Pop Quiz!

Today, Monday:
New vocal coaching client first thing in the morning. Noon: accompany voice lesson with vocal-coach-to-the-stars I've been wanting to meet for a long time. Learn "Here I Go Again", run errands. Two hours in a gig that's associated with a bunch of unresolved personal tumult. More errands. Home for short rehearsal for Wednesday night's gig. Chat with my best friend from college, break the news to her that her first love, whom I'm still friends with, recently had his foot amputated. Tension, gunfire, and a heat-packing young man being chased towards me on the way to the train to teach a 9 p.m. lesson. Contemplate my mortality, and what I would do if, say, I were wounded in the arm or hand by a stray bullet. Lesson is fine, and I even get to use "Here I Go Again" to illustrate my point that I, IV and V are the most useful chords EVER. Wait ages for the bus on the way home, having decided not to return via Gunfire Park North. (I should mention, for the benefit of everyone who's worrying about me right now, that this is only the second time I've heard gunfire in my 5+ years living in New York City.)

Bought myself roses on the way home from the bus. Made a cup of tea, and will now take out the rest of the day's angst on you, dear readers, in the form of a pop quiz. I am going to give myself a pop quiz tomorrow: set a certain amount of time, probably a couple hours, to play through as much of my song-a-day list as possible, and see how I do. I will probably fail miserably. It's ok. I realized recently that I was not capable of learning and memorizing a song at the beginning of the year, but by the end of the year, I might be. Also, I'm having fun. Learning my song is the high point of my day, something I look forward to, even when I have zero energy and don't really do it very well.

Ok. Ready?

This pop quiz concerns songs about effed-up love. There are so many ways for love to fail. It can be obsessive, unrequited, co-dependent, or just... mortal. And the pain of messed-up love has no expiration date, but damn if it doesn't make for some great lyrics. I almost always connect to the lyric of a song first, and this is even more true with songs that fall into this category. I may not be able to wrap my mind around why my love didn't work, but man, oh man, I really GET this song... I may be all alone, but this song makes me feel less singled out by the universe. Et cetera.

Most of the songs in this quiz are ones I learned earlier in the year, or will be learning this week. I will provide a lyric (numbered), which you can match to a fact about the song (lettered). You provide the title. And... GO!

1. "all i've ever learned from love was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you"
2. "My body aches to breathe your breath/your words keep me alive"
3. "She's talkin' in her sleep, It's keepin' me awake, and every word is nonsense but I understand"
4. "How can I give you all my love, baby, if you're always, always putting up your guard?"
5. "And I know I'll never change my ways if I don't give you up now"
6. "I'm cold and i am shamed, lying naked on the floor/Illusion never changed into something real"
7. "You loved me 'cause I'm fragile when I though that I was strong, but you touch me for a little while and all my fragile strength is gone"
8. "Then the lights go out and it's just the three of us/You, me and all that stuff we're so scared of"
9. "And is it true, that devils end up like you, something safe for the picture frame?"
10. "You used to send me flowers when you f***ed up in my dreams"

A. Two New York City native divas, one from Hell's Kitchen, one from Staten Island, perform on this song.
B. This song is from Funhouse, but was not one of the singles.
C. Penned by Leonard Cohen, this song has many covers, possibly the most famous being Jeff Buckley's. I first heard it on the soundtrack to Shrek.
D. This Counting Crows song has historically been known to make me fall a little bit in love with the person playing and/or singing it.
E. The title of this Tori Amos song includes a controlled substance.
F. Sarah McLachlan nearly got sued for plagiarizing this song... by stealing material from letters written to her by one of her many stalkers!!
G. This song comes from the winner of American Idol's first season.
H. This song was/is the title track from The Boss' "divorce" album.
I. The title of this song is also one of the four fundamental interactions of nature (eg electromagnetism).
J. This 90s hit is actually a cover - it was originally done by the LA band Ednaswap.