U.S. States in Song Titles Trivia Quiz

Answer: Winter

The opening verse states:

"All the leaves are brown
And the sky is grey
I've been for a walk
On a winter's day"

According to www.songfacts.com: "John and Michelle Phillips wrote this on a cold night in New York City. Michelle was longing to be in California, hence the title "California Dreaming".

Answer: Aesop

The third verse of the song says:

" Follow me up to San Francisco, I will be guiding your way
I'll be the Count of Monte Cristo
You'll be the Countess May
You can believe in Robin Hood and brotherhood and rolling a ball in the hay
And I will be reading you an Aesop's fable
Anything to make you stay"

Answer: July

This gets confirmed twice in the song, once in the first verse:

"Lazy days in mid-July
Country Sunday mornin's
Dusty haze on summer highways
Sweet magnolia callin'"

and also in the last:

"On a dusty mid-July
Country summer's evenin's
Weepin' willows sang its lullaby
And shared our secret"

Answer: Silk Degrees

An album cut, Georgia was about a girl, not the State. Or was it?

"Georgia, won't you tell them for me dear
Georgia, girl I never lived through a night like that
Sure enough got your lovin' where I like it at"

Answer: Australia

The Iguana were a Melbourne based band who had a local hit with the song. It was also recorded by The 5th Dimension.

Answer: Winter

"And pretty soon this Winter
They'll hold the surfing championship of the year
Surfer guys and girls
Will be coming from far and near"

Answer: Chuck

"Seth, sit down, I got some bad news, it's gonna hurt"
"He said I'm your best friend and you know that's right
But your young bride ain't home tonight
Since you been gone she's been seein' that Amos boy, Seth"
Well, he got mad and he saw red and Andy said "Boy, don'tcha lose your head
'Cause to tell ya the truth, I been with her myself"

According to www.songfacts.com: "The song was offered to Cher, but Sonny Bono turned it down on her behalf. Cher didn't know until years later that she had been offered the song".

Answer: Potato

"You're living in your own private Idaho
Living in your own private Idaho
Wa! On the ground like a wild potato
Don't go on the patio
Beware of the pool, blue bottomless pool
It leads you straight right through the gate that opens on the moon"

If anyone has any idea what this or any of the lyrics in the song mean, please tell me! Potato and Idaho in the same song were about the only things that made any sense!

Answer: False

No, it doesn't. Kentucky is the only state listed in the song. It gets mentioned 12 times.

Answer: Geese in flight

Towards the end of the song we hear:

"Dark and silent late last night
I think I might have heard the highway calling
Geese in flight and dogs that bite
Signs that might be omens say I going, going
I'm goin' to Carolina in my mind"

Answer: Fairies

Elton adds:

"You outta town guys sure think you're real keen
Think all of us boys here are homespun and green
But that's wrong my friend, so get this through your head
We're tough and we're Texan with necks good and red"

It would be interesting to know what reaction the song would draw were it released in current times!

Answer: San Francisco

2nd verse is where it is found:

"Tried to hitch a ride to San Francisco
Gotta do the things I wanna do
And the lights all went out in Massachusetts
They brought me back to see my way with you"

Answer: A hundred dollar bill

A hundred bucks! Alright!

"Early in the mornin', she hitched a ride down to Louisville
Holdin' onto a hundred dollar bill
Dressed herself like a Cajun Queen in New Orleans, baby
Yeah, she looked good, like a lady"

Later is the song is a verse that makes me laugh, simply by the way it develops into the last line:

"Have a seat, take a load off your feet, and she said Yes
So I said, Mmm, I like your dress
Swamps all around make ya feel kinda funny, don't they, honey
She crossed her legs and looked at me funny"

Answer: R. Dean Taylor

It is a sad tale of wanting and not having:

"Indiana wants me
Lord, I can't go back there
Indiana wants me
Lord, I can't go back there
I wish I had you to talk to

It hurts to see the man that I've become
And to know I'll never see the morning
Sunshine on the land
I'll never see your smiling face
Or touch your hand
If just once more I could see you
Our home and our little baby"

Answer: A simpler place and time

The song talks about finding life in California difficult:

"L.A. proved too much for the man
So he's leavin' the life he's come to know"

So, as a consequence:

"And he's goin' back
To a simpler place and time
And I'll be with him
On that midnight train to Georgia
I'd rather live in his world
Than live without him in mine"

Acoording to www.songfacts.com: "The song was written and originally recorded by Jim Weatherly as "Midnight Plane to Houston". The name was changed (with Weatherly's OK) when Cissy Houston (Whitney's mom, Dionne Warwick's cousin) recorded it. Weatherly agreed to alter the title only if the rest of the lyrics were not changed. Houston's version entered the R&B chart, but not the Hot 100".

