Coast-to-Coast Road Trip Playlist Quiz

Answer: Dropkick Murphys

While all these bands are from Boston, no one does raucous Celtic punk like the Dropkick Murphys. Known for their riotous music and St. Patrick's Day live shows, they first hit mainstream success with their single "Tessie" in 2004. Their fifth album, "The Warrior's Code" made it to number 49 on the Billboard Hot 200. While the album's "Sunshine Highway" and "The Warrior's Code" were released as singles, "I'm Shipping Up to Boston" containing some lyrics by Woodie Guthrie, was picked up by the Boston crime movie, "The Departed", in 2006. The soundtrack and movie transformed the Dropkick Murphys into the mainstream and they never looked back.

"Shipping Up to Boston" was the walk-up song of Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon, who danced an Irish jig to the song several times throughout the 2007 Boston Red Sox Championship season. When on their Victory Parade, Papelbon shared a flatbed truck stage with the Dropkicks as they toured Boston.

This question was screamed into the quiz by Phoenix Rising's punk rocker 1nn1.

Answer: Slayer

Released as a single in March 1987, "No Sleep till Brooklyn" originally appeared on the Beastie Boys' debut album, "Licensed to Ill" (1986). The song describes the events of one of the band's tours, and their determination to keep up with its increasingly exhausting demands until they return to their home base of Brooklyn, where they will finally be able to rest. The song's title is a play on the title of Motorhead's 1981 live album, "No Sleep 'til Hammersmith".

Producer Rick Rubin, who had also produced LA-based thrash metal band Slayer's seminal 1986 album, "Reign in Blood", felt that the song needed a guitar solo, and Kerry King was drafted in to lay down the part. He also appeared in the hilarious video that accompanied the song, a parody of the 1980s glam/hair metal craze. King was one of the founders and main songwriters of Slayer, together with fellow guitarist Jeff Hanneman, who passed away in 2013; the band disbanded at the end of 2019.

This hard rockin' question was enthusiastically riffed in by LadyNym, also known as Rockstar.

Answer: Allentown

The central idea of Billy Joel's "Allentown" is the region dealing with the decline of the manufacturing industry in America, making it 'hard to stay' in the city. The song first appeared on Billy Joel's 1982 album "The Nylon Curtain". The introductory sounds and rhythm of the song are intended to reflect the sounds of a steel mill. The 1982 release of "Allentown" was timely, as Allentown's residents were negatively affected by the nearby steelmaking company, Bethlehem Steel, declining and suspending most of its operations that year. Joel's decision to change the song's title from "Levittown" to "Allentown" came following a visit to the area in Northeast Pennsylvania. Billy Joel considered naming the song "Bethlehem" but opted for "Allentown" to avoid any impression that the song had religious connotations.

This question was steamed in by Phoenix Rising member Rizeeve.

Answer: Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen's eleventh studio album, "The Ghost of Tom Joad", (Tom Joad being one of the main characters in John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath", who struggled with the economic difficulties brought on by the Great Depression) won the 1997 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album.

"Youngstown" is just one of a series of songs on the album that Springsteen wrote in which one character develops into another character. The song shares a theme common to the songs in Bruce Springsteen's repertoire - the division between the working class and the wealthy. "Youngstown" mentions how the mills created tanks and weaponry to win wars, only to turn into 'scrap and rubble'. A popular misconception about the song "Youngstown" is that the steelworker in the song is dedicating it to a woman named Jenny, a name mentioned in the chorus, but Jenny is the nickname of a blast furnace in Youngstown - the Jeanette Furnace.

This song was blasted into the quiz by Phoenix Rising member Rizeeve.

Answer: Texas

"Jesus Just Left Chicago" originally appeared on ZZ Top's 1973 third studio album - aptly titled "Tres Hombres" ("Three Men" in Spanish). Indeed, the band has been a trio ever since its beginnings in Houston, Texas, in 1969. Though Billy Gibbons (guitar, vocals) is the only original member left, all of the band's albums from 1971 to 2012 were recorded by Gibbons, Dusty Hill (bass, vocals), and Frank Beard (drums). Sadly, Dusty Hill passed away in 2021, at the age of 72, but was replaced (as per his wishes) by the band's longtime guitar tech, Elwood Francis.

"Jesus Left Chicago" was written by all three members of the band. That song and "Waitin' for the Bus", also on the album, are among ZZ Top's most popular offerings, and are regularly performed on stage, segueing into each other. "Jesus Just Left Chicago" owes its title to a friend of Billy Gibbons' teenage years, who coined the phrase when they were talking on the phone. In the song, Jesus embarks on a cross-country journey, turning the waters of the Mississippi into wine, and finally reaching California. According to some interpretations, the song has a sort of spiritual meaning, as Jesus is described as being very much present and active in the world, even if no one can see him in person.

This 12-bar question was reverently drafted by LadyNym.

Answer: Ice hockey

Composer and musician W. C. Handy (William Christopher, 1873-1958) liked to describe himself as the "Father of the Blues" and was one of the earliest to publish music in this genre. His "Saint Louis Blues" (1914) was among the first blues tunes in popular music and a massive hit, with many well-known jazz artists making the standard part of their repertoire. Jazz greats Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Bing Crosby, Guy Lombardo, Glenn Miller and Bessie Smith all recorded the tune, with two different versions (Bessie Smith/Louis Armstrong (1925) and Louis Armstrong and his orchestra (1929)) being inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1993 and 2008 respectively.

The 1929 two-reeler "St. Louis Blues" featured the song, sung by Bessie Smith. With the work's popularity and pedigree, it was a logical choice for the National Hockey League's St. Louis franchise to name themselves after it.

