"Mr Bojangles": Story of A Song Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. 'Mr Bojangles' is perhaps the most famous song written by Jerry Jeff Walker and it has been covered many times. Which legendary 'rat pack' singer is closely associated with the song?

Answer: Sammy Davis Jr

Jerry Jeff wrote the song after meeting an itinerant dancer in a jail cell. All of these artistes have covered 'Mr Bojangles'. If you look up the song on YouTube you can watch many of the performances and read the impassioned claims by the proponents of one or other singer.

As a footnote, the song was a chart hit for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. It has been recorded about 200 times. (Source: All Music Guide)

2. Jerry Jeff Walker was a Texas-based singer/songwriter whose career covered various music genres from rock, through folk and blues to country. He was known by at least eight names at various stage in his career, but what was the name on his birth certificate?

Answer: Ronald Clyde Crosby

Some sources mistakenly give Jerry Jeff's birth name as 'Norman' Crosby. My source is impeccable: Jerry Jeff himself. He traces the development of his name in his autobiography 'Gipsy Songman'. Jerry Jeff was born in Oneonta, New York, on March 16 1942. He changed his name by deed poll after his first marriage.

3. Which city fills the blanks in this line from the song 'Mr Bojangles'? "I met him in a cell in - - I was, down and out He looked to me to be the eyes of age As he spoke right out He talked of life, he talked of life, He laugh-slapped his leg a step."

Answer: New Orleans

New Orleans is where Jerry Jeff Walker found his feet, musically, and began to make a name for himself. In his autobiography, Jerry Jeff noted: "In a lot of ways, Mr Bojangles is a composite. He's a little bit of several people I met for only moments of passing time."

4. Just before he wrote 'Mr Bojangles', Jerry Jeff Walker was a member of a progressive-rock band with a classical-sounding name. What was it?

Answer: Circus Maximus

The band was originally called the 'Lost Sea Dreamers' but changed the name on the insistence of their record company - a band called 'LSD' did not seem such a good idea at the height of the 60s drugs culture. It featured Jerry Jeff along with Bob Bruno, Pete Troutner, David Scherstrom and Gary White. They produced two albums 'Circus Maximus' and 'Neverland Revisited'.

5. Which former member of a British 'boy band' included an orchestra-backed version of 'Mr Bojangles' on an album entitled "Swing When You're Winning"?

Answer: Robbie Williams

Robbie Williams was a member of 'Take That'. Unfortunately, in introducing the song in a televised concert, Williams spoke about the renowned tap dancer Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson, creating the impression for some that he was the subject of 'Mr Bojangles'. The song was written in 1969. Robinson died in 1949.

6. Which family member bought country singer/songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker his first guitar?

Answer: His grandmother

While Jerry Jeff's family were living in Oneonta, New York, he used to borrow a Harmony guitar from a neighbour. His Grandma Jessie bought the guitar for him as a Christmas present. He was about 12 at the time.

7. The singer/songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker spent a particular weekend in jail in a southern city. What had he been been arrested for?

Answer: Being drunk in public

The arrest came when Jerry Jeff stood up on a table in a restaurant to proclaim undying love for a girl he had only just met. At least he got 'Mr Bojangles' - probably his most famous song - as a result of the experience.

8. Which type of show is missing from this line in 'Mr Bojangles'? "He danced for those at ____ shows and county fairs Throughout the South He spoke with tears of fifteen years how his dog and him Had traveled about. His dog up and died, he up and died, After 20 years he still grieves"

Answer: Minstrel

Jerry Jeff noted that the man he met also talked about his lost loves and his failed marriages - but showed more emotion over the death of his dog.

9. Which of these virtuosos of the instrument played guitar on Jerry Jeff Walker's first recording of 'Mr Bojangles'?

Answer: David Bromberg

The first public airing of the song was by Jerry Jeff and David Bromberg on a live nighttime WBAI radio show in New York. Jerry Jeff wrote: "Bromberg is the reason man created stringed instruments. David touched them with a lover's fingers and they moaned that true love right back at him." The first recording was made at American Studios in Memphis - home of early Elvis recordings. "They [the record company] had arranged for session people to play backup and thought they would get it without David. Bromberg was there in the control room, listening in horror and close to tears as someone else tried to create the magic...Finally, they decided to put Bromberg in to play his part on twelve-string. That was what the song needed."

10. Which kind of establishment is missing from these lines from 'Mr Bojangles'? "He said 'I dance now at ev'ry chance in - - For drinks and tips. But most of the time I spend behind these county bars Cause I drinks a bit.'"

Answer: Honky tonks

According to Jerry Jeff: " Lots of street dancers, especially in New Orleans, called themselves Bojangles. They'd step in a door and say, 'Bojangles here' and hit their taps on the floor to see if anybody was interested. 'Bojangles wasn't so much a a name as a category of itinerant street dancer known as far back as the previous century" (From: 'Gypsy Songman' by Jerry Jeff Walker, 1999)

Source: Author darksplash

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor ralzzz before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

"I knew a man Bojangles and he'd dance for you..." this much-covered song was written by Jerry Jeff Walker, an artiste usually classified as a 'country singer' but rock, folk, blues and country have all influenced him.

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