Answer: Cadillac

"Alabama, you got the weight on your shoulders
That's breaking your back
Your Cadillac has got a wheel in the ditch
And a wheel on the track"

Answer: Jenny

"George turns to Sam with his gold in his hand
Said Sam you're lookin' at a lonely lonely man
I'd trade all the gold that's buried in this land
For one small band of gold to place on sweet little Jenny's hand"

Answer: Richard Nixon

"Tin soldiers and Nixon's coming
We're finally on our own
This summer I hear the drumming
Four dead in Ohio

Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been done long ago
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground?
How can you run when you know?"

According to www.songfacts.com: "The Kent State shootings had a profound effect on some of the students who later became prominent musicians. Chrissie Hynde was a student at the time, and eventually formed The Pretenders. Mark Mothersbaugh and Jerry Casale were also on campus, and after the shootings, they developed the band Devo based on the concept of "De-Evolution", meaning the human race was regressing. Said Casale, "It refocused me entirely. I don't think I would have done Devo without it. It was the deciding factor that made me live and breathe this idea and make it happen. In Chrissie Hynde's case, I'm sure it was a very powerful single event that was traumatic enough to form her sensibility and account for a lot of her anger". Mothersbaugh added, "It was the first time I'd heard a song about something I'd been a participant in. It affected us. It was part of our life".

Answer: Australia

The song was also written and recorded in 1969 whilst Neil was in Australia. As far as I can find out, it was not released outside the country.

Answer: Greyhound

Billy sings:

"I'm just taking a Greyhound on the Hudson River line
'Cause I'm in a New York state of mind"

Answer: Neil Young

It was Neil Young, who had taken a swipe with songs such as "Alabama" and "Southern Man". In response, "Sweet Home Alabama" contains the following verse:

"Well I heard mister Young sing about her
Well, I heard ol' Neil put her down
Well, I hope Neil Young will remember
A Southern man don't need him around anyhow"

Answer: Civil war

A soldier laments:

"So gayly we marched with the grey and the red
To lick 'em first time like the good General said
With nary a thought that so very few would go home

If it weren't so wrong for a soldier like me
To throw down his gun, and run to be free
And all of us here with the fear in our eyes would go home

If you'd just listen Sir, once again
To the reasons of one of your men
If you'd make all these things come to pass
Then I could lay on Arkansas Grass"

Answer: In their dirty underwear

You didn't know birds wore underwear did you? Apparently they do in Tennessee at least!

"Oh remember my darling
When spring is in the air
And the bald headed birds
Are whisp'ring ev'rywhere
You can see them walking
Southward in their dirty underwear
That's Tennessee Bird walk"

Answer: The House Of The Rising Sun

Here it is:

"Fire on the mountain, run, boys, run
The devil's in the house of the rising sun
Chicken in the bread pan pickin' out dough
Granny, does your dog bite? No, child, no"

Answer: I'm underfed

Poor Albert was starving:

"I'm out of work, I'm out of my head
Out of self respect, I'm out of bread
I'm underloved, I'm underfed, I wanna go home
It never rains in California
But girl don't they warn ya
It pours, man it pours"

According to www.songfacts.com:

"Hammond: "It never rains... was written in London, before we (Albert and Michael) came to Los Angeles, and we knew we were coming, and I've been telling Mike the story of me in Spain when I started and how I was asking for money outside of the train stations because I had no money to eat and I didn't want to tell my parents. My cousin was on honeymoon then, and he came out of the train station and saw me, and I didn't even know it was him. I just asked him for some money, too. And he said "you should be ashamed, I'm gonna tell your father" and I said "please, don't tell him, he'll go crazy and and stop me doing this!" And then he took me back into the hotel, I had a bath, he gave me some clean clothes and some money. I moved on, but he did tell my father, you know. All these things like "will you tell the folks back home I nearly made it" and all that stuff came from that era of my life when I was struggling, trying to make it, trying to get from Morocco to Spain, from Spain to England, from England to America... That struggle you go through, that's It never rains in Southern California, the story of my life".