Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. ISLA is aware that songs in the 50s and early 60s had a reputation for being tame and safe. In 1955 Tennessee Ernie Ford recorded a song about a coal miner that contradicts this notion. Not the mine but the miner is the more dangerous. The coal miner brags about the murders he's committed saying,
"Well, if you see me comin', better step aside.
A lotta men didn't, an' a lotta men died.
One fist of iron, the other of steel.
If the right one don't get you, then the left one will."
The song lamented that working in the mine just makes you "another day older and deeper in debt." How many tons of Number 9 coal did this miner load?
2. In 1960 Marty Robbins sang a ballad about a ruthless Arizona Ranger who was intent on capturing a certain outlaw, "Texas Red". This lawman's total disregard for due process is seen in the following lines,
"He'd come here to take outlaw back alive or maybe dead
But he said it didn't matter".
Clearly, this man was not interested in reading you your rights! After Texas Red is gunned down we are informed,
"Oh he (Texas Red) might have gone on living
But he made one final slip
When he tried to match the ranger
With the big ______ on his hip"
What did the song say the ranger carried on his hip that was big?
3. In 1958 Sheb Wooley sang a chilling song about a people-eating alien. Although this gruesome creature was distracted from his pursuits by fad fashions (the alien began wearing "short-shorts") and diverted from killing by a career in music (playing rock and roll music through the horn in his head), the monster clearly remained a menace. The public was supposed to be reassured because the monster ate only one color of people. What color was that?
4. Characters populating early rock and roll songs faced a threat equally as grave as people eating aliens, homicidal miners and out of control lawmen. They often fell victim to love induced stupidity. None other than the Big Bopper penned a song about two hapless Native Americans driven to mutual suicide by their unfulfilled longing for one another. Our heroic Indian brave,
"couldn't swim the raging river 'cause the river was too wide
He couldn't reach Little White Dove, waiting on the other side
In the moonlight he could see her blowing kisses 'cross the waves."
Meanwhile, "her little heart was beating faster, waiting there for her brave." There was, of course, only one way this could end. The two would-be lovers dove into the water, met in the middle and drowned. What was the name of Little White Dove's brave but foolish paramour?
5. As egregious as was the death of our two Native Americans in the previous song, it could, perhaps, be excused as a response to their burning need to be together. However, if you have just escaped from a car that has stalled in he path of an onrushing train, it is hard to justify racing back, at mortal peril, to retrieve the ring your boyfriend gave you. Mark Dinning tells us at this song's beginning,
"That fateful night the car was stalled
upon the railroad track
I pulled you out and we were safe
but you went running back"
When they pulled the young lady out of the wrecked car, he tells us, "they found my high school ring clutched in your fingers tight." With what endearing name did Mark Dinning refer to his lost love?
6. In 1958 John Zacherle created a song so macabre and gory that Dick Clark refused to play it on American Bandstand. It was called "Dinner With Drac" and began,
"A dinner was served for three
At Dracula's house by the sea
The hors d'oeuvres were fine
But I choked on my wine"
Why did Dracula's guest choke on his wine?
7. In 1959, Bobby Darin issued a warning about a killer on the loose. The killer was one "Mr. MacHeath", whose modus operandi involved a jackknife and a bag of cement. Future potential victims are warned.
"Aah ... I said Jenny Diver ... whoa ... Sukey Tawdry
Look out to Miss Lotte Lenya and old Lucy Brown
Yes, that line forms on the right, babe"
What was the killer's nickname?
8. In 1959, the same year in which Bobby Darin issued his warning about the murderous MacHeath, Lloyd price told the disturbing tale of Stagger Lee. In a vengeful barroom attack, Stagger Lee shot the helpless "Billy" despite Billy's piteous pleas for mercy."
"Stagger Lee, said Billy,
Oh, please don't take my life!
I've got three hungry children,
And a very sickly wife."
Did the song indicate whether or not Billy was killed?
9. Although the perpetrators of rock and roll violence in the pre-Beatle era were uniformly male, there is one instance of a female reveling in the thought of physical retribution. In 1963, Peggy, Barbara and Jiggs (ironically known as the Angels) released a song in which they taunted an over-aggressive suitor.
"Hey la, hey la, my boyfriend's back
Hey, he knows I wasn't cheatin'
Now, you're gonna get a beatin'"
Which of the following was NOT an accusation that was made against the offending young man in the song?
10. Even Walt Disney was associated with musical violence in the 1950s. In the Ballad of Davy Crockett, we are informed that Davy was,
"Born on a mountain top in Tennessee
The greenest state in the land of the free
Raised in the woods so's he knew ev'ry tree"
What does the song indicate as Davy's first significant accomplishment, achieved at the age of three?
Source: Author
uglybird
This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor
ralzzz before going online.
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