Musical Links On A Chain Trivia Quiz

Answer: Rain

Gordon Lightfoot sang:"In the early morning rain, with a dollar in my hand."
In his version of a Christian hymn, Cat Stevens sang: "Sweet the rain's new fall, sunlit from Heaven."
John Denver, meanwhile, sang: "I'll walk through the rain by your side, and I'll cling to the warmth of your tiny hand."

Cat Stevens recorded "Morning Has Broken" in 1971. The song was too short for a three-minute pop record, so Rick Wakeman had to improvise a padded piano 'middle eight'.

Gordon Lightfoot recorded "In The Early Morning Rain" in 1966. It was to become one of his best-known and most-covered songs.

John Denver included "For Baby (For Bobbie)" on his 1972 album "Rocky Mountain High". He later said it was only the fourth song he had ever written, and the first of his own he recorded.

Answer: Car

Guthrie sang: "Take me riding in the car, car;
Take me riding in the car, car;
Take you riding in the car, car;
I'll take you riding in my car."

The song appears on the 1954 LP "This Land Is Your Land: Asch Recordings Volume 1". Bruce Springsteen sang it at the 2000 concert "'Til We Outnumber 'Em", which featured a number of performers singing Guthrie songs.

Ochs sang:
"I have found my freedom
Her and I been flying down that highway of gold
My shirtsleeves are rolled, my Colt 45 is cold.
I go fast, till I'm going faster.
Look how far we've come, look how far
A car, a car, my kingdom for a car".

The song appears on his 1970 album "Greatest Hits", which was definitively NOT a record of his greatest hits, but a bunch of songs in a pop/rock/folk genre.

The British group Madness sang:
"I've been driving in my car, it's not quite a Jaguar
I bought it in Primrose Hill from a bloke from Brazil
It was made in fifty-nine in a factory by the Tyne
It says Morris on the door, the G.P.O. owned it before..."

Released in 1982, the song reached number eight on the Official UK Singles Charts.

Answer: Brown

Belfast's most famous singing son wrote:
"Hey where did we go
Days when the rains came
Down in the hollow
Playin' a new game
Laughing and a running hey, hey
Skipping and a jumping
In the misty morning fog with
Our hearts a thumpin' and you
My brown eyed girl
You're my brown eyed girl...""

This was Morrison's first solo recording after leaving the group Them.

In 2009 he told "Time" magazine: "'Brown Eyed Girl' I didn't perform for a long time because for me it was like a throwaway song. I've got about 300 other songs I think are better than that."

"No gal made has got a shade on Sweet Georgia Brown
Two left feet, oh so neat, has Sweet Georgia Brown
They all sigh and want to die for Sweet Georgia Brown
I'll tell you just why, you know I don't lie not much"
"Sweet Georgia Brown" was a jazz standard written in 1925 by Ben Bernie, Maceo Pinkard and Kenneth Casey. It was recorded many times and was the theme music of those basketball greats. The Harlem Globetrotters.
The Beatles recorded it in Hamburg in 1964.

Meanwhile, Herman's Hermits sang:
"Mrs. Brown you've got a lovely daughter
Girls as sharp as her are somethin' rare
But it's sad, she doesn't love me now
She's made it clear enough it ain't no good to pine..."

This was originally sung by the actor Tom Courtenay in a 1963 British television play called "The Lads". Herman's Hermits lead singer Peter Noone and the band learned the song and played it in their live sets, especially at weddings. Noone would change the lyrics to suit the name of the bride's mother. ...

It was released as a single in the USA after extensive radio airplay and was the Hermits' first US number one. It was not released as a single in the UK.

Answer: Louise

Paul Siebel sang:
"Well they all said Louise was not half bad
It was written on the walls and window shades
Though she'd act the little girl
A deceiver, don't believe her that's her trade..."

The Buffalo-born Paul Siebel wrote the song while part of the Greenwich Village folk scene in the 1960s. It appeared on his 1970 album "Woodsmoke and Orange".

The song has been covered by a number of artists. My favourite version is a recording by what sounds like a half-drunk or maybe half-stoned Jerry Jeff Walker.

In 1929, Maurice Chevalier sang:
"Wonderful! Oh it's wonderful
To be in love with you.
Beautiful, you're so beautiful,
You haunt me all day through.
Chorus:
Every little breeze seems to whisper 'Louise'
Birds in the trees seem to twitter 'Louise.'"

