10-4 Guild Buddy Quiz | Something in Common

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. "I like trucking, I like trucking I like trucking and I like to truck I like trucking, I like trucking If you don't like trucking, tough luck" Which inspirational British television comedy sketch show featured a song about trucks with these immortal lyrics?

Answer: Not The Nine O'clock News

"Not The Nine O'clock News" featured Mel Smith, Griff Rhys Jones, Rowan Atkinson and Pamela Stephenson and was broadcast from 1979 to 1982. It was scheduled at 9pm on BBC 2 - just when the "Nine O'clock News" was on BBC1.

The trucking song and other highlights can be seen on YouTube.

Submitted by Guild Member Darksplash

2. "I've been from Tucson to Tucumcari Tehachapi to Tonapah Driven every kind of rig that's ever been made Driven the back roads so I wouldn't get weighed" This song has been covered by a lot of people, the most familiar probably Linda Ronstadt. What song is it?

Answer: Willin'

"Willin'" was written by Lowell George, of Little Feat. The song was written before the band was formed, while George was still a member of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention. He apparently used to say that this song was responsible for him leaving Zappa's band - there are several versions of the story, some of them flattering to George, and some less so.

Little Feat recorded the song a couple of times, on 1971's "Little Feat" and on "Sailin' Shoes" in 1972. Linda Ronstadt covered it on her breakout album "Heart Like a Wheel", in 1974.

Submitted by Guild Member agony

3. In "Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses", Charlie is driving his last ten miles before retiring from 30 years on the road. He has a gold watch testimonial and a dozen roses for his long neglected wife. How do they plan to spend their retirement years?

Answer: Traveling together in a camper

In this song that hit number one on both the US and Canadian charts in 1988, Charlie and his wife "buy a Winnebago" and "set out to find America." "They'll do a lot of catching up a little at a time with pieces of the old dream. They're gonna light the old flame doing what they please, leaving every other reason behind."

The song was a huge hit for Kathy Mattea who had recorded it on her album "Untasted Honey".

Trucking is more than a job, it's a way of life for the men and women who transport goods across the land, no matter what continent or country they may ply. Retirement poses a difficult dilemma, and most truckers continue to travel either part time for pay on local runs, or for pleasure in RV's.

Submitted by Guild Member sidnobls

4. Gene Seski picked up his load of bananas in Weehawken, NJ and was on his way to this Pennsylvania city when his brakes failed and he crashed. Harry Chapin used this event to write his song "30,000 Pounds of Bananas." Which city was the driver entering when he crashed?

Answer: Scranton

Chapin's song first appeared on his "Verities and Balderdash" album from 1974. Later, Chapin came up with some alternate endings of the song, including singing "Yes we have no bananas, Bananas in Scranton PA", which were included on his live album "Greatest Stories Live".

Submitted by Guild Member ertrum

5. On the evening of the anniversary of D-Day, what, according to C. W. McCall's iconic trucking song 'Convoy', was the Kenworth hauling?

Answer: Logs

"Was the dark of the moon, on the sixth of June
In a Kenworth, pullin' logs
Cabover Pete with a reefer on
And a Jimmy haulin' hogs"

The song 'Convoy' had actually been written by Bill Fries (C. W. McCall) for a series of bread commercials. It inspired a Sam Peckinpah film starring Kris Kristofferson and Ernest Borgnine. It also inspired a parody by British DJs Dave Lee Travis and Paul Burnett, performing as 'Laurie Lingo and the Dipsticks', called 'Convoy G.B', from where the other two wrong answers come:

"It was a foggy day on the sixth of May
In a Scammell haulin' bricks
It was just crackin' dawn and I started to yawn
Cos I couldn't find any nice chicks."

Submitted by Guild Member Quiz_Beagle

6. The Grateful Dead's road song "Truckin" is legendary for several reasons. Which of these is NOT true about this "long strange trip" of a song?

Answer: The first performance of the song was in New Orleans on Bourbon Street in 1970

Actually, the first performance of the song was at San Francisco's Fillmore Theater in August 1970. The song appeared on the album "American Beauty". The event in New Orleans about getting "busted down on Bourbon Street" is included in the lyrics and according to most sources related a true drug bust. R. Crumb's comic artwork was a part of the era and the trucking guy was a cultural icon you could see all over the land moving along with his foot extended in front of him. "Truckin" is one of the ultimate road trip songs of the era.

