Bizarrely, the first song that came to my mind - that I've listened to so often, and found the lyrics so strange and remarkable that I memorised them quite quickly - was 'Weightless Again' by the Handsome Family.

That should redress some of the balance when we put the music back.

From my early prog rock days, early 70s, when my only albums came as birthday/Christmas present from my Mom and Dad - so I played them all till they were nearly transparent, and pored endlessly over the lyric sheets. Consequently I can still sing "Suppers Ready" by Genesis, and "Close To The Edge" by Yes from start to finish, without prompting. Oh, and "Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers" by Van der Graaf Generator, with maybe a couple of gaps here and there. Something about those 20-minute epics imprinted them indelibly on my memory. Amazing, considering these days I can't even remember people's names!

-the Pretenders version. Not sure where it came from, but I've been singing this to lull the little lad to sleep for the past few nights.

ETHNOLOGISTS IN MOURNING AS DEFINING SONG OF THE 1990S IS LOST FOREVER

The world of academia has been sent reeling following the death of the last man to remember all the words to the song Let’s Get Ready To Rumble.

Originally released in 1994 and performed by the Gangsta Rap duo - PJ and Duncan, Let’s Get Ready To Rumble was renowned for its Shakespearean wit and rhyming structure, in particular the Persian quatrain:

“Partners in crime
we'll never do time
a sentence for us
has to end in a rhyme.”

The track, along with numerous remixes, was erased from the Global Digital Archive in 2012, after it was identified as a key inspiration for a series of brutal murders. Its composers - PJ and Duncan - escaped prosecution having disappeared under mysterious circumstances in the late 1990s, long before the killings took place. They are thought to have assumed new identities.

Let’s Get Ready To Rumble re-emerged unexpectedly in 2088 when mild-mannered janitor and ardent blogger, backwards7, cited the song as the crowning achievement of UK hip hop and claimed to have memorised not only the lyrics but also the “lead flow” and elements of the backing track.

In recent years Mr Seven openly flaunted the laws aimed at preventing performances of Let’s Get Ready To Rumble. Despite numerous attempts to pass down the lyrics to future generations, he was generally regarded as out of touch, even among those for whom the antiquated gyrations of electro-folk crone - Lady Gaga - retain a glamorous retro allure.

Writing in the Daily Mail, Chief Historical Revisionist, Heidi55 said:

“The tragedy is not simply the loss of a song, but also the insight into the culture that Let’s Get Ready To Rumble went on to define. Mr Seven always took great pains to promote the song as the embodiment of the 1990s - A decade which he claims to have straddled like a rampant sexual colossus.

“He proved to be an invaluable interpreter of the lyrics which contain many concepts that are difficult for our late 21st century minds to grasp. Through our conversations I discovered that the meaning of the word “Rumble” was far broader than anyone had previously imagined, encompassing a willingness to demonstrate overwhelming prowess in multiple arenas, be they war, sex, or simply a friendly game of Ping Pong at the church youth club.”

It was this multiple generation gap that provoked both fascination and frustration in those who sought a deeper understanding of the world of PJ and Duncan. Backwards7’s final holovision appearance last year - an interview with Jonathan lol99 – degenerated into a heated argument over what it meant to be “an AKA lover”: What on ipaper appears to imply a lewd sexual coupling with an antique firearm was, in the words of Mr Seven, a deep platonic camaraderie, with the popular assault rifle taking on the dual role of wife and step-brother, as well the wives and step-brothers of one’s ancestors.

With his passing it seems likely that many of Let’s Get Ready To Rumble’s mysteries will remain the subject of unresolved speculation: Over the course of the original track’s alleged four minute duration, PJ and Duncan claimed to have so many lyrics that they kept them in storage, fearing what might happen if these potent configurations of words were ever unleashed upon the general public. These secret language caches have never been located.

This morning, as news of backwards7’s death spread, a Cambridge Professor of Poetry was heard to remark:

“We may now never know what the practice of ‘butt-whilin’ entailed: Whether it was a pleasurable action to be enjoyed at one’s leisure, possibly alongside a glass of port, or something to be avoided at all costs.”

Mary's dress waves
Like a vision she dances across the porch
As the radio plays..."

by The Roches. Singable by people who can't sing. Come to think of it, I know just about all of the songs off their first album.
They are the kind of songs that make you feel good, post-apocalypse, or postiPod.

Having played in bands for most of my teens and twenties, and having never been a snob about playing covers, I still know how to play and sing thousands of songs in their entirety. It helps to have a memory which is entirely incapable of jettisoning anything which the FPO considers trivial (music, films - I have whole scripts in here - books). Of course, anything she considers essential is lost forever 30 seconds after its first mention.

So:
- the overwhelming majority of Radiohead's pre-"Kid A" output;
- most of R.E.M. between "Pageant" and "New Adventures";
- a good old chunk of Pixies and Frank Black (so a good old chunk of a good old chunk, then)
- a reasonable amount of Nirvana;
- plenty of Hold Steady;
- the odd Elvis Costello tune;
- lots of Carter Family (Maybelle taught me a lot!)
- tons of Iron Maiden, Guns N' Roses, AC/DC
- all Manics between "Gold..." and "Everything Must Go";
- a few Nick Caves;
- some Pearl Jam;
- lots of PJ Harvey;
- many one-off older songs like "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", "Wish I Never Saw The Sunshine" and "Always On My Mind".

I should point out that most of the songs I can play and know all the words to just reflect the things I used to do as covers in bands all the time. If I were still playing out, I imagine I'd have to expand that list a fair amount.

.. by Bob Dylan, and "The Circle Game" by Joni Mitchell.

Thanks a bunch Tony !!

Those 2 songs came to mind like some "Pavlov's Dog Auto-Response", and I'm going to need some serious therapy to help figure out why.

For some reason any time I feel inclined to sing an accompaniment to some dreary everyday activity, it is ALWAYS "The Circle Game".