I Wanna Be Your Joe Trivia Quiz

Answer: Rednex

Swedish band Rednex set themselves up for the specific purpose of recording this track. The track, which appears on their album "Sex and Violins" (1994), proved so successful that they maintained the façade through another two albums. "Cotton Eye Joe" is a traditional folk song from America's south that tells the tale of a man who moves from town to town, impressing all the girls with his charm and then leave them as "tainted goods" for others; "If it hadn't been for Cotton Eye Joe, I'd been married a long time ago". The song appealed to Rednex because it lent itself perfectly to dance, in particular line dancing.

If you're looking for an alternative-folk version of the Cotton Eye Joe story listen to Michelle Shocked's "Prodigal Daughter (Cotton Eye Joe)" song from her 1992 album "Arkansas Traveller".

Answer: Bobbie Gentry

Billie Joe McAllister was none-too-bright. He jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge and the jump took his life. The tragedy in the song, however, is not the suicide but the total indifference with which it is met;
"And papa said to mama, as he passed around the blackeyed peas
Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense; pass the biscuits, please"

In a cleverly written song the mundane has proven to be greater than the tragedy. The song would become a massive international hit for Bobbie Gentry, who also wrote the song. It would reach number one on Billboard's Hot 100 in 1967 and would be the third biggest seller on that chart for the year, outsold only by "The Letter" by The Box Tops and "To Sir With Love" by Lulu.

Answer: Dexys

This track is lifted from the 2012 album "One Day I'm Going to Soar". It represents the first album by the band formerly known as Dexy's Midnight Runners in twenty seven years. The album represents a form of confessional for the lead singer and chief songwriter, Kevin Rowland.

He delves into areas such as cultural identity, monogamy and his ambivalent approach to love. He advised that the inspiration behind "It's O.K. John Joe" came from communications between he and a Swedish lass; "Do you believe in love" she asked. "Yes I do" responded Kevin "I don't know anything about it. I know about depending on people..." When Rowland read that back to himself he thought, "that has the makings of a song". "It's O.K. John Joe" is a crooner and it closes the out the album for the band with the therapeutic message that "it's o.k. to be alone".

Answer: Peggy Lee

This track was originally written for the musical "Cabin in the Sky" (1942) by Harold Arlen and was performed by Ethel Waters. Peggy Lee would record a version of the track for her 1957 album "The Man I Love". An interesting feature of this album is that the orchestra used in the recording was conducted by Frank Sinatra. Bette Midler would reprise this version in her 2005 tribute to Peggy Lee; "Bette Midler Sings the Peggy Lee Songbook".

Answer: Mastodon

When Mastodon launched their debut album "Remission" (2002) it made metal heads turn and take notice. Their second album was then eagerly awaited. "Leviathan", released in 2004, didn't disappoint and in a number of circles it has been listed as one of the best heavy metal albums released.

In 2015 MetalSucks magazine voted it the best metal album of the 21st century. The album is conceptual in nature with themes being drawn from "The Old Man and the Sea" and this is strongly borne out in tracks such as "I Am Ahab" and "Seabeast". How a title such "Joseph Merrick" fits into this scheme is unclear.

It has been named after a deformed man often called "The Elephant Man" and is an instrumental track that closes the album out. Accordingly, the lyrics do not help us in this regard.

Answer: David Bowie

"Joe the Lion" is a tribute to Chris Burden, an American performance artist, which appears on Bowie's 1977 album "Heroes". Burden's works were often controversial because they employed elements of danger. As an example, for his 1971 piece "Shoot" he had an assistant shoot him in the left arm with a .22 rifle from a distance of sixteen feet. However, the image that was set in Bowie's mind and inspired this song was called "Trans-fixed" (1974). For this piece Burden had himself crucified to a Volkswagen Beetle i.e. he lay face up on the car with his arms spread while an assistant nailed his hands to the vehicle.
"Joe the lion
Went to the bar
A couple of drinks on the house and he said
'Tell you who you are if you nail me to my car'".

Answer: Frank Zappa

This is the title track to Zappa's three part opera that he released in 1979. The concept album is narrated by an Orwellian style character called the Central Scrutinizer and it tells the tale of an ordinary man who struggles with women, sees his money sucked away by the government, explores shonky religions and engages in kinky sex with appliances. He forms a garage band and gets arrested. He is eventually released back into a society that has banned music and goes insane. The title track leads us through the formation of the band up to Joe's arrest.

Zappa received praise for the album for its innovation and originality but was lambasted for its profane use of language. Time however, has been good to the album with many critics re-arranging their original stance toward a much more favourable response.

Answer: The Killers

This song was a non-album single released by The Killers in 2014. It represented the ninth consecutive Christmas themed song that they'd created and released. The proceeds from the sales of the recording would go toward AIDS charities. The track features talk show host Jimmy Kimmel whom, lead singer Brandon Flowers advised, came up with the concept of the song. Essentially it is the story of a lump of coal that is given to a kid who's been bad.

Whilst this initially appears to be unfair the coal becomes diamond.

Answer: Concrete Blonde

Concrete Blonde's lead singer Johnette Napolitano wrote this track about her relationship with Marc Moreland, a founding member of Wall of Voodoo who'd had a hit in 1982 with the song "Mexican Radio. Napolitano and Moreland first met during Voodoo's tour of Australia in 1987 where Concrete Blonde were the opening act. She advised in an interview "we just became tighter than anything in a very short time. There was a lot of mutual worship there". Johnette advised that the melody came easily but the words were difficult. She knew what she wanted to say but couldn't nail it to paper, knowing that when the time was right it would pour out of her.

The single would appear on their most successful album "Bloodletting" (1990) and it would be their only track to find its way onto Billboard's Hot 100 list, peaking at number nineteen. Moreland passed away from kidney failure in 2002.

Answer: The Leaves

The most famous recording of this track is the 1966 version by The Jimi Hendrix Experience, however, that option, some people have been kind enough to tell me, would be too easy and not a challenge. Hence, I chose The Leaves version for the answer. While it is seen by some to be a traditional folk song "Hey Joe" was registered for copyright in 1962 by an obscure California-based folk singer named Billy Roberts. For a period in the early to mid-1960s it was popular in the coffee houses on the West Coast.

The Leaves have the distinction of being the first band to release a recorded version of the track, which tells the tale of a man who shoots his unfaithful wife and then does a runner to Mexico, in 1965. A number of versions quickly followed from artists as diverse as The Byrds, The Surfaris, Love and Dino Valenti.

They all argue that each was the one who helped made the song popular. They can argue all they like, I'm going back to my stereo to listen to the Hendrix version.