Decemberists Trivia

1. What is the subtitle for "The Hazards of Love Part 1?"

From Quiz The Decemberists: "The Hazard of Love"

Answer: The Prettiest Whistles Won't Wrestle Their Thistles Undone

I sometimes get confused which word comes first, but it's "whistles." In this song, a beautiful and kind woman goes into the forest and meets an injured fawn. Out of kindness, she tries to nurse the fawn back to health. Then the fawn turns into a man. Then they have sex. Then they must part ways. When they do, they both long for each other.

From Quiz The Decemberists

Answer: Cautionary Song

"The Cautionary Song" from "Castaways and Cutouts" is a song in which a father tells his child the horrific things his mother puts up with to earn the money necessary to feed him. The idea is to guilt the child into eating his collard greens.

From Quiz Bow Down to The Decemberists

Answer: "Castaways and Cutouts"

"Castaways and Cutouts" was the first album released by The Decemberists in May of 2003. This was followed by "Her Majesty" later in the year. In 2005, The Decemberists released the album "Picaresque" which was followed in 2006 by the epic "Crane Wife".

From Quiz The Decemberists: "The Hazard of Love"

Answer: She's pregnant

The song hints a few times that she is pregnant. "When Wilt Thou Trouble the Water in the Cistern" means "When is your baby due." You do not learn that she is "a river's daughter" until the last song.

From Quiz The Decemberists

Answer: Shanty for the Arethusa

"Shanty For the Arethusa" is a song from "Her Majesty the Decemberists" in which the narrator is a pirate telling a story of himself and other pirates. The pirates kill everyone they can find in the bars and hotels and then rape whatever young women they can find. Then they get sent to Australia to hang.

From Quiz The Decemberists: "The Hazard of Love"

Answer: Becky Stark

Becky Stark plays the role of Margaret on "The Hazards of Love". She is a member of a different band so she can't always tour with the Decemberists. But the Decemberists love "Won't Want For Love" so much that they continue to play it live with other singers. Sara Watkins sang it on the "King is Dead" tour. Kelly Hogan sang in on the "What a Terrible World What a Beautiful World" tour. Even Colin Meloy sang it himself on his 2013 solo tour.

From Quiz The Decemberists

Answer: The Mariner's Revenge Song

"The Mariner's Revenge Song" is a BRILLIANT eight-minute story of a sailor whose mother gets involved with a crazy young man. The young man gives his mother syphilis, then he spends all of the family's money on whores, alcohol, and gambling. He leaves after spending all the family's money on junk. Thanks to him, the family can no longer pay for their house which gets re-possessed. The mother goes insane, and then she dies. Right before she dies, she tells her son to avenge her. The narrator vows to make good on his mother's promise. Many years later the narrator learns where his enemy is, then joins a privateer ship. He finds him and prepares to kill him but then a whale knocks over both ships and chews to death everyone except the narrator and his enemy. The music at the end of the song matches the music of his mother's last wish, implying that the narrator did exactly what his mother told him to do. They both decompose in the whale's body.

From Quiz Bow Down to The Decemberists

Answer: Chris Funk

In the episode of the "Colbert Report", Stephan Colbert had Peter Frampton perform on his behalf after a patently fake hand injury caused him to bow out of the competition. After the judges were split, one to one, Colbert asked the audience who was winner. The audience erupted for Colbert, with only scattered applause for The Decemberists. Thus, Colbert-Frampton won the competition, and was given a copy of "The Crane Wife" for his victory at the end of the show.

From Quiz The Decemberists: "The Hazard of Love"

Answer: Shara Worden

Shara Worden sings "The Queen's Rebuke" and "Repaid." She is a major reason why this is one of my all-time favorite albums.

From Quiz The Decemberists

Answer: O Valencia

The music video for "O Valencia" shows the Valencia Hotel in San Francisco. In addition, during their second concert in Atlanta in 2015, Colin Meloy introduced "O Valencia" as "another song about San Francisco." So it's clear that the song refers to the hotel in San Francisco and not the city in Spain. The reason he said "ANOTHER song about San Francisco" is because they had already played "Grace Cathedral Hill" earlier in the show.

From Quiz The Decemberists

Answer: but we stayed 'til the ending

This song is "Everything I Try To Do, Nothing Seems To Turn Out Right" on the album "Billy Liar 7".

