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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. How did Robert Johnson die?
(a) Old age.
(b) Drug overdose.
(c) Suicide.
(d) Murdered.

3. What is ironic about rock 'n' roll and democracy?
(a) They are both individual and a community.
(b) They demand work and play.
(c) Each asks people to be something better than they are.
(d) Neither works in a specific way.

4. "Me and the Devil Blues" uses imagery that provokes what emotion?
(a) Love.
(b) Lust.
(c) Desolation.
(d) Hubris.

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

6. In the Prologue, Marcus says that the music he will discuss dramatizes what?
(a) What it means to be American.
(b) Life in the projects.
(c) The racial tensions of the time.
(d) The war.

7. What happened the first day of The Band's first concert after releasing The Band?
(a) They broke up.
(b) They invented crowd surfing.
(c) They played their best performance.
(d) They got stage fright.

8. What is added in the middle of the chapter "Harmonica Frank -1951," set off with a note from the author?
(a) An appendix.
(b) A footnote.
(c) An autobiography.
(d) A digression.

9. Who does Marcus compare Phillips to in the beginning of "Harmonica Frank - 1951"?
(a) Starbuck.
(b) Elvis Presley.
(c) Huck Finn.
