Animals in Indigo Girls Songs Multiple Choice Quiz | Music

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Amy Ray, in particular, is very fond of cats, but several of her songs involve feline demise. Which of the following songs does *not* have a theme that involves the death of a cat, either implied or mentioned?

Answer: Ozilline

"Pushing the Needle Too Far" lists, as one of the things that push the needle, "a cat that has died." "Dead Man's Hill" is about the trauma Amy suffered at an early age when she saw older boys setting cats on fire. "Secure Yourself" is a song about the death of one of Amy's cats. "Ozilline" mentions several animals, but not cats.

2. "Point Hope, F.O.I.A." on "Rarities" is a song about the dangers of nuclear contamination. According to the song, what animals were contaminated in Point Hope, Alaska?

Answer: Caribou

"Point Hope, F.O.I.A." mentions an experiment, kept secret for many years, in which the US government buried nuclear waste near Point Hope in order to see how it spread into the ecosystem. It was absorbed by lichen, then by the caribou that fed on the lichen. The lyrics state, "I hear the lichen bought it, now it's running through the caribou."

3. Which song involves vivid imagery comparing the breakup of a relationship to Pentecostal snake worship?

Answer: Shed Your Skin

The lyrics of "Shed Your Skin," by Amy Ray on the album "Shaming of the Sun," describe the rituals of snake worshippers, who feel that their faith will protect them from the bites of serpents:
"I'm speaking in tongues
handling you
and I got religion now look at it
the days grow longer
as we grow stronger
so shed your skin baby
let it rip"

4. In the song "Deconstruction," what animals does Emily see as a possible portent of "tragic events"?

Answer: Foxes

This song, from "Become You," details the breakup of a relationship along with the everyday events that mirror it.
"A family of foxes
came to my yard and dug in
so I looked in a book
to see what this could possibly mean
yeah 'cause there's fate in the breeze
signs in the trees
and possible tragic events
when forces collide
with the damage strewn wide
and holes blasted straight through the fence"

5. Which song uses the imagery of animals killed on the road to symbolize the losses and redemption involved in everyday life?

Answer: Chickenman

This concert favorite by Amy Ray is on the album "Rites of Passage."
"Dead dog on the highway
median cats are growling at me
I turn my lights on brighter
I'm counting through the night ride
and it's one more life for the taker
chickenman chickenman
one more song for the maker
chickenman chickenman
on the road to Athens
I saw a dead deer on the highway
I slipped into a desert
five prairie dogs and a rabbit "

Later in the song:
"I said darkness into darkness
all the carnage of my journeys
makes it harder to be living
he said it's a long road to be forgiven"

6. In the song "Welcome Me," what animal will Amy be "the first to hold"?

Answer: Coyote

As the chorus states:
"They tell me I'll be the first to praise the sun
the first to praise the moon
the first to hold the lone coyote
the last to set it free"

This song is on the album "Nomads*Indians*Saints."

7. In which song does Amy state that her skills will never match those of the birds that sing in the morning?

Answer: Starkville

This haunting song to a lost love is from the album "Become You."
"At the dawning of some road-worn day
I call you on a whim just to say
the morning birds are singing
but I could not do them justice
so I hung up and I fell back to sleep"

8. Which song uses doves and hawks as metaphors for directions that the world can take?

Answer: Tether

From the album "All That We Let In," this song by Amy Ray makes the case that we must all work hard and work together to overcome the problems the world faces:
"Can we bring it together,
Can we call from the mountain to the valley below?
Can we make it better,
Do we tether the hawk, or do we tether the dove?"

9. Which song by Emily implores us to learn to handle the decisions that life presents us with the metaphor "You'll never fly as the crow flies, get used to a country mile"?

Answer: Watershed

Another very popular concert favorite, this song first appeared on "Nomads*Indians*Saints".

10. In the song "Love's Recovery", to what does Emily compare the "whims of culture" that are "eating us away to our extinction"?

Answer: Vultures

From the self-titled 1989 album "Indigo Girls," "Love's Recovery" is one of many of Emily's songs about the redemptive power of love:
"Rain soaked and voice choked
like silent screaming in a dream
I search for our absolute distinction
not content to bow and bend
to the whims of culture that swoop like vultures
eating us away, eating us away
eating us away to our extinction"

Source: Author crisw

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor agony before going online.
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Animals in Indigo Girls Songs Trivia Quiz

Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, the Indigo Girls, have been active in a variety of animal, environmental and vegetarian causes. Not surprisingly, animals are often mentioned in their songs.

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