From Quiz The Decemberists: "The Hazard of Love"

Answer: The Rake's Song

The rake is the story's main villain. He's a man who just wants all the sex he can get without any babies. However, babies come along and when the rake's wife tries to give birth to the fourth baby, both she and the baby die. This leaves the rake with no wife and "three little pests" so he kills each of the babies and then finds a new young woman to defile. The queen is not really a villain. She's just an overprotective woman who cannot stand the thought of her son leaving her for someone younger and prettier. She does however, aid the villain, not knowing she's aiding the one who put her adopted son in the shape he was in when she found him.

From Quiz Bow Down to The Decemberists

Answer: "Cocoon"

The song is one of the more peaceful songs The Decemberists have ever produced, a six minute forty-eight second piece full of calming piano and background instrumentals.

From Quiz The Decemberists: "The Hazard of Love"

Answer: "A Bower Scene" and "The Abduction of Margaret"

"The Hazards of Love" is a concept album. On concept albums, many musical motifs are repeated throughout the album. The motif in these two songs is likely the signal that Margaret is in trouble. The guitar riff of both songs is also found in "The Queen's Rebuke," but "the Queen's Rebuke" is not note-for-note the same as the other two songs.

From Quiz The Decemberists

Answer: Don't Carry it All

This song from the "King is Dead" is about a family whose boy has died, and the entire neighborhood grieves for them. Each neighbor takes a bit of grief so that the affected family does not have to carry all the grief by themselves. Strangely, this song does not appear on the "We All Raise Our Voices to the Air" live album, which was recorded on the "King is Dead" tour and features seven songs from that album. Although this song isn't on that live album, they did play it at some shows on that tour.

From Quiz The Decemberists: "The Hazard of Love"

Answer: The Queen's Rebuke

Shara Worden sings all the lyrics in "The Queen's Rebuke." Perhaps William was asleep when Margaret was abducted.

From Quiz The Decemberists

Answer: Rise to Me

Colin wrote "Rise to Me" for his son Henry, who has autism. His autism is hinted at in the line "Hey Henry can you hear me? Let me see those eyes." Autistic people have trouble with eye contact. "Better Not Wake the Baby" and "12/17/12" were written about Colin's second child.

From Quiz The Decemberists: "The Hazard of Love"

Answer: He makes a deal with the river

In order to save his true love on the other side of the dangerous river, Colin makes a deal with the river. The river is the calm and let him pass this one time, and then it can kill him when he returns. Sadly, Margaret also turns out to unwittingly be part of this deal.

From Quiz The Decemberists

Answer: 12/17/12

"12/17/12" was written a few days after the Sandy Hook shooting in Connecticut. Colin's wife conceived their second child around this time. Colin was wondering what kind of world his child would grow up in. He acknowledges that it is generally a beautiful world, but there are some horrific things in this world.

From Quiz The Decemberists: "The Hazard of Love"

Answer: Isaiah

William turns out to be Isaiah, the Rake's dead first son. This is hinted in "The Queen's Rebuke" in which Shara sings "he was a baby abandoned and entombed in a cradle of clay." Entombed is another word for dead. Isaiah says that he was "Reduced to ash and buried in an urn." Urns were made out of clay in those days. So we learn that William is Isaiah.

From Quiz The Decemberists

Answer: O Valencia

During the "King is Dead" tour, the Decemberists played "Dracula's Daughter" many times right before "O Valencia." Sometimes he would sing "Dracula's Daughter" right before the third verse of "O Valencia" and get the audience to sing along.

From Quiz The Decemberists: "The Hazard of Love"

Answer: They both drown

At the end of the album, they both try to cross the Annan river again. However, this time the river holds William to his promise, thereby also killing Margaret because she wants to be with him alive or dead. As long as you're alive you have to deal with the hazards of love. You don't escape them forever until you die.

From Quiz The Decemberists

Answer: The Calamity Song

During Colin's 2013 solo tour and the Decemberists' "What a Terrible World What a Beautiful World" tour, Colin sometimes said "I wrote this next song to encourage my son to eat his breakfast." Then he would play a tune seemingly called "Hank, Eat Your Oatmeal" which has an "Oooooooooh" similar to the the "Oooooooh" in "The Calamity Song." Then he would play "The Calamity Song" to confirm that's what it became.

From Quiz Bow Down to The Decemberists

Answer: "The Kingdom of Spain"

"Eli, the Barrow Boy" was featured on "Picaresque" whereas "O Valencia!" was included on the album "Crane Wife." "Los Angeles, I'm Yours" appears on both "Her Majesty" and "Billy Liar."

From Quiz The Decemberists

Answer: Rachel Blumberg

Rachel left the band and was replaced by John Moen. He's amazing.

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