Submitted by Guild Member Bruyere

7. Disco is not the music genre most associated with trucking songs but in 1973 a song called "Keep on Truckin'", argued by some as being the first ever disco song, hit the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA. In doing so it became the first major solo hit for Eddie Kendricks, formerly the lead singer with which Motown band?

Answer: The Temptations

"I'm the red ball express of lovin'
Diesel-powered straight to you, I'm truckin'
In old Temptation's rain, I'm duckin'
For your love through sleet and snow, I'm truckin', ooh"

Kendricks' split from The Temptations, the group he had co-founded in 1960 as The Elgins, was an acrimonious one. The lyric was allegedly in part a response to The Temptations' single "Superstar (Remember How You Got Where You Are)" which was an attack on him and another former Temptation, David Ruffin.

Whether "Keep on Truckin'" was the first disco song is a matter of much debate; it is certainly in the reckoning along with The Hues Corporation's "Rock The Boat" from 1974 and a number of Barry White compositions.

Submitted by Guild Member snowman

8. "I drive my old nine-wheeler down I-two-and-a-half The other truckers pity me so they try not to laugh I pull off in Yreka and check into Motel Three They've always got a little room for me" "Half a man" songs are a dime-a-dozen in country western music, but who penned this literal take on the genre, performed by the satirical bluegrass band The Austin Lounge Lizards?

Answer: Hank Card and Conrad Deisler

This song comes from the Austin Lounge Lizards' album "Small Minds." Like the typical "Half a man" genre, rejection by a woman metaphorically causes the speaker to lose half the normal contingent of body parts. However, the Lounge Lizards extend this transformation to other material objects as well, as we see from the next verse:

"I play solitaire 'til dawn with a deck of twenty-six
You might think I'm crazy but that's how I get my kicks
I listen to Rush Limbaugh 'cause he helps to ease my pain
He makes lots of sense if you're a man with half a brain
I buy a tenth of whiskey and a cold three-pack of beer
I drink 'til I see single when I gaze into my mirror
I know that through that looking glass is where I'll have to be
Reunited with the better half of me

Someday I'll find a woman and a half and take her hand
But 'til then I don't know when
I will be more than half a man"

Submitted by Guild Member pu2-ke-qi-ri

9. No trucking song quiz would be complete without at least one song by Red Simpson. The way he carried himself struck such a chord with truckers that many were stunned to discover he had never driven a big rig. An accomplished songwriter himself, he had a 1971 top 5 hit with a song written by Bob Stanton, which cleverly viewed life from the perspective of the truck. What is the title of that song?

Answer: I'm A Truck

The song starts out with the line "Hello, I'm a truck" and is best represented with these four lines:

"There'd be no truck drivers if it wasn't for us trucks
No double clutching, gear jamming, coffee drinking, nuts
They'll drive their way to glory, and they have all the luck
There'd be no truck drivers if it wasn't for us trucks."

Submitted by Guild Members patricck and qwikjanz

10. Weird Al is best known for his parodies of musicians such as Michael Jackson and Madonna. He has also written some original tunes, like his "Truck Drivin' Song." What type of shoes is the driver wearing while "driving a big ol' truck?"

Answer: High heels

Monty Python performed a skit about a cross-dressing lumberjack which became one of their many fan favorites. It's been suggested that Weird Al used their lumberjack as his inspiration for his truck driver:

"My diesel rig is northward bound
It's time to put that hammer down
Just watchin' as the miles go flyin' by
I'm ridin' twenty tons of steel
But it's sure hard to hold the wheel
While I'm waiting for my nails to dry

Oh, I always gotta check my lipstick in that rear view mirror
And my pink angora sweater fits so tight
I'm jammin' gears and haulin' freight
Well, I sure hope my seams are straight
Lord, don't let my mascara run tonight

Because I'm drivin' a truck
Drivin' a big ol' truck
Smokey's on my tail and my accelerator's stuck
Got these eighteen wheels-a-rollin' until the break of dawn
Drivin' a truck with my high heels on."

Submitted by Guild Member SilverMoonsong

Put your pedal to the metal, keep on truckin' and remember... "Leave room for trucks!"

Source: Author SilverMoonsong

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor ralzzz before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

10-4 Guild Buddy Trivia Quiz

Truck drivers are an important part of any economy, hauling anything and everything across the land, even across treacherous terrain. The Guild offers up a cargo of music written for or about these "Kings of the Road."

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