Hot Hits and Near Myths: Three Times a Labour Quiz

Answer: Peter Stumpp

Stumpp was accused of killing 18 people, including his son whose brain he purportedly ate.
The band, Macabre, has dubbed their music "murder metal" and the majority of the tracks on this album are dotted with the misdeeds of various serial killers. In a rather macabre twist some of the band members took the opportunity to meet with the "Killer Clown", John Wayne Gacy.

This question was created by Phoenix Rising member zonko.

Answer: Kraken

"Release the Kraken" draws similarities between the swift and silent attack of a kraken on unsuspecting ships and pain that is felt when betrayed at love. It is the first track on The Daysleepers' debut full album, which was released in May of 2008.

The mythological kraken is said to live off the waters of Norway and Greenland. A leviathan is a large serpentine sea monster. A zaratan is colossal sea turtle. A kelpie is a Scottish mythical water horse.

This question was created by Phoenix Rising member purelyqing

Answer: R.E.M.

Critics fell in love with "Murmur" and, at the end of 1983, it figured at the top of many of their "Best of the Year" lists. One of the features of the album was Michael Stipe's "left of everything" lyrics and "Laughing" is a track that presents us with a good example; "Lighted, lighted, laughing, Laocoon and her two sons".

The Laocoon is a Trojan priest from Greek mythology who, along with his two sons, is strangled and consumed by a giant sea snake. You may have noted that Stipe has changed the gender of the priest in his lyric from a male to a female.

This question was created by Phoenix Rising member pollucci19.

Answer: Calypso

Calypso lures Odysseus to her island where she holds him hostage for seven years in the hope that he will fall in love with her and become her immortal husband. Vega first encountered Calypso in Homer's "The Odyssey". The passage, according to Vega, is brief and one-sided which inspired her to write (and sing) the song from the sea nymph's perspective. She sets the song on the night before Calypso is forced to release Odysseus. The track appears on Vega's second album, the critically acclaimed "Solitude Standing", which was released in 1987.

This question was created by Phoenix Rising member pollucci19.

Answer: The God of Wine

"Third Eye Blind" (the album) was a huge success for the band spawning five singles, three of which made Billboard's Hot 100 Top Ten, and stayed on the Billboard 200 album charts for 104 weeks. Lead singer Stephan Jenkins indicated that the song "God of Wine" was dedicated to those precious souls who could see the pointlessness of living in a universe that is both expanding and falling to pieces at the same time. Their only escape from this prescience is to turn to drink. The Bacchanalian hint was an allusion to Bacchus, the Roman god of wine.

This question was created by Phoenix Rising member pollucci19.

Answer: John Denver

John Denver became a megastar in the 1970s as a crossover singer, charting several number one hits on numerous US charts including the US Billboard Country chart, the US Billboard Hot 100 and the US Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. Though "Pegasus" was never released as a single it did help the "Spirit" album achieve platinum certification by the RIAA in the US. Denver died on October 12, 1997 when the experimental plane, Rutan Long-EZ, crashed into the Pacific Ocean. Ironically, Bellerophon, the man who captured Pegasus, fell off the horse and crashed to Earth while attempting to fly to Mount Olympus.

This question was created by Phoenix Rising member tazman6619.

Answer: They Might Be Giants

"Mink Car" is the eighth studio album for They Might Be Giants and the title parodies The Cure's 1996 song "Mint Car". The track "Cyclops Rocks" also features the sublime talents of guest vocalist Cerys Matthews, a Welsh singer-songwriter and former lead singer of Catatonia.
The Cyclops was a one-eyed giant in Greek and Roman mythology. Hesiod, Homer and Virgil all make mention the Cyclops in their writings.


This question was created by Phoenix Rising member tazman6619.

Answer: Ra

Two Egyptian deities rate a mention in this song, Ra, the sun god and Apep, his immortal enemy. Apep is depicted in Egyptian mythology as a serpent and represents chaos and darkness. "Black Dragon" also draws on numerous other dragon legends from around the world, including Tiamat, Jormungand, Lotan, Leviathan and Typhon. "Reinkaos" was Dissection's third (and final) studio album. It was notable for the band's marked shift in sound from the somewhat melodic black metal to the more nihilistic Gothenburg metal.

This question was created by Phoenix Rising member zonko.

Answer: Venus in Blue Jeans

Venus is the Roman goddess of love, which is rather ironic as that was the state Jack Keller was in when he penned the song with his co-writer Howard Greenfield. The subject of Keller's affection at the time was his girlfriend Eileen Berner. Jimmy Clanton was the first to release the song as a single, reaching number seven on Billboard's Hot 100. Across the ocean Mark Wynter's version would get to number four on the UK charts.

This question was created by Phoenix Rising member zonko.

Answer: Omen

An omen foretells the future and Omen are considered the forefathers of the heavy metal bands that would come after them. The lyrics of "Teeth of the Hydra" were influenced by the 1963 fantasy classic movie "Jason and the Argonauts". In the film Jason must battle the Hydra in order to obtain the Golden Fleece. The Hydra's teeth are then planted into the ground and a skeleton army is raised which Jason and his men must battle. Although Jason is never mentioned by name, the lyrics follow his story line almost perfectly. It is interesting to note however that the movie script differs greatly from the mythological account in that it is a dragon that guards the fleece and not the Hydra and it is a dragon's teeth that produce the army not the Hydra's. I guess this is what happens when you learn classical mythology from the movies.

This question was created by Phoenix Rising member tazman6619.