Bringing Down the Horse Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Difference

The Wallflowers get fired up from the outset on this track, in fact, right from the opening drum roll. Dylan dives headlong into a set of lyrics about jealousy before stepping back, realising that his protagonist has not grown up and wails out the chorus that indicates a lack of change. The track would be released as the third single from the album and it garnered one of the five Grammy nominations that the band received for this album over the years of 1997 and 1998.

(Some More Horse Talk) Though it feels like it, "Bringing Down the Horse" was not the band's first album. Their self titled debut disc was released by the Virgin label in 1992. It failed miserably and Virgin washed their hands of the band.

Answer: Laughing Out Loud

The band bursts into a full on rocker as Dylan takes a pot shot at someone who did him wrong and that the doer had better watch his/her back ("Man, you oughta finish what you've started/You can't leave me here alive"). Sam Phillips, who released the critically acclaimed album "Martinis & Bikinis" in 1994, uses her voice to great effect as backing vocalist on this track, providing a contrast to the gravel tones being spat out by Dylan. Phillips was married to T-Bone Burnett, the album's producer, at the time.

(Some More Horse Talk) The failure of the band's debut album hit Dylan hard. He'd come to realise that (a) his band wasn't good enough and (b) his craft as a songwriter would need to improve significantly. Of the band members that were involved in the first album only keyboard player Rami Jaffee was still there to support Dylan on the new album. Dylan, himself, spent five years writing the tracks that would be showcased on "Bringing Down the Horse".

Answer: Josephine

It took until the eighth track on the album for Jakob Dylan to produce a relationship song. The singer moans about the mistakes that he's made and the only way he seems to be able to rectify them is with the help of Josephine's "tangerine" kisses. This is an easy listening ballad with simple imagery that is beautifully caressed by Mike Ward's guitar work and Rami Jaffee's Hammond organ.

(Some More Horse Talk) Selling in excess of four million copies in the United States meant that album was afforded quadruple platinum status. The album reached number four on the Billboard 200 Album charts, became the band's biggest selling album (to date) and it got Jakob Dylan's face on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.

Answer: Angel on My Bike

A number of the tracks on "Bringing Down the Horse" have their protagonists seeking escape or redemption on the highways and "Angel on My Bike" is no different. Where it does swerve away is that here, four wheels are traded in for two and the singer is displaying a reckless abandon on the road, praying to a guardian angel to keep him safe. In thrusting his "Elvis in need of repair" rebel to the fore, Dylan produces one of his finest lines to open the chorus "I can't handle the care". Michael Penn, who had a cult hit with the song "No Myth" (1989) and is the elder brother of actor Sean Penn, provides backing vocals on this track.

(Some More Horse Talk) After being released (dismissed) by Virgin Records, Dylan was eventually able to secure a deal with the Interscope label for this record. To commemorate the album's 20th anniversary in 2016, Interscope, in conjunction with the Universal Music Group released a vinyl version (as a double LP) for the first time.

Answer: I Wish I Felt Nothing

Dylan closes the album with a country song yet, this slow burner, is the perfect ending to this disc. The hero of the track is the pedal steel guitar and it is being played by Leo LeBlanc. A veteran session musician he had played alongside the Wallflowers a number of time and, at this point in time, he was dying of cancer. Dylan wrote the song with Leo in mind. Whilst Leo may have been the inspiration the lyrics still manage to round off the theme of the album. Following on from all the destruction and defeatism that had laced the previous numbers on the disc, Dylan is numb. Whilst he may wish he felt nothing, he endures, he is still there and he still feels something.

(Some More Horse Talk) Leo LeBlanc passed away a short while after his work on this album was completed. Upon the release of "Bringing Down the Horse" Dylan would dedicate the disc to his memory.

Answer: 6th Avenue Heartache

There's almost a dreamlike quality that pervades this song, the first single from the album, as Dylan waxes about subway steam, silhouettes and moonbeams, recounting the story of a homeless man who sat outside his window every day singing the same songs over and over again. One day the man was gone but his things were still there... and suddenly those belongings all seemed so small.

(Some More Horse Talk) The song almost turns into an all-star jam session as the band is supported by Mike Campbell (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers) on steel guitar and Adam Duritz (Counting Crows) providing backing vocals.

Answer: God Don't Make Lonely Girls

Straight out of the ballad that was "Josephine" come the Wallflowers with a full blown rocker. And with its early shout of "Senorita" mixed with "Spanish tears" and watching her "through the glass of a peep-show" one can be forgiven for thinking that they're in a bar with "Mr. Jones" staring at a Spanish flamenco dancer with Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows. Whilst the title appears condescending to women the lyrics tell a different tale... that women were not meant to be alone.

(Some More Horse Talk) The link to the Counting Crows is not as incidental as the above may indicate. Adam Duritz provided backing vocals for the band on "6th Avenue Heartache" for this album and, as part of their promotion for "Bringing Down the Horse", The Wallflowers co-headlined a tour across the USA with the Crows, commencing in July of 1997. Oh, nearly forgot to add another link, T-Bone Burnett was the producer for both "Bringing Down the Horse" and the Counting Crows' "August and Everything After".

Answer: Three Marlenas

One of the most hauntingly beautiful tracks on "Bringing Down the Horse", the song would be the fourth single released to promote the album. The lyrics present us three stark vignettes that make it difficult to determine whether Dylan has narrated the tales of three different women or provided us with the three faces of a single woman and is struggling to identify which one he can trust.

(Some More Horse Talk) This song, like the rest of the album was produced by T-Bone Burnett. Burnett was, at one time, a member of Bob Dylan's "Rolling Thunder Revue" that toured the United States during 1975 and 1976.

Answer: Invisible City

Jakob Dylan almost sounds mournful as he turns "Invisible City" into a dirge like pot-shot at the city he's come to call home and suddenly recognises that it is not all it is cracked up to be. And, despite the title he concludes that it is not the city that has been invisible it's that its inhabitants are blind and cannot see it to make the right choices for it. Dylan is at his poetic best in this number and the above (selected) lyric, which is full of poignant imagery, stands, arguably, as one of the best lines on the album.

(Some More Horse Talk) As an indication of the excellence of Dylan's craft, in an interview with American Songwriter in 2012 he expressed his surprise as to how well the songs on the album had stood the test of time. "It was a perfect storm of characters that really made it all happen. I think we did capture lightning in a bottle. We could feel something special was happening at the time".

Answer: One Headlight

Released as the second single from the album (in 1996), the track is jokingly called the "padiddle song" (a padiddle is a motor vehicle with a burnt out headlight). Jakob Dylan stated in an interview with Songfacts that the track was about the "death of ideas" ("she died easy of a broken heart disease"). Yet, as he steers his way through a "maze of ugliness and greed" he throws out a modicum of hope in the chorus, intoning "come try a little, nothing is forever/ there's got to be something better". The first time I heard this track, the thought that ran through my mind is that this was a song that Bruce Springsteen could easily have written. It is rather ironic then that Springsteen joined the band to perform the track live at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards.

(Some More Horse Talk) "One Headlight" would win two Grammy Awards in 1998; Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals and Best Rock Song. In 2000 Rolling Stone magazine listed the song at number 58 on their list of "The Greatest Pop Songs of All Time"