sir_guinglain

To celebrate that I have finished reading my students' essays already, and so will not be up until 3.45am tonight, the random tracks meme, from

tree_and_leaf:

Step 1: Put your MP3 player or whatever on random.
Step 2: Post the first line(s) from the first 20 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song. (Skip the instrumentals, the remixes and the mashups)
Step 3: Let everyone you know guess what song and artist the lines come from.
Step 4: Strike out the songs when someone guesses correctly.

1. I saw the tyrant breathless in her tent

2. Betty came by on her way, said she had a word to say

exactlyhalf has identified the song as River Man, but it's not actually the Nick Drake version. Guess the cover artist...

3. Green grows the laurel, soft falls the dew

4. Alac, alac, what shall I do?

5. And we have learned and understood, everything that is, is good

6.

I'm going down to Rosemary's, She never does me wrong

Well done,

dr_biscuit!

7. Jesse come home there's a hole in the bed where we slept, now it's growing cold

8.

If I had another penny, I would have another gill

ladyofastolat recognises this as Byker Hill - it's one of two versions I have by Dave Swarbrick and Martin Carthy.

9.

Ron and Nancy got the house, but Sid and Nancy rule

Alleluia, by Dar Williams, recognised by

pennypaperbrain.

10.

When I was bound apprentice in famous Lincolnshire

ladyofastolat identified this as The Lincolnshire Poacher. It's on a CD of Britten arrangements of folk songs I have.

11. Sir, I was disobedient; true I tried to run away

12. As I rode out one evening, begin' the month of May

13. Some days I get the feeling, I was back in the old days long ago

14.

We got married in a fever hotter than a paper sprout

Jackson, reckons

philmophlegm, and he's right, but who sang it, other than Mr and Mrs Cash? The answer, Hem, was provided by

gervase_fen.

15. Don't waste this dance on me my love

16.

I keep a close watch on this heart of mine

Identified by

emily_shore as I Walk the Line, by Johnny Cash

17.

And He Shall Purify

From Handel's Messiah; identified by

ladyofastolat.

18.

I don't go to therapy to find out if I'm a freak

gervase_fen recognised this as What Do You Hear in These Sounds? by Dar Williams.

19.