Deeply Personal Songs Trivia Quiz

Answer: Dagenham Dave

Dave became an ardent supporter of the band in their embryonic days, after seeing them at a pub called the Pig & Whistle. The Stranglers called him their number one fan, but after the group befriended a group of punks who would become known as the Finchley Boys, he felt his position was threatened. The Stranglers had become his world, and this obsession played a big part in the lady in his life, Brenda, walking out on him. With these two vital factors in his life gone, Dave threw himself off Tower Bridge into the River Thames on 9th February 1977.

Title track "No More Heroes" is one of the band's most famous compositions. It reached number eight on the UK charts in 1977 and bemoans the loss of the heroes - or, more accurately, anti-heroes - of yesteryear.

"Dead Ringer" was an album track from "No More Heroes" and is one of the few tracks to feature lead vocals from keyboard player Dave Greenfield.

"Something Better Change" was a double A-side with "No More Heroes".

Answer: Eric Clapton

Clapton's four year old son, Conor, tragically fell to his death from a 53rd floor window in New York in 1991.

George Harrison, of course, had his wife Patti stolen by Clapton in the early 1970s, after he had penned the classic song "Layla" for her. Despite the initial frostiness between the pair, Harrison and Clapton patched things up and remained friends up until the former Beatle's death from lung cancer in November 2001.

I put the Bill Wyman option in because of the interesting family story: while Wyman was married to Mandy Smith, his son Stephen was married to Smith's mother, Patsy. This, in effect, made Bill Wyman not only his father, but also his own son's stepson!

Johnny Nash was an option because he had a number one smash hit with a similarly titled song - "Tears On My Pillow" in 1975.

Answer: Athlete - "Wires"

The song won vocalist Joel Potts an Ivor Novello award in 2006 for "Best Contemporary Song". Potts' daughter had a seizure shortly after being born, hence the lines about "running down corridors, through automatic doors", and "You've got wires going in, you've got wires coming out of your skin".

I chose the other three songs because their titles sounded like they could have been linked to the situation in some way.

Answer: The Needle And The Damage Done

Young had sacked Whitten primarily because of his heroin addiction, but paid him off in doing so, as he didn't want to see him out of pocket. Less than 24 hours later, Whitten was dead. Whilst "The Needle and the Damage Done" was not directly about the Crazy Horse guitarist's passing, it WAS a song that came from the heart of a man gravely concerned for his friend's well being.

The other three options were of course all tracks from "Harvest".

Answer: Notorious B.I.G.

Christopher Wallace, aka Notorious Big (also known as Biggie Smalls) was killed by an unidentified man in a drive-by shooting in 1997. Many people believe his shooting was revenge for the murder of Tupac Shakur some six months earlier. The rival rappers, from the East and West coasts respectively, had been at each other's throats for some time. This was most notable in Shakur's lyrics, who probably pushed the whole thing too far, even claiming to have slept with Biggie's wife in one song.
"I'll Be Missing You", as I'm sure you'll remember, prominently featured the melody of The Police's "Every Breath You Take", a major factor in the song's success.

The other two rappers I listed as options were still going strong at the turn of the millennium.

Answer: Warren Zevon

Zevon is something of an unsung hero if you ask me. He's primarily known for the track "Werewolves of London" but he put out some astonishing music in four decades, the pick of the bunch probably being the album from whence the latter track came, "Excitable Boy".

Robert Palmer was probably best known for his single "Addicted To Love", which featured a legendary video of him being backed by girls with guitars. He had ten solo UK top 40 hits, but also found success in the early days with Vinegar Joe (featuring Elkie Brooks) and later on with The Power Station (featuring members of Duran Duran and Chic). Palmer died of a heart attack in September 2003, aged 54.

Johnny Cash, of course, was a country legend famous for "A Boy Named Sue", "Ring Of Fire", "Folsom Prison Blues" and many other classics. Like Palmer, he also died in September 2003 after complications from diabetes led to respiratory failure. If you haven't already seen it, it's well worth checking out the 2005 biopic "Walk The Line", featuring outstanding performances from Joaquin Phoenix as Cash and Reese Witherspoon as his wife June Carter.

Ray Charles was one of the classiest artists ever to have lived in my opinion. He scored his only number one, "I Can't Stop Loving You", in 1962 but probably his best work was 1959's "The Genius of Ray Charles". Despite going blind from glaucoma at six years old, Charles went on to become a legendary performer, even being ranked as the "10th Greatest Artist Of All Time" by Rolling Stone magazine in 2004. Ray Charles died that same year, aged 73, from liver failure.

Answer: She was raped

Amos was attacked at knifepoint and taken advantage of when she was 21 years old, after agreeing to give her assailant, who had been in the audience at one of her early gigs, a lift home. Thankfully she escaped and grew stronger, although she still, understandably, seemed visibly emotional when performing the song for many years.

The other three options were listed as they sounded like they could also relate to the title.

Answer: Justine Frischmann (Elastica)

Albarn wrote more than one song about Frischmann. Blur's 1997 number one single "Beetlebum" was allegedly all about the former Elastica vocalist's addiction to heroin. Their relationship shaped many of the tracks that featured on Albarn's band's late 1990s output.

I chose the other options because they all fronted popular bands at the height of Britpop in the mid 1990s, though Belly were American and half of Echobelly were Swedish.

Answer: Embarrassment

Many of the Nutty Boys' singles had deeper meanings than most people realised, "Embarrassment" in particular. It all worked out in the end though - when baby Hayley was born, the family all fell in love with her and realised just how churlish their prejudices had been.

"Grey Day" was an option because its sound was considerably darker than anything the band had released prior to it.

I chose "Shut Up" as an option because I thought this may be something that Lee Thompson and his sister would have wanted to say to their relatives about the matter.

"Tomorrow's (Just Another Day)" was another dark record from an album I would decree their finest hour, the sombre sounding "The Rise and Fall".

Answer: U2 - 'The Sweetest Thing'

The video to the song was also part of Bono's apology to wife Ali Hewson, and featured, amongst others, members of Boyzone, performers of "Riverdance", and male strip troupe The Chippendales. I can only presume that his wife had a hideous taste in entertainment...

I chose the other three as they all had titles that sounded like they could be an apology of sorts.