Good Lord! They've Veered Off. Quiz

Answer: Vincent

"Vincent" is Don McLean's 1972 tribute to Vincent Van Gogh, the Dutch Impressionist painter, long considered to be one of the most important artists in the history of art. McLean uses words as his canvas to highlight Van Gogh's affinity with both rural life and those that were "down at the heel".

His line "the ragged men in ragged clothes" is a nod to Vincent's works such as "The Potato Eaters" (1885), "Peasant Woman Digging" (1885) or "The Sorrowing Old Man" (1890). He then moves to laud Van Gogh's use of colour; "paint your palette blue and grey", highlighting the two colours that are the heroes of "Starry, Starry Night" (1889), also the subtitle of this song. Vincent was also a social outcast; "they would not listen they did not know how" and a schizophrenic; "how you suffered for your sanity". McLean winds up the number on that note as if to paint Van Gogh's suicide "a sane moment in an insane world". "Vincent" can be found on Don McLean's 1972 album "American Pie".

Answer: Vlad

Kasabian, the band, originally released this as a free download on their website at the end of March in 2009. It then became a part of their album "West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum" that would be released later that year. Written by Sergio Pizzorno, the band's guitarist, the song is, essentially, a rale against false people and masqueraders and how the world would be a better place without them in it.

As an interesting side note, at about the same time as the song was written, the world heard of the passing of Australian actor Heath Ledger. Pizzorno was affected by this; "to see a young man produce the work of his life and then to have that life taken away seemed like such a waste".

He was moved to pay a tribute to Ledger by installing the line "Joker, see you on the other side" into the track.

Answer: Valhalla

"Halls of Valhalla" appears on "Redeemer of Souls", a 2014 album released by Judas Priest. The inspiration for the track came to Priest's front-man Rob Halford, while watching the television series "The Vikings". The programme, he advised, drew him toward all things Scandinavian, in particular, the culture and the history of the region.

But it was the mythology of the Norse people that had him waking at four in the morning with the word "Valhalla" imprinted into his psyche. From there, the song he considers a "great adventure", flowed easily. (Footnote) Valhalla appears regularly in songs. One of my favourites is expressed by Robert Plant, as Led Zeppelin's front-man; "Valhalla, I am coming".

Unfortunately, they named that track "Immigrant Song" so it does not fit into this quiz.

Answer: Victor

The two men who have been the constants behind the band Calexico are Joey Burns and John Convertino. Over the years they have garnered great acclaim for their mariachi influenced Americana/Tex-Mex sound and their meticulously crafted albums. Their 2008 album "Carried to Dust", described by Allmusic as a "chiaroscuro tour de force", leans heavily on their travels and experiences through South America and it expands on the more direct pop-style approach that they'd employed on their previous album "Garden Ruin" (2006). "Victor Jara's Hands" opens "Carried to Dust" in the manner you'd expect from Calexico, with a set of intricate rhythms created by Convertino and then grown on a garden bed of mariachi horns. What is unexpected on the track is the appearance of guest vocalist Jairo Zavala whose voice adds an elegant depth to the song. Victor Jara was a poet and a political activist in Chile who was arrested and murdered during the 1973 coup that overthrew President Allende.

Answer: Verdi

10,000 Maniacs are an alternative rock group that came together in New York in 1981 but only worked under that moniker from 1983. They played a brand of folk-rock music that leant heavily on Natalie Merchant's remarkable voice and their breakthrough album was 1987's "In My Tribe".

The first version of the album gained momentum with a cover of the Cat Steven's song "Peace Train" but this was removed from the LP two years later when Stevens (now Yusuf Islam) made comments that were tantamount to him providing support for the death fatwa that had been issued on British author Salmon Rushdie. The last track on this album is "Verdi Cries".

It is a song that was written by Merchant after a holiday to Spain. The inspiration for the track was an elderly German man (the man from room 119) who appeared to be obsessed with the opera "Aida" (written by Verdi) and listened to it every day.

Answer: Versace

"Versace on the Floor" was the third single to arise from Bruno Mars' 2016 album "24K Magic". Unlike most of the tracks on this disc, this is a smooth ballad, but it's one in which Mars makes his intentions quite clear - that his passions are running high and that the Versace dress that his partner is wearing will look better on the floor than on her.

The single did well for Mars on the dance charts but it barely broke the Top Forty of Billboard's Hot 100 in the US.

Answer: Vladimir

Who would have thought that an African rap duo, living in Moscow (where there is a prevalence of racism toward black Africans), would have a hit with a song that paid homage to Vladimir Putin. K. King, who moved to Russia from Zimbabwe in 2000 to study medicine, formed A.M.G. (The Architects of Music Group) with Kenyan Beni Manici.

They were looking to put together a song that would inspire black Africans to work hard to realize their goals. They searched for a role model and felt that the perfect example was, none other than, the Russian leader.

Despite the song's success in Russia it has not fared as well outside of that country and A.M.G. have drawn criticism for being "propaganda tools for the Kremlin".

Answer: Valentine

In the five years between 1997 and 2002 a couple of fortuitous events occurred to US punk band Green Day that did not appear to be so at the time. Firstly, in 1997, they released their single "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)", which strayed from their standard punk rock roots and became a "middle of the road" smash hit.

This broadened their horizon or, for want of a better phrase, broke the punk rock shackles they were tied to. This allowed them to launch into their 2000 album "Warning" with a fearlessness that bordered on being reckless.

The end result was a punchy album full of infectious little rockers. Unfortunately for them, it didn't sell very well. However, they embraced the attitude they'd developed in "Warning" and took it with them to their next album whose title track was the abovenamed "Cigarettes and Valentines". By 2002 they had twenty tracks laid down on a master disc... then the master disappeared. What could have been a disaster became a lucky break. Yes, they could have re-recorded the album, but the end result would have been an album similar in make up to "Warning".

They chose to start from scratch. They would employ different song structures and take huge risks, a trait that was fast becoming "the Green Day way". The end result was "American Idiot" (2004), an album that would spawn five singles and sell in excess of 16 million copies worldwide.

Answer: Van

U2 released "Van Diemen's Land" in 1985 as part of their "Rattle and Hum" album. This track was written by The Edge who also takes on the lead vocals in the song. While he was visiting County Meath The Edge spied the statue of John Boyle O'Reilly who, after the Great Famine, led the 1848 Irish Uprising. For his crimes O'Reilly was banished to Tasmania (Australia), which was previously known as Van Diemen's Land and had been set up as a penal colony for British convicts.

Answer: Vanity

For a number of years in the 1980s and the start of the 1990s Paul McCartney struggled to imbue his albums with any great strength, he appeared to be on auto pilot, just drifting from album to album. That started to change in 1997 with the release of "Flaming Pie". Yes, this album still had a number of flaws but, for a change, there was some cohesion in the material and it looked like the former Beatle was working toward breaking new ground.

His follow-up album, "Run Devil Run" (1999), whilst it was an album of obscure covers from the 1950s, was a driving rock and roll album and a good return to form. Jump forward six years to 2005's "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard" and Sir Paul changes tack again.

This time he's pruned things back and provides us with a series of introspective ballads. "Riding to Vanity Fair" is one of those.

In an interview with Paul du Noyer ("Conversations with Paul McCartney) Paul advises that this is a "reaching out" song, one that describes the hurt of trying to reconcile with someone, but the peace offering put forward is rejected. Punters have speculated that he may have been channeling Heather Mills here but McCartney dismisses that notion in the interview - at the time, he was still married.

Others have implied that the person in question is John Lennon but Paul sheds little light on this apart from the song being a form of therapy.