A Journey through Sturgill Simpson's Music Quiz

Answer: Turtles All the Way Down

The saying "turtles all the way down" originates in the ancient Indian idea of a mythological turtle that supports the world on its shell. This turtle presumably rests on another bigger turtle, which is part of an entire column of turtles going indefinitely downward.

The phrase is used as a metaphor for the problem of infinite regress as a basis for knowledge. This problem arises once we ask for the reasons for the reasons themselves. The phrase is often used to dismiss religious belief as unfounded or to suggest that there is no underlying ground for existence.

Answer: living the dream

The song comes from Sturgill Simpson's album "Metamodern Sounds in Country Music." Rolling Stone described it as "a record that is equal parts haunted, tender and trippy." The album, Rolling Stone said, "draws on Simpson favorites Radiohead and Beck (he also buys every album put out by Tool) but remains rooted in traditional country."

Answer: In Bloom

Sturgill Simpson inadvertently changed the chorus on "In Bloom," singing Kurt Cobain's line "Don't know what it means when I say" as "Don't know what it means to love someone." The mistake was pointed out to him by his manager after he finished the recording. Simpson wrote Cobain's estate a note saying, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to screw the song up." The error, however, has the effect of adding another layer of meaning to the song.

Answer: Muhammad

"I've seen Jesus play with flames
In a lake of fire that I was standing in,
Met the devil in Seattle
And spent nine months inside the lion's den,
Met Buddha yet another time
And he showed me a glowing light within."

The song is, in part, about psychedelic experiences brought on by drugs:

"Marijuana, LSD, Psilocybin, and DMT
They all changed the way I see
But love's the only thing that ever saved my life."

Answer: Art

The chorus of "Make Art Not Friends" runs:

"Face in the mirror's all skin and bones,
Bloodshot eyes and a heart of stone.
Over the game, rather be alone,
Think I'm gonna just stay home
And make art, not friends."

"Sound and Fury" was released in September of 2018. It breaks away from the alternative country / Americana music genre and takes a turn into synth-rock and boogie-rock. It's the soundtrack to a Netflix anime film. The title of the album is an allusion to Shakespeare:

"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

Answer: Keep It Between the Lines

The album "A Sailor's Guide to Earth" is in some sense Sturgill Simpson's letter to his first child, who was born in the summer of 2014. The entire album, Simpson has said, was a way to process his "guilt and homesickness" at not being home for his new son because of the demands of his career.

In the song "Keep It Between the Lines," the singer advises his son not to get caught up in drugs but to "keep the engine clean" and "stay off the hard stuff." He tells his son not to follow in his footsteps with regard to drug use:

"Do as I say
Don't do as I've done.
It don't have to be
Like father, like son."

Answer: A rattlesnake

"There I would play
Wild as a rattlesnake
Right from the start.
I'd push August in the
Swing all day.
Well she was the first girl
That ever broke my heart."

"Pan Bowl" paints a bittersweet picture of a youthful past in a slower, less complicated world. It's a hidden bonus track on "Metamodern Sounds In Country Music."

Answer: Give a good woman a ring

The song provides a satirical response to the expectations of the music industry and the confines of the "outlaw country" genre. The "label man" wants the narrator to "sing a little bit more clear. / Your voice might be too genuine and your song's a little too sincere. / Can you sing a little more about outlaws and the way things used to be?"

However, the singer doesn't fit the genre stereotypes. His daddy "never wrote any old country songs" and his "papaw never stayed out raising hell 'til the break of dawn." As for the songwriter himself, "Well the most outlaw thing that I've ever done was give a good woman a ring."

Answer: water in a well

"Water in a Well" appears on Sturgill Simpson's album "Hightop Mountain." The album was released on June 11, 2013 and debuted at 47 on the Top Country Albums chart and begins:

"They say that looks can be deceiving,
And there's been rumors going round.
One look at me's the same thing as believing
Everything you've heard without hearing a sound.
So if my eyes remind you of water in a well,
It's 'cause your heart is the stone."

Answer: Sex is cheap and talk is overrated

"Lately things have been a little complicated,
Quality of life has got me down.
Sex is cheap and talk is overrated,
And the boys and me still working on the sound."

"Life of Sin" appears on Sturgill Simpson's second album, ""Metamodern Sounds in Country Music."

Answer: fountain

These lyrics come from the song "Voices" on album "Metamodern Sounds in Country Music." The singer wishes the voices would recede:

"How I wish somebody'd make these voices go away
Seems they're always talking but they ain't got much to say."

Answer: All Around You

"All Around You" was nominated for Song of the Year at the 2017 Americana Awards. It appears on "A Sailor's Guide to Earth," Sturgill Simpson's third album, which was released in April of 2016.

"A Sailor's Guide to Earth" won the Best Country Album award at the 59th Grammy Awards. It won Album of the Year at the 2017 Americana Awards. The album peaked at number one on the country charts. "Paste" and "Stereogum" both named it one of the 50 Best Albums of 2016.

Answer: coal dust

These lines are taken from the song "Voices," the fourth track on "Metamodern Sounds in Country Music." The first line employs both a simile ("the memories like coal dust") and a metaphor ("the window of my eyes").

Answer: horns

These lyrics come from the song "It Ain't All Flowers" on the album "Metamodern Sounds in Country Music":

"Cleaning out the darkest corner of my mind
Taking all my full circles and making straight lines
Been getting to the bottom of the bottom getting to me
I've been holding up the mirror to everything I don't want to see
But it ain't all flowers
Sometimes you gotta feel the thorns
And when you play with the Devil,
You know you gonna get the horns."

"Metamodern Sounds in Country Music" was released on Mary 13, 2015 and was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Americana album.

Answer: Personification

This is another example from the lyrically rich song "Voices." Personification is attributing human characteristics to something nonhuman, in this case crying to rivers and speaking to oceans.