Bad Blood Trivia Quiz

Answer: Tom Jones

The song in question is "Delilah".

Have you ever been to a Tom Jones concert and listened closely to the audience while the Welsh master sings this gem? Do you notice how they boisterously sing along with the chorus but when Tom gets to the part "She stood there laughing" the enthusiasm positively erupts from the punters as they merrily scream out "Ha Ha Ha". The audience are revelling. This is so much fun. Don't they know that this lovesick (or lust-sick, we're not told) fool is about to stab his little paramour to death. "I felt the knife in my hand and she laughed no more".

We are meant to think that this is a crime of passion by the singer but if you look closely at the lyrics they will tell you that Tom spent the night outside her window - he had the whole night to think about this. If he was in a lovesick rage he would have stormed straight up there and confronted both of them. But no, not this dude. He waits and bides his time. Waits till the other man leaves. Then he fronts up to the woman, but not empty handed. What were you planning to do with that knife Tom? Surely you weren't planning to cook her breakfast and the knife was there to scramble the eggs? You're guilty Tom, and it's little wonder that you won't get to touch the "Green, Green Grass of Home".

Answer: Queen

The song in question is "Bohemian Rhapsody".

This song is one of rock and roll's classic numbers. It opens with an intro that's a close five part harmony, followed by a capella section that runs until a grand piano kicks in and builds into a ballad. Then there's the guitar solo, an opera section that crescendos into a rollicking hard rock component before closing with a reflective outro... phew! So much has been so cleverly and expertly crafted into one song.

However, the keys to this track lie in the lyrics and these have been the subject of conjecture and study for decades. The band, for the most part, have kept the meaning to themselves which has allowed this conjecture to fester. I say "for the most part" because a book, written by Sarah Sefati and Farhad Arkani and published in Iran in 2000, called "The March of the Black Queen" provides a storyline put forward by Queen. They indicate that it is the story of a young man who, after he has sold his soul to the devil, "accidentally" kills a man. He faces trial, is found guilty and now, at the hour of his execution, appeals to God for redemption and his soul is saved. Note how I stressed "accidentally" because the accident part is, at best, a stretch;
"Put a gun against his head
Pulled my trigger now he's dead"
Accident... my left foot.

Now picture yourself at a party, the DJ has this track blaring out of the speakers and the song approaches that crucial moment when the murderer is appealing to God (you'll hear the call "Bismallah" in the song, which is Arabic for "in the name of God") to let him go, the audience, with great exuberance, respond as one "we will not let you go"? Then, when the young man announces that "Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me" and the song reaches its hard rock section will not these same party goers break out into a frenzy of air guitar riffing and Wayne Campbell ("Wayne's World") style head banging. There is so much joy being expressed here and over what... a murderer.

Answer: The Boomtown Rats

The song in question is "I Don't Like Mondays".

The scary thing about this song is that the event described in the song physically happened. On January 29, 1979, sixteen year old Brenda Spencer walked out of the front door of her home across the road to the Grover Cleveland Elementary School and opened fire on the children there. She took the lives of the two adults in the question and wounded eight children and a police officer before calmly walking back into her house. When she was asked why she did it she replied in a matter of fact manner "I don't like Mondays and this livens up the day".

After the song was released and the inspiration behind it was revealed it came as a rude shock to millions of punters who were merrily running around thinking it was a lament for the start of the working week. Every time Bob Geldoff would belt out "Tell me why" They'd respond with gusto "I don't like Mondays".

The song would prove to be a massive hit for the Boomtown Rats both at home and most countries across the globe. The only market in which it really struggled to make any inroads was the USA. It may well have been that the subject matter was just a little bit too close to home.

Answer: Talking Heads

The song in question is "Psycho Killer".

Let's face it, it always sounded so cool to be singing this song out loud;
"Psycho killer. Qu'est-ce que c'est (and if your French is as bad as mine that comes out as "kiss kiss say")
Fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa far better
Run run run run run run run away"

Maybe it was the singing of the lyrics out loud that was drowning out the meaning of the words because most of us simply had no idea what the heck David Byrne was singing about. Little did we know that these mumblings supposedly represented a stream of conscious thought that were running through the mind of a serial killer not long after he'd committed the deed. Now you're wondering, where is that brutal murder? Where is that beautiful victim? Byrne did advise that the first verse did, originally, contain the story of the murder but it was removed in the final product.

