Tapped Out Trivia Quiz

Answer: David Lynch

David Lynch was the "Master of Surreality" and, probably, not the name you'd expect to see on a list of deceased musicians but, his contribution to music goes well beyond the two Blues albums mentioned in the question above. These were "Crazy Clown Time" (2011) and "The Big Dream" (2013).

However, it was his collaborations and contributions to movie soundtracks where he made the bigger impact. His collaborations, with the likes of sound designer Alan Splet and, in particular, composer Angelo Badalamenti, led to the creation of sound that was both atmospheric and experimental. Most notable amongst these were the soundtracks to the "Twin Peaks" television series (1989-91), where he also used the evocative voice of Julee Cruise, and the films "Eraser Head" (1977) with Splet and "Mulholland Drive" (2001) with Badalamenti.

Over the course of his career Lynch would release two solo studio albums, five collaborative studio albums, six soundtrack albums, two spoken-word albums, one extended play, and twenty singles. In addition, he would write the lyrics to Julee Cruise's first two albums, "Floating into the Night" (1989) and "The Voice of Love" (1993).

Answer: Sam Moore

When someone of the stature of Otis Redding can feel upstaged in your presence, you know that you're onto something strong. Sam Moore was the lead vocal, with the high tenor voice, of a duo that created an intensity on stage that was almost unrivaled during the 1960s... to the point where Otis did not wish to follow them on stage.

Sam commenced his singing career singing in gospel groups in the 1950s and this would have a strong influence on the duo's future sound. He teamed with Dave Prater in 1961 and the pair were soon signed to Atlantic Records, where they created a string of hits such as "You Got Me Hummin'" and "When Something is Wrong with My Baby" (both 1967). That same year the pair would reach their high point with the release of "Soul Man", which was backed up by Booker T and the MGs.

Ever a fractious relationship, the two would split in 1971. They would reunite to perform as a duo on an infrequent basis and, when they did, they barely spoke to each other on stage. Moore's solo career had its moments, but his weapon was his voice, and this meant that he was always in demand. Don Henley brought him onboard to assist him with his album "Building the Perfect Beast" (1984) and Bruce Springsteen would call upon his services when he recorded his "Human Touch" LP in 1992.

Answer: The McCoys

Born Richard Zehringer, Rick was only 17 years old playing in a band called Rick and the Raiders, when they were the backing band for a group called the Strangeloves. The Strangeloves then recruited the band to record a cover of "My Girl Sloopy", a Top 30 hit for the Vibrations in 1964. Rick changed his name to Derringer, the band changed its name to The McCoys to avoid confusion with Paul Revere & the Raiders and Derringer successfully argued that the song title be changed to "Hang on Sloopy". The song went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and would become an anthem for garage bands across the globe.

The McCoys released a further seven singles with their best performers being covers of "Fever" (1965) and "Come On, Let's Go" (1966). Their recording of "Sorrow", the b-side to "Fever", would later become huge hits for UK band The Merseys (1966) and David Bowie (1973).

Derringer would go on to work extensively with both Johnny and Edgar Winter, producing their hits "Frankenstein" and "Free Ride in 1973. He had his own solo hit, "Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo" (1973), which reached 23 on Billboard's Hot 100, collaborated extensively with Steely Dan, Cyndi Lauper and Weird Al Yankovic, being the producer behind the latter's hits "Eat It" (1984) and "Fat" (1988).

Answer: Johnnie Walker

Born Peter Dingley, Walker was wildly passionate about his music. He was a maverick whose actions often saw him in hot water but would endear him to stars like Robert Plant, who labelled him "a defender and gatekeeper of great music taste".

He changed his name at the behest of Swinging Radio England, so that he could stand out, when he started his career with them in 1966. From there he moved to Radio Caroline, where he continued to broadcast offshore and defy the government's Marine Broadcasting Offences Act, until 1968.

He was recruited in 1969 by BBC Radio who may have had second thoughts when he began to intersperse his shows with album tracks against single releases and was admonished for being "too into the music". His bosses, however, cooled their heels, as Walker's easy going, conversational style was a hit with the listeners, allowing him to champion the likes of Fleetwood Mac, Lou Reed, and Steely Dan during the early 1970s. However, they pulled the plug on him in 1976 when he labelled the Bay City Rollers as "musical garbage".

After a five year spell on radio in the United States, he returned to England via Radio 1 and then BBC's Radio London where, once again, he was fired, this time for suggesting that no one was listening to the radio as they were celebrating the resignation of the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. By 1998 he held a weekly spot on Radio 2, eventually absorbing Steve Harley's "Sounds of the 70s" show and incorporating the "Radio 2 Rock Show" to his list of credits until his retirement in 2023.

Answer: Michael Hurley

In an interview with Uncut Magazine in 2022 Hurley declared "I say perfect is boring. The tendency these days is to make music that is too pristine... you don't hear any humanity in it." That quote virtually summed up Hurley's career in music. Working on the basis that "less is more", he was constantly paring back his songs and drawing on the beauty of life's rich pageantry, while intermingling it with his own absurdist imagination.

His folk songs were neither commercial nor conventional but they were idiosyncratic, sprinkled with the fairy dust elements of jazz and blues, often playful, yet profound. He became the poster-boy for left field songwriters and his fan base included the likes of Yo la Tengo, Calexico and Lucinda Williams.

Amidst of welter of albums, his place in the genre was set around the three albums that he recorded while working with the Rounders label - "Have Moicy" (1975), "Long Journey" (1976) and "Snockgrass" (1980). He would release 33 albums by the time of his death in April, 2025, at the age of 83 years.

(Footnote) For those who are unsure as to what defines freak folk music... it is a sub-genre of folk music where acoustic sounds are blended with elements of avant-garde and psychedelia.

Answer: I'm in the Mood for Dancing

The Nolans were known for their Europop disco sound and were active, predominantly between 1974 and 2005. They enjoyed a string of hits throughout Europe but failed to make an impact in the United States. The biggest of those was "I'm in the Mood for Dancing", their only gold record, which peaked at number three on the UK Singles' charts. Their other hits included "Gotta Pull Myself Together" (1980) and "Attention to Me" (1981), both of which reached the UK Top Ten.

The band (of seven) disbanded in 2005 but four of the sisters reformed five years later for a reunion tour and moderate success with a re-mixed version of their gold record. Whilst Linda was a part of that reunion, she had previously left the band in 1983. On her own she some minor recording success and gained the sobriquet "Naughty Nolan" after posing in some risqué publicity shots. However, her biggest successes, away from the group, were on stage, playing the title role in "Maggie May's" (1986-93) and the Prison Governor in "Prisoner Cell Block H: The Musical" (1996-97).

Answer: The Damned

Brian James' career in punk began with short-lived spells with proto-punk bands Bastard and London SS, the latter alongside Mick Jones who would form The Clash, before becoming the co-founder of The Damned. According to former band member Captain Sensible, Brian was the visionary "he could see it coming". He delivered a number of songs to the band, including "New Rose" - "it sounded radically different to what was going on at the time" said Sensible in an interview with Uncut magazine in 2023.

"New Rose", Britain's first punk rock single, released five weeks ahead of "Anarchy in the UK", was set loose in 1976 and, in short order, heralded the released of the LP "Damned Damned Damned" in 1977. After writing most of the songs in the follow-up album, "Music for Pleasure" (1977), James would depart the band. He immediately formed the short-lived punk band Tanz Der Youth, which toured with Black Sabbath, individually, he toured with Iggy Pop and appeared as a guest on the album "Out in the Jungle" (1982) by proto-punkers The Saints. In 1981 he formed the punk rock super group Lords of the New Church with members from 1970s punk bands the Dead Boys (Stiv Bators), Sham 69 (Dave Tregunna) and the Barracudas (Nick Turner). The band released three well received albums in the early 1980s but their notoriety was achieved with their aggressive antics on stage.

Whilst he formed another super group in 2001, The Racketeers with Wayne Kramer (MC5), Duff McKagan (Guns 'n' Roses), Stewart Copeland (The Police) and Clem Burke (Blondie), the Damned had never left Brian's heart. He returned to the group in the late 1980s to record a live album with them, re imagined a number of their old recordings on 2013's "Damned if I Do" and reunited with them in 2022 for a series of celebrity across the UK.

Answer: Peter Yarrow

As part of the trio Peter, Paul and Mary, Yarrow was one of the leading lights of the US folk revival in the early 1960s. The group formed in 1961 and had immediate success with their singles "Lemon Tree" (1961) and a cover of Pete Seeger's "If I Had a Hammer" in the same year. This would help to propel their self-titled debut album (1962) to the top of the Billboard Hot 200. It would remain in those charts for almost ten months. In 1963 they released a cover of Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind", which they would go on to perform during Martin Luther King's "March on Washington", effectively turning the song into an anthem for the Civil Rights Movement.

Yarrow was a talented songwriter in his own right, with his best known creation being "Puff the Magic Dragon" which the trio released in 1962. He also co-wrote "Torn Between Two Lovers", a song that was a massive hit for Maureen MacGregor in 1976. The only blight on his career was an arrest in 1970 for immoral and improper liberties with a minor in 1970. He would serve three months of a three year sentence and was pardoned by President Jimmy Carter in 1981.

Answer: Val Kilmer

Another unusual selection for a musicians quiz, though I can safely point to the fact that he has released recordings, most notably the 2007 album "Sessions with Mick". This was a collaboration with New Jersey musician Mick Rossi and was released independently. Whilst the recording was used to generate funds for charities, it did showcase Kilmer as a songwriter. He also recorded several songs for the soundtrack to the movie "Top Secret" (1984) and he did receive a Grammy nomination for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for his work on the 1999 project "The Mark of Zorro".

However, I brought Kilmer into this quiz because of his outstanding work portraying Jim Morrison in "The Doors" (1991), and the lengths that he'd go to in a bid to capture the essence of the man who became known as the "Lizard King". He spent over six months living as a rock star, wearing leather pants, Morrison's style of clothing and insisting that he be called "Jim" while on the set. He lost weight to look like the lean Morrison in his youth and then stacked it on to portray the man in his later years. Kilmer studied hours of footage of Morrison performing live so that he could truly imitate the singer on stage, and he spent months getting vocal training, rehearsing over fifty songs over and over again until his voice was virtually identical to that of the man he would portray. In short, it was total immersion on Kilmer's part, an act that would, ultimately, leave him with emotional scars.

Answer: Blondie

The band Blondie nearly dissolved in 1975 after their bass player, Fred Smith, decided to call it quits. According to the band's lead singer, Debbie Harry, the reason they remained together was due to the efforts of their drummer Clem Burke. In her book "Face It: A Memoir" (2019) she wrote; "He was so enthusiastic, a real cheer leader, he pushed us really hard and he kept us going."

Burke's versatility on the drums was critical to Blondie's success, and it needed to be as the band continually shifted between genres that ranged from pop-punk to disco, funk, rock and, occasionally, white reggae. The song "Dreaming" was deliberately mentioned in the question above as it is one of Burke's standout performances, where he drives the number with a ferocity that was akin to the late, great Keith Moon.

It's also appropriate to mention Moon as he was a key influence on Burke, along with the likes of Ringo Starr, Al Jackson Jr. and Hal Blaine. While Chris Stein called him "the heartbeat of Blondie", Burke was not averse to playing with other bands during Blondie's occasional interludes. Most notable among these were The Ramones (where he was billed as Elvis Ramone) and the super groups Chequered Past, The Racketeers and Slinky Vagabond.