Rock Idols-- debunked and/or deconstructed Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. According to one biographer, who spent his last days in his bedroom in a drug-induced stupor, eating bacon and mashed potatoes with his fingers, and watching his favorite films on videotape?

Answer: Elvis Presley

In the King's defense, biographer Albert Goldman stressed that Elvis' favorite show was "Monty Python's Flying Circus"(!) Goldman noted that the Python shows "appeal enormously to Elvis' sense of humor, his deepest but least recognized trait of mind". Everyone thought Goldman did a hatchet-job on Elvis, but some (like me) thought this biography actually humanized him a bit. MONTY PYTHON??

2. Which icon of the 60s expatiated on the importance of watching the "parking meters", and advanced the hypothesis that the pump didn't work "cause the vandals took the handles"?

Answer: Robert Zimmerman

At some point in time, indeed, for a rather extended period of time, Bob Dylan was considered a genius. "Subterranean Homesick Blues" is quite an enjoyable song, but when you actually study the lyrics, you arrive at a deeper understanding of ... of... the general meaninglessness of what went on in those highly overrated sixties.

3. Which Brit rocker, in 1979, used a racial epithet to characterize James Brown, and in the same discussion (rant?) (harangue?) referred to Ray Charles as "a blind, ignorant, n------"?

Answer: Declan McManus

Elvis Costello to you. Bonnie Bramlett (late of Delaney & Bonnie) was present when he said it and responded by socking him in the face.
Costello, (who unlike some mentioned here is a genuine talent) has apologized for the whole affair, but the thing came as quite a surprise to all of us back then who pegged the guy as a rising star.

4. Who humbly observed, "Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink ... We're more popular than Jesus Christ now"?

Answer: John Lennon

We know not only that he considered himself a genius, but that he specified that he had suffered for it ("genius is pain"), He was enormously talented, of course, his post-Beatles output quite good, his death a shameful episode. But much of the biographical material about him leaves one with the feeling that "Mr. Imagine" was in fact a rather unpleasant, indeed often reprehensible human being.

5. Who led off a song called "The Soft Parade" with a faux-profound rumination about seminarians and whether or not one could "petition the Lord with prayer"?

Answer: Jim Morrison

Come on, how could it be anyone other than the Lizard King? Say what you will about the other three, they certainly never took themselves this seriously. Morrison's conclusion (or rather, his bald assertion, since he sets forth nothing to back it up) was that one CANNOT petition the Lord, etc, etc. His high-decibel diatribe appears to have nothing to do with the song that follows.

6. Which supposed friend of the downtrodden, voice of the voiceless, spokesman for disenfranchised blue-collar America, blah, blah, blah, was sued by two of his longtime roadies who claimed (in essence) that he refused to pay them money that he owed them?

Answer: Bruce Springsteen

The roadies were named Batlan and Sutphin; the case was eventually settled. All rock icons sue and get sued, and the mere fact of a Springsteen lawsuit was itself without significance; what seemed to matter were the nature of the allegations, which were to say the least somewhat inconsistent with the Boss' public persona.

7. Which musician, at or near the height of his fame in the late 70s, was once heard to declaim in substance (in response to a question about how his music compared to punk rock), that while punk rock made heroes out of punks, his music made punks out of heroes?

Answer: Billy Joel

Ah, the poor Piano Man. The rock press (such as that was, or is) hated him, but the guy could fill a stadium in Ulan Bator (he still can). Levittown NY's favorite son probably developed a chip on his shoulder because pop-music snobs (now there's a concept!) said he was commercial and played bar mitzvah music, but even extreme provocation shouldn't have pushed him to these lengths.

8. Which band gained some fame (and perhaps greater infamy) for going "The Soft Parade" one better, taking even longer mock-profound maunderings ("New mother picks up and suckles her son/Senior citizens wish they were young") and putting 'em at the END of the song?

Answer: The Moody Blues

There is no truth to the rumor that these were all the same band anyway.

9. Who, in 2002, described Sony Music Chairman Tommy Mottola as a "mean racist ... very,very devilish" and prattled on about recording companies doing "everything they can ... against the black artists"?

Answer: Michael Jackson

This was quite a zinger. Even The Rev. Al Sharpton was constrained to come to the defense of Mottola. Mottola had been married to Mariah Carey -- herself part Black -- for the better part of a decade. Some black performers have certainly been exploited, but anyone who thinks industry execs are only out to rip off minorities had better go out and do some research (set aside a few years of your life and read about Billy Joel's adventures in "Contract Law").

10. Who has not yet anointed himself "The Virtuoso Formerly Known as The Artist Formerly Known as Some Lesser Form of Royalty," though god knows he might?

Answer: TAFKAP

Prince is a good, perhaps great musician, but the "artist" formulation seems a bit much. If the word is defined broadly, any yutz who sprays graffiti on a subway car is an artist, and by that standard Mr. P. Rogers Nelson of Minneapolis is amply entitled to the designation.

But if one is to be a little more discerning about defining one's terms, the Prince/Artist thing begins to seem a little ... presumptuous? Durer, Brueghel, Beckmann, Offenbach, even Gershwin -- those guys were Artists. Prince certainly knocked out a few good hits, but will anyone remember him 100 years from now?

Source: Author coolupway

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor gtho4 before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

With special emphasis on the self-important, the overrated, the hypocritical, and the supposedly profound. (If they've ever mentioned Rimbaud and poetry, they're probably in here).

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