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Interesting Questions, Facts and Information
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 Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information
 Animals in Songs
| Written in French by Georges Bressons, what animal that escaped from a circus and had an amorous interlude was sung about (in English) by the late, great Jake Thackray? | Songs Featuring Creatures #1 (Quiz_Beagle) |
Gorilla. "'I'm going to lose it last' he cried
Swinging lissomly out of his cage
Referring of course to his chastity,
He was just at the difficult age"
Unfortunately the encounter was with a (male) Petty Sessions judge! Georges Bressons died in 1981 but his song "Le Gorille" lived on in Jake Thackray's version. Sadly, we lost Jake Thackray (who I was lucky enough to see live) on Christmas Eve 2002.
| Who had a hit single with "Spiders and Snakes"? | 'Snake, Rattlers and Crawl'- Reptiles in Songs (Mutchisman) |
Jim Stafford. Jim Stafford had a few (mostly light-hearted) hit singles in The States but only charted twice in Britain. "Spiders and Snakes" was a hit in 1973 and Jim followed that up with "My Girl Bill" in 1974.
Ray Stevens also had several novelty hits in the 'seventies including "Briget the Midget" and "The Streak".
Loudon Wainwright III has never scored a hit single in the UK but I did buy "Dead Skunk" all those years ago.
| While we're on sad songs, there was another view of the Titanic disaster written by Les Barker and recorded as a song by the Mrs Ackroyd Band on the wonderful album 'Tubular Dogs'. What animal asked "Have you got any news of the iceberg?" | Songs Featuring Creatures #1 (Quiz_Beagle) |
Polar bear. "My wife and my children were coming from Greenland
To be by my side in the zoo;
Belinda's my wife, and the eldest's called Bernard,
And Billy, well he's only two.
I know on the ship there were hundreds of people
And I know the iceberg's not yours...
The polar bear's eyes held the start of his teardrops
And he covered his face with his paws.
Have you got any news of the iceberg?
My family were on it, you see;
Have you got any news of the iceberg?
They mean the whole world to me."
I defy anyone to listen to this unmoved! Les Barker is a comedian on the British folk circuit and the Mrs Ackroyd Band consists (in 2008) of him, Alison Younger, Hilary Spencer and Chris Harvey.
| Which elephant, courtesy of Tom Paxton, learnt to dance the minuet? | Songs Featuring Creatures #1 (Quiz_Beagle) |
Engelbert. "The King and Queen were speechless
(And I'm sure they're speechless now),
Engelbert the Elephant
Made a very lovely bow,"
A lovely song about an elephant that was invited to a formal dance by the King and Queen.
"And the dance he did along the road is talked about today!". From the album 'Going to the Zoo'; Tom Paxton also wrote a children's book about Engelbert.
| Which band sang these lyrics?
"An' here I go again on my own,
Goin' down the only road I've ever known,
Like a drifter I was born to walk alone.
An' I've made up my mind;
I ain't wasting no more time." | 'Snake, Rattlers and Crawl'- Reptiles in Songs (Mutchisman) |
Whitesnake. The lyrics are from Whitesnake's 1987 hit "Here I Go Again". It was a reworking of an album track and got to number nine in Britain.
Black Cobra are a metal band from California.
Blackadder was a successful British comedy series.
| Which animals did the Manic Street Preachers want to send away? | Songs Featuring Creatures #2 (Quiz_Beagle) |
Tigers. This was the title of Welsh group Manic Street Preachers eighth album and was apparently taken from a phrase coined by Tony Hancock (the great English comic) about drinking alcohol.
"Oh so send away the tigers
Because we're lonely and we're desperate
Oh so send away the tigers
Because they're creeping up and dangerous"
| Which "Working Class Millionaire" sang about Beaver the Believer? | Songs Featuring Creatures #1 (Quiz_Beagle) |
Richard Digance. Richard Digance (who released an album called 'Working Class Millionaire') is a very talented British folk singer. I was unable to find the lyrics of 'Beaver the Believer' on the Internet, so from memory:
"Beaver Believer was swimming one day
His family were talking but he'd nothing to say
When all of a sudden he hit on a plan
Decided to build an incredible dam".
