Hammer Time! The Right Tool for the Job Quiz / Test | Music

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. An essential piece of kit in anyone's toolbox is a hammer. Apart from having several legitimate uses they are occasionally used with violent intent. Maxwell Edison used a very precious tool to bludgeon people to death in The Beatles' song "Maxwell's Silver Hammer". Which of these people were not part of Maxwell's murderous spree?

Answer: Rose and Valerie

Joan is Maxwell's first victim; he asks her out to the pictures but she never gets there as Max uses his hammer just as she is getting ready to go out. Pretty drastic way of avoiding a movie you don't want to see!
The following day Maxwell is messing around in class and gets a detention. I don't think he was too pleased by this as he once again resorts to extreme violence as a solution.
He is captured (by PC thirty-one) and sent for trial. Security in the court was rubbish and Max does in the judge!

Given his violent nature you wouldn't have thought Maxwell would have too many allies but Rose and Valerie screamed their support for him during the trial just prior to the judge's last words.

"Maxwell's Silver Hammer" was written by Paul McCartney and first appeared on the The Beatles' "Abbey Road" album.

2. Dave Grohl is a man of many talents; he could certainly put the hammer down when drumming for Nirvana and has wielded his axe to great effect with The Foo Fighters and other bands. Which tool did Dave definitely not want to be in the song he wrote for The Foo Fighters?

Answer: Monkey Wrench

I guess if Dave Grohl had been British then we might have had:

"...One more indecent accident
I'd rather leave than suffer this
I'll never be your adjustable spanner"!

Doesn't have quite the same ring to it, does it?

"Monkey Wrench" can be found on The Foo Fighters' album "The Colour and the Shape" and was also a successful single around the world in 1997.

3. Jack White of The White Stripes wrote a song about a tool although he did not specify whether it was cross-headed or slotted. Which piece of equipment was he reaching for?

Answer: Screwdriver

Screwdrivers are available in two main types, the slotted head for screws with one straight groove cut into their heads and the cross-headed (or Phillips) for screws with cross type grooves. There are several other types for specialist screws and jobs.
"Screwdriver" can be found on the eponymous debut album by The White Stripes, although why Jack White is calling for a screwdriver or any other tool is beyond me. The man is hopeless at do it yourself repairs as he freely admits in his cover of the Dusty Springfield classic "I Just Don't Know What To Do With My Shelf"!

4. Here's a little tip; if you want some work done on your house then don't ask Trini Lopez to do the job (or for that matter Peter, Paul and Mary or Leonard Nimoy). I mean what sort of workman turns up saying "If I Had a Hammer"? Hopeless... Now which of these songwriters were the first to ask for that hammer?

Answer: Pete Seeger and Lee Hays

Pete Seeger and Lee Hays first wrote "If I Had a Hammer" in 1949. They also recorded it as part of The Weavers folk group.
Both Peter, Paul and Mary's and Trini Lopez's versions of the song attained a top ten spot in America but it was Trini Lopez's version which reached number one in Britain.
It has been covered by many, many people over the years (including Leonard Nimoy) and translated into several languages.

5. "Tease Me" and "Murder She Wrote" were big hits in the 'nineties for Chaka Demus when he teamed up with Everton Bonner. Never heard of Everton Bonner? Well he's in the tool bag...which one is he?

Answer: Pliers

Jamaicans Chaka Demus and Pliers had a string of UK hits in the early to mid 'nineties. In addition to "Tease Me" and "Murder She Wrote" they had a further seven chart successes. After the success of a cover of "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" in '97 the hits dried up; maybe Pliers couldn't cut it any more?

6. This tool kit is in a right mess! I'm looking for three do it yourself items but all I can find are song titles. Which of these song titles does not contain a word which is a homonym for a tool?

Answer: March of the Pigs

"Give a Little Bit" is a song by Supertramp; it referred to a little bit of love etc. A bit in a toolbox is the business end of a drill, bits come in various sizes according to the size of the hole required.
"I Saw Her Again" is a song by The Mamas & The Papas. I guess most tool kits contain a saw.
"Higher Plane" is by Kool and The Gang. A plane is a tool used for smoothing wood.
No tools to be found in "March of the Pigs" but it is a track by Nine Inch Nails.

7. A Stanley Burrell ball peen ... no I've not completely taken leave of my senses (not quite) but which type of tool might I be talking about?

Answer: Hammer

A ball peen hammer is a specialist hammer with one side being rounded for use in metalwork.
Stanley Burrell is the birth name of one MC Hammer the emcee whose warning about power tools "U Can't Touch This" should be heeded by all do it yourself novices unless under supervision!

8. I need to do some rather fiddly cuts in wood. I'm not really sure which saw to use so I've contacted Radiohead, Lady Sovereign and a '70s English band whose biggest hit was "Sky High". What did they suggest?

Answer: Jigsaw

"Jigsaw Falling into Place" is a track on Radiohead's 2007 album "In Rainbows".
English rapper Lady Sovereign released her second album "Jigsaw" in 2009.
Jigsaw were a band from the English midlands, they are probably best remembered for their pyrotechnic stage shows rather than their only top ten hit, "Sky High".

9. A nut is an extremely useful device used for securing bolts and similar objects, metal nuts are very durable and difficult to break. Which Peter Gabriel song title is about a tool which you shouldn't use to crack a nut?

Answer: Sledgehammer

OK I know; the expression 'using a sledgehammer to crack a nut' refers to a hard fruit not a threaded device used to tighten things.
"Sledgehammer" was a huge hit for Peter Gabriel in 1986.

10. Plenty of builders try their hands in the music business. There was an Irish band who gave it a go but their album "If This Is Rock and Roll, I Want My Old Job Back" suggests it all wasn't sweetness and light. Which implementable band is involved here?

Answer: The Saw Doctors

The Saw Doctors are a folk-rock band from the west of Ireland.
Tool are a rock band from Los Angeles and Vice Squad are a punk band from Bristol, England.
Yes, I know it's really The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - just my little joke. A mitre (saw) is a specialist tool used for cutting angles and bevels in wood.

That's my tool box sorted, I'm just off to help Jack White with his shelf...

Source: Author mutchisman

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor ertrum before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Hammer Time! The Right Tool for the Job Quiz

This is my answer to BRY2K's author's challenge... Have a look at which implements I've put in my musical tool bag. All chart references etc are UK based.

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>