"Louise" was written by Leo Robin & Richard A. Whiting for the 1929 film "Innocents of Paris."
It is interesting to think that the world may never have heard Maurice Chevalier sing or seen him act if he had not had a career-ending injury in his first job - as an acrobat.
Well-known songs included "Valentine", and "Thank Heaven for Little Girls".

Neil Diamond, meanwhile, sang:
"Hey, my Louise,
If I take you home,
Will you make me plead?
My sweet amour
If I come to close, will you close the door?

Diamond included it on the soundtrack of the 1980 movie "The Jazz Singer."

Answer: Arthur

"When you get caught between the Moon and New York City
I know it's crazy, but it's true
If you get caught between the Moon and New York City
The best that you can do
The best that you can do is fall in love..."

This was a collaboration between Burt Bacharach and Christopher Cross (music) and Carole Bayer Sager and Peter Allen (lyrics).
"Arthur's Theme" was on the score for the 1981 movie "Arthur". Released as a single by Cross, it was a massive hit.

Paul Brady, among many others, has sung:
"Oh, me and my cousin, one Arthur McBride
As we went a-walking down by the seaside
Now, mark what followed and what did betide
For it being on Christmas morning...
Out for recreation, we went on a tramp
And we met Sergeant Napper and Corporal Vamp
And a little wee drummer, intending to camp..."

"Arthur McBride and The Sergeant" was the tale of Army recruiters who got little change out of a couple,of Irish lads by the seaside, in fact the lads "left them for dead in the morning."

This folk song dates to the 1840s and was known, with some variations, in Ireland, Scotland and England.
The lyrics quoted here were from the version recorded by the Co Tyrone singer/songwriter Paul Brady.

When the being giant Guinness celebrated the 150th anniversary of the black stuff with "Arthur's Day", Christy Moore sang:
"Happy Happy Happy Happy Arthur's Day
Its such.... a Happy Clappy Advertisin' Scheme
Drink sensibly they implore us, as their Hosannas sound a never-ending chorus
'n kids get hooked on the fantasies that flash before us...."

The song was written by Christy and Wally Page in protest at the "Arthur's Day" marketing commemoration by the company that owns the Guinness brand.

Answer: Black

The Rolling Stones sang"
"I see a red door and I want it painted black
No colours anymore, I want them to turn black
I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head until my darkness goes..."

Written from the point of view of someone who had depression, this song was to be used as the theme for "Tour Of Duty", a CBS showabout the Vietnam War.

Graham Parker wrote and sang: "Oh black honey's in my soul, oh black honey's in my soul
Never been no poor man never been too rich
Since black honey went bone dry my feet begin to itch
And I wish we never parted I wish we had a choice
Cause now I roam these bitter lands
A face without a voice..."

I will let you work out the subject matter in this song by the British post-punk singer/songwriter. It appeared on the 1976 Graham Parker & The Rumour album "Heat Treatment".

Doris Day sang: "Take me back to the black hills
The black hills of Dakota
To the beautiful Indian country
That I love..."

Doris Day played the real life frontierswoman 'Calamity Jane' in the 1953 movie of the same name.

Answer: Walking

Marc Cohen's "Walking In Memphis" was the original recording, from his eponymous 1991 album. It was nominated for a Grammy.

"Put on my blue suede shoes
And I boarded the plane
Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues
In the middle of the pouring rain
W.C. Handy, won't you look down over me
Yeah, I got a first class ticket
But I'm as blue as a boy can be
Then I'm walking in Memphis
Walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale
Walking in Memphis
But do I really feel the way I feel?"

Jim Croce included "Walkin' Back To Georgia" on his 1972 album "You Don't Mess Around with Jim."
"Mmm, mmm
Walkin' back to Georgia
And I hope she will take me back.
Nothin' in my pockets,
And all I own is on my back.
But she's the girl who said she loved me
On that hot dusty Macon road,
And if she's still around, I'm gonna settle down
With that hard lovin' Georgia girl..."

Meanwhile, Katrina and the Waves sang:
"I used to think maybe you loved me now baby I'm sure
And I just can't wait till the day when you knock on my door
Now every time I go for the mailbox, gotta hold myself down
'Cause I just can't wait 'til you write me you're coming around
I'm walking on sunshine (Wow!)
I'm walking on sunshine (Wow!)
I'm walking on sunshine (Wow!)
And don't it feel good..."

