So I’ve been making little audio quizzes through the years, mostly for my pals over at Mechapixel. It’s been quite a while since the last one but I figured there was a holiday coming up this weekend, and Y the F knot. I decided to do some research on Labor Day and it turns out it has absolutely nothing at all to do with childbirth – why didn’t anyone tell me? I’ve been taking my mom out to brunch TWICE each year? What a gyp!

Anyway, thanks to the good vandals over at Wikipedia I find out Labor Day actually has to do with people who work for a living, all those hard working Americans who put in long hours and do a high-quality job to make this a better country, as well as the other 99.7% of our nation’s workforce. Well, my fellow John & Jane Q. Employees, if that ain’t enough for a work-related music quiz, then … uh, then that wouldn’t be enough for a work-related music quiz. So here’s a work-related quiz.

All you have to do: play the mp3 file linked below and name the title and the artist of each song (the song title will never be included in the clip).

Only things you’ll need before we march forward:

1) Semi-passable knowledge of late 20th century pop music.

2) The necessary mental acuity and hand/eye coordination required to click on a link.

3) A writing implement and surface, if you wish to keep track of your score. Items such as these will suffice:

Let us proceed. There are hundreds of possibilities for this one, but these made the cut. Thirty songs in all, most of them being 6-7 seconds long, the entire length of the medley is a reasonable 3:40. All of these clips reference some form of occupation, reputable or not. We are not to judge. (I don’t think I included a “judge” clip, either. So here’s a judge clip.)

Get your scoring card ready and give it a whirl…

LABOR DAY MUSIC QUIZ - 3:40, 30 songs, 3.4mb, 128kb bitrate

Here’s are the answers, in living spoilervision (drag over the text to see, then there's even more stuff down below - scroll, baby, scroll):

1) A Well Respected Man - Kinks
2) Synchronicity II - Police
3) Taxi - Harry Chapin
4) She Came In Through The Bathroom Window - Beatles
5) Takin' Care Of Business - Bachman-Turner Overdrive
6) Money For Nothing - Dire Straits
7) Them From Shaft - Isaac Hayes
8) Operator - Jim Croce
9) Ice Cream Man - Van Halen
10) Tangled Up In Blue - Bob Dylan
11) I Say A Little Prayer - Aretha Franklin
12) Dirty Laundry - Don Henley
13) Dazed And Confused - Led Zeppelin
14) Workin' For A Livin' - Huey Lewis & The News
15) Return To Sender - Elvis Presley
16) Secret Agent Man - Johnny Rivers
17) Car Wash - Rose Royce
18) Fast Car - Tracy Chapman
19) The Spirit Of Radio - Rush
20) The Fire Down Below - Bob Seger
21) Living For The City - Stevie Wonder
22) Proud Mary - Creedence Clearwater Revival
23) China Grove - Doobie Brothers
24) The Boxer - Simon & Garfunkel
25) That's Life - Frank Sinatra
26) Gold - John Stewart
27) Your Song - Elton John
28) Papa Was A Rolling Stone - Temptations
29) Manic Monday - Bangles
30) My Name Is Jonas – Weezer

Give yourself a half point for knowing an artist, a half point for knowing a title, and… well, just pretty much give yourself however many points you think you deserve. I’m like the cool teacher who doesn’t care if you cheat off your neighbor. Now let’s go over to the judge’s table and see how you did. Wait, there are no judges, I forgot:

Lots of classic rock/oldies in this one, and a surprising amount of folky songs. I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise, though, folk music often champions the working man: the farmer, the factory worker, the rodeo clown, the chairman of a large British petroleum company. I’m not trying to impress anyone with obscure album tracks or arcane indie hipster stuff, it was a labor of fun and a labor of love and I hope you all scored like little godfathers of soul. Hey, enough about labor, it’s a freakin’ holiday! Everybody have a good one.

Love, Peaceboy