The Winter 2008 Lyrically Speaking Spectacle

[littlebeast13]

The (ahem) much anticipated winter edition of Lyrically Speaking is nearly upon us. Being as this is as LB production, it requires a lengthy rules post outlining the many convoluted quirks, bylaws, and unwritten codes that will be enforced during this game.... OK, actually the rules aren't really complicated at all, it's just that I tend to drag rules posts out forever and ever by not being able to shut up about them. Speaking of, it's time to get down to business....

To the disappointment of I'm sure literally twos of peoples, this round of Lyrically Speaking will not last the originally proposed three month period. Since TiV graciously took my originally planned start time of December to give me time to actually prepare, I am merely going to cut a month off the game... therefore keeping my original finish date. So what do you need to know about this edition of the Bored classic....?


Dates: The Winter 2008 Lyrically Speaking will run from Monday December 31, 2007 through Friday February 29, 2008. Starting and ending the game on two of my favorite days of the year (or every four years) is so cool I can't even begin to describe the goosebumps I'm getting (Don't roll your eyes, it's bad for your vision!)....

Posting Times: There will be a game every Monday through Friday during the 9 weeks in that period. The games should be up sometime before 8:00 AM CST, barring any eventual computer problems I will likely be plagued with over the next 2 months. The Monday through Thursday games will close the following morning at the precise time I put up the answers post, which will be no earlier than 7:00 AM CST. Friday games will be open all weekend and close the following Monday morning at the same time.

Scoring: LS used to be broken down into 5 point increments, but I like the change TiV made last month in only awarding 1 point instead of 5. After all, what's the point of offering 5 points for something when 1 works just as well? However, I am going back to the traditional scoring rules and awarding one point for the correct song title AND one point for the artist. Most games will have some method of obtaining bonus points, which will be specified in each game. You will not be penalized for any wrong answers, so SWAG away. I do reserve the right to privately laugh at your answers, though...

Format: After originally opting for a slightly altered format, I decided to keep the exact same game format I used when I last ran Lyrically Speaking in December 2004. There will be a different type of LS game posted on each day of the week, and will run as follows:


Match Game Monday - The 12 songs contained in each Monday game can be broken up into 6 different pairs based on some underlying theme. The theme can work off of the song title, artist, something in the song, something about the song.... use your imagination. Correct matches will be worth 1 bonus point per pair.

Tuesday Wordplay - Inspired by the name of one of my erstwhile favorite segments on VH-1 Classic, with the format shamelessly ripped off from Vandal in the November '04 LS, the Tuesday games will contain 12 songs that all have one word in common in their titles. No bonus points for knowing the magic word (Which should become obvious after getting 2 songs right), but knowing the key word may help you get some of the other songs correct.

Wacky Wednesday® - The LB Bored Game tradition, this is the day each week I always turn over the festivities to my favorite Merry Men. Each Wednesday game will be posted as one of my Merry Men, and all 12 songs in the game will work off of some theme associated with the MM, which will be presented in the intro. Remember March 2003 when I did an entire month's worth of LS games with nothing but Merry Men? Those were the days...

Theme Thursday - These are the same as the Wednesday games, except the theme will not be given to you beforehand. You will have to figure it out for yourself, with a 3 point bonus for correctly identifying the common theme. I believe all of the themes in the Thursday games will revolve around only the song titles this time, which is a welcome change from the past...

Free-for-all Friday - Time to get crazy. With these games open for 3 days, they will contain 20 sets of lyrics. All of the songs in the Friday games will be pulled from flipping back and forth between the wide variety of Music Choice channels I have on my cable. No themes, no strings, no nothing but a lot of variety here.


Miscellaneous Notes:

I will try not to be too strict on scoring song titles, but you have to have the gist of the title in your answer to receive credit. As far as artists go, I will try to accept artists who did a popular cover version of a certain song if you did not name the artist I had in mind, but I am not going to comb through lyrics sites looking for every artist who has ever done a certain song. That being said, there are certainly some versions of songs that, while popular in their day, I may not be aware of. So if I count your artist wrong and you think it should be acceptable, don't be afraid to say something. In fact, if you think I have messed up anywhere in any game, don't be afraid to let me have it. I won't cry too much.

I do not guarantee the accuracy of the lyrics I post as I do not have the time to check multiple sites nor do I have anywhere close to the background knowledge of music others have to be able to necessarily spot a poorly transcribed lyric. But do let me know if you think something isn't right. If I mess up a lyric too badly, I will throw that song out... but if it's just a debatable word or two that shouldn't affect the ability of someone who knew the song to recognize the lyric, it will remain in play.

I have always made an allowance for artists who had a lot of success both as the lead singer of a band and as a solo artist. I always have trouble trying to remember which Phil Collins songs he did by himself, and which he did with Genesis. Therefore, I will almost always award credit for coming up with the correct lead singer (If that singer fits the criteria above) if you are unsure whether it was a band song or a solo effort.

I'm sure there are other rules I am forgetting (There always is), but this looks good enough for now. As always with my Bored games, the point is to have fun, laugh a little, and maybe even learn something.

See you New Year's Eve....

[peacock2121]

My head started to spin before I finished reading your entire post.

I will be playing - maybe I'll read the rules, maybe I won't.

It will be fun.