Song by Song: "A Case of You" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Blue

The song was written by Joni Mitchell and released on her fourth studio album, "Blue" on the Reprise label. The song was also released as the B-side of the single "California" from the same album. Rolling Stone magazine, on its 2021 list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time," rated it number 26.

Answer: James Taylor

"The male character in the song is apparently a composite of several men in her life during that time," Rolling Stone writes, "notably Leonard Cohen, and her partner at the time of its recording, James Taylor, who joins in on guitar." The couple's lives first intersected in 1970, and James Taylor wrote the song "You Can Close Your Eyes" for Joni Mitchell. According to Taylor, their relationship lasted a year.

Other music critics have argued the song was influenced by Mitchell's break-up with Graham Nash.

Answer: Dulcimer

Mitchell played the Appalachian dulcimer on the song. A dulcimer is a stringed musical instrument. Rather than being plucked, the strings are beaten with a small hammer. The instrument is a version of the psaltery. In the "Hearts of the Dulcimer" podcast, Joellen Lapidus said that Mitchell "uses so many great dulcimer techniques that are also guitar techniques.

She uses a lift and harmonics and offbeat rhythms and it's just really fabulous. Nobody, including myself, ever did anything like that in the dulcimer."

Answer: Julius Caesar

The allusion is to Act 3, scene 1 of Shakespeare's historical play "Julius Caesar":

"I could be well moved if I were as you.
If I could pray to move, prayers would move me.
But I am constant as the northern star,
Of whose true-fixed and resting quality
There is no fellow in the firmament."

Another line in the song, "Love is touching soles," is also a literary allusion - it was inspired by the poet Rainer Maria Rilke.

Answer: bar

Just before our love got lost you said
"I am as constant as a northern star"
And I said, "Constantly in the darkness
Where's that at?
If you want me I'll be in the bar."

James Woplert sang a version of the song during the live playoffs of the competition television show "The Voice" in 2013. James Blake, an English singer and songwriter, covered the song for his 2011 EP "Enough Thunder."

Answer: Prince

The cover was included on Prince's 25th studio album "One Night Alone." The song has also been covered by k.d. lang on "Hymns of the 49th Parallel" and Diana Krall on "Live in Paris." It was also used in the soundtrack of the 1990 British romantic drama "Truly, Madly, Deeply."

Answer: Canada

"I drew a map of Canada
Oh, Canada
With your face sketched on it twice."

Joni Mitchell was born on November 7, 1943 in Fort Macleod, Alberta, Canada. Her father was a Royal Canadian Air Force flight lieutenant.

Answer: On the back of a cartoon coaster

"On the back of a cartoon coaster
In the blue TV screen light
I drew a map of Canada."

The makers of the 2013 American Romantic Comedy film "A Case of You" asked to use Joni Mitchell's song on the soundtrack, but she refused to grant permission. The song was, however, used in the 1998 film "Practical Magic."

Answer: wine

"Oh, you're in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter and so sweet."

This metaphor suggests the singer has become one with the subject and that there is something spiritual about their love connection. Russ Kunkel played the drum on "A Case of You."

Answer: feet

American jazz musician and pop vocalist Jane Monheit covered "A Case of You" on her album "Come Dream With Me," which was released in 2011. Portuguese singer Anne Moura covered it on her fifth album, "Desfaudo," in 2012.

Answer: paints

"Oh, I am a lonely painter
I live in a box of paints.
I'm frightened by the devil
And I'm drawn to those ones that ain't afraid."

Susan Webb covered "A Case of You" on her 1975 album "Bye-Bye Pretty Baby."

In 2011, "A Case of You" was voted by BBC Radio 4 listeners to be the number one female song.

Answer: mouth

"I met a woman
She had a mouth like yours
She knew your life"

American artist Brandi Carlile covered "A Case of You" on the Howard Stern Show in honor of Joni Mitchell's 75th birthday. She told Variety magazine, ""If I can sing 'A Case of You,' then I'm learning something."

Answer: deeds

"She knew your devils and your deeds" is a line that makes use of alliteration.

Frank Stallone released a single covering "A Case of You" in 1980. Tori Amos also covered the song on the B-Side of her "Cornflake Girl" single from the album "Under the Pink" in 1994.

Answer: bleed

"And she said, 'Go to him, stay with him if you can
But be prepared to bleed.'"

Mitchell included "A Case of You" on multiple albums in addition to "Blue." The original recording was included on the 1996 compilation album "Misses." A live version is contained on the 1974 album "Miles of Aisles." The song is also featured on her 2000 orchestral album "Both Sides Now."

Answer: Greenpeace

The song was included on "Amchitka," a two-CD collection released in 2009 containing songs by Joni Mitchell, James Taylor and Phil Ochs from the October 16, 1970, benefit concert for Greenpeace. The concert was held at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver and helped to fund the organizations protests of nuclear weapons tests by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission in Alaska.