The Girl who Couldn't Fly Trivia Quiz

Answer: Cards

A song featuring a couple meeting on the road. After a while they agree to play a game. Here it is cards as evidenced by the lyrics of this verse:
"She cut the cards and I fell a dealing
I dealt her a trump and myself the poor Jack
She led off her and stole the Jack from me
Saying Jack is the card I like best in your pack"

The lady is only just learning the game and she wins. She must enjoy the game because in the end she says:
"She answered young man, come back tomorrow
We'll play the game over and over and over and over and over again"

This is probably because the card game is simply a euphemism for sex. Another song with the same theme but slightly less subtle is "The Cricket Match" by the Kipper Family, or the least subtle of all "The Bonny Black Hare" by various musicians, including Fairport Convention. None of these are explicit or use a word of vulgarity but still manage to get the message across.

Answer: West wind

The answer here is found at the end of the final verse.
"Only the lark and the west wind know
I'm in this field where no-one goes"

Another song about lost love as indicated by the chorus:
"Time it is past and now I roam free. Is it wrong to wish you still need me"

This is one of the many songs on the album written by Kate Rusby.

Answer: Far away from here

The relevant lyric here is: "Take my hand my dear. Love takes us far away from here.", which occurs at the start of the third verse. To me, the lyrics read that this is a song of a relationship breaking down. In evidence I offer the second verse:
"Take my hand, my dear
We were drifting year after year
When we tried our best to fly, my dear
Let me go now, let me go
How it came to this it's not clear
Long and lonely nights now I fear"

But the phrase "Take my hand my dear. Love takes us far away from here", also puts me in mind of the Oysterband song "We Could Leave Right Now" with its lyrics:
"We could leave right now any step could be the first
Any word could be the last any door would do
We can forget our names forget each other's faces"

Answer: Lament her

The lyrics of "Mary Blaize" are taken from the words of a poem by Oliver Goldsmith. The song, opens with the lines; "Good people all with one accord. Lament for Mary Blaize", as indeed does the poem.

The poem goes by the title "An Elegy on The Glory of Her Sex, Mrs. Mary Blaize", and describes a popular woman.
"The needy seldom passed her door
And always found her kind
She freely lent to all the poor
Who left a pledge behind"

But this lady wasn't totally faultless, as the song also admits. "She never followed wicked ways. Unless when she was sinning" and likewise at Church "She never slumbered in her pew. But when she closed her eyes". Note the words "unless" and "but" in these lines.

Answer: Death

The answer is found at the end of the second verse.
"And if he do take another mate,
Before the holy shrine,
Another ne'er shall have my heart,
Death will be a friend of mine."

Although the lyrics are listed as traditional, I have tracked them down to a poem by John Bolton Rogerson, published in 1842 with the name "A Ballad" in "Voice from the Town and other Poems". "A Ballad" is not exactly an imaginative title for a song, but it does reflect the title of the poem.

Answer: Bob Dylan

This song was written in 1952, prior to Bob Dylan becoming a songwriter. He was only 11 when this song was written.

Carly Simon has written a different song of the same name; I suspect that the title might have been used by other writers as well.

The version of the song used here concerns parted lovers, the singer urging their lover to remember them whilst they are seeing exotic places.

Answer: Horn

The only musical instrument mentioned in this song is the horn. "The Elfin Knight stands on yon hill. He blows his horn both loud and shrill."
The origins of this song lie in the distant past. The collection known as the Child Ballads lists 12 versions. The words used here seem to be taken from these but with a different verse structure and plot.

In the more usual versions, it is a riddle song, of impossible challenges between an Elven Prince and the woman he intends to abduct, seduce or marry, depending on the lyrics. The song "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme" is also a variation from the same source.

I have noted elsewhere that riddling contests appear to have been popular in the older songs. Bellowhead's "Captain Wedderburn", the Albion Dance Band recording, "Y'Acre of Land" and Steeleye Spans track entitled "Now We Are Six", all feature riddles. Then there is another song by Steeleye Span, "Elf Call", which features the call of an elf instead of a horn blowing elf, although that song appears unrelated to the one here.

Answer: Argyll

This ballad starts with the following verse:
"It fell on a day, a bonnie bonnie day,
When the corn grew green and yellow,
That there fell out a great dispute
Between Argyll and Airlie."

Then it goes on to describe the attack by the Argyll forces on the house of the Airlie family. According to the song, the lady of the house sees the attackers heading towards the house. Being a border ballad the song then carries on the tale, in this case it is for a short seven verses; other versions are longer.

The attack by the Argylls on the castle of the Airlies is documented, occurring in 1640, but the rest of the details in the song are fanciful.
There are records of the Scottish "Convention of the Estates", a sort of parliament, authorising the Earl of Argyll to seek retribution on the Earl of Airlie for siding with King Charles of England. The term used to describe this is a "commission of fire and sword", or kill the living and burn the property without having to worry about any consequences.

Answer: Winter

The first lines of this song are, "Winter comes around, and he knows he is homeward bound". The song can be seen in as similar to the parable of the prodigal son, or any example of a lost friend or loved one returning. But within the song it does specify friendship,
"He's found where he belongs,
He know he's been here all along,
He is smiling as he joins his friends in song."

Two songs with a similar theme in my view are the Ralph McTell song "Weather the Storm" and "Suntrap" by Show of Hands. The former is about a friend having gone through a difficult relationship whilst the latter is about an emigrant recognising the call of home.

Answer: Trees in a wood

A strange idea, trees that want to pick a different place to plant their roots, the opening lines are:
"Here is a tale of the trees in a wood
They were never that pleased on the land that they stood.
So they upped and they walked as far as they could
'Til they felt the sun shine on their branches."

Then having found the sun a little boy joins them and hides in their branches.
"When there came a young boy who was running away
From a mad world, a bad world, a world of decay
And it's comfort he sought in their branches"

The song, to me, is about finding escape from the stresses of life in the world of nature.