Warren Zevon questions by Vasa Clarke
Festivus 2014
- In a really dreadful B-movie from 1965, this gunslinger goes up against Dr. Frankenstein’s evil granddaughter, Maria. This man criticizes a washed-up actor for inaccurately portraying his life in the Twilight Zone episode “Showdown with Rance McGrew.” Tyrone Power portrayed this man in a 1939 film about his life, in which Henry Fonda starred as this man’s brother.This man was depicted fighting Al Capone on Deadliest Warrior, a conflict in which this man was victorious. For 10 points, name this outlaw who was assassinated by Robert Ford, and whom Warren Zevon encouraged to “keep on riding, riding, riding” in a song about him.
ANSWER: Jesse James
The song “Frank and Jesse James” by Warren Zevon mentions the James brothers’ service under this Confederate bushwhacker and bandit, who was responsible for the 1863 Lawrence Massacre.
ANSWER: William Clarke Quantrill
- According to one theory, the name for this genre of music comes from the name of a species of tree from the Cora language. A film about a player of this musical style was described by Roger Ebert as “in danger of being upstaged by its budget,” and its guitar-wielding protagonist gets mistaken for an assassin with a vendetta for the crime lord Moco. According to Wikipedia, a song played in this kind of music describes a creature who, in the original lyrics, cannot walk because one of his hind legs is missing. Warren Zevon described hearing this genre of music on the radio while waiting for his lover in the song “Carmelita.” For 10 points, name this style of Mexican music usually performed by bands wearing charro outfits, and includes songs like “La Cucaracha.”
ANSWER: mariachi
In Warren Zevon’s “Carmelita,” he mentions two locations, one a resort town in Baja California, the other a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles. Name either.
ANSWER: Ensenada or Echo Park
- Robert Lyall is the director for this city’s namesake opera company, which gave a world premiere of Thea Musgrave’s Pontalba in 2003. This city is home to celebrity chef John Besh, who runs restaurants like Pizza Domenica and The American Sector. In this city, “spy boys” accompany processions that involve participants who shout things like “jock-a-mo!” and who are led by a “wildman” and a “Big Chief.” The artifact known as the “Golden Nugget” is from this city, and is thrown to crowds by Zulus wearing blackface. A 1979 police strike in this city forced its krewes to relocate festivities to nearby Jefferson Parish. For 10 points, name this Louisiana city, home to Bourbon Street and a really wild Mardi Gras tradition, where the song “Iko-Iko” was written.
ANSWER: New Orleans
Warren Zevon performed a cover of the song “Iko-Iko,” a New Orleans standard, on this first album of his, which also contains songs like “A Bullet for Ramona” and “Tule’s Blues.”
ANSWER: Wanted Dead or Alive
- One of this performer’s songs states that “you really tempt me, you know the way you look so kind,”and was used without permission by John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign.This man declared his intention to “rent myself a house in the shade of a freeway” in another song, the title track of his fourth album. On the Warren Zevon tribute album Enjoy Every Sandwich, this musical artist performed a cover of “Poor Poor Pitiful Me,” which was originally intended as a parody of this musician’s style. For 10 points, name this man whom Warren Zevon claimed to have witnessed “walking slow down the avenue,” the really melancholy singer of songs like “Running on Empty” and “The Pretender.”
ANSWER: Jackson Browne
Warren Zevon mentioned Jackson Browne in his rendition of “Werewolves of London” on this live album.
ANSWER: Stand in the Fire
- On live television, this celebrity called Catherine Ringer a “filthy fucking whore,” whereupon she referred to this man as a “bitter old alcoholic.” This frequently intoxicated singer-songwriter performed a cover of the song “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” from the musical Roberta in his 1975 album “Rock Around the Bunker.” Hecompared himself to the gibbet of Montfaucon after asking the listener to please just leave him alone in a song that was later covered by Warren Zevon. This man also sparked controversy when he and his daughter appeared in one of his music videos reclining on a bed, partially clothed. For 10 points, name this French musician who wrote songs like “Laissez-Moi Tranquille” and “Lemon Incest.”
ANSWER: Serge Gainsbourg [or Lucien Ginsburg]
I couldn’t think of a good bonus for this one, so: for a quick 10 points, name any Warren Zevon album, except for those previously mentioned.
