Did somebody say contest?

My fellow bloggers have entertained their readerships lately with a variety of contests, and what am I if not a lemming, mindlessly following the pack?

So here I go: offering a contest for my own dear readers. In the grand tradition of those before me, the only prize to be offered shall be the pride and personal satisfaction that you'll enjoy from having won. (By the way, I'm giving song lyrics and you've got to guess the artist and song. Most correct answers wins.)

There's no connective theme or particular genre to these songs, only that they periodically roll about inside my head (and I sometimes listen to actual, audible recordings of them as well). That these are the songs that spring to mind for me probably says something about my psyche (skeptical? drawn to escapism?), but there will be no extra points awarded for accurate psycho-analyses.

Of course you could Google all these lyrics and get every answer correct, but what fun would that be? Besides, cheaters never win (except sometimes in pro sports, politics, business and academia, if you don't get caught).

By the way, I'll wait a few days to post the correct answers, since my readers are probably not accustomed to reading my blog every single day. So all you lurky-loos (I do have lurky-loos, don't I?) please leave a comment with your guesses, even if you only kind of know a couple of them.

On with it, then:

1. "I wish I was like you, easily amused"

2. "Playing Solitaire till dawn with a deck of 51, smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo, so don't tell me I've nothing to do"

3. "I need a photo opportunity. I want a shot at redemption. Don't want to end up a cartoon in a cartoon graveyard"

4. "It's been rough and rocky travelin' but I'm finally standing upright on the ground. And after takin' several readings, I'm surprised to find my mind still fairly sound."

5. "You, I thought I knew you. You, I cannot judge."

6. "We can live beside the ocean, leave the fire behind, swim out past the breakers, watch the world die."

7. "And the reaching of the steeple felt like one more expensive ad for something cheap. This was not the way it looked on the billboard, smiling family beaming down on the interstate." (sorry, this is totally self-indulgent. only one of you will know it.)

8. "So shave your face with some mace in the dark. Savin' all your food stamps and burnin' down the trailer park."

9. "Dear Sir or Madam, will you read my book? It took me years to write. Will you take a look?"

10. "I don't cry when my dog runs away. I don't get angry at the bills I have to pay. I don't get angry when my mom smokes pot."

Good luck everybody!