In 1985, "Walking On Sunshine" reached number nine on the Billboard Hot 100, and number eight on the Official UK Singles Charts.

Answer: Los Angeles

Arlo Guthrie sang:
"Coming in from London, from over the pole
Flyin' in a big airliner
Chickens flyin' everywhere around the plane
Could we ever feel much finer?
Comin' into Los Angeles
Bringin' in a couple of keys
Don't touch my bags if you please, mister customs man..."

Arlo wrote this about a true experience when he was flying to LA from London and opened his bags on board to find that some friends had packed items he did not really want the customs officials to see...

In "Los Angelenos", Billy Joel sang:
"Los Angelenos
All come from somewhere
To live in sunshine
Their funky exile
Midwestern ladies
High-heeled and faded
Drivin' sleek new sports cars
With their New York cowboys..."

At best Billy Joel had his tongue in his cheek when he wrote this sarcastic take on what he saw as a phony culture in LA in the 1970s.
The song first appeared on the 1974 album "Streetlife Serenade".

Bob Seger, meanwhile, sang:
"And those Hollywood nights
In those Hollywood hills
She was looking so right
In her diamonds and frills
Oh those big city nights
In those high rolling hills
Above all the lights
She had all of her skills"

In 1982, "Hollywood Nights" reached number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Answer: Telephone

Blondie sang:
"I'm in the phone booth, it's the one across the hall
If you don't answer, I'll just ring it off the wall
I know he's there, but I just had to call
Don't leave me hanging on the telephone
Don't leave me hanging on the telephone..."

It reached number five on the UK singles chart. The song had previously been released in 1976 in the USA by The Nerves, but was not a hit for them.

Jack Lee, of The Nerves, wrote the song, and said later he was facing financial ruin before Blondie's version became a hit - and the royalties started rolling in.

Dr Hook and The Medicine Show hit the charts proclaiming:
"Sylvia's mother says Sylvia's busy, too busy to come to the phone
Sylvia's mother says Sylvia's trying, to start a new life of her own.
Sylvia's mother says "Sylvia's happy
So why don't you leave her alone?"
And the operator says : "Forty cents more, for the next three minutes."

This was a Shel Silversteen composition based on a true story that had happened to him.

He told "Rolling Stone" magazine in 1972: "I just changed the last name, not to protect the innocent, but because it didn't fit. It happened about eight years ago and was pretty much the way it was in the song."

The real Sylvia, and her mother, were later tracked down and interviewed by a Dutch TV producer.
(There is more about Shel in my quiz "The Shel Silverstein Songbook" on this website.)

On a road journey, Jimmy Webb saw a guy working on telephone lines overhead and created a story about him:
"I am a lineman for the county
And I drive the main road
Searchin' in the sun for another overload
I hear you singin' in the wire,
I can hear you through the whine
And the Wichita lineman is still on the line..."

Glen Campbell later said in a newspaper interview that when he first heard Jimmy Webb writing the song in the studio he knew it was a hit.
He said: "I implored him to finish it, and even offered to help. But he told me to go and play my guitar and leave the writing to him."

Campbell's recording hit number three on the Billboard Hot 100, and topped the US Hot Country charts. It was also a number one in Canada.

Answer: Chain

Phil Ochs wrote and sang:
"Come you ranks of labor, come you union core,
And see if you remember the struggles of before,
When you were standing helpless on the outside of the door
And you started building links on the chain.
On the chain, you started building links on the chain..."

It appeared on the 1965 release "I Ain't Marching Anymore." Ochs also sang it at the Newport Folk Festival in 1964 and 1965.

(Now you know where the quiz title came from.)

In a 1953 song, Hank Williams sang:
"Take these chains from my heart and set me free
You've grown cold and no longer care for me
All my faith in you is gone but the heartaches linger on
Take these chains from my heart and set me free..."

Williams recorded this among other songs at his last session at Nashville's Castle Records. He died before it was released as a single. It hit number one on the country chart.

The Pretenders, meanwhile, sang" I found a picture of you, oh oh oh oh
What hijacked my world that night
To a place in the past
We've been cast out of? oh oh oh oh
Now we're back in the fight
We're back on the train
Oh, back on the chain gang..."
Chrissie Hynde, the lead singer, wrote this for James Honeyman-Scott, the Pretenders guitarist who died of a drug overdose in 1982 That was followed by the death of bass player Pete Farndon 10 months later.
"Back On The Chain Gang" reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1983.