Musical Monday #165

Welcome to the 165th edition of Musical Monday, the (sometimes) weekly quiz that Soccer Dad and I (had) alternate(d) hosting. As Soccer Dad has suspended his blogging for the present, the future schedule of MM is somewhat in question. But meanwhile, the challenge today, as always, is to identify the title and artist of each song quote below, as well as the common theme of the entire set of songs.

This is a theme I've wanted to do for a long while, but hesitated because there are so many songs that are borderline matches for the theme, making my selections perhaps more subjective than I usually like. Hopefully my criteria won't seem too arbirtrary!

1) "Can't trust that day"
2) "I go back to the top of the slide"
3) "Mr. M.D."
4) "They long to persuade you from my side"
5) "But now I'm tired and I don't want to walk anymore"
6) "I swear it's not too late!"
7) "Knock down the old brick wall, and be a part of it all"
8) "And love so distant and obscure"
9) "In a world of persecution, that is burning in its greed"
10) "Here we go again, asking where I've been"
11) "You say why, and I say I don't know"
12) "On the wind that lifts her perfume through the air"
13) "Dance to the Eurobeat"
14) "Mary, have you seen better days?"
15) "And we're on our way, no we can't turn back"
16) "Mercy woman, plays a song and no one listens"
17) "Kids are huddled on the beach in a mist"
18) "We were just young and restless and bored"
19) "The purple piper plays his tune, the choir softly sing"
20) "The devil he told me to roll-oll-oll-oll"
21) "Always know sometimes think it's me"
22) "I don't wanna be a candidate for Vietnam or Watergate"
23) "She's a juvenile scam, never was a quitter"
24) "Some of them cries about it, some of them dies"
25) "Use your mentality, wake up to reality"
26) "Dinosaur Victrola"
27) "And they've chained him to a chair"
28) "When mountains crumble to the sea"
29) "And she gave Tchaikovsky back"
30) "The drummer relaxes and waits between shows"
31) "A requiem was never sung, no elegy was read"
32) "Don't let them say your hair's too long"
33) "Keep on doin' the jerk"
34) "All the right words but still you run away"
35) "…the baggage retrieval system they've got at Heathrow"

Good luck and enjoy!