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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In "The Band," Marcus tells that groups are images of what?
(a) Community.
(b) Democracy.
(c) Family.
(d) Hope.

2. What was the original name of the Band in the early sixties?
(a) The Beatles.
(b) The Hawks.
(c) The Bush Beaters.
(d) Robbie and the Rockers.

3. In "Harmonica Frank -1951," what song does Marcus say "set the stage for rock 'n' roll"?
(a) "Howling Tomcat."
(b) "Mixed-Up Confusion."
(c) "Rockin' Chair Daddy."
(d) "Up on Cripple Creek."

4. What is the "old American idea" that the worried man is stuck in according to Marcus?
(a) The past as the present.
(b) An innocent world.
(c) A joint-stock world.
(d) Tradition before change.

5. What does Marcus name the storyteller from The Band's lyrics?
(a) Bob.
(b) The knight.
(c) The worried man.
(d) Big Pink.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who interrupts the fight over the book in the Prologue?

2. Who is the main character in the song "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"?

3. Four of the members from The Band are from where?

4. In "The Band," what does Marcus point to as the reason that The Band had the influences of many different bands and yet had an original sound?

5. According to Marcus in "Robert Johnson -1938," what gives music "mythical authority"?

Short Essay Questions

1. In "The Band," what is significant about a group according to Marcus in "Crossing the Border"?

2. According to Marcus in "Robert Johnson -1938," how are Robert Johnson's songs relevant even today? What artist's keep his spirit and music alive?

3. What is the relationship between the rock 'n' roll artist and audience according to Greil Marcus in the prologue?

4. What imagery does Robert Johnson often use in his music? What do these images convey?

5. According to Marcus in "The Band," how are Harmonica Frank and Robert Johnson relevant to The Band?

6. According to Marcus in "The Band," why is the story of Virgil Cane in "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" appealing to all Americans?

7. Describe the example of an artist that Greil Marcus uses in the prologue. Who is an artist and why? Why are the other people in the example not artists?

8. According to the prologue, what is Greil Marcus' purpose in writing Mystery Train?

9. In "Harmonica Frank - 1951," what exactly is the American spirit that Marcus believes Harmonica Frank brought to rock n' roll?

10. Why might "The Band" be subtitled "Pilgrim's Progress"?

(see the answer keys)

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