The Guitar Love Affair Trivia Quiz

Answer: Johnny B. Goode

The somewhat autobiographical "Johnny B. Goode" was written by Chuck Berry and released for radio play in 1958. Berry claimed Johnny is loosely based on himself, a boy who used his talent as a guitar player to climb out of poverty and obscurity into success and fame.

In fact, the song's lyrics originally were about a "colored boy", but Berry changed the words to "country boy" to make the song more acceptable for radio. The song has been lauded as one of the greatest rock 'n' roll songs ever composed, and "Rolling Stone" magazine ranked the song as number seven among its list of "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" and number one among its list of "100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time".

The song has been covered and recorded by well over one hundred different performers and bands, including The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Buck Owens, Jimi Hendrix, and The Beach Boys. Berry continued to rely on the character Johnny B. Goode in other songs of his: "Bye Bye Johnny", "Concerto in B. Goode", "Go Go Go", and "Johnny B. Blues".

Answer: Summer of '69

Bryan Adams wrote the song "Summer of '69" with Jim Vallance, and it was recorded as one of the tracks on Adams' fourth studio album "Reckless", released in 1984. As a single, "Summer of '69" was not released until the summer of 1985, following the successes of the album's other singles: "Run to You", "Somebody", and "Heaven". During an "In the Studio" radio interview upon the occasion of the "Reckless" album's 25th anniversary, Bryan Adams suggested that "Summer of '69" is about the nostalgia adults often feel when they think about their youth when they experienced so much for the first time, including the power of music and the excitement of sexuality. Along with these new experiences came the courage and faith to dream grand dreams, and 1969, the year human beings landed on the moon, is the perfect year to serve as the song's setting.

While the song so very much seems to capture American culture, it significantly was very popular internationally, particularly in Canada and in European countries. Obviously, the nostalgia for one's youth is powerful enough to transcend the specifics of the song's lyrics.

Answer: Talking Heads

David Byrne, vocalist and guitarist, and Chris Franz, drummer, created the band Artistics in 1973 with Tina Weymouth, Franz's girlfriend, chauffeuring them from gig to gig. Eventually, the Artistics broke up, and Byrne and Franz set to work creating a new band. Unable to find a bass guitarist, Franz encouraged Weymouth to learn to play the instrument. With the later addition of Jerry Harrison on guitar and keyboard, Weymouth, Franz, and Byrne started Talking Heads. The name of the band came from a definition of "talking heads" found in "TV Guide": a screen shot that is filled with just the head and shoulders of a person talking. The band members were particularly drawn to the magazine's description of a talking heads scene as "full of content but no action". They felt that fit the cerebral essence they wanted the band to have.

Before the recording of "Fear of Music" in 1979, Talking Heads' third studio album, the band members had decided they no longer wanted to be a band that sought to create singles for radio play but wanted to focus on the music and their vision for their music. This accounts for the album's unconventional rhythms and sounds as well as Byrne's vocal performances and lyrics; for example, "I Zimbra" is based on the nonsensical lyrics of a poem by Dadaist Hugo Ball, and "Air" is a protest song against the Earth's atmosphere, of all things. Perhaps this also accounts for the album's high ratings among numbers of critics, including "Rolling Stone" and "AllMusic" who both give the album four and a half stars out of five. The British public broadcast channel, Channel 4, ranked the album as number 76 on its "100 Greatest Albums" countdown in 2005. In addition to "Electric Guitar", the album also contains such fan favorites as "Life During Wartime", "Heaven", and "Cities".

Answer: Johnny Cash and June Carter

"Long-Legged Guitar Pickin' Man" was recorded on the 1967 album "Carryin' On with Johnny Cash and June Carter" while the two were as yet unmarried. The song was written by their bass player Marshall Grant and reached number six on the Country Singles chart the same year. The album also contains the famous Cash and Carter duet "Jackson".

The song "Long-Legged Guitar Pickin' Man" becomes quite comical in places, but it also speaks volumes about human relationships and faulty communication. At different points, the guitar picker believes he can placate the woman by giving her gifts, but he fails to understand what it is she truly wants: him. One verse begins with the man saying, "I bought you a big long limousine", and the woman replies, "But I don't want no car". He returns, "I gave my love and everything", believing that he has done all that he should for her. She responds, "But you're still what you are", suggesting not only that he's not given enough but that she is reaching an understanding that she can't change what he is and that if she's going to love him, she's going to have to love him as he is. The song, however, is not a completely negative one, for the couple keep returning to hope in the chorus when they sing, "But we can work this out, uh-huh".

Answer: Dwight Yoakam

"Guitars, Cadillacs" was recorded for the album "Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc." and reached as high as number four on the U.S. "Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks". In 2014, "Rolling Stone" magazine ranked the song as number ninety-four on its list of 100 greatest country songs.

The album "Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc." is Yoakam's first studio album and remarkably climbed to number one on the U.S. "Billboard Top Country Albums" chart. The album also contains Yoakam's "It Won't Hurt" as well as his famous covers of June Carter's "Ring of Fire" and Johnny Horton's "Honky Tonk Man". By 2016, Dwight Yoakam had recorded and released over twenty albums, and he has been celebrated as a pioneer in country music, not only for his contributions to the resurgence of honky tonk country music but also for his ability to bridge the gap between country music and various rock genres with his experimental style. Perhaps, the greatest praise is that Johnny Cash once referred to Dwight Yoakam as his favorite country singer.