I used to know all the words (never get stuck next to me at a party!) All the wrong answers are or were British folk singers.
| What was the name of the horse that the group America travelled though the desert with? | Songs Featuring Creatures #1 (Quiz_Beagle) |
No name. "I've been through the desert on a horse with no name
It felt good to be out of the rain
In the desert you can remember your name
Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain"
Despite the double negatives of the chorus, the song reached number three in the U.K. charts and number one in the U.S. for three weeks in March/April 1972. I hope you've enjoyed this journey through songs that celebrate our furry friends. All feedback welcome.
| What was the name of the dog that Lobo sang about "Travellin' and livin' off the land"? | Songs Featuring Creatures #1 (Quiz_Beagle) |
Boo. "Me and you and a dog named Boo
Travellin' and livin' off the land
Me and you and a dog named Boo
How I love being a free man"
Lobo was born in 1943 as Roland Kent Lavoie and is an American singer-songwriter who had several 70s hits, including "Me and You and a Dog Named Boo" and "I'd Love You to Want Me".
| What song by the Doobie Brothers refers to a snake? | A Cold-blooded Music Quiz! (JellyTrollMorton) |
Cotton Mouth. The water moccasin (Agkistrodon piscavorus), a venomous snake from the Southeastern United States is referred to as a cottonmouth because the inside of the mouth is white.
| What reptiles are mentioned in "Ventura Highway" by America? | A Cold-blooded Music Quiz! (JellyTrollMorton) |
Alligator lizards. "Seasons crying no despair, Alligator lizards in the air" are the rather cryptic lyrics from this song. Alligator lizards are not alligators. They are small (four to six inch long) lizards with short limbs, slender body, and a distinctive fold along the sides of their bodies. Alligator lizards belong to the genus Gerrhontonus, and you can probably find alligator lizards alongside Ventura Highway. One species, the southern alligator lizard (Gerrhontonus multicarinatus) is native to the area.
The Turtles. There are over 250 species of turtles worldwide. Turtles have feet that are adapted for water, wherease tortoises have feet that are adapted for land travel.
| What group named themselves after a line from a skit by a comedy group whose name contains a reptile? | A Cold-blooded Music Quiz! (JellyTrollMorton) |
Toad the Wet Sprocket. The comedy sketch was by Monty Python. Pythons are constricting snakes beloging to several Old World genuses. Toads techincally are amphibians of the family Bufonidae, but many reptiles, (horned lizards for example) have also been referred to as toads.
| What group is lead by David Coverdale? | A Cold-blooded Music Quiz! (JellyTrollMorton) |
Whitesnake. Although there are over 2,000 species of snakes, I do not believe that any is referred to as a Whitesnake.
| What did Jim Morrison of the Doors sometimes call himself? | A Cold-blooded Music Quiz! (JellyTrollMorton) |
Lizard King. Jim Morrison was the Lizard King. Lizards belong to the order Squamata (which includes snakes and lizards). Lizards can be distinguished from snakes because lizards have eyelids, external ears, and are anatomically different internally. There are some legless lizards, and some snakes (boas, for example) have vestigal legs.
| What car (with a reptilian name) did the Rip Chords sing about? | A Cold-blooded Music Quiz! (JellyTrollMorton) |
Cobra. "Hey Little Cobra" was a song by the Rip Chords. There are about 20 species of cobras (Family Elapidae) in the world.
| What animal did the singer, whose real name was Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie, take to number 9 in the UK charts in 1968? | Songs Featuring Creatures #2 (Quiz_Beagle) |
Tiger. The singer was of course Lulu, whose song 'I'm a Tiger' has the chorus
"I'm a tiger, I'm a tiger, I'm a tiger, I'm a tiger
I'm a tiger, I'm a tiger, I'm a tiger, I'm a tiger"
just in case you were in any doubt. All the wrong answers come from some aspect of Lulu's career. She released her version of 'Nellie the Elephant' in 1990 without troubling the charts, and 'Run Rudolph, Run' in 2007. 'Gonks Go Beat', released in 1965, was a film starring Kenneth Connor, that is described in Amazon as 'A way-out fantasy musical with hot music from Lulu And The Luvvers, The Nashville Teens, The Graham Bond Organisation and more.' Lulu precociously shot into the UK charts at the age of 15 with the song 'Shout'. She was still going strong in 2008 as an actress and singer.
