Guess-the-Lyrics: Unusual Rhyme Edition

A slightly different twist on the occasional guess-the-lyrics game. The following list gives pairs of rhyming words from a song that I think can be used to identify a specific song. So, for example, the pair:

diplomat/ Siamese cat

identifies “Like a Rolling Stone” by Bob Dylan, thanks to the lines:

You used to ride on a chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to guess the songs from the rhymes below. Some are pretty easy, some are pretty obscure. If you don’t choose to accept this mission, well, come back later, and there’ll be something else to do.

  • 1) in the rain/ beef chow mein
  • 2) for the feast/ kill the beast
  • 3) flip-flop/ pop-top
  • 4) Company/ economy
  • 5) cool crook/ school book
  • 6) Catholic school/ Roman rule
  • 7) issues, yeah/ miss you, yeah
  • 8) my make-up/ my break-up
  • 9) founded Rome/ wolf comes home
  • 10) German car/ Irish bar
  • 11) science book/ French I took
  • 12) nobles and princes/ curtains and chintzes
  • 13) pipes and planks/ nitrous tanks
  • 14) he does brag/ man in drag
  • 15) scented jasmine tea/ pleasant company
  • 16) was employed/ Bob’s Big Boy
  • 17) act surprised/ paralyzed

Feel free to offer your own pairs for guessing in the comments.

22 thoughts on “Guess-the-Lyrics: Unusual Rhyme Edition

  1. And #6 is Death Cab, with “I will follow you into the dark.”

    Prettymuch anything by MC Paul Barman would spice up this list (and likely make it NSFW). The rhymes that guy comes up with are freakin’ amazing.

  2. #6 is DCFC, “I Will Follow You Into The Dark”.

    I’m going to pretend I don’t know #2. The others, I don’t have to pretend.

  3. #6 is “I Will Follow You into the Dark” by Death Cab for Cutie.
    #11 is “Wonderful World” by Sam Cooke (had to look up the title for that one).

  4. Unusually, I can answer more than just the Zevon one.

    1) Werewolves of London
    2) Hotel California
    3) Margaritaville
    11) Don’t Know Much

  5. #4: Bruce Springsteen, The River

    I knew a few others, but earlier posters beat me to them.

  6. #5 – “The Way You Do the Things You Do” by the Temptations. It was covered by lots of others, but the original is the best.

  7. The only one of these that I didn’t know was already answered upthread (thanks, Craig!), although I’ll admit that I had to look up #8’s original artist because it’s only been covered about fifty bazillion times.

    This would make a really, really weird list of songs.

    #01 Werewolves of London (Warren Zevon)
    #02 Hotel California (The Eagles)
    #03 Margaritaville (Jimmy Buffett)
    #04 The River (Bruce Springsteen)
    #05 The Way You Do the Things You Do (The Temptations)
    #06 I Will Follow You into the Dark (Death Cab for Cutie)
    #07 Big Brown Eyes (Old 97’s)
    #08 The Tracks of My Tears (The Miracles)
    #09 Up the Wolves (The Mountain Goats)
    #10 The Girl I Can’t Forget (Fountains of Wayne)
    #11 Wonderful World (Sam Cooke)
    #12 Let It Blow (Richard Thompson)
    #13 Banging Camp (The Hold Steady)
    #14 Temporary Like Achilles (Bob Dylan)
    #15 Let It Bleed (The Rolling Stones)
    #16 Open All Night (Bruce Springsteen)
    #17 Positively 4th Street (Bob Dylan)

    And, since finishing this makes me something of a party pooper, here are a couple of my own suggestions to keep this challenge going. Some of these should be very easy, but a couple are probably punitively obscure:

    #18: joined the mob / full time job
    #19: lost apostles / flare their nostrils
    #20: filling my dreams / filling the streams
    #21: time bell rings / one more thing
    #22: ain’t said before / bleed no more
    #23: keeping to myself / left up on the shelf
    #24: flushed with the night / juniper and lamplight
    #25: ocean is deep / can’t fall asleep
    #26: cosmic connection / your direction
    #27: child would care / drink I dare
    #28: billowed sail / gigantic tail
    #29: off the hook / write a book
    #30: cold wind blows / murder of crows

  8. I know some of the entries on Malakyp’s list:

    #21: Dire Straits, “Sultans of Swing”
    #24: Simon and Garfunkel, “For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her”
    #28: Peter, Paul and Mary, “Puff, the Magic Dragon”
    #30: Sting, “All This Time”

  9. #2 nowadays has additional resonance from facebook: you can logout any time you want, but you can never leave.

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