Pick a WINDOW, yer leavin' Part 2 Quiz

Answer: How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?

Whilst Divine is enjoying her "meal" the song 'How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?', as sung by Patti Page, plays. Not Bruno Mars' 'Girl In The Window'. Not George Formby's 'Mr Wu's A Window Cleaner Now' and not Steve Miller Band's 'The Window'. Now grab a barf bag and some chocolate mousse and go see that movie! Woof Woof!

Answer: Eyes

Cuby & The Blizzards were really big in their native Holland. They formed in 1964 and were easily the most "Blues-Rock" band in Holland at the time (a la the original Fleetwood Mac, Chicken Shack, John Mayall, Keef Hartley Band etc). Their line up changed constantly with founders Harry Muskee and Eelco Gelling being the only constants.

They had a very long career (1964-1976) and reformed twice: in 1996 without Eelco Gelling and again in 2004 on a tour in tribute to John Lee Hooker. After Harry Muskee died on September 26, 2011 any possibilities of future reunions died with him.

Answer: Through A Window

Hard Meat were a British band from the very late sixties and very early seventies. Most Americans MIGHT know of them (if they know of them at all) via their track "Smile As You Go Under" on the utterly wonderful 3lp/$3.00 1970 Warner Brothers 'Loss Leaders' sampler "Loony Tunes And Merrie Melodies". They were actually a very decent bank who released two beautifully packaged LPs in 1970 on Warner Brothers: "Hard Meat" and "Through a Window". In 1971 my mother's girlfriend went to the UK for a week after we moved to Germany that year and she bought me two albums: Rod Stewart's 'Every Picture Tells A Story' (which was all over the UK charts at the time) and Hard Meat's 'Through A Window', because she knew I bought many of my records based on the covers and she thought this one had an unusually nice cover I would like. She was correct. If you ever see either of their albums cheap in the used record bins near where you live you should definitely give them a shot.

'My Secret Window' is a track by a band named Mercenary.

'See Through Windows' is a track by the always wonderful British band Family.

I made up the "Don't Open The Window..." one. It sounds like a good future lyric I might have to write a song around.

Answer: Outside My Window

Let's see... a TWO LP set soundtrack to a film about plants. How could this not sell? This album has been referred to as 'experimental'. If mediocre songwriting combined with a go-nowhere idea is what can be considered 'experimental', well then who am I to argue? "Outside My Window" might well be the only decent song on that album, which went platinum right after it was released and afterwards sold about one billionothing copies and could be found in cut out bins in stores across the USA for $1.99 less than three months after it was released! I think the only other double album that raced to the cut out bins as fast as Stevie's was the 1974 "Johnny Carson-Here's Johnny Magic Moments From The Tonight Show".

When I first moved back to the USA in 1976 there was a music store near me that specialized in cut out records and tapes, discontinued posters and music books and other paraphernalia.

They had a 100 count lp box at the exit full of this Johnny Carson album which encouraged customers to buy one for a dime.

After a few months that changed to "For Free" and after a few more months they were including a copy inside your bag for free - you were kind of being forced to take a copy home with you in other words (at one point I had about 100+ copies of this album in my possession because of this practice of theirs) because they could not even give copies of this album away! This is the kind of company 'Journey Through The Secret Life Of Plants' was keeping less than a few months after it was released! As with most Stevie Wonder songs the ending goes on (seemingly) forever, but other than that it is really a surprisingly good song that really shines within the context of this album.

Answer: Topanga Windows

The 1968 self titled, Lou Adler produced, debut Spirit album (one of the ten greatest albums ever made in my opinion, along with the equally brilliant follow up "The Family That Plays Together", which is every bit the equal of the first album) contains the song "Topanga Windows". 'Lookin' Thru My Window...' is a made up title.

Answer: The Doors

Released on April 19, 1971, "LA Woman" was the final studio album recorded during Jim Morrison's lifetime. This album featured one of their better songs as track four on side one of the original vinyl issue (or track four on the cd issue).

'Cars Hiss By My Window' was recorded during the final recording session for the album. A day that Morrison proclaimed 'Blues Day', as that recording session also produced the recordings for the songs "Crawling King Snake" and "L.A. Woman".

Answer: Memories At The Window

'Memories At The Window' is the only real song here. The rest are all made up. Black Oak Arkansas... what a great band they were. I really don't know all that much about the band as I did not live in the USA during their heyday (and they never made even the slightest dent in Germany, where I lived in from 1971-1976). I saw them play for free on Venice Beach in the afternoon right before their debut album came out (I had no idea what the name of the band was but I recognized them when I saw their first album in the stores).

While their records were all but impossible to get in Germany I was able to eventually special order their records through the store I worked at part time as a teenager in 1974-1976. A vastly under rated group in my opinion.

Their singer, Jim "Dandy" Mangrum, was basically the template for David Lee Roth. When Van Halen first started playing the Hollywood clubs in 1976 word on the street was that "their singer does Jim Dandy better than Jim Dandy".

Answer: Quicksilver Messenger Service (1968 Self Titled Debut)

This song is on their 1968 debut album, simply titled "Quicksilver Messenger Service" (Not to be confused with their 1971 release "Quicksilver", which is what most of their fans referred to them as). QMS were one of the great "San Francisco Sound" bands signed (to Capitol Records) during the mid sixties signing flurry, where every major label attempted to sign up at least one "San Francisco Sound" band.

While QMS did not prove themselves to be major unit shifters, as far as record sales were concerned, they did wind up being one of the longest lives bands from that era (they still tour to this day although main early members Dino Valenti, John Cipollina, David Frieberg and original member Alexander 'Skip' Spence (who Marty Balin poached from the band before Skip made any official recordings with them) have all passed away. Gary Duncan and Greg Elmore are the only living members of the original line up that recorded the first album.

Answer: 154

Wire were (and still are) one of the great punk bands. They all learned how to play their instruments and within a few months were playing live shows and had more than enough material for an album. They were signed by the infamous British progressive rock label Harvest Records, for whom they recorded their first three legendary albums 'Pink Flag', 'Chairs Missing' and '154' (which includes the track 'The Other Window' as track four) between 1977 to 1979.

At the time many people thought of Wire as "The punk Pink Floyd" or the most progressive of all original punk bands (which made their signing to Harvest Records a very appropriate move on both the band and the label's part).

They have reformed a few times over the decades, with the "new millennium" reformed version of the band issuing albums every few years that are every bit as innovative and great as the albums they released in the seventies.

Answer: Cleaning Windows

'Cleaning Windows' is a track from one of what many Van Fans consider to be one of his finest records, 1982's "Beautiful Vision". Some consider this song to be that record's highlight. Lyrically 'Cleaning Windows' is a a metaphor for the times of his early career (1961-1962).

It must also be a personal favorite of Van's as when he chose which songs of his would go on the 1990 release "The Best Of Van Morrison" to represent what he considered to be his best songs, 'Cleaning Windows' was one of the tracks he chose to include on that album.