| We'll start with probably the best known song about a pachyderm. Originally recorded by child actress Mandy Miller, it received a new and punky lease of life in 1984 when it was released by the Sunderland band The Toy Dolls. Who was the perambulating pachyderm? | Songs Featuring Creatures #1 (Quiz_Beagle) |
Nellie. "Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk
And said goodbye to the circus
Off she went with a trumpety-trump
Trump, trump, trump"
Written in 1956 by Ralph Butler and Peter Hart, this was a children's favourite for many years. Little did we realise that the next generation (and some of us too!) would be pogo-ing to it. According to Wikipedia, this song can be used to give the correct timing for CPR. This is presumably the original, as doing it to the Toy Dolls would probably kill both the resuscitator and the patient. All the wrong answers are fictional elephants.
| Tom Paxton wrote a satirical song about an episode during Jimmy Carter's presidency. What was the title? | Songs Featuring Creatures #2 (Quiz_Beagle) |
I Don't Want a Bunny-Wunny. On 20 April 1979, while fishing, President Carter's boat was attacked by an exhausted and/or deranged swamp rabbit (Sylvilagus aquaticus). At first the story was met with disbelief, then a picture, taken by a White House photographer was released - and the ridicule began.
"I don't want a bunny wunny in my little wow boat
In my little wow boat in the pond
For the bunny might be cwazy and he'll bite me in the thwoat
In my little wow boat in the pond"
The wrong answers are my take on other incidents in the Carter presidency.
| This song was written by Benny Whitehead and recorded by Gene Cotton in 1975. It tells the sad story of a singer reminiscing about when he was with a girl (who has now left him) and a happy day at the zoo. A song of heartache, which animal still remembered the singer's lost girl?
| Songs Featuring Creatures #1 (Quiz_Beagle) |
The elephant. "But it's already been well over a year
And just in case you're interested you might like to hear
How everybody's doing down at the City Zoo
Without you
Well the monkeys forgot ya and the hippo forgot ya
And so did the kangaroo
But me and the elephant, we still remember you
Me and the elephant, we'll never forget you"
Aww! The song was also recorded by Kenny Starr and Bobby Goldsboro in 1977.
Gene Cotton got 1,554 votes when he ran for a seat in the Tennessee House of Representatives in 2001, losing to Republican Glen Casada.
| This song could have been recorded in 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, or 1999. It might be rereleased in 2011. It was actually a hit for Al Stewart in 1976. Which animal's year is this? | Songs Featuring Creatures #2 (Quiz_Beagle) |
Cat. "Year of the Cat". The wrong answers are also Chinese horoscope years - and 1976 was actually the 'Year of the Dragon'. In Chinese horoscopes, 'Rabbit' is interchangeable with 'Cat'. The lyrics are stunningly beautiful (in my opinion)
"On a morning from a Bogart movie
In a country where they turn back time
You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre
Contemplating a crime
She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running
Like a watercolour in the rain
Don't bother asking for explanations
She'll just tell you that she came
In the year of the cat"
| This pony "busted down his stall" and was lost in a blizzard. Can you name him? | Animals In 70s Song (borddog) |
Wildfire. The hit was Michael Murphy's 1975 hit "Wildfire" (I'm not a fan of it, but hey I'm trying to get away from the early 70s so why not?)
| This is yet another early seventies hit from America it sang of a trek thought the desert with this animal. What was this unnamed animal? | Animals In 70s Song (borddog) |
a horse. Yes, he spent 9 days with the horse and never gave it a name. Why not just name the darned thing and move on. You'd think by the third day you could come up with some kind of a name like Silver, Black Beauty Man-O-War or something.
| This animal from a Three Dog Night hit had a little trouble communicating with the singer but they had some mighty fine wine together. What was this wine-drinking animal? | Animals In 70s Song (borddog) |
a bullfrog. Yes his name was Jeremiah and the song was "Joy To The World" it hit #1 in 1971. If you're not singing in your head "Jeremiah was a bullfrog..." right now you probably never heard this song.
| This 1971 hit for Lobo sang of a cross country (U.S.) car trip with a dog. What was the dog named? | Animals In 70s Song (borddog) |
Boo. In the song "Me And You And A Dog Named Boo" they were caught stealing from farmer MacDonald's hen. He made them work but paid them for it in the end.
| The much covered song "Money" was a number five hit in 1979 for which act? | 'Snake, Rattlers and Crawl'- Reptiles in Songs (Mutchisman) |
The Flying Lizards. "Money (That's What I Want)" was originally a hit for Barrett Strong in the States in 1959 and holds a place in music history as it was the first hit record for Berry Gordy's Motown flagship label. Many people have covered the song over the years including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin.
