What Happens When You Don't Pay the Piper Quiz

Answer: Quinn

Sometimes I wonder if people simply overthink a Bob Dylan set of lyrics. The analysis of "Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)" over the decades have declared that it is a tune about;
(a) An LSD trip
(b) An attempt to describe God (who is indescribable)
(c) The story of a Greenwich Village troubadour
(d) Females seeking out the strongest male with whom to mate with and
(e) Anthony Quinn.
Really? Has anyone ever considered that this set of fanciful lyrics is nothing more than Bob Dylan sitting down at the piano one day and saying to himself... "let's have a little bit of fun. I have way too many words in my head at the moment, and I need to free up some space", Consider the following lyric;
"A cat's meow and a cow's moo
I can recite 'em all.
Just tell me where it hurts ya, honey
And I'll tell you who to call".
That's not God, a Greenwich Village troubadour, nor an LSD trip. And it's certainly not Anthony Quinn. Dylan first recorded this in 1967 as part of "The Basement Tapes" set that he'd put together with The Band. This would not be released until 1975. In the meantime, he'd also recorded a live version which appears on his 1970 album "Self Portrait". Before that though, Manfred Mann would secure a big hit with the song in 1968 with their version making it to number one on the UK Singles charts and cracking the Top Ten of Billboard's Hot 100. In a later incarnation, as the Manfred Mann's Earth Band, they would record a radically different live version that the band released as part of their 1978 album "Watch".

Answer: Ziggy

When David Bowie created the character of Ziggy Stardust he drew on a number of influences and personal experiences. Of these, possibly, the most significant was the portrayal of Alex, the sadistic gang leader in Stanley Kubrick's 1971 masterpiece "A Clockwork Orange", by Malcolm McDowell. Elements, for Ziggy, were also drawn from William Burrough's 1971 Beat Generation novel "The Wild Boys", Bowies delving into mime and theatre and, abstractly, the stance that singer Gene Vincent adopted on stage when he had his leg placed in a brace. Bowie adaptation of the Ziggy persona was so effective that it became the epitome of the glam rock character and it became a strong influence for a number of artists, including Marc Bolan and T.Rex. Bowie, however, grew fearful of his creation, believing that the line between David Bowie, the person, and Ziggy Stardust, the non-person, was starting to blur.

As a consequence, he laid him to rest by performing as that concept for the last time in concert on July 3, 1973. The album "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars" was released in 1972.

Answer: Yertle

Red Hot Chili Peppers have toyed with the concept of funk on a number of their LPs but the closest that they ever got to a "true" funk album was 1985's "Freaky Styley". This disc had the energy and the extraordinary powers of the legendary George Clinton as producer. Clinton allowed the band to be quirky and loose without sucking the warmth and the depth out of their creations.

Whilst their own tracks are strong on this recording, the two standout tracks are their two covers; "If You Want Me to Stay" and "Hollywood (Africa)".

As if to highlight the quirky on this disc, it is closed out by the bouncy "Yertle the Turtle" with its entire lyric taken from the storybook of the same name by Dr. Seuss.

Answer: Zion

You will find the first release of this song on 1992's "Songs of Freedom", a four-disc box set of Bob Marley's work, that was released posthumously, eleven years after the singer's death. The track manages to intertwine Marley's Rastafarian beliefs with an anti-violence message.

The legend is that Marley had written the song in the early 1970's but had left it incomplete. It was discovered, by accident, by Trevor Wyatt of Island Records, who'd left his cassette player running while he stepped out of the room to get a drink of water.

Answer: Yuma

In 1959 the ABC network launched a new television series called "The Rebel". The show, starring Nick Adams, traces the adventures of a former Confederate soldier wandering through the West and helping folks in need. After 76 episodes the show was axed in 1961 due to complaints that it was too violent.

The theme song was written by Richard Markowitz and the shows creator, Andrew Fenady, and was sung by Johnny Cash. Colombia Records took advantage of this and released it as part of an EP in 1959 to coincide with the show's release.

Answer: Yoshimi

This is the title track to a 2002 concept album by The Flaming Lips, however, before I get into this song, I need to tell about a little band called Boredoms. Formed in Osaka (Japan) in 1986 they play a form of music called noise rock. Their sound consists of a range of electronic effects and a fair bit of absurd screaming. One of their vocalists (screamers) is a lady named Yoshimi P-We.
Wayne Coyne, lead singer for The Flaming Lips, had obtained a Boredoms recording that featured Yoshimi's wailing and claimed that it sounded like a "vocal fist fight". Coyne then developed this image of a "crazy Japanese woman" fighting a machine and, immediately, Yoshimi became the inspiration for the concept behind the album. Coyne was so taken by Yoshimi that he wrote the song in two parts and, in the latter, he managed to introduce vocals (screaming) by the lady herself.
Now, before I get notes from you all, yes, I am aware that this album revolves around a female character, but I have checked and, Yoshimi in Japan, is a unisex name.

