Lost lyrics

If I ever hear the phrase "the world is your oyster" in my head I always add "but your future's a clam" because that's how the song goes, isn't it? A song I've heard so often, for so many years, that the lyrics are ingrained in me, a part of my subconscious mind. You're the same, no doubt, albeit with a different set of mind-invading songs.

So here's a bit of fun for the forthcoming bank holiday weekend - a quiz! Fifty little snippets of lyrics that have become lost from their songs ... all you have to do is identify them. There's a point on offer for the song and another for the artist, making a predictable one hundred points up for grabs.

Clues? Pfft! You don't need any. There's nothing particularly obscure here and, besides, if you've read this blog for a while you know the sort of artists I'm likely to feature. Oh, and if you're the sort of person who likes to print off a question sheet, there's one of those here. Other that that, answers will be published next Tuesday - have fun.

1. The world is your oyster but your future’s a clam.
2. Why am I soft in the middle? The rest of my life is so hard.
3. I might walk home alone, but my faith in love is still devout.
4. If I could only be tough like him, then I could win my own small battle of the sexes.
5. I’m more impressionable when my cement is wet.
6. You arrived like a day and passed like a cloud.
7. You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
8. I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all.
9. Riding through the city on my bike all day, ‘cause the filth took away my licence.
10. Tennis shoes, don't even need to buy a new dress, If you ain't there, ain't nobody else to impress.
11. Jack, he is a banker and Jane, she is a clerk.
12. Homo sapiens have outgrown their use.
13. The boys all loved you but I was a mess.
14. Julius Caesar and the Roman Empire couldn't conquer the blue sky.
15. We’ll take the tide’s electric mind, oh yeah.
16. When I am king you will be first against the wall.
17. I'm flattered that you thought I make a good reward.
18. Look at me, you know what you see? You see a bad mother.
19. I've seen so much, I'm going blind and I'm brain-dead, virtually.
20. With your feet in the air and your head on the ground.
21. Have you forgot whatever it was that you couldn't stand about me?
22. I am so lazy, don't want to wander, I stay at home at night.
23. Jealousy is an essential part of love.
24. I could be a lot, but I know I'm not.
25. I'm so worried about my love - they say, "No, no, it won't last forever."
26. It’s more or less the same as the things that you said.
27. Each day living out a lie, life sold cheaply forever.
28. Your tongue is far too long.
29. I found an island in your arms, country in your eyes.
30. Speech gets harder, there's no sense in writing.
31. If you're in The Crown tonight have a drink on me.
32. No longer riding on the merry-go-round, I just had to let it go.
33. I just keep on laughing, hiding the tears in my eyes.
34. If you don't answer, I'll just ring it off the wall.
35. Every streetlight reveals the picture in reverse. Still, it's so much clearer.
36. I'm worse at what I do best, and for this gift, I feel blessed.
37. His mind wanders to the office, his telephone, desk and chair.
38. I don't know if you can hear me, I'm feeling down and can't think clearly.
39. I heard you let that little friend of mine take off your party dress.
40. I laid traps for troubadours who get killed before they reach Bombay.
41. You lied about your status, you lied about your life, you never mentioned your three children and the fact you have a wife.
42. Magically bored on a quiet street corner, free frustration in our minds and our toes.
43. You spurn my natural emotions, you make me feel I'm dirt.
44. I can gather all the news I need on the weather report.
45. And now my fears, they come to me in threes.
46. Stick or twist, the choice is yours.
47. Well, I stand up next to a mountain and I chop it down with the edge of my hand.
48. I wonder, do my tears of mourning sink beneath the sun?
49. I must have kept on dragging through the business of the day.
50. Smiles await you when you rise.

Here's an appropriate song for you, The Spirit of the Lyrics by Swedish four-piece The Slow Summits.