The Flying Lizards struggled to follow up their success and only scored one more minor hit with "TV".
The Stray Gators were a group of musicians who provided backing on Neil Young's "Harvest" album.
There is no band called Skink Anansie; the first word is Skunk and disappointingly Herb Alpert's band were the Tijuana (not iguana) Brass.
| The Monty Python team had a hit single in 1991 with "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life". Which 'Python' movie did that song originally feature in? | 'Snake, Rattlers and Crawl'- Reptiles in Songs (Mutchisman) |
The Life of Brian. "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" was written and performed by Eric Idle as part of the crucifixion scene in "The Life of Brian". The film had been shelved by the original film company and may never have been completed but for the financial imput of former Beatle, George Harrison, who put in a substantial amount of his own money to help finance the movie. In 2006 it was voted the best comedy movie of all time by viewers of Britain's Channel 4.
The single reached number three in 1991.
| The film was originally conceived for Warren Beatty. The song, written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, was nominated for an Oscar in 1965, but lost out to "The Shadow of Your Smile". What furry creature are we talking about here? | Songs Featuring Creatures #2 (Quiz_Beagle) |
Pussycat. "What's New, Pussycat" was apparently named for Warren Beatty's habitual (then) greeting. It starred Peter O'Toole as an insatiable playboy and is very much of its time. The song (sung by Tom Jones as the title tune) has also been recorded by Tony Bennett, Bobby Darin, Anita Kerr and The Four Seasons.
| One of the earliest anti-pollution songs, released in 1972, this was about which 'demented' animals? | Songs Featuring Creatures #2 (Quiz_Beagle) |
Horses. "Crazy Horses" by the Osmonds. Written by Alan, Wayne and Merrill Osmond, this was an extremely rocky song that was a radical departure from the Osmonds' usual style. It has been recorded many times by such diverse bands as The Alex Harvey Band and Utah Saints.
"There's a message floatin' in the air
Come from crazy horses ridin' everywhere
It's a warning, it's in every tongue
Gotta stop them crazy horses on the run
What a show, there they go smokin' up the sky, yeah
Crazy horses all got riders and they're you and I"
| On to 'the bravest animals in the land'. Timid Toad, Reckless Rat, Artful Owl and Batty Bat drove off an evil snake that was keeping "the woodland folk awake
In fear and trembling every night
In case he gave someone a bite"
Sung by Keith Michell, who would probably prefer to be remembered for his masterly portrayal of the king in 'The Six Wives of Henry VIII', this song reached number five on the UK charts in 1980. Who was the leader of this band? | Songs Featuring Creatures #1 (Quiz_Beagle) |
Captain Beaky. "The bravest animals in the land are Captain Beaky and his band
That's Timid Toad, Reckless Rat, Artful Owl and Batty Bat
They march through the woodlands singing songs
That tell how they have righted wrongs"
This was written by Jeremy Lloyd, better known as the author or co-author of successful sitcoms including 'Allo 'Allo!', 'Grace and Favour', 'Are You Being Served?' 'Vampira' and 'Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In'.
| OK, this is cheesy, cheap and embarrassing, but hey, I'm running out of material, so I'm going with it anyway. A 1975 CB radio-inspired hit (sorry to say, I think it hit No. 1, what were ya'll thinkin' back then?) spoke extensively of this animal, though it was a code word for a state troopers. There was even one in the air according to the song. What were these so called animals?
| Animals In 70s Song (borddog) |
bears. The 1975 hit was "Convoy" by C.W. McCall, that's a big 10-4 good buddy. State troopers (due to their hats)were known to truckers as Smokey Bears or smokies, or just bears as the song goes. There was actually a 1978 movie made based on this song. Again, what were you thinking? Oh, it gets better. It starred Kris Kristofferson and Ali MacGraw,pretty big names for the time! I would never be sucked into something as cheesy as that fad, so I'll catch ya on the flip-flop and you keep the shiny side up and the rubber side down, even if your 10-20 isn't Shakeytown like mine.
This question and info were rewritten and thanks for the tips loonytunes and others
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