O.K., now that I know that these lyrics really do take on a gruesome air;
"I'm tense and nervous and I can't relax" (serves you right scumbag).
"I hate people when they're not polite" (oh no, is that what made him flip)?
Finally, in the bridge (this is a translation of the French lyrics)
"What I did, that evening. What she said, that evening" (don't tell me she was rude to him).

So then how does a writer transport himself into the mind of a serial killer to create these lyrics? One of the stories put forward is that Byrne got the inspiration by watching Norman Bates going about his business in such a matter of fact way in Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 classic film "Psycho". A more credible option is revealed on the liner notes to the band's "Best of" compilation, "Once in a Lifetime" (2003), where Byrne puts forth that he imagined himself as Alice Cooper trying to write a ballad in the style of Randy Newman.

Answer: The Decemberists

The song in question is "The Rake's Song".

The mere mention of the band The Decemberists evokes thoughts of songs full of ambience and memorable characters that are woven into a rich and powerful storyline. This track is no exception. It appears on the band's 2009 album "The Hazards of Love", which was written with the view of becoming a stage musical. It's an eerie album and "The Rake's Song" is easily the catchiest track on it. In fact the song is a real fist pumper that almost manages to hide the charming but chilling psychopath that dwells within its lyrics. The tale goes that the rake stumbles into an early marriage and everything is all bells and roses until that industrious wife of his starts spitting out babies like cars off the production line. Mercifully, states the rake, she dies in an endeavour to deliver their fourth child and takes the babe with her. But how can he be free to move on with three little pests at his feet. In a cold and remorseless tone he then details how he disposes of each child individually and all the while the background singers give us a rousing "Alright, alright, alright".

Finally, as our narrator informs us;
"Expect you think that I should be haunted
But it never really bothers me,"
You turn off the stereo and say a prayer that you will never meet this man in a dark alley alone.

Answer: Warren Zevon

The song in question is "Excitable Boy".

Songs of horror are meant to be laced with menace and darkness that suffocate us and makes one squirm. Someone forgot to mention this to Warren Zevon. He gives us the tale of a depraved killer with such a bright and poppy melody that we almost feel like it's an advertisement for a soft drink or some raisin bread, so much so that we start singing along to the chorus; "ooh ooh, excitable boy".

This lad, however, is beyond excitable. I can understand "excitable" when he's rubbing the pot roast all over his Sunday best but when he bites the usherette on the leg at the cinema at four in the morning it goes a little bit beyond the pale. There is definitely something wrong with this dude. He asks little Susie to go with him to the Junior Prom. Now if this were a horror movie you'd be yelling at the screen "No, no. Don't do it Susie!" Susie doesn't listen and she says "yes" to the school psycho - how desperate is she? The inevitable happens - he rapes her, he kills her and then he takes her home (though I've never figured if it's home to his place or home to her place).

Excitable, Ha! They're going to lock him away and throw away the key... right? Not a chance. The authorities reckon that he IS only excitable and, after ten long years, they let him out. It's at this point that he goes to her grave, digs out her bones and uses them to make a cage. For what reason, we are never told. And then the saxophone begins to wail, the backing singers kick in (all together now) "ooh ooh, excitable boy".

Answer: The Beatles

The song in question is "Maxwell's Silver Hammer".

Heaven's above, the Beatles singing about a serial killer. Or are they?

Paul McCartney has always maintained that Maxwell Edison (the owner of the eponymous hammer) is an imaginary figure that represents the problems that seem to gatecrash upon us just as we're thinking that all is good in the world. He even elevates this concept in the lyrics by making Maxwell's first victim (Joan) a pataphysics student - pataphysics being the study of the imaginary world. I must admit that I sometimes think Maxwell may have been doing Joan a favour because I have no idea what sort of job her pataphysics degree would have gotten her.

That aside, if one looks at the lyrics literally you find our villain, "Stacks of Whacks" Max, first of all taking out student Joan (and I don't mean on a date). He then nails (pun intended) his lecturer when her back is turned before ensuring that the judge passes on before he can pass out his sentence. Imaginary or not this is one evil son of a carpenter. And this cheerful little ode is delivered with such sparkle and smile and rousing harmony that we all get to sing along cheerily with them. Oh dear, just had a horrible thought - Paul McCartney and Warren Zevon in a room together with pens in hand...