ANSWER: Warren Zevon, Excitable Boy, Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School, The Envoy, Sentimental Hygiene, Transverse City, Hindu Love Gods, Mr. Bad Example, Mutineer, Life'll Kill Ya, My Ride's Here, or The Wind
- Alan Moore created a series of one-panel comics depicting one of these animals saying depressing things like “go on, ask me about my marriage.” In a storyline from DC Comics, a nation of these creatures previously led by Solovar use their namesake “bombs” to transform humans into these animals. Another of these animals from DC Comics shoots freakin’ kryptonite beams out of his eyes and is known as Titano. Warren Zevon sung about one of these animals “in the L.A. zoo” who “took the keys to my BMW” and proceeded to rise through human society. For 10 points, name these great apes, real-life examples of which include Titus, Snowflake, and the notably-fluent-in-sign-language Koko.
ANSWER: gorilla
“Gorilla, You’re A Desperado” appeared on the album Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School alongside this parody of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama.” This song by Warren Zevon contains the only modern musical reference to brucellosis.
ANSWER: “Play It All Night Long”
- This writer is told, “don’t be such a big girl’s blouse!” before he offers to “summon up fifty of my men, lay siege to the fellow’s house and do bloody murder on him” in the Blackadder episode “Ink and Incapability.” In the TV series Highlander, this writer beheaded Hans Kershner and survived until 1997 while doing lots of drugs. This writer, whose appearance in another show was theorized to be the result of a supernatural sandwich, instigated a duel with Sperg after his protégé wrote a poem calling Sperg’s mum “so icky and hideously ugly that if you look at her, your head will melt!” This onetime teacher of Billy from The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy liked to change his clothes all the time in a song by Warren Zevon about this poet’s luggage. For 10 points, name this clubfooted dandy whom quizbowlers might recognize for writing “She Walks in Beauty.”
ANSWER: Lord Byron [or George Gordon Byron or George Gordon Noel plus any of his proper titles]
In the song “Lord Byron’s Luggage,” Warren Zevon attended this sports event “intending to put out to sea.” This British rowing competition has been held on the “Straight Course” in the River Thames since 1924.
ANSWER: the Henley Regatta [or Henley Royal Regatta]
- A Japanese food company of this name manufactures products like Vermont Curry and the carbonated drink Ramune, while its American subsidiary is the country’s largest provider of tofu products.A villain with this name fed upon the artron energy within TARDISes, and lured the Doctor to his location by sending out a fake distress signal. Warren Zevon wrote about “Disorder in” one of these locations, while the ska band Madness wrote a song about one of these buildings located “in the middle of our street.” For 10 points, give this name for a residential building, the surname of a really cynical doctor named Gregory who knows that it’s never lupus.
ANSWER: house
Warren Zevon’s Grammy-winning song “Disorder in the House” was performed as a duet with this singer-songwriter. This guy has won a lot of other awards, including a Grammy for his album The Ghost of Tom Joad.
ANSWER: Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen
- In AdventureQuest, the elemental orb of this element was discovered by the desert raider Suld, whom the player character must fight in order to acquire it.Raimundo Pedrosa from Xiaolin Showdown! uses the Blade of the Nebula in order to perform special moves with this element. Linka, from Captain Planet and the Planeteers, has the power of this classical element. In a Warren Zevon song, a man asks his ex-lover to “hasten down” this phenomenon, which lent its name to his final album. For 10 points, name this weather feature that Wikipedia defines as “the flow of gases on a large scale,” and which in Greek myth were kept by the god Aeolus.
ANSWER: the wind [do not accept air, that’s just stupid]
On The Wind, this was the only song that Warren Zevon performed but did not share at least co-authorship credit. This song first appeared on the soundtrack of the film Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.
ANSWER: “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”
- Eddie Vedder, the lead singer of Pearl Jam, released a solo album whose title suggests that its songs involve this musical instrument. Warren Zevon reported hearing these instruments being played “down by the sea” in a song that describes a marital infidelity during his vacation. A popular player of this instrument, Tiny Tim, performed a version of “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” that was featured in the horror movie Insidious. Israel Kamakawiwoʻole, who became famous for his “Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World” medley, popularized this traditional instrument. For 10 points, name this stringed musical instrument popularly used in Hawaiian music.
ANSWER: ukulele
Warren Zevon’s song “The Hula Hula Boys” was briefly mentioned in the book “The Curse of Lono” by this crazy-ass American writer and failed candidate for Sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado.
