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Quiz about Images of Mortality from the Indigo Girls

Images of Mortality from the Indigo Girls Quiz

Many of the Indigo Girls' songs involve mortality. Some of these songs are heartbreaking, but many confirm the power and permanence of the cycle of life.

A multiple-choice quiz by crisw. Estimated time: 5 mins.

Author
crisw

Time
5 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
183,380

Updated
Jul 23 22

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Tough

Avg Score
5 / 10

Plays
418

Awards
Top 5% quiz!

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. An early experience in Amy Ray's life was traumatic, but shaped her future sensitivities. The song "Dead Man's Hill" records her impressions of this event. What was it? Hint

Amy's experiences with terrorism in Chiapas

Amy discovering a secret grave

Amy witnessing a woman being beaten

Amy witnessing older children setting cats on fire

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Question 2 of 10

2. Along with "Closer to Fine," this song is one of the Indigo Girls' "signatures." It is a musing on reincarnation; as Emily Saliers said, "It's meant to be light-hearted, like 'If this is really true, I've got a lot of baggage from my past lives!'"

Answer: (One Word)

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Question 3 of 10

3. Amy Ray wrote this song after learning of a custom that Appalachian men used to honor and memorialize their wives that had passed away. Hint

Cedar Tree

Jacob's Ladder

Heartache for Everyone

Mountains of Glory

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Question 4 of 10

4. Emily penned this song about the balance of loss in life versus the joy of experience. The song is perhaps most notable for Amy's haunting background vocals. Hint

Burn All The Letters

All That We Let In

Deconstruction

Virginia Woolf

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Question 5 of 10

5. Which of the following songs is most similar in meaning to the Kansas song "Dust In The Wind"? Hint

Everything In Its Own Time

Kid Fears

History Of Us

Least Complicated

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Question 6 of 10

6. Amy's song "Faye Tucker" recounts the death of Faye Tucker. How did she die? Hint

She was killed in a hit-and-run accident

She was a victim of domestic violence

She was executed

She was a victim of an anti-gay hate crime

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Question 7 of 10

7. This song by Emily was an unlisted track on the "Come On Now Social" album. It told of the rejection of some people by society and the church, and the rationalization of deaths in war. Hint

Hey Jesus

Soon be to Nothing

Philosophy of Loss

Trouble

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Question 8 of 10

8. What tragic historical event does Amy's song "Jacob's Ladder/This Train Revised" describe? Hint

Slavery

Violence in Nicaragua

The assassination of Martin Luther King

The Holocaust

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Question 9 of 10

9. Amy Ray said of this song, "The wisdom of the song that I have tried to learn is about the simple cycles of life and how to learn from them, and how to appreciate beauty in the face of physical pain." Hint

Blood and Fire

Ozilline

Cordova

Kid Fears

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Question 10 of 10

10. Which Indigo Girls song owes its imagery to Amy Ray's discovery of an old cemetery on a bicycle ride? Hint

Dead Man's Hill

Jonas and Ezekial

I Don't Know Your Name

Land of Canaan

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. An early experience in Amy Ray's life was traumatic, but shaped her future sensitivities. The song "Dead Man's Hill" records her impressions of this event. What was it?

Answer: Amy witnessing older children setting cats on fire

Some of the lyrics of the song are:
I remember cats on fire
gasoline a burning spiral
standing underneath the night
fighting back with all my might
empty cans and charred remains
find them in the heat of day
on the top of Dead Man's Hill
this is what I know of shame forever
Amy's father sung background vocals with her on this song.

Answer: Galileo

The song is amusing (as well as a musing!), in a wry sense, as Emily tries to explain her fear of flying by theorizing that one past life must have ended in an airplane crash, and hopes that the world cannot end in nuclear war because she hasn't "gotten it right" yet.

3. Amy Ray wrote this song after learning of a custom that Appalachian men used to honor and memorialize their wives that had passed away.

Answer: Cedar Tree

She visited a farmstead from the 1800s and noted the cedar trees planted there. Friends told her that each one was for a departed wife.

4. Emily penned this song about the balance of loss in life versus the joy of experience. The song is perhaps most notable for Amy's haunting background vocals.

Answer: All That We Let In

Some lyrics:
Emily sings:
I pass the cemetery, walk my dog down there
I read the names in stone and I say a silent prayer
when I get home you're cooking supper on the stove
and the greatest gift of life is to know love
And then Amy chimes in with:
Well I don't know where it all begins
and I don't know where it all will end
We're better off for all that we let in

5. Which of the following songs is most similar in meaning to the Kansas song "Dust In The Wind"?

Answer: Everything In Its Own Time

The Kansas song's refrain is:
Dust in the wind,
All we are is dust in the wind

referring to the ultimate nature of mortality.

"Everything In Its Own Time," by Emily, has a similar theme:
Boys around the table are mapping out their strategies
Kings all of mountains one day dust
A lesson learned, a loving God and things in their own time
In nothing more do I trust

We own nothing
Nothing is ours
Not even love so fierce it burns like baby stars
But this poverty is our greatest gift

6. Amy's song "Faye Tucker" recounts the death of Faye Tucker. How did she die?

Answer: She was executed

Karla Faye Tucker was executed by the State of Texas in 1998 for murder; the first woman executed in Texas in well over 100 years.

As Amy wrote in a letter in response to a review of the song, "The song is meant to allude to the more interesting problems that came up when Faye becomes a pawn instead of a human in the tug of war between anti- and pro-death advocates. Her apparent rebirth to Christianity created strange bedfellows in this battle. In the end, it didn't matter that she was okay with her own death sentence. No matter what happens - she can't win ('if you live they're gonna make you a campaigner - if you die they'll make you a grave') - she lost control of her soul and her life when she took another - just as we do when instituting the death penalty. 'that's why killing don't pay' was meant for us and K. Faye. "

7. This song by Emily was an unlisted track on the "Come On Now Social" album. It told of the rejection of some people by society and the church, and the rationalization of deaths in war.

Answer: Philosophy of Loss

Some lyrics from the song:
Modern scribes write "In Jesus Christ
everyone is free"
and the doors open wide to all straight men and women
but they are not open to me

Who is teaching kids to be soldiers
to be marked by a plain white cross?
And we kill just a little to save a lot more
The philosophy of loss

8. What tragic historical event does Amy's song "Jacob's Ladder/This Train Revised" describe?

Answer: The Holocaust

Amy points out that a variety of people were the victims of the Holocaust:
In a railroad car
one hundred people;
gypsies, queers,
and David's stars

Answer: Ozilline

"Ozilline" is about Amy's grandmother, to whom she was very close. The song discusses the cycles of life and loss, from the death of a dog to deer eating crops.

10. Which Indigo Girls song owes its imagery to Amy Ray's discovery of an old cemetery on a bicycle ride?

Answer: Jonas and Ezekial

The names Jonas and Ezekial were those of slaves, carved on gravestones. The song, according to Amy Ray, is "a political song about people who put their faith in prophesy, who're walking toward disaster instead of doing anything about it."

Source: Author crisw

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Bruyere before going online.
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