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.)

Most-viewed tabs for the month of January 2009 (w/ view numbers):

23 - The Kings - This Beat Goes On
19 - Harlequin - Thinking Of You
19 - Honeymoon Suite - Burning In Love
16 - Max Webster - Battle Scar
12 - April Wine - Say Hello
11 - April Wine - Cum Hear the Band
11 - The Kings - Switchin' To Glide
10 - Girlschool - Race With the Devil (guitar)
10 - Girlschool - Yeah Right (guitar)
10 - Kim Mitchell - All We Are
10 - Kim Mitchell - That's The Hold
10 - Toronto - Your Daddy Don't Know

Total Tab Views For January: 526

(By section:  Canadian-387  Girlschool-60  Various-48  Chords-31)

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.

Mitchell then served as co-producer for the band's self-titled debut album (pictured), which was released in 1982. "Devil's Deck" was one of the singles off this disc, as was the last-minute addition "Hey Operator". The album proved to be successful, achieving gold status. In the liner notes of the Coney Hatch compilation disc Best Of Three, singer/guitarist Carl Dixon commented on how the writing of "Devil's Deck" came together:

"This was the second song we ever wrote together after I joined the band. It was at the old Maples Inn in Montreal. Andy (Curran, bassist) had the lyrics, I offered the Intro and melody, Steve (Shelski, lead guitar) put in some things, and voila, MTV. That's Kim Mitchell singing on the 'Devil' part of the Chorus."

Just looking at the video again, I see I need to make a few more adjustments to the tab, all in the solo (Bar 12, for example). Sometime within the next two or three days, changes will be made.

The tab:
https://www.angelfire.com/planet/zerofret/cantab/coneyhatch-devilsdeck.txt

Video:
http://www.dailymotion.com/channel/music/video/x4gk1z_coney-hatch-devils-deck_music?from=rss

(Thanks very much to RL for making this tab possible.)