Sunday, December 9, 2007

The Monday Quiz VI / Beethoven, Day Three

The Monday Quiz VI
Album Covers of the 1980s

1. This record (with the band name blocked out) has two distinctions: it is the first rock album I ever owned, and it has one of the worst covers of all time. Where did the band who recorded this album come from?

2. The band, the album name, and at least two radio hits.

3. Three great albums. Who is the band?



4. What is the band and the name of the album?



5. Both of these album covers were painted by the same American folk artist. Who was it?


Either record your answers in the form of a pop song and send them to me as an .mp3, or leave them in the comments.

I'm Famous!! I'm Famous!!!

Many thanks to frequent commentor "d" for the shout-out in his "mishaps, mayhem and merriment." Made my weekend, it did.


This is as Dark as it Gets, in a Way

I'm happy to inform you that today, Monday the 10th, has the earliest sunset of the year! From here on out, you are only going to have more light after work.
Now, some of you are saying, like "Dude! No way! Solstice is on the 21st." And indeed you are correct. As the sunset starts getting a tiny bit later every day, the sunrise is still getting a minute or two later for a few more weeks. The later sunrise will outpace the later sunset until the 21st, after which the sunrise will be getting later faster than the sunset, and the net length of daylight will start to grow again. By around New Year's Day, we'll have the latest sunrise, after which the day will get longer on both ends.


Monday
Countdown to Beethoven's Birthday:
Beethoven's Third Symphony (The "Eroica")

OK, think of Beethoven like you think of the Beatles. Both were producing their music during a period of extremely rapid social change. The body of work left by both shows an incredibly rapid evolution, reflecting the pace of that change. Both were of course highly influential, as well, helping to push forward the changes that were happening in contemporary music.

If you've been following along with this project, you've still got the sounds of the First and Second bouncing around in your head. You're going to immediately notice that the Third is bigger, louder, much longer, and with much more extreme contrasts of tone and mood. The famous opening melody seems straightforward for a few seconds, and then wanders off in an odd direction that no one at the time would have expected. These quirks will probably seem quite noticeable to you; to the listeners of 1804, it simply blew their classical Vienese minds. Some of 'em loved it, some hated it, but everybody recognized it as really crazy stuff. This music was radically new. If the Second was Beethoven's "I Want to Hold Your Hand" -- a successful but reasonably conservative incarnation of contemporary music trends -- the Third is more of an Abbey Road sort of deal.

Think of when the Third was written. The French Revolution has overthrown the ancien regime. You've had the Terror with its mass executions, and then a charismatic Napolean Bonaparte seemed to have ushered in a post-monarchist utopia, but then he crowned himself emporer and things got ugly. Politically and socially, Europe is writhing through the most extreme kind of social change. That's what it behind these crazy new sounds.

Apparently Beethoven originally dedicated the Third to Napolean, but then tore up the title page in a rage when he declared himself emporer. The old order is falling apart; Beethoven's Third ushers in the new.

25 comments:

d said...

seeing as the 80s were my heavy metal phase, there's only one of these i know for certain.

1. australia
2. the police, synchronicity 'every breath you take' and 'king of pain'
3. the replacements
4. i know i've seen this before... REM?
5. Grandma Moses?

Chance said...

1. men at work, australia
2. the police, synchronicity, every gbreath you take, da doo da da?
3. hi, we're the replacements (that's a they might be giants song)
4. pixies, dolittle
5. a reverend, but i forget his name.

Rex Parker said...

Really REALLY wish you'd set your Comments to open in a separate window so I could see the quiz as I responded.

Men at Work, Australia, "Who Can It Be Now?" etc.

POLICE ("Don't Stand So..." "Roxanne," "King of Pain," etc.)

REPLACEMENTS

Pixies, Doolittle

NO IDEA, though I own BOTH those albums.

rp

Rex Parker said...

PS I own (or have owned, in my lifetime) every album you pictured but one ("Tim" by the Replacements)

Rex Parker said...

PPS "Eroica" is the first piece of orchestral music I heard live when I began trying to care about such things a few years ago (also on the bill were a Serenade by Mozart and Metamorphosen by R Strauss). I own multiple versions. It rules my world.

rp

G said...

Ok, so I am exceedingly lame these days and am not going to participate in this quiz. Because I don't know any--and I mean ANY--of the answers. Not even close.

But I do plan on returning to indulge in some Ludwig after my grueling semester finally ends.

Anonymous said...

1. Australia. Also my first pop/rock album (I owned 1812 overture and Dvorak's New World Symphony and Grofe's Grand Canyon Suite before that. Followed in quick order by Synchronicity (see question 2) and Cargo by Men at Work.
2. The Police, Synchronicity. Synchronicity II, King of Pain, Every Breath You Take, Murder By Numbers (OK, not a radio hit exactly, but one of my favorites nonetheless).
3. Replacements
4. Pixies - Doolittle - whose hit "Here Comes Your Man" was covered by the shamefully unknown Plague of Daisies
5. Howard Finster (who just died, or is really ill, or something like that).
6.

Dug said...

Man I really hate quizzes! Really!

1. I'm thinking Australia-and really bad memories
2. The Police Synchronicity
Two hits? How about Synchronicity and Synchronicity II. Not hits?
OK - Wrapped Around Your Finger maybe was a hit? Every Breath You Take was probably a big hit too though the wife hates it.
3. Doolittle by the Pixies! Yeah!
4. The Replacements - more F**'ed up memories - did I remember these two out of order?
5. I don't know

Dug said...

