Orchestral Oboes or Others Trivia Quiz

Answer: Trumpet

"The Seventh Trumpet" is the eleventh and closing track from August Burn Red's first album "Thrill Seeker" that was released in 2005.

The lyrics don't actually include the word 'trumpet'; they are referring to what happens before the seventh trumpet is blown. The whole song is a reference to Revelation in the Bible where angels sound a trumpet that heralds a new disaster. The first six are designed to call sinners to repentance before the end of the world. The seventh trumpet is a sound of Glory when He returns.

The song mentions some of the signs of the Apocalypse and questions people's readiness for it.

"I can no longer tell the days from the nights. The moon glows an eerie red and I could swear it was covered in blood.
Something big is going to happen. Something so big it could forever change world. What have you all done? What have you all become? A people more concerned with the temporary pleasures of this world rather than your eternal salvation?
I am now convinced that this is the end. As I raise my head towards the heavens to take one last look at the moon, the stars begin to fall."

Answer: Drums

"Distant Drums" was originally released in 1963 by Roy Orbison and although Jim Reeves recorded his version in 1964 it wasn't released until 1966 as a B-Side to the song "Old Tige".

This was released posthumously as Reeves died in a plane crash in July 1964. It was his only number one hit in the UK and remained in the charts for 25 weeks.

The song is basically a proposal to a girl named Mary and the drums refer to the fact that war is approaching which will separate them, and he wants to marry her first.

"I hear the sound of distant drums
Far away, far away
And if they call for me to come
Then I must go and you must stay."

Answer: Mandolin

Rod Stewart first released "Mandolin Wind" in 1971 on his album "Every Picture Tells a Story." The Everly Brothers recorded it the year after and Earl Scruggs in 1977.

It was one of the first songs Stewart wrote himself and combines rock and folk music with the mandolin playing a prominent part. It tells the story of a farmer who has just survived his worst winter in 14 years and he's thanking his wife who has stood by his side through everything.

"When the rain came, I thought you'd leave
'Cause I knew how much you loved the sun
But you chose to stay, stay and keep me warm
Through the darkest nights I've ever known
If the mandolin wind
Couldn't change a thing
Then I know I love ya."

Answer: Saxophone

"The Saxophone Song" was released in 1978 on Kate Bush's first album "The Kick Inside". She actually made the recording of it in 1975 and that was the only official release of it.

Bush began writing songs when she was only 11 and she was 15 when she wrote this one. She was the first female artist to make it to a UK number one with a song that they had written for themselves - this was for "Wuthering Heights" not 'Saxophone."

The song talks of her sitting in a smoky Berlin bar listening and watching a saxophone player on stage. There have been many interpretations made of the song but Bush states that she just loved the saxophone and thinks of it and the artist in a sensuous dance.

"It's in me
It's in me
And you know it's for real
Tuning in on your saxophone."

Answer: Tambourine

"The Green Tambourine" was released as the title song of the album of the same name in 1968 by Ohio group The Lemon Pipers. It topped the chart and became a gold record but it was their only real hit.

The band's lyricist wrote the song after reading about a street busker who used his tambourine to collect money when he performed.

The music is eclectic with orchestral strings, an electric sitar, a vibraslap and the titular tambourine.

"Drop your silver in my tambourine
Help a poor man build a pretty dream
Give me pennies, I'll take anything
Now listen while I play
My green tambourine."

Answer: Violin

"Love Is Like a Violin" was released by Barclay James Harvest on their eighth studio album "Gone to Earth" in 1977. This was the band's biggest selling album with more than a million copies sold.

The band was founded in Oldham in 1966 and played together until 1998 when musical differences lead to a split and the forming of two new bands, John Lees' Barclay James Harvest, and Barclay James Harvest featuring Les Holroyd.

The song is a long song with the violin used as a simile.

"Love was like a violin playing soft and low
In my heart you held the strings, in my heart the bow
Together we made soft sweet music, together we believed
In every day, in every hour, our love was everything."

Answer: Guitar

"This Old Guitar" first appeared as the last track on Denver's eighth album "Back Home Again" released in 1974. It has appeared on multiple compilation albums since.

There is no hidden meaning here it actually is about his 1910 Gibson guitar that his grandmother gave him when he was 12 and all the things it helped him with.

It was such a prized possession that it was cremated with him when he died in 1997 and the remains scattered over the Rocky Mountains.

The first lines of each of the three verses in the song mention it:

"This old guitar taught me to sing a love song..."
"This old guitar gave me my lovely lady..."
"This old guitar gave me my life my living..."

Answer: Clarinet

"Alexander and His Clarinet" was published and copyrighted in 1910 and sang live. A recording was made of it but details vary. It was a prequel to the better known "Alexander's Ragtime Band" that was released in 1911.

The songs were inspired by his friend Jack Alexander, an African-American band leader who played the cornet. It is about a reconciliation between a musician named Alexander and his lady Eliza.

"Alexander Adams played a clarinet
Brought out music that no one has brought out yet
Miss Eliza Johnson was his angel pet
And Alexander was her one best bet."

Answer: Piano

Billy Joel's "Piano Man" was first released as a single in 1973 and on the album of the same name that year. It has also appeared on many compilation albums.

It is sung from Joel's point of view as a piano player in a bar, about the regulars that were there. The song is a true reflection of his life at the time. He had come to L.A. to record an album but wasn't happy with the record label. While he was waiting for his lawyers to get him out of the contract he stayed out of the limelight and played in the bar under the name Bill Martin.

The people in the song are all real. His first wife, Elizabeth Weber, was the 'waitress who was practicing politics'. It is now known as his signature song.

"Sing us a song, you're the piano man
Sing us a song tonight
Well, we're all in the mood for a melody
And you've got us feeling alright."

Answer: Harp

"The Sacred Harp" was released on the album "Seven Psalms" in 2023 as the fifteenth solo studio album of Paul Simon.

The album is a definite change of direction for the star as it encompasses a single sound track divided into seven movements or hymns. "The Sacred Harp" is the sixth.

Simon talks of dreaming about the piece in 2019 and awoke to write it down, this starting happening regularly until he started to make sense of it all.

Although there are definite religious themes they are not all hymns of praise. While he talks of all the wonders God has created he also talks of the bad things in the world. Simon states it more as an argument he was having with himself about whether he believes or not.

"The sacred harp
That David played to make his
Songs of praise
We long to hear those strings
That set his heart ablaze."

"The Lord is my engineer
The Lord is my record producer
The Lord is the music I hear
Deep in the valley, elusive."