Topic: Bands/Music
Today I have an exercise for the mind, rather than the digits. It's a quiz of first lines from songs. All of these songs are radio singles (or heavy rotation videos), so there's nothing that's totally obscure. I made the quiz (selected the lines) myself, so if you think any of the lines are too obscure, you can blame me. 
Some of them are quite easy, some a little more off the beaten track. But if I know all of these songs from the radio, lots of other people should, too. The lines are taken from all types of pop music, and are all from the 1970's and 1980's. The vast majority of people who visit the site come for the Canadian tabs, so I made this quiz a "Canadian Edition". All of the bands/artists in it are Canadian.
The scoring is out of 50. There are 25 first lines from songs. Identify the song title and the band/artist for each of the lines. So each "question" is worth two points. I'll post the answers in a few days, maybe Monday. And.....go!
1. It's the same old story all over again
2. Aldo's standing at his table
3. I see you there in your satin shirt
4. Back in 1870, just beneath the Great White Way
5. When we started, open-hearted, it was me lovin' you, you lovin' me
6. It's been a hard day in the city
7. Show me a river that needs not an ocean to flow
8. Baby, let's move 'cause you know that the light here really hurts my eyes
9. Did you know I go to sleep and leave the lights on
10. I know it's out of fashion, and a trifle uncool
11. Begin the day with a friendly voice, a companion unobtrusive
12. Every night is a different flight to a different galaxy
13. Soldier of fortune, he's a man of war
14. Here I am again, mama, I'm knocking on your door
15. I left your house this morning about a quarter after nine
16. Is it hard to be the kind of man you want to be
17. Anybody here see the noise, see the fear and commotion
18. With only fear and good judgment holding us back, we sailed out on the Northern Sea
19. Can I touch you to see if you're real
20. Mississippi in the middle of a dry spell
21. The light shines down the valley, the wind blows up the alley
22. Don't ask me how, but guess who hit the big time
23. There you go showin' off again
24. I want to know where my confidence went, one day it all disappeared
25. I was caught in the crossfire of a silent scream
And hey, no Googling these lines. 
(At least not until you're done.)
Updated: Friday, February 13, 2009 1:51 AM EST
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Mad Mad World (1991) was Tom Cochrane's first solo album after his departure from Red Rider. From that album came his most successful single, "Life Is A Highway". The single gave him a runaway #1 hit in Canada, reached #6 on the US Hot 100, and was successful worldwide. The album achieved rare 'diamond' status in Canada, for sales of over one million, and it also sold two million internationally. All of this netted Cochrane four Juno Awards in 1992, for Album Of the Year, Songwriter Of the Year, Male Vocalist Of the Year, and Song Of the Year for "Life Is A Highway". Added to this were three other awards from songwriters'/publishers' associations (SOCAN and ASCAP).
A few days ago when posting a Coney Hatch tab, I wrote about how Kim Mitchell had played a key role in helping the band in their early days. It got me thinking: guess who hasn't been done in the riffs section yet? If you guessed Kim Mitchell, you just might be smarter than a 5th grader. (No guarantees, though. 
We go into the request file for this tab, Coney Hatch's "Devil's Deck". The big break for this Toronto band came in 1981 when (Max Webster lyricist) Pye Dubois caught one of their local club shows. He introduced them to Kim Mitchell, who first worked with the band to further hone their sound, and was then instrumental in getting them signed to Anthem Records, the label that was also home to both Mitchell and Rush.
We're celebrating today, AGTA is now two years old! 
"Painted Ladies" was Ian Thomas's first, and biggest, hit single. It was drawn from his 1973 self-titled debut album (pictured), which reached #30 on the Canadian RPM Chart. The single itself climbed to #34 on the Billboard Chart and rose all the way to #4 on the RPM 100 Singles Chart in December of 1973. This success earned Thomas the 1974 Juno Award for Most Promising Male Vocalist.
Originally, I started doing this song with the intention of it being a chord chart. I had been working on a chord chart for a different song, and it was proving troublesome, so I shelved it (temporarily, at least) and did this one instead. The plan was for it to be a chord chart with some tab included. But when I was close to being finished, I realized that if I just tabbed the fills for the final Chorus, I would have all the guitar parts in the song transcribed, making it a full tab. So I added in the extra fills. 
It seems very fitting that a band as quintessentially English as Girlschool would eventually write and record a song that's an affectionate tribute to the city that represents England to the world -- their hometown of London. "London" first appeared on the CD 21st Anniversary: Not That Innocent. The disc was recorded primarily in 1999, the band's 21st Anniversary year, but wasn't released until 2002. It was lead guitarist Kelly Johnson's sixth and final album with the band (five studio albums, one official live album).