Snapshots #208: A Top Ten Onomatopoeia Songs

Welcome to the quiz that will Boom Boom Shake Your Room... yeah, I didn't use that one because it would have been too obvious.

Being an English teacher, I have a special fondness for the word "onomatopoeia", even though I regularly tell students it's the hardest word to spell... apart from broccoli.

Despite that, I own three songs with that word (or a variation) in their title...

John Prine - Onomatopoeia

Todd Rundgren - Onomatopoeia

Sparks - Onomato Pia

While John Grant also professes his love here...

John Grant - Rhetorical Figure

But how did you guys get on? Let's find out...

10. Brian Body B.

Anagram!

Bobby Darin - Splish Splash

9. Rash.

As in, the kind of rash that makes you itch.

The Hives - Tick Tick Boom

8. Domino without a hat on.

Fats Domino; hats off to Larry...

Fat Larry's Band - Zoom

7. Loaded.

If he's loaded, he must be a very rich man.

Jonathan Richman - Buzz Buzz Buzz

6. A wrinkly.

Anagram!

Link Wray - Rumble

5. Wee and timorous lads.

Wee and timorous beasties, obviously.

The Beastie Boys - Pow

4. Solid service surfers.

Solid silver, silver service, silver surfers.

Silver - Wham Bam Shang-A-Lang

3. Detective drew swooning pop.

The detective would be NANCY Drew. Her swooning pop was Old Blue Eyes...

Nancy Sinatra - Bang Bang 

2. Rugby player, like Shatner.

A hooker is a rugby player.

And who could forget...?

John Lee Hooker - Boom Boom

1. Crude bunch.

They're just so primitive...

The Primitives - Crash

More crash bang wallop next Saturday...

Saturday Snapshots #14 - The Answers

Almost a clean sweep for Brian and Mrs. Brian this week... staying up late on a Friday night to get first dibs.


10. Looks like she will be Jeff, but that could be an untruth.

Jeff would be Jeff Lynne, so... She'll Be Lynne.

Shelby Lynne - Your Lies

Well done to Lynchie, picking up Brian & Mrs. Brian's scraps.


9. Pulp frillies as the Transit Authority get booed off stage.

My favourite clue this week.

Pulp is paper. Lace is frilly.

The Chicago Transit Authority was the original name for the band Chicago. If they got booed off stage, they would have "died", so...

Paper Lace - The Night Chicago Died

Great live version.

Top Ten bands with (lead) singing drummers, anyone?


8. Open people's minds (with poppies), at the angelic skatepark.

OPM stands for "open people's minds", apparently... or "other people's money". It has nothing at all to do with opium.

A half-pipe, as you will all know, is that curved thing skateboarders and bmx-kids do stunts on. It has nothing at all to do with drugs, despite what I thought when this record originally came out.

OPM - Heaven Is A Half Pipe (If I Die)

(Kudos to Mrs. Brian for remembering the parenthesis.)


7. DJ dies on tape: Horny!

Too easy. (The Buggles was prety much Trevor Horn... like you didn't know that.)

The Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star

I would listen to anyone who wanted to argue that this is one of the greatest pop songs ever recorded.


6. Greedy simian sings a song for a King... a Freeman... or one of you.

A greedy simian would be a monkey that swallowed the universe.

Martin Luther King. Martin Freeman. Martin.

Monkey Swallows The Universe - Martin

True to his name, Martin turned up just in time to nab this one.


5. Russian dreamer who hears people swearing at a river.

Apparently, Nina means 'dreamer' in Russian.

Simone, the female version of Simon, means "one who hears" in Hebrew.

You obviously need to work on your etymology of names if you're going to play this game for real.

Swearing at a river is a bit more obvious.

Well done to Lynchie & Alyson.

Nina Simone - Mississippi Goddam


4. Golfing saint gets wicked at a tough soiree.

St. Andrews is where the golf takes place.

Wicked is abbreviated to WK in the alcoholic beverage.

A tough soiree would be a hard party.

Andrew WK - Party Hard

This is POWER pop taken to its ridiculous extreme.

Sam likes this song because it features in the movie The Secret Life Of Pets (or Pets At Home as we call it), one of the better kids films I've seen in recent years.


3. Drunks in the smelly shop say bye.

Drunks are lushes.

Lush is also a shop that sells smelly things. (Do they have that shop in America, Brian?)

Lush (featuring Jarvis Cocker) - Ciao!

Best Jarvis duet ever.


2. J.R. piles on the pounds but can still move fast.

Larry Hagman was J.R. Ewing.

If he piled on the pounds, he would be Fat Larry.

If he went fast, he would zoom.

The Swede made a welcome return to deny owning this record. (A signed copy? By the whole band? Really?)

Fat Larry's Band - Zoom

Although "Fat" Larry James was a singing drummer, sadly he doesn't sing lead vocal on this track.


1. A solid yet piercing noise. I always did like him in M*A*S*H*.

Solid gold.

Earrings are piercings (and go through your ears: which register noise: d'uh).

This is Gary Bergoff: Radar in M*A*S*H*...

This is one of Holland's greatest hits...


Thanks for playing. Get up earlier next week, George.