It's quiz time! Here are some questions about weird lyrics in well-known rock songs.
1. In "Me and Bobby McGee," Janis Joplin sings that she "pulled my harpoon out of my dirty red bandanna." What is a "harpoon"?
a. Hypodermic needle
b. Diaphragm
c. Jackknife
d. Harmonica
2. The Steve Miller Band famously sang about the "pompatus of love." What's the correct spelling of the word?
a. Pompitus
b. Puppetutes
c. Pompitudes
d. God only knows. Miller sure doesn't.
3. In the nonsense Beatles song "I Am the Walrus," John Lennon sings about "semolina pilchard, climbing up the Eiffel Tower." What are semolina and pilchard, exactly?
a. A yellow flower and a type of boutonniere
b. A component of wheat and a kind of fish
c. A young female singer and a musical note sung by Gregorian chanters
d. A type of seaweed and an English dish with boiled potatoes and chard
4. In "Poker Face," Lady Gaga sings "I'm just stunnin' with my love glue gunning." When did "glue gunning" first enter the American vocabulary?
a. In the early to mid-20th century, referring to the use of glue guns
b. In the late 1950s, as a slang term for a love affair between arts and crafts
enthusiasts
c. In the early 1970s, as a slang term for the sniffing of glue
d. When Lady Gaga released the song in 2008.
5. According to Mick Jagger, who was the subject of the Elizabethan-sounding Rolling Stones song "Lady Jane?"
a. It was Henry VIII's wife Jane Seymour, who avoided being beheaded but died after childbirth. The lyrics refer to the king's letters to her.
b. He didn't have the foggiest idea.
c. It was Lady Jane Gray, who was queen of England for nine days before being beheaded in 1553.
d. It was one of Jagger's friends, Jane Dudley-Smithington-Harding.
6. In the Beatles song "Savoy Truffle," George Harrison refers to "Cherry Cream," "Apple Tart," "Ginger Sling" and "Montelimat" (sic). What on earth are these things?
a. Kinds of candy bar flavors he found on tour in Japan.
b. Names of confections he found in a London bakery.
c. Kinds of candies he found in a box of chocolates.
d. Nicknames that the Beatles gave to their most persistent groupies.
7. Don McLean sang "American Pie," perhaps the most analyzed song in the history of rock 'n' roll. What did he tell columnist Cecil Adams, who tried to decipher the lyrics?
a. "All I can say is that the song is an exegesis on a pair of turbulent decades that are forever imprinted on our collective psyches."
b. "I wrote songs to be sung, to make a joyful noise, not to provide deep meaning."
c. "Long ago I realized that songwriters should make their statements and move on, maintaining a dignified silence."
d. "I was drunk when I wrote it. There's really nothing else to say."
8. One of the most famous weird lyrics in rock history is from the 1960s song "MacArthur Park": "Someone left the cake out in the rain. ..." How did songwriter Jimmy Webb explain the lyrics in a radio interview a few years ago?
a. "Psychedelic-influenced lyric writing."
b. "Truly brilliant lyric writing."
c. "Absolutely godawful lyric writing."
d. "Careless lyric writing."
Answers: 1. d; 2. d; 3. b; 4. a; 5. b; 6. c; 7. c; 8. d.
Longtime journalist and National Public Radio commentator Daniel Schorr died last week at the age of 93 after a storied ---- and complicated ---- career.
Famously, he went on live TV in the 1970s with a copy of President Richard Nixon's newfound Enemies List. As he read it to viewers, he was surprised to find himself on the list along with a note: "A real media enemy."
He also made enemies within the media when he allowed a fellow reporter, Lesley Stahl, to be blamed wrongly for leaking details about internal CIA and FBI documents.
In recent years, he held forth on current events in commentaries on NPR, heard locally on KPBS-FM. Schorr had lost his touch, however. Often, he simply recapped what had happened without providing any perspective, an "on-the-other-hand" style that sounded like a wimpy newspaper editorial. On the other hand, he boasted a lifetime of making (mostly) the right kinds of enemies. Good for him.
Randy Dotinga is the pompatus of something, but he just can't remember what right now. E-mail him at NCTimesRadio@aol.com.
