy Joel
Istanbul - They Might Be Giants
Baker Street - Gerry Rafferty (reference to the street in London)
Northwest Passage - Stan Rogers
Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen (well, Bohemia is a real place…)
O Canada - music by Calixa Lavallée, lyrics by various (you didn’t say they had to be pop songs, right?)
Zanzibar – Billy Joel
Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24 – Trans Siberian Orchestra
Peruvian Skies – Dream Theater
Waterloo – ABBA
Kashmir – Led Zeppelin
Bombs Over Baghdad – Outkast
Werewolves of London – Warren Zevon
Cliffs of Dover – Eric Johnson
Night Boat to Cairo – Madness
Running Back to Saskatoon – The Guess Who
ETA: Looking at the thread, I’m noticing Rio, which is kind of funny, since Rio was actually a stand in for the U.S. in the song. It was Duran Duran’s tribute song to the popularity they had across the Atlantic. (At least, that’s what VH1 taught me back in the day.) Not that it invalidates the selection in any way. I just found it interesting.