PS - Sorry I missed the country shapes quiz but my brain was on hiatus for a few days. Oh well I hate quizzes anyway.

PPS - I wish my turntable was working so I could crank up REM's Reckoning but my records are on hiatus too. And I lost my harbour coat.

Anonymous said...

I think I'm going to sit this quiz out, as I sat out so much of the 80's pop scene. But I do know Howard Finster.

Emporer Napolean? And you were sounding so erudight. . .

Laura said...

1. South Park?
2. Duran Duran? Album With Skeleton and Primary Colors on the Front, "We Rock the 80s" and "Fun with Photo Montaging."
3. The Eels?
4. The Monkees? A Monkey and the Numbers 5, 6, 7 and 13: Greatest Hits.
5. Joni Mitchell? Why not, she's a painter.

I agree with Rex. I always toggle between this page and my feed reader, but it would be easier if you had a pop-up comment thing. Plus, then it would be easier to type my answers without having try really hard not to look at other people's answers to my left.

Laura said...

Oh. The Eels aren't from the 80s. Anyhoo. All I listened to back then was Raffi.

Karin said...

1. not Sting
2. The Police, Synchronicity: Roxanne, King of Pain. (But god I love Mother, Murder by Numbers and Tea in the Sahara)
3. not Sting
4. not Sting
5. not Sting


O, blessed day, that you have brought Sting into it. Blessed, blessed day!

Michael5000 said...


OK!

1. Australia
2. The Police, Synchronicity, any of a number of good songs.
3. The (fabulous) Replacements
4. The Pixies, "Doolittle."
5. The late Reverend Howard Finster.

One lone exclamation point to drschnell this week. Honorable mention to Chance, who nicked the tough final answer ("Reverend" was a good key word) but, damn, put "De Do Do Do De Da Da Da" on the wrong Police album).

Michael5000 said...


@d: Grandma Moses was a reasonable guess. I kind of regret she never got into the artsy rock band album cover racket.

@Rex: Oh, OK. Sounds good.

@Rex(2): It sounds like your attempt to care about classical music has borne some fruit?

@g & Laura: No worries. This quiz was heavily loaded towards men of a certain age and educational background.

@drschnell: After "Business as Usual," "Synchronicity" was my third rock album. In between? Why, The Tubes' immortal "Inside/Outside." Hmm...

Careful with that time compression, Eugene. Howard Finster went to his heavenly reward in 2001.

@dug: I feel terrible about how I am forcing you into quiz after quiz after quiz. Because I know you hate them.

I will try to make it up for you by getting you a trial copy of "Reckoning." If you like it, you can purchase a permanent copy. In the meantime, try to find your harborcoat. Can't go outside without it.

@Mrs.5000: I adore you beyond measure, my love. You are to me as air, water, and light. However, bight me.

@Karin: My own feeling is that your little Sting problem is pretty darn adorable. There, I said it.

d said...

'however, bight me.' i almost blew coffee out my nose.

and i don't think sting would take to lightly to the fact that you called him 'little'. plus, i'm slightly worried about karin and her apparent obsession. there's a fine line between 'adorable' and 'holy shit! would you please stop stalking me?'

thanks for the new window thingy. it's nice.

Dan Nolan said...

1. Canada?
2. Police/Synchronicity/Roxanne/Don't Stand So Close To Me
3. They Might Be Giants?
4. Pixies/Doolittle
5. Grandma Moses?

Goddamnit. I just scrolled up and I'm only 2 for 5. the shame.

Chance said...

Yeah, that was a wild guess on my part. F***k Tha Po-lice.

blythe said...

can you have a new quiz for peeps without power on monday? i would've rocked this bitch! ok, i'll wait till thursday.

Anonymous said...

I figured out what it was with Rev. Finster and the great beyond - there was a story in the NY Times back in October about his folk art church getting run down and attempts to restore it. I knew something about Finster-related stuff declining was in the news recently, I just ascribed it to the man himself and not to his buildings.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/25/arts/design/25gard.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Anonymous said...

Also, those albums I mentioned were then followed fairly quickly by the Cars "Heartbeat City" and Men Without Hats "Rhythm of Youth" and, um, Huey Lewis and the News "Sports". Yeah. Anyway..... Then I discovered Talking Heads and things were never quite the same after that.

Anonymous said...

OK, let me try that link again so you can see the whole thing.....
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/25/
arts/design/25gard.html?_
r=1&oref=slogin

Karin said...

d: Oh, no, Sting likes me. Every time he comes to town we hang out. At the Rose Garden (Arena). I scream maniacally like a Beattles fan until I swoon. Then he goes home. I pay him for this. It works for me; it works for him. We're both happy. It's a very nice arrangement.

Bridget said...

I was going to take this quiz. I really was. The first album? The boys from the land down under . . . also one of the first pop albums I purchased (though my first album request was The Grand Canyon Suite - long story). The second album? The Police, Synchronicity. Which I listened to over and over and over and over and over . . . it was like the soundtrack to middle school.

And I started thinking, hey, I could do this one!

And then I started trying to name which songs were on that album. And it got all mixed up with Sting's Dream of the Blue Turtles. and I could not come up with two songs that I knew for sure were on that album and that I for sure knew the titles of (not just the catchy refrains). And I realized that my Police fan-dom - and middle school life - were like 25 years ago.

At which point I poured myself a stiff drink and went to another, less challenging blog.

Michael5000 said...

@drschnell: It takes a brave man to admit he paid cash money for a Huey Lewis album.

@bridget: My blog is driving people to drink. I don't know whether to like that or not.