Dylan Song by Song: "Every Grain of Sand" Quiz

Answer: Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits

"Every Grain of Sand" was first recorded on "Shot of Love," Bob Dylan's 21st studio album, which was released on August 10, 1981 by Columbia. The album followed "Saved" and preceded "Infidels." The song was also included on the three-disc compilation album "Biograph," which was released in 1985. An alternate version of the song, the publishing demo for Special Rider Music, was included in the boxset "The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3."

"Every Grain of Sand" ranked number ten on the list of "10 Greatest Bob Dylan Songs" by "Rolling Stone" magazine. Dylan told the magazine that when he wrote the song, "I felt like I was just putting words down that were coming from somewhere else."

Answer: Clydie King

Clydie King's albums include "Direct Me," "Brown Sugar," and "Rushing to Meet You." She lent backup vocals to a wide variety of musicians, including Ray Charles, The Supremes, Neil Diamond, B.B. King, Elton John, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Steely Dan. Her single, "Loneliness Will Bring Us Together Again," which was released in 1973, peaked at number 44 on Billboard's R&B charts.

Answer: seed

The song continues:

"There's a dying voice within me, reaching out somewhere,
Toiling in the danger and the morals of despair.
Don't have the inclination to look back on any mistake
Like Cain, I now behold this chain of events that I must break."

When Cain murdered his brother Abel, and was banished by God for the act, he was overcome with fear for the chain of events his action had set in place: "Behold, this day You have driven me from the face of the earth, and from Your face I will be hidden; I will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me" (Genesis 4:14, Berean Study Bible).

God assuaged his fear by replying, "Not so! If anyone slays Cain, then Cain will be avenged sevenfold." Then God "placed a mark on Cain, so that no one who found him would kill him" (Genesis 4:15, Berean Study Bible).

Answer: leaf

In the Bible, grains of sand are often used as a metaphor for the blessing of large numbers of descendants. Abraham is told, "I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore" (Genesis 22:17, ESV). In Jeremiah, God says, "As the host of heaven cannot be numbered and the sands of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the offspring of David my servant" (Jeremiah 33:22, ESV). Grains of sand are also used as a metaphor for the limitlessness of God: "How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand" (Psalm 139:17-18).

The song continues:

"Oh, the flowers of indulgence and the weeds of yesteryear
Like criminals, they have choked the breath of conscience and good cheer
The sun beams down upon the steps of time to light the way
To ease the pain of idleness and the memory of decay."

The "weeds of yesteryear" choking "the breath of conscience in good cheer" are reminiscent of the parable of the sower in the Gospel of Mark: "[T] here went out a sower to sow: And it came to pass, as he sowed [. . . ] some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit" (Mark 4:3-7, KJV).

Answer: riches

This stanza continues:

"In the bitter dance of loneliness fading into space
In the broken mirror of innocence on each forgotten face."

In his book "Song and Dance Man III: The Art of Bob Dylan," Michael Gray points out that "rag to riches," in music, is "less often a material boast" than "a metaphor for the transforming value of love - as in the song 'Rags To Riches' by Adler and Ross." The Bible, too, Gray argues, uses the concept of riches "to suggest the greater transforming power of God's love. Paul talks of 'the riches of his grace' in his Epistle to the Ephesians."

Answer: innocence

In "Song and Dance Man III: The Art of Bob Dylan," Michael Gray suggests this song is intended to "embrace" the stylings of the mystical, Romantic-era poet William Blake, who also speaks of broken innocence in his contrasting "Songs of Innocence" and "Songs of Experience." The song, Gray argues, "uses Blake's rhythm and Blake's language" and is "built upon [. . . ] the 7-foot or 7-beat line, which is rare in English-language poetry but is one of Blake's principal trademarks."

Answer: me

The song describes the nature of faith as a gentle trust in something that is not always in evidence. It calls to mind Hebrews 11:1: "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." It also might inspire some listeners to think of Alfred Lord Tennyson's "In Memoriam":

"I stretch lame hands of faith, and grope,
And gather dust and chaff and call
To what I feel is Lord of all,
And faintly trust the larger hope."

Answer: Matthew

"Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered" (Matthew 10:29-30, KJV).

In another version of this song, Dylan sings, instead, "I am hanging in the balance of a perfect, finished plan." Bert Cartwright, in "The Bible in the Lyrics of Bob Dylan," has suggested that "hanging in the balance" here might be an allusion to Daniel 5:27: "Thou art weighed in the balances."

Answer: Another Day in Paradise

"Another Day in Paradise" was the very last film to which the famous movie critics Siskel & Ebert would give their coveted "two thumbs up." It won the Grand Prix award at the 1999 Festival du Film Policier de Cognac. The soundtrack also featured music by Otis Redding, Clarence Carter, The Soul Clan, and Soul Brothers Six.

"Every Grain of Sand" is written in couplets. Couplets are two lines of rhyming verse that typically also have the same meter (in this case, those 7 beats mentioned earlier). The song rhymes AABB CCDD EEFF and so forth.

Answer: Johnny Cash

Harris and Crow also sang the American gospel classic "The Old Rugged Cross" at Johnny Cash's funeral. Johnny Cash provided vocals and guitar on the song "Girl from the North Country," which is included on the Bob Dylan album "Nashville Skyline." The two became friends in the 1960s, and Johnny Cash recorded a cover of Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe."

Other musicians have also covered the song in less austere circumstances. The Blind Boys of Alabama, a gospel band, recorded a cover of "Every Grain of Sand" on their album "I'll Find A Way," which was released in 2013. The song has also been covered by Barb Jungr, Giant Sand, Lucy Kaplansky, Steve Inglis, Rich Lerner & The Groove, Julie Felix, Magnapop, and several others.