Cryptic Songs Trivia Quiz

Answer: Yesterday

Unscramble "GSEG" to get "EGGS"

When Paul McCartney was writing "Yesterday" he had a tune but no lyrics. The words "Scrambled Eggs" fitted the riff so this became the working title. "Yesterday" is one of the most widely covered songs of all time.

The Quarrymen was the name of an earlier incarnation of Lennon/McCartney.

Answer: All Shook Up

Unshake "LAL" to get "ALL". They tell me this was big for some guy called Elvis. Personally I preferred the Jeff Beck Group's version with Rod Stewart on vocals (before he sold out).

Interestingly the quiz checking engine warns me that this answer contains something like "All of these" and this is discouraged. I guess it saw the first word of "All Shook Up" and jumped to a erroneous conclusion. The logic needs to be made a bit less fuzzy for once.

Answer: Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.

The girl (Lucy) flies (she's in the sky) with diamonds (diamonds are a form of carbon - an allotrope).

For years they tried to tell us it was about LSD (from the initials) but John insisted it came from a comment by Julian Lennon about a picture he drew of a school friend.

The Beatles wouldn't have anything to do with drugs now would they?

'Flying', 'Julia' and 'Dear Prudence' are all Beatles songs and none of them have anything to do with drugs either with the possible exceptions of 'Flying', 'Julia' and 'Dear Prudence'.

Answer: Hey Mr Tambourine Man

Pretty self explanatory once you know the answer I hope. "His Bobness" is a nickname for Bob Dylan (at least it is where I come from) and he's saying "Hey" to the percussionist (Tambourine Man) to get his attention.

"Piano Man" is a Billy Joel song. I hesitated to include Billy Joel in the same quiz as Bob Dylan but the piano is a percussion instrument and coming up with wrong answers can be tricky. So "Sing us a song, you're the piano man" can allude to trying to get the percussionist's attention but "His Bobness"?

If you think I am defaming Billy Joel have a look at Rolling Stone magazine's Best 500 songs of all time. Bob comes in at Number one ("Like a Rolling Stone") and appears twelve times. Mr Tambourine man appears twice - once by Bob and once by the Byrds. Piano Man scrapes in at 421. 'Nuff said?

"Different Drum" was Linda Ronstadt's hit with the Stone Ponies. Other than mentioning a drum it doesn't really fit.

"Bang a Drum" is a Bon Jovi country rock song. Again drum is mentioned but that's about it.

Answer: Time After Time

Mixed up mite = Time
before (precedes)
Confused thing (item) = Time

"Time After Time" was a major hit from the album "She's So Unusual" by Cyndi Lauper. Another hit from the same album was "Girls Just Want to Have Fun".

Answer: Satisfaction

"Sat" (short day) + "is" + "fact" (real) + "ion" (charged particle).

Keith Richards (Keef) tells us he dreamt the riff for "Satisfaction" while touring the US.

Rolling Stone Magazine voted it number two on its list of the top 500 songs of all time. Number one was "Like a Rolling Stone" (of course).

Here is the full top ten list:

1. "Like a Rolling Stone", Bob Dylan
2. "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", The Rolling Stones
3. "Imagine", John Lennon
4. "What's Going On?", Marvin Gaye
5. "Respect", Aretha Franklin
6. "Good Vibrations", The Beach Boys
7. "Johnny B. Goode", Chuck Berry
8. "Hey Jude", The Beatles
9. "Smells Like Teen Spirit", Nirvana
10. "What'd I Say", Ray Charles

Answer: Man On The Moon

Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon. Rapid Eye Movement occurs when we dream and is abbreviated to REM.

If you want to argue that the moon landing was faked find someone else to annoy. Even The Mythbusters blew away all the dumb arguments about flags, photos and footprints that have been thrown up. If you won't believe NASA you gotta believe The Mythbusters.

Answer: I Can See For Miles

The quotation is from "Clancy of the Overflow" a famous Australian poem by Banjo Paterson but you didn't really need to know that. The clue was in the first word and a transliteration of the quote.

For the Septics; a "Pommie" is an Australian term for an Englishman. It can be nice or nasty according to tone, context and whether it is followed by a punch to the nose.

"Septic" is rhyming slang for an American (Septic Tank - Yank). It almost invariably followed by a punch to the nose especially in Brisbane. They have long memories up there (Google "Battle of Brisbane")

Answer: Anarchy in the UK

"Anarchy in the UK" was one of the Sex Pistols' big hits. It just about says it all for the punk movement. I hope you got the "rotten" and "vicious" references to Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious.

The song appeared on the album "Never Mind the Bollocks We're the Sex Pistols".

Answer: Ring of Fire

"Band" - Ring

I'm quite proud of "Money doesn't talk it sings" as a cryptic clue for Johnny Cash. Then again I'm easily impressed.

June Carter wrote "Ring of Fire" with Merle Kilgore and it became Johnny Cash's biggest hit. It has been covered a zillion times but my favourite is Eric Burdon's which didn't chart in the US but made it to 25 in the UK and 10 in Oz.