MetaQuiz: Songs on the Radio About The Radio -17

Answer: Green Day

This is the title track from the Green Day album. The band's frontman celebrity Billie Joe Armstrong wrote the lyrics to this song as well as the other songs on the album. The politically rebellious feel to the song was an outgrowth of Mr. Armstrong's participation in a protest march in New York City in 2014.

Answer: English Graffiti

Vaccine frontman Justin Yost described the song to New Musical Express, a British music journalism website, as "a song about the bombing of Bikini Atoll disguised as a song about summer." The Bikini Atoll, located near the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific is where the U.S. famously conducted some atomic bomb tests after World War II. French designer Louis Reard named his 1946 creation, a women's swimwear garment, after that atoll.

Answer: Hall & Oates

"X-Static" came out in 1979, reaching number 33 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. "Portable Radio" was the third song on Side One. (remember when music came in formats with two sides?) Daryl Hall and John Oates co-wrote the song.

"You got your pertinent information
Or you can tune in to hear the scores
Now, there's a power in a million stations
You can't ignore.

C'mon and listen to the
(Radio)
Turn up the power, the power
(Radio)
Rock it for hours and hours and hours
(Radio)
Now play it soft and low
(Portable Radio)
V-v-viva la
(Portable Radio)
Crank up the power
(Portable Radio)
Turn up the power all night"

Answer: Joy Division

Joy Division was a punk band formed in England in 1976. New Addition is a play on the name of the band "New Edition". The Minus 5 is an American rock band featuring R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck. The Three Degrees were an all female vocal group from Philadelphia. Joy Division recorded "Transmission" as a vinyl single not associated with an album. The song launched them into success.

"Well I could call out when the going gets tough
The things that we've learnt are no longer enough
No language, just sound, that's all we need know, to synchronise
Love to the beat of the show
And we could dance
Dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, to the radio."

Answer: Radio Silence

Frightened Rabbit, a Scottish band, recorded their "Radio Silence" for their 2013 album, "Late March, Death March." Scott Hutchinson, the band's frontman, says the song is about the pain one goes through during a relationship's break-up.
"I speculate the quiet nights, how and where your body lies
Who owns the knee that clicks into the jigsaw piece that I once knew
And I could break the silence but I fear I've held you back enough
The space exists so time can tell, but so much space becomes a cell."

James Blake's "Radio Silence" is the opening track on his 2016 album "The Colour In Anything." As it happens, Mr. Blake's song is also a meditation on the sadness of a broken heart.
"It's hard to tell if I don't know how you feel
But in my heart
There's a radio silence going on."

Answer: a magazine

Henry Hall was a bandleader and composer who appeared regularly on the BBC, which until 1936 was exclusively a radio channel. The BBC began publishing the magazine "Radio Times" in 1923, and its readership grew with each year. Henry Hall wrote a song titled "Radio Times" in 1934 and recorded it with Dan Donovan and The BBC Dance Orchestra.

It was an attempt to gain more popularity for the magazine, and indeed circulation rose to over five million.

Answer: Bruce Springsteen

The song was the first single released from Bruce springsteen's album, "Magic." He won Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance and Best Rock Song at the 2008 Grammys. Apparently charted better in Europe than in Mr. Springsteen's own USA, where he was born.

"I was spinnin' 'round a dead dial
Just another lost number in a file
Dancin' down a dark hole
Just searchin' for a world with some soul
This is radio nowhere, is there anybody alive out there?"

Answer: Buzzcocks

The Buzzcocks are the only British punk band among the choices. Wang Chung was a New Wave group from England, Driveshaft is a fictional band that was invented for the television show "Lost", and The Johnson Mountain Boys were an American bluegrass band from the 1980s.

Well, "Radio Nine" is the last track on the Buzzcocks' 1979 album "A Different Kind of tension". It's only 41 seconds long, so there really wasn't much room for more than those few lyrics.

Answer: Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers

Ranked number 274 on Rolling Stone magazine's 2004 listing of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time", "Roadrunner" was written by a 19-year-old Jonathan Richman. He and his Modern Lovers band actually have recorded several different versions of the song over the years.

"I got the AM...
(Radio On!) I've got the power, I feel the feeling now...
(Radio On!) I feel the feeling and it's feeling alright now...
(Radio On!) And I feel in touch with the modern world."

Answer: Don Williams

Don Williams is the only country music star of the choices. Mason Williams was a guitarist/comedian who wrote the instrumental hit from the 70s "Classical Gas." Deniece Williams was a soul and funk influenced singer from the 70s and 80s. Andy Williams was an American popular music singer, famous for his iconic recording of Henry Mancini's "Moon River" used in the film "Breakfast at Tiffany's." The Don Williams recording was written by Fred Knipe and was also the title of his album "Listen to the Radio."

"Baby don't go
They sing it on the radio.
I try to find a way to explain to you
What's on my mind
And not sound so plain to you
But you'll realize if you'll close your eyes
The feelings my words can't slow.
They're playing on the radio."