Answer: Jimi Hendrix

The song in question is "Hey Joe".

We just sit there tapping away, our eyes are closed and the head is swaying from side to side. A foot taps aimlessly at an empty space as we totally immerse ourselves into that heavy and haunting blues sound that is the Jimi Hendrix Experience. And as we drift off into some hazy sonic mist we are vaguely aware that someone is about to be gunned down. We are so into this song that we are almost accepting of it, it's almost as if we don't care...

"Hey Joe, where you going with that gun in your hand?"
"I'm going down to shoot my old lady
You know, I've caught her messin' around with another man
And that ain't too cool"

This was the track that closed out Woodstock in 1969 and was Hendrix's debut single. Because this version virtually defined the way the song should be played going forward a number of people are stunned when they find out that this is not a Hendrix original. Even the man himself introduces it as "an old cowboy song from a hundred years ago". "Hey Joe" was originally copy written by Billy Roberts in 1962 though its true origins remain unclear. It was introduced to the Greenwich Village folk scene in the early 1960s and within a few years it became a rock staple at many music venues. The Leaves charted with the song in 1966 and versions soon followed from Love and The Byrds, all of them produced with some form of up-tempo guitar playing and some husky vocals. Not happy with these versions Hendrix would strip the song back while installing his version of explosive blues and, in the process bringing back some of those haunting qualities that were prevalent in the earlier folk versions.

Sadly though, the murder did not end with the one described in the lyrics of the song. British band Soft Cell, remember those guys that gave us "Tainted Love" in the early 80s, tried disastrously to eighty-fy the song in 1983 but the real killer was Eddie Murphy and his seven minute... er... epic that he released in 1993. Dare you to check it out on youtube.

Answer: Johnny Cash

The song in question is "Folsom Prison Blues".

A prisoner sits in his cell and he contemplates his circumstance while he listens to the sounds of freedom that lay in the lonesome whistle of the train that rumbles by the prison each day. There is little in this scene to indicate that this song involves a murder until Johnny Cash unleashes one of the most potent lines that was ever written into a song;
"I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die".

In an interview Cash recited that he wanted to write down the worst possible reason for killing someone. Here's the scary part, he said it came to him easily. Posted to Germany during his service in the Army his sergeant had his whole squad sit and watch a 1951 documentary called "Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison", which dealt with the deadly prisoners within and the harsh conditions they endured. This moved Cash to write the song which would become the second single he would release through Sun Records. The prisoners, as a consequence, became huge supporters of Cash and soon the majority of Cash's fan mail was coming from those incarcerated behind four walls. Cash repaid the courtesy with his, now famous, concert at Folsom Prison. A performer's dream, a captive audience (yes that's a shocking pun, but I couldn't help myself). On the live recording you'll hear cheering when Cash delivers "that" line but this did not occur during the show. It was installed during the post-production work as the prisoners were on their best behaviour. They feared reprisals if they didn't toe... er, walk the line.

Answer: Bob Marley & The Wailers

The song in question is "I Shot the Sheriff".

Face facts Bob, in this instance you're guilty. Shine any light, sing any protest you want on this but, by your own admission, you went and shot a lawman and now you will have to face the consequences.

But oh... that reggae beat, that "party all the time" vibe that lives within this song... it makes you feel like some tourist, like you're walking amidst gently swaying palm trees, soft white beach sand between your toes and that lazy, crystal blue green ocean on the side... it is oh so easy to forget about the capital offence and hum away "but I didn't shoot no deputy, oh no".

However, what we are seeing on the surface may not be necessarily so. Yes Mr. Marley is talking murder but it's not that of our badge wearing lawman. In a 2001 documentary, "The Life of Bob Marley", his long-time girlfriend, Esther Anderson, reflects that this track was Marley protesting about birth control and the murder was upon that of his seed. A story in the Miami New Times indicates that Sheriff John Brown may be a substitute for the doctor who prescribed the birth control pills to his girlfriend. Now those same Bob Marley lyrics suddenly take a darker tone;
"Sheriff John Brown always hated me
For what, I don't know
Every time I plant a seed
He said kill it before it grow".