Answer: Zimmerman

Ralph McTell is an English folk singer who rose to prominence with his song "The Streets of London", which appears on his second album "Spiral Staircase" (1969). After the release of his critically acclaimed fourth album, "You Well-Meaning Brought Me Here", he was signed by Warner Records on their Reprise label. Warner felt that they had an artist that could match it with James Taylor in the States and would still sound like Cat Stevens in the UK. Problem was that McTell was not comfortable with so much attention and the thought of being drawn too far from home. Consequently, his fifth studio album and his first with Warner, 1972's "Not Till Tomorrow", sees McTell try to withdraw from the world's spotlight and produce a quintessential British album. He expresses his fears of what he is expected to be with "Zimmerman Blues", the opening track on the album. It starts by his marveling at the rise of the man who was Robert Zimmerman to the one who became Bob Dylan. He sees himself here and decides, with some regret, that he doesn't wish to go there. He also wonders if Dylan has any regrets about his decision to be what he's become;
"For me it won't get that near
And if it did I know that I would choose
Anything but the Zimmerman blues."
Warner Music heard Ralph loud and clear. Whilst they continued to release his albums, they didn't (sadly) to his American audience.

Answer: York

If Billy Joel's 1976 album "Turnstiles" can tell you anything about the man it's that he loves his native New York. Joel grew up on Long Island but had spent nearly four years in Los Angeles. This album was his first to be released upon his return. His longing for home and the joy of a return to roots are delivered with an iron fist by the opening number "Say Goodbye to Hollywood".

This is eventually followed by the gentle "New York State of Mind" and beautiful ballad that is "Summer, Highland Falls". Joel would reveal in an interview with Howard Stern (2010) that he was sitting on the Greyhound bus heading home when he started to make notes about his thoughts and feelings about the city he grew up in. Once he got home, while it was still fresh in his mind, he went straight to the piano and it ("New York State of Mind") came together in an hour.

Answer: Zeus

The opening act at Woodstock stepped onto the stage at 5:07pm on Friday, 15 August, 1969. His name was Richie Havens and that very act made him a star. However, Havens shouldn't have appeared in that time slot. He was originally slated to be the fifth act on stage, and then, with a duration of only 40 minutes.

The unexpected popularity of the event had brought traffic to a standstill and many acts were left stranded. Havens was pushed on stage early and held the floor for three hours! Toward the end of the set he found that he'd run out of songs that he knew.

While he was figuring what to do he started what would become a long intro. He remembered a traditional spiritual song that he used to sing as a youngster called "Motherless Child" and decided to do an improvisation of that.

The first word that came out of his mouth was "Freedom" and so began a number that would, both, encapsulate Woodstock and become an anthem for a new generation. Thirty nine years later and Havens would release his last studio album "Nobody Left to Crown". On it, with songs such as "Zeus..." he rages gently against the ability of leaders to allow their power to corrupt while he still offers a prayer for sanity in a mad world.

The album is certainly not an uplifting one but, for the man who would suffer a fatal heart attack five years later, it remains another exhibition of his gentle soulfulness.

Answer: Uncle

Paul McCartney, when it comes to music, is a genius though it didn't seem to be that way in the early years after the break-up of The Beatles. In 1970 both John Lennon and George Harrison delivered, arguably, their best solo performances. In Lennon's case this was the unflinching confessional that was the "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band" LP and Harrison there came the moving spiritual mysticism that was "All Things Must Pass". All that Paul could put forward was the self-titled, modestly charming (at best) "McCartney". When "Ram" was released the following year the derision from the critics did not abate and the album was dismissed as a bit of whimsy. Time has been good to "Ram" and it has endured and, eventually, endeared itself to critics. What they failed to see in 1972 was that this was an album with big melodies, inventive productions and cheeky humour, built on a foundation of good, honest, old time rock and roll. "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" is a case in point.

This is a track that runs for a little under five minutes that was made up from a series of unfinished songs that McCartney had lying around and decided to put to good use.

There are as many as a dozen of different sections to this number and yet, despite the jumble of musical textures, there's a coherence here and it produces a quirky, though natural, sort of flow. Probably the most telling feature to this song is its closing out chant "hands across the water", which almost sounds like a message to McCartney, a call to arms so to speak, that it's time to get up off your butt and get serious - your former buddies have produced something extraordinary, now it's your turn. Two years later he would release the quintessential "Band on the Run".