Answers to the rock song quiz

December 9, 2019 • 2:30 pm

Here are the answers to my rock song quiz from this morning, in which you were asked this question:

 

Here are a few words. Name a rock song in whose lyrics they appear, as well as the singer or group who recorded the song

 

The words are in bold below, and I found a video of the song that correctly answers the question, including three with the word “chicken” (there are more).  How many did you guess, given that Googling was not allowed?  And I should add that other answers are correct; readers listed several I didn’t know in the comments on this morning’s piece. These songs are simply the ones I was thinking of when I posed the question.

Withers (the common noun, not the singer Bill Withers!) The tune of Dan Fogeberg’s “Run for the Roses” is very good, but I’ll be damned if the lyrics aren’t mawkish and awful:

Granite. I still don’t understand all the lyrics of this song, but Morrison’s voice and phrasing are incomparable, and the music itself is great.

Malt. Who remembers this song? “Lemme put this hamburger down; I don’t want no malt.”  Archie just wanted to dance!

Chicken. (there are at least three correct answers here). And here are three songs containing “chicken”, in decreasing order of quality.  First one: “I was knee high to a chicken.” This is one of my favorite soul songs. As readers pointed out, there are several other songs that have the word.

An equally great song from The Killer:

An absolutely dreadful song that was a big hit.

Starfish. Yes, the word appears in this bubble-gum song from 1966.

Snuff. Here’s a live version of a song that I thought could never be performed live. And yes, Brian Wilson’s song has the word “snuff” in it.

32 thoughts on “Answers to the rock song quiz”

  1. The incomparable Professor Longhair (emeritus) has “snuff” the lyrics of “Wee, Wee Hours”:

    “The girls out here get real, real rough,
    callin’ for whiskey and a pinch of snuff.”

      1. Well, Professor Longhair was inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. It’s more rock and roll than “Red Rubber Ball,” I’d say.

        But you be the judge:

      2. Professor Longhair came outta the same Crescent City musical syncretism that gave us piano players like Fats Domino and Dr. John and Allen Toussaint, so my vote would be “oh, hell yes, let’s count it as Rock’n’Roll.” 🙂

  2. I thought Jblilie’s list was pretty good from the other post —

    https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2019/12/09/rock-song-quiz/#comment-1791930

    Neil Young’s song ‘For the Turnstiles’ also, JB notes, refers to granite. Having been a fan of Neil’s since I was 5 (1971) I should’ve gotten this one.

    –A great song from one his greatest albums, On The Beach. It’s about the state of the music industry in the early 70s. “All the great explorers are now in granite laid” — referring probably to the Beatles & Stones & all the other great explorers who have been turned into icons, while the current explorers are ignored — like “bush league batters” who are “left to die on the diamond” while the crowd scatters for the turnstiles at a big arena.

  4. The Red Rubber Ball song: Interesting double-neck guitar: It appears to be 6 string (top) and tenor guitar (bottom, 4 strings, he’s strumming, I am assuming it’s not a short-scale bass; but it could be).

    Almost all double-necks are 12-string/6-string.

  6. The key to making sense of “Tupelo Honey” is that it is about freedom, not a woman. The dumping of the tea refers to the Boston Tea Party. Or at least, so says the internet.

  8. “Withers (the common noun, not the singer Bill Withers!)”

    Christopher Hitchens to William F. Buckley in 1984 on “Firing Line”:

    “My withers are unwrung, Mr. Buckley.”

    1. That was the Hitch breaking out an allusion to Act 3, Scene 2 of Hamlet. Nobody could do that sort of thing better than he.

      I remember that show; I think it might’ve been Hitch’s first appearance on Firing Line.

  9. I saw Van the Man last Tuesday in Brighton, and I can confirm his voice is still an absolute instrument. He didn’t do Tupelo Honey, sadly, but he has such a voice and back catalogue that anything he sings is bloody gorgeous!

    2. That generation from the British Isles produced some great blue-eyed soul singers. Here’s Van and Tom Jones doing an impromptu duet of Sam Cooke’s “Bring It On Home to Me” (with Jeff Beck on guitar):

  10. I remember Archie Bell and the Drells and “I Can’t Just Stop Dancing,” though I didn’t remember the “malt” reference. Is Archie referring to a malted milk to go with his lunch burger or a beer?

  12. Re: Chicken:

    How about “Back Door Man’ by the Doors:

    (from memory now)

    “You can have your …
    Have your pork and beans
    I eat more chicken
    Any man ever seen…”

    Here’s a follow-up food question: what other rock ‘n’ roll song features “pork and beans”?

    Larry Smith

  13. Yet more chicken. The Ramones “I Just Want To Have Something To Do”:
    Hanging out on Second Avenue
    Eating chicken vindaloo
    …

  15. Granite also features in “Granite Years” by the excellent folk-rock combo Oysterband.

    I’m quite impressed that nobody so far has mentioned “The Chicken Song”. Final lyrics “though you hate this song, you’ll be humming it for weeks”.

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