[UPDATE: Last of the answers supplied]
See? I actually can spell the word. What's much tougher than spelling that word is completing the quiz that follows. I've departed from my usual rule of only including songs I know, or at the very least noting those I don't know, in the interest of epiphany. Because I'm just that way.
Anyway, some of these are easy, some are hard. In toto, it will at least be entertaining, I hope, especially after I close the quiz and explain further. And please believe me when I tell you that the "explain further" part will be amusing. But without further ado and further silly commentary, here are a baker's dozen minus three questions:
1) Good morning, captain. Out on your new mud line (or perhaps it's "road line", the jury's still out), do you perhaps need one of these? [Mike: A mule skinner]
2) He took a hank of hair and a piece of bone. What did he make with it? [Julie: He made a walkin', talkin' honeycomb]
3) I went out last Tuesday and met a girl named Susie. We started to spend my money and then she started to call me honey. But where are we now? [Answer: We're in the jailhouse now]
4) I asked her to marry and to be my sweet wife and I told her we'd be so happy for the rest of our life. Why did I do this? [Angie: Because she had kisses sweeter than wine]
5) Riding on an eastbound freight train speeding through the night, he was a railroad bum fighting for his life. What did we call him? [Mike: We call him Hobo Bill]
6) I thought I'd never get caught again, never in a hundred, never in a thousand, never in a million years. Oh oh, what's happening? [Answer: Oh oh, I'm falling in love again]
7) I'm a thousand miles away from home, sleeping in the rain. I haven't got a nickel, not a penny can I show. But I walked up to a brakeman to give him a line of talk. What am I doing? [Answer: I'm waiting on a train]
8) There's a hill on the way there. In fact, there's a house on the hill and a girl in the house. There's a store there. In fact, there's a ring in the store and I'll buy the ring for the girl in the house. Where am I going? [Answer: To Bimbombey]
9) It's peach pickin' time in Georgia, apple pickin' time in Tennesee, cotton pickin' time in Mississippi, and roundup time in Texas. Still, even though everybody might pick on me, what time is it for me? [Answer: It's gal-pickin' time for me]
Figures - the one quiz I'm on time for is the one I know doodly/pip about. Good luck all!
Posted by: nightfly at September 23, 2007 10:20 PMWell, late to the party as usual, but since nobody else has weighed in yet, I can answer one for sure.
1) A mule skinnner (a lady mule skinner, if I recall correctly).
5) Hobo Bill? Not sure about this one, been years since I heard the song.
I think number 2 is a woman, but I can't recall for sure.
By the way, would the explanation have anything to do with "throwing your bucket down" as the protraganist of the song in 1) urges the waterboy? :)
Mike
Posted by: Mike Dubost at September 24, 2007 08:28 AM#1 and #5, yes. #2 is on the right track but not quite enough information.
As for the explanation, it's just a wee bit more interesting than that :)
Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at September 24, 2007 08:49 AM#4) She had kisses sweeter than wine. I didn't realize this was Jimmie Rodgers.
I agree, #2 is a woman, but I know that from Kipling, not Rodgers. (There's also a rag involved: a rag, a bone, and a hank of hair.)
Do peaches and apples ripen at the same time?
Posted by: Angie Schultz at September 24, 2007 09:20 AM#4 - yes (and a tiny light starts to glimmer...)
I didn't know the Kipling reference, but now I suspect that's where the lyric was taken from. No rag, though, in the song as far as I can recall.
Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at September 24, 2007 10:04 AM#2 is a "walkin', talkin', honeycomb"
Posted by: Julie at September 24, 2007 11:26 AMYes indeed (and that tiny glimmer grows into a small spark...)
Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at September 24, 2007 11:39 AMI remember Jimmie Rodgers. Me and him, we used to ride them rolling boxcars in the summertime. But I'm embarrassed not to know any of the songs here. Not just the unanswered ones, either. The only one I would have known was #4.
Do peaches and apples ripen at the same time?
Apples in the summer, peaches in the fall. (If I can't have the gal I want, I won't have none at all.)
I think you get some strains of apples that early, but most of the good ones are later in the year. (Why can't you get winesaps anywhere anymore? And in Washington, fer gossake!)
Posted by: Joel, President of Catholics for Xenu at September 24, 2007 04:37 PMOddly, you're actually on the right track (heh) for #9. You and Bobby Bare.
Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at September 24, 2007 06:06 PM