Games Without Frontiers Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jeux sans frontières

The repeated line "Jeux sans frontières" is sung by Kate Bush, Gabriel's friend, who also sang with him on his 1986 single "Don't Give Up", when his original choice of duet partner, Dolly Parton, declined the invitation.

The title of the song, "Games Without Frontiers" actually comes from the French version. "Jeux Sans Frontières" was a TV show made by the European Broadcasting Union, between 1965 and 1999, which featured teams from around Europe performing humorous physical tasks, often involving silly outsized costumes and water, against each other.

Possibly the name influenced the name of the humanitarian medical organisation, Médecins Sans Frontières, which was founded after the Biafra atrocities in 1971.

Apparently there is a bid of a mondegreen here - listeners unfamiliar with the TV show, or not expecting to have lyrics in French inflicted on them, misheard Bush as singing "She's so popular".

Using the title associated with a show where nations competed in ridiculous tasks for his song, Gabriel immediately puts one in a frame of mind of looking at the absurdity of nations competing in diplomacy or war.

Answer: happy again

It's hard to work out whether these names mean anything, apart from being about children playing. Hans, Lotti and Willi are names from German-speaking nations, while Jane is from English-speaking countries. Perhaps they are just meant to be generic names from different countries, giving an image of children playing together, some of them being in a sulk, and then quickly cheering up.

"Games Without Frontiers" is from the third of ex-Genesis lead singer Peter Gabriel's four self-named solo albums - the one from 1980 that also features classic tracks "Biko" and "No Self Control". It's sometimes unofficially called "Melt" to distinguish it from the others with the same name - from the melting picture of Gabriel on the cover. The album caused a falling out with Atlantic, Gabriel's US record label. They didn't want to release it because they didn't consider it anywhere near commercial. The label head, Ahmet Ertegun said, "What do people in America care about this guy in South Africa?" and "Has Peter been in a mental hospital?".

Answer: Britt

These names are probably not meant to convey anything, except more children playing together. Suki is a name used in many cultures, such as Chinese, Japanese and Tamil. Leo is used in many cultures, Sacha is Eastern European, and Britt could be Swedish or German.

The album "Peter Gabriel" (1980) was produced against a backdrop of Cold War tensions because of the Soviet-Afghan war which ran from 1979-1989. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December 1979. Throughout 1980 there was international tension and condemnation. Part of the response was a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics by 66 countries, including the USA, China, Japan and Turkey. Maybe Gabriel felt this was a pretty pathetic response to military aggression, to refuse to play with the USSR because they hadn't been playing nicely? The video to "Games Without Frontiers" included archive footage from the Olympics.

The track "Games Without Frontiers" features an eerie, unsettling soundscape, from Gabriel and Larry Fast on synthesizers, David Rhodes on guitar, John Giblin on bass and Jerry Marotta on drums. The video is similarly unsettling and childlike.

Answer: plays with it

After a series of probably generic names, the names in this line seem loaded with meaning. "Adolf builds a bonfire", is surely a reference to Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), the German dictator and instigator of World War II. Hitler was a big believer in the propaganda value of the Olympic Games, which was held in Berlin in 1936. These games were immortalized for him in the acclaimed 1938 documentary "Olympia" produced by Leni Riefenstahl, which is still regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time.

Now the song seems to be clearly talking about real people, it's a pretty good bet that "Enrico plays with it" is a reference to the great Italian physicist Enrico Fermi (1901-1954). Fermi was the architect of the atomic bomb, which, of course, finished off the World War Hitler started.

The video for "Games Without Frontiers" includes footage of nuclear explosions, along with the "duck and cover" public information films that told US children they could survive a nuclear attack by bending over and covering their heads.

Answer: hide in the dunes

This conjures up a picture of children playing, or perhaps soldiers whistling popular tunes while they prepare to fight, like in many World War II movies.

"Games Without Frontiers" was one of Peter Gabriel's most successful singles - reaching the top five in the UK, though only the top 50 in the US. The 1980 album "Peter Gabriel" was a UK number one.

The song was remixed and renamed "X Games Without Frontiers" by Lord Jamar, and has been used as the theme for the 13th Winter X Games.

Answer: kissing baboons

There are five species of baboons, and they are found in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Baboons are some of the largest monkeys, their size only exceeded by drills and mandrills.

In the original album version of "Games Without Frontiers", the second verse has a line that was not deemed radio-friendly, so this line from the first verse was used instead in the edit that was released as a single.

Answer: It's a Knockout

"It's a Knockout!" was a successful show for the BBC, originally introduced by McDonald Hobley. In 1987, "The Royal Knockout Tournament", aka "It's a Royal Knockout" was a one-off production for charity that featured some of the younger members of the English Royal Family - Prince Edward, Princess Anne and the Duke and Duchess of York. The event was ridiculed, but nevertheless raised over £1M for charity.

The use of the simple line "It's a Knockout" in "Games Without Frontiers" is quite effective and ironic.

Answer: tears

"If looks could kill, they probably will" is a clever play on the saying "if looks could kill...". Apparently, this type of construction is called anapodoton or ellipsis. It maybe originates with the legend of the Gorgon, Medusa, whose look turned mortals to stone.

"War without tears" is clearly meant to be ironic. Children cry when they fight, but grownups do it without crying.

Additionally, around the time of "Games Without Frontiers", there were proposals to develop the neutron bomb. This bomb increased the delivery of nuclear radiation, with less of a blast, and was seen as a cleaner alternative to other nuclear weapons for use against troops, and a way forward to using nuclear weapons as tactical alternatives to conventional weapons. The atmosphere of the early 1980s was one where large-scale war was starting to seem less "unthinkable" than it had been.

Answer: hills

These names look quite precise, and some people have said that they could refer to:

1. Andre: Andre Malraux (1901-1976), a left-wing French novelist and war hero, who wrote "La condition humaine" ("Man's Fate") about a failed communist insurrection in Shanghai in the 1920s.

2. Chiang Ching: could be Mao Zedong's wife, Jiang Qing(1914-1991);
or perhaps, better fitting the "blue" flag, Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975) the leader of the Republic of China beaten by the Communists who decamped to Taiwan;
or maybe Chiang Ching-kuo(1910-1988), the son of Chiang Kai-shek.

3. Lin Tai Yu: Nguyễn Văn Thiệu (1923-2001), South Vietnamese president - who left the country on the fall of Saigon and died in Boston. So he didn't have a hill to fly his flag on.

Answer: out in treetops

"Dressing up in costumes, playing silly games" can clearly be read multiple ways - children dress up to play, and the military dress up in special costumes to show their status and to kill people.

"Hiding out in treetops, shouting out rude names" - similarly to the previous line, like children, the diplomats of the great nations seem to shout out insults to each other.

Six years later, Peter Gabriel became a darling of MTV, with his single and accompanying stop-motion video "Sledgehammer".