Dylan Song by Song: "Only a Pawn in Their Game" Quiz

Answer: Medgar Evers

Bob Dylan also wrote a song about the murder of a kitchen maid named Hattie Carroll, titled "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll." The maid was murdered at the hands of a rich tobacco farmer who received a light sentence for his crime.

Medgar Evers was a Mississippi Civil Rights activist who sought to overturn segregation. He was assassinated by Byron De La Beckwith, who was a member of the White Citizens' Council, which was formed to resist integration. Beckwith was tried in the 1960s, but two different all-white juries were not able to reach a verdict, and he evaded conviction. He was finally convicted of his crime in 1994, when a new trial was brought against him using new evidence.

Answer: The Times They Are A-Changin'

"The Times They Are A-Changin'" contains several protests songs, including "Only a Pawn in Their Game," "With God On our Side," "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll," and the album's title song. Released in 1964, it was Dylan's third studio album, and it went gold in the U.S.

Answer: Malcolm X

This analogy comes from a speech Malcolm X gave in 1963:

"Both [white liberals and white conservatives] want power, but the white liberal is the one who has perfected the art of posing as the Negro's friend and benefactor; and by winning the friendship, allegiance, and support of the Negro, the white liberal is able to use the Negro as a pawn or tool in this political 'football game' that is constantly raging between the white liberals and white conservatives. Politically, the American Negro is nothing but a football, and the white liberals control this mentally dead ball through tricks of tokenism."

In Bob Dylan's song, it is the "poor white" man who is being used as "a pawn in their game." The politicians keep the poor white man from recognizing the failures of his own leaders by pitting him against the African-American: "And the Negro's name / Is used it is plain / For the politician's gain / As he rises to fame / And the poor white remains / On the caboose of the train."

Answer: No

As Dylan writes in the fourth stanza, "He ain't got no name." While the victim is mentioned by name in the very first line of the song, the assassin never is. This lack of a name further emphasize the assassin's position as a mere nameless pawn "taught how to walk in a pack."

Answer: alliteration

Bob Dylan's lyrics are often poetic, which is why entire books have been written about his songs. Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds at the start of words, in this case, bullet, back, bush, and blood: "A bullet from the back of a bush took Medgar Evers' blood." The alliteration continues in the next two lines with "a finger fired" and "a handle hid."

Answer: dame

Dylan rhymes game with the following words: name, aim, brain, complain, explain, plain, gain, fame, train, blame, same, pain, and chain. Nowhere in the song, however, does he rhyme the words game and dame.

Answer: internal rhyme

An internal rhyme is a poetic device in which the middle and end words of a verse rhyme. For this reason, it is sometimes called "middle rhyme." In this line, "shacks" and "cracks" rhyme with "tracks."

Answer: king

The lyrics in question read: "Today, Medgar Evers was buried from the bullet he caught. / They lowered him down as a king."

The song was recorded on August 7, 1963, though it wasn't released until January 13, 1964.

Answer: The March on Washington

Pete Seeger asked Bob Dylan to perform the song at a voter registration rally in Greenwood, Mississippi, which he did, on July 6, 1963. A little over a month later, he performed it at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, on August 28, 1963.

Answer: Morrissey

The song was included on Morrissey's twelfth solo studio album, released on May 24, 2019. The album is a collection of covers and also includes songs written by Joni Mitchell, Roy Orbison, and Carly Simon.

Answer: the laws

"He's taught in his school / From the start by the rule / That the laws are with him / To protect his white skin / To keep up his hate / So he never thinks straight / 'Bout the shape that he's in." In the song, the politicians pit poor whites "from the poverty shacks" against African-Americans so that the whites don't hold the politicians accountable for their own impoverished conditions.

Answer: lynch

The stanza continues, "To hide 'neath the hood / To kill with no pain / Like a dog on a chain." This animalistic imagery of "pack" and "dog" further emphasizes the lack of individual human agency that is implied by the statement, "He's only a pawn in their game."

Answer: But when the shadowy sun sets on the one

The "shadowy sun" is imagery because it draws on the sense of sight and paints a picture for the reader. "Shadowy sun sets" is alliteration, as each word begins with the "s" sound. The line contains an internal rhyme as well - "sun" and "one." The next line ends with "gun," thus completing the rhyme. Two of the other lines also demonstrate alliteration, but none of the others contain an internal rhyme.

Answer: False

It's probably among his least covered songs because of its seriousness and complexity and the fact that it's not exactly a toe-tapper. Only a handful of covers have been performed live or recorded. Musicians who have covered the song include British socialist folksinger Roy Bailey, Slovenia Christian folk singer Chris Dylan, Fairport Convention, Morrissey, and Black Crowes member Rich Robinson.

Answer: Only a pawn in their game

The song concludes: "But when the shadowy sun sets on the one / That fired the gun / He'll see by his grave / Carved next to his name / His epitaph plain: / Only a pawn in their game."