Answer: John Mellencamp

With tongue in cheek, Mellencamp declares: "Let me give you some good advice, young man / You better learn to play guitar / Play guitar / Play guitar / Play guitar, oh yeah!" "Play Guitar" is one of the tracks on Mellencamp's "Uh-huh", his seventh studio album.

It climbed to number nine on the "Billboard 200" album chart, was ranked number thirty-two on the "100 Greatest Albums of the 80's" compiled by "Rolling Stone", and spawned three top twenty hits on the "Billboard Top 100": "Crumblin' Down", "Authority Song", and "Pink Houses". Before the recording of "Uh-huh", Mellencamp had grown tired and disillusioned, believing himself to be the very "phony rock star" he mentions in the song "Play Guitar".

He decided to focus more on the quality of the music, and he for the first time began using his real name--John Mellencamp--on his album covers (record producers had insisted that he use a stage name, John Cougar, instead of his real name, which they felt was not marketable).

The decision was a rewarding one; not only did critics love "Uh-huh" and his follow-up album "Scarecrow", but Mellencamp found himself more greatly appreciated by American music fans than he ever had been.

Answer: Kenny Rogers

Kenny Rogers was just entering the prime of his fame in 1979 when he released "She Believes in Me" in 1979. Following the success of the single "The Gambler", this song not only reached number one on the charts listed in the question but also climbed to number five on the U.S. "Billboard Hot 100 Singles", number one on Canada's "Adult Contemporary Tracks", and even number forty-two on the U.K.'s "Singles Chart". The song has been covered by other artists, but perhaps the strangest is by the punk band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. While the Kenny Rogers version remains the most famous and most popular, Rogers did not write the song; it was written and recorded first by singer/songwriter Steve Gibb.

Kenny Rogers has also had some success as an actor. He is perhaps best remembered for his leading role in the movie "Six Pack", which co-starred a young Diane Lane and which spawned his hit song "Love Will Turn You Around", and his recurring role as Brady Hawkes in the TV movie series inspired by Rogers' song "The Gambler". Kenny Rogers also cofounded the restaurant Kenny Rogers Roasters with John Y. Brown, Jr., former KFC CEO and former governor of Kentucky.

Answer: Radiohead

"Anyone Can Play Guitar" was released February 1, 1993, as Radiohead's second ever single, following the release of "Creep" on September 21, 1992. Both singles can be found on Radiohead's debut album "Pablo Honey", which was released February 22, 1993. Radiohead's next two albums "The Bends" and "OK Computer" were even much more successful, both critically and popularly.

In fact, "OK Computer" is often ranked among not only the best albums of the 1990s but of all time. Radiohead's next two albums--"Kid A" and "Amnesiac"--were much more experimental than even "OK Computer" and created conflict among critics as well as fans; many could not agree on whether Radiohead's new directions were a positive move. Nevertheless, the band's music has remained tremendously popular, and critics and music scholars still agree that the group is one of the most influential bands in musical history.

Answer: B. B. King

"Lucille Talks Back (Copulation)" can be found on B. B. King's album "Lucille Talks Back", which was released in 1975, went out of print, and then re-released in 2010 as part of iTunes' edition of the "Ladies and Gentlemen . . . Mr. B. B. King" boxset. B. B. King released a compilation of his music in 1988 that was also called "Lucille Talks Back", but this release should not be confused with the 1975 album.

B. B. King was born Riley B. King in 1925 on a cotton plantation near Itta Bena, Mississippi. King maintained a rigorous schedule, performing on the road an average of 200 times per year from the 1950s to the early 2000s. He still continued to play live performances until 2014 despite being in ill health due to diabetes, hypertension, atherosclerosis, and Alzheimer's. In the fall of 2014 at the age of 89, his health caused him to have to cancel a tour; he never recuperated enough to perform live again and soon died in May of 2015. He had won 15 Grammy Awards and established himself as one of the most important blues musicians of all time. His influence extended beyond traditional blues musicians, and he performed and recorded with several other pop and rock legends, such as Frank Sinatra, Eric Clapton, and U2.

He kept the same guitar, which he named Lucille, for over sixty years. The story goes that he ran back into a burning building to retrieve his guitar, which he had forgotten when everyone was forced to run out because of the fire. Later, he learned that the fire had been started by two men who had been fighting over a woman named Lucille. He then named the rescued guitar Lucille to remind himself never to run back into a building on fire or to fight over a woman.

Answer: Tennessee Flat Top Box

Johnny Cash released "Tennessee Flat Top Box" in 1961, and it reached position eleven on the "Billboard Hot Country Singles Chart". However, Rosanne Cash's cover version in 1987 climbed all the way to number one on the same chart. Most shockingly, when Rosanne Cash recorded the song with country musician Randy Scruggs on acoustic guitar, she had no idea that her father had written and sang the song much earlier. She had recorded the song only because Rodney Crowell, her husband at that time, suggested that she do it. Her recording of "Tennessee Flat Top Box" was responsible for the healing reunion between her and her father, and Johnny Cash told his daughter that her tremendous success with the song was "one of my greatest fulfillments", meaning that he was overwhelmed that a song he had written had traveled through time to heal the relationship between her and him. How's that for the power of music and the power of the guitar!

A Tennessee flat top box is a kind of steel-stringed acoustic guitar, for those who are wondering.