ANSWER: Hunter Stockton Thompson
- In a Fox Trot story arc, Paige becomes distraught when she discovers her misconceptions about one of these locations during a family vacation to Washington, D.C. The character Malcom takes over one of these locations with some homemade bombs in a 2014 drama film based on a novel by Eric Bogosian. In the song “Transverse City,” Warren Zevon refers to the “clergy” of these locations, while a later track on the same album talks about having adventures in one of these locations, and contains the lyric “we’ll go shopping, babe, it’s something we can stand!” For 10 points, name these disgusting symbols of American consumerism that usually contain stores, restaurants, and old people hanging around.
ANSWER: mall
Warren Zevon’s album Transverse City contains this hilariously dated track that mentions cutting-edge innovations like the BASIC programming language. This song opens with the words, “There’s a way to live that’s right for us / Like Mayans in Manhattan and Los Angeles…”
ANSWER: “Networking”
- Michael Laudrup was named this country’s greatest football player of all time!!! by this country’s Football Association. Although it only has two Michelin stars, this country’s Noma restaurant was ranked as the best in the world by Restaurant magazinein 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2014. This country won the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest with “Only Teardrops” by Emmelie de Forest, and hosted the 2014 contest in its capital city. A deal made in this country led to “Norway’s bravest son” setting out forAfrica in a Warren Zevon song about a mercenary who was shot to death by “that son-of-a-bitch Van Owen” but returns from the grave to seek vengeance. For 10 points, name this home to the title character of “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner,” the southernmost of the Nordic countries.
ANSWER: Denmark
Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner allegedly inspired this person, according to Warren Zevon, who “bought it” upon hearing the burst of Roland’s Thompson Gun. She went by the pseudonym “Tania” while robbing banks.
ANSWER: Patricia Campbell “Patty” Hearst
- This man made a brief appearance in the TV show Mork & Mindy as Ellsworth, a self-help authority from the episode “Mork Goes Erk.” This man was stalked by Margaret Mary Ray, who was arrested after stealing this man’s car and failing to pay a highway toll. On the Warren Zevon song “Hit Somebody! (The Hockey Song),” this television personality was a prominent guest vocalist, and it was on his TV show that Warren Zevon famously remarked that his terminal mesothelioma diagnosis had taught him how important it was to “enjoy every sandwich.” For 10 points, name this long-running host of the Late Show, who admitted to a bunch of extramarital affairs in 2009 and who is due to be replaced by Stephen Colbert.
ANSWER: David Michael Letterman
During his final appearance on David Letterman’s show, Warren Zevon presented him with one of these objects. Jerry Garcia, who collaborated with Warren Zevon on the song “They Moved The Moon,” used several of these things that he named “Rosebud” and “Tiger.”
ANSWER: guitar [accept more specific types]
- Cliff Cavin holds this profession on the long-running sitcom Cheers. Warren Zevon claimed that “I’m hiding from [one of these people], and I hate to hear the telephone ring” in the song “Worrier King.” Garfield muses “I wonder if killing [one of these people] is a federal offense” in one comic; in other comics, this local professional complains to Jon after Garfield steals his pants. After being literally hanged to within an inch of his life, Moist Von Lipwig is granted a reprieve so that he might take up this profession in a certain Discworld novel. For 10 points, name this profession, whose members are stereotypically prone to insanity by “going postal.”
ANSWER: mailman [or anything involving post offices, screw it]
“Worrier King” has never appeared on a Warren Zevon studio album; however, live recordings of it have survived, including one featured on this compilation album. This album also notably features a “Roland Chorale” and a really long version of “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner.”
ANSWER: Learning to Flinch
- In a 1993 interview with Oprah, this performer called the Bee Gees “brilliant” and claimed that one of his signature moves happened “subliminally.” Warren Zevon described this celebrity in Disneyland asking Goofy to “lead [him] through the world of self” in the song “Splendid Isolation.” This public figure asks Zed about “that position you promised me” in Men in Black II, and is instructed to keep working on the Alien Affirmative Action program. This performer died right before his This Is It comeback tour, which resulted in the incarceration of his doctor Conrad Murray for involuntary manslaughter. For 10 points, name this man, the King of Pop, who released albums like Thriller and Bad.
ANSWER: Michael Jackson
The opening lyrics of “Splendid Isolation” reference this artist who lived “all alone in the desert.” She painted works like Blue and Green Music and was married to Alfred Stieglitz.
ANSWER: Georgia O’Keefe