Black Diamond Bay Trivia Quiz

Answer: A Panama hat and a necktie

This is from the first verse in the song: "Up on the white veranda, she wears a necktie and a Panama hat."

There is a Canadian band formed in 2006 named "Black Diamond Bay", presumably based on this song.

Answer: The Ambassador to the Soviet Union

From the second verse:

And as the yellow fog is lifting
The Greek is quickly heading for the second floor
She passes him on the spiral staircase
Thinking he's the Soviet Ambassador
She starts to speak, but he walks away

Like many of the songs on "Desire", "Black Diamond Bay" was co-written with Jacques Levy.

Answer: He purchased it from the tiny man

He purchases it from the tiny man in the third verse:

A soldier sits beneath the fan
Doing business with a tiny man who sells him a ring

We learn later that he purchased it for "a grand".

Answer: The desk clerk

The desk clerk "carefully removes his fez" when the Greek makes an unusual request to him.

"Black Diamond Bay" is very loosely based off of characters and geography from the Joseph Conrad Novel "Victory".

Answer: A rope

From the song:

As the morning light breaks open, the Greek comes down
And he asks for a rope and a pen that will write

"Black Diamond Bay" is one of three songs that exceed eight minutes on the album "Desire", the others being "Hurricane" and "Joey".

Answer: Wait

After the lights go out on Black Diamond Bay, the Loser lights a candle and tells the Dealer to open another deck. His response is, "Attendez-vous, s'il vous plait", which means "Wait, please."

Answer: The desk clerk

The forth verse begins:

The desk clerk heard the woman laugh
As he looked around the aftermath and the soldier got tough.

"Desire" was Bob Dylan's 17th studio album.

Answer: The Greek

From the third verse:

Then the Greek appears on the second floor
In his bare feet with a rope around his neck

And the fifth when the woman is calling to the Greek from outside his door:

"I`ve got to talk to someone quick!"
But the Greek said, "Go away," and he kicked the chair to the floor.
He hung there from the chandelier.
She cried, "Help, there`s danger near!"

Answer: "It happens every day"

From the fifth verse:

The desk clerk says, "It happens every day"
As the stars fell down and the fields burned away
On Black Diamond Bay.

"Desire" spent five weeks atop Billboard's Pop Album Chart and was eventually certified double-platinum.

Answer: The tiny man

The fifth verse found the Tiny Man and the Soldier "crouched in a corner, thinking of forbidden love".

As time runs out on the island, the Tiny Man acts on his impulse, just before the "floor caved in and the boiler in the basement blew".

In 2003 Rolling Stone magazine named "Desire" #174 on its list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Answer: The loser

Another great irony in this song:

As the island slowly sank
The loser finally broke the bank in the gambling room.
The dealer said, "It's too late now.
You can take your money, but I don`t know how
You'll spend it in the tomb."

"Desire" was released between the two legs of Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue tour, which is covered well on the double CD, "Bootleg Series Volume 5."

Answer: A stranger

From the sixth verse:

While she's out on the balcony, where a stranger tells her,
"My darling, je vous aime beaucoup"
She sheds a tear and then begins to pray
As the fire burns on and the smoke drifts away
From Black Diamond Bay

The stranger tells her that he loves her before their demise.

Answer: A hat and a pair of shoes

From the last verse:

It seems there was an earthquake that
Left nothin' but a Panama hat
And a pair of old Greek shoes

The Panama hat was worn by the woman. We don't hear much about the shoes before this line, but we know the Greek was barefoot when he hanged himself.

Answer: Los Angeles

From the final verse:

I was sittin' home alone one night in L.A.,
Watchin' old Cronkite on the seven o'clock news.

Walter Cronkite was the anchor of the CBS Evening News from 1962 to 1981.

Answer: It didn't seem like much was happening

The ultimate bitter irony of the song comes after the narrator watches Walter Cronkite tell the story:

Didn't seem like much was happenin',
So I turned it off and went to grab another beer.
Seems like every time you turn around
There's another hard-luck story that you're gonna hear
And there's really nothin' anyone can say
And I never did plan to go anyway
To Black Diamond Bay.