The St. Louis Blues of the NHL, complete with their musically inspired logo, was a 1967 expansion franchise, playing their home games at the Enterprise Center in downtown St. Louis. Part of the Western Conference's Central Division, The Blues won Hockey's ultimate prize, the Stanley Cup, in 2019.

The St. Louis Cardinals Major League Baseball franchise was established in 1882 and has won that sport's World Series on 11 occasions. St. Louis City SC has been a Major League Soccer expansion team since 2019, scheduled to start competing in 2023. Historically, St. Louis has been the home for four different American Football teams: The All-Stars (1923), Gunners (1934), Cardinals (1960-1987; now in Arizona) and Rams (1995-2015; currently in Los Angeles).

Thanks to the magic of Youtube, Phoenix Rising's psnz enjoyed listening to the Louis Armstrong/Bessie Smith version of "St. Louis Blues" while writing this question.

Answer: Gene Pitney

"Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa" was penned by the prolific and successful team of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. This song tells the story of a travelling "Romeo" returning to his "Juliet" when he finds someone with an even greater attraction for his affections:

"Dearest darling I had to write to say that I won't be home anymore
cause something happened to me while I was driving home
And I'm not the same anymore
Oh I was only 24 hours from Tulsa
Ah only one day away from your arms
I saw a welcoming light and stopped to rest for the night
And that is when I saw her"

The "Romeo" ends up never returning:
"I hate to do this to you
But I love somebody new
What can I do
And I can never never never go home again"

Gene Pitney (1940-2006) became an international star because of this 1963 pop single which reached number five in the UK and number 17 in the US music charts. Appearing on Pitney's 1964 album "Blue Gene", the song was subsequently covered by many other artists.

Tulsa lies about 106 miles (170 km) northeast from Oklahoma City, in the NE corner of the state. Once nicknamed "Oil Capital of the World", it is Oklahoma's second-largest city and is considered the state's centre of arts and culture. The Woody Guthrie Center is a museum and archive in the Tulsa Arts District. It is planned to incorporate a "Bob Dylan Archive" there too, since he was Guthrie's protégé.

Writing this question proved a "walk down memory lane" for Phoenix Rising's psnz who grew up listening to Gene Pitney.

Answer: Neil Sedaka

Written by Neil Sedaka and lyricist Howard Greenfield, "Is This the Way to Amarillo?" is about a man travelling to the city of Amarillo, in northern Texas, to find his beloved Marie - a quintessential country & western lyrical theme. The song that was released in November 1971 and quickly becoming a major hit in continental Europe. "Is This the Way to Amarillo?" has a rather bombastic orchestral-pop arrangement, and was sung by English singer Tony Christie in an upbeat style reminiscent of Tom Jones.

In Christie's native UK, the song became even more popular when it was reissued in 2005 to raise money for charity Comic Relief. Accompanied by a video featuring comedian Peter Kay and various celebrities, "Is This the Way to Amarillo?" reached number one in the UK Singles Chart. On the other hand, Christie's version failed to make an impression in the US, even though the song had been written by two Americans. Neil Sedaka's own version of the song, whose title was shortened to "Amarillo", was released in 1977, and became an easy listening hit in the US and Canada, though it failed to reach the Top 40. "Is This the Way to Amarillo?" has also been covered a number of times by international artists; the Finnish version, with lyrics by Pertti Reponen, has become a Finnish pop evergreen.

Two of the three Neils listed as wrong answer are also renowned singer-songwriters (though Neil Young is originally from Canada), while Neil Simon was a playwright and screenwriter.

This question has been performed by LadyNym, who found the song infectious even if not exactly her thing.

Answer: Albuquerque and Oklahoma

"By The Time I Get to Phoenix" was written by prolific songwriter Jimmy Webb. The song is about his breakup with his partner Susan Horton who went on to marry Bobby Ronstadt, Linda's cousin, but Webb did not leave Horton like the protagonist did in the song. While it is always associated with Phoenix because of the title, its connection with this city is fleeting. The singer is leaving his partner, as, presumably, they lived in Los Angeles, and he is heading East with Phoenix, Albuquerque, and Oklahoma being mentioned in the first line of each verse (and going in the opposite direction of this quiz). The song was first recorded by Johnny Rivers in 1965 but Glen Campbell made it famous and a hit in 1967. The song won two Grammys.

This song was slipped into the quiz straight from northern Alabama's WKTI playlist by Phoenix Rising's JAM6430.

Answer: Led Zeppelin and Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell was the darling of folk-rock in the late sixties and early seventies. "California" was not as well-known as her other songs, such as "Both Sides Now", but it was just as sweet. Jimmy Page and Robert Plant were big fans of her and while their ballad "Going to California" (from side two of their unnamed fourth album) deals ostensibly with earthquakes and finding the perfect girl, it was inspired by, and is a tribute to, Joni Mitchell and her song "California" in particular.

The song ends and a Robert Plant solo hit comes on: "29 Palms", a song about a California city not far from where we are just north on the I-10. For years critics believed this song was about another Canadian singer called Alannah Myles but Mr. Plant has never confirmed this. It's almost dark when we roll into San Diego. Instead of turning onto the I-5 and heading downtown, we follow the I-8 until it runs out at Ocean Beach then drive south to the Cabrillo Monument on the western tip of San Diego in the southwest corner of the state. We get out of the car after a really long trip just as the last playlist song starts, San Diego's own Blink-182 with "All The Small Things". We stare wistfully across the Pacific Ocean and think how similar it looks to the Atlantic seen just a few days ago. "Life is a Highway".

Question written by team Phoenix Rising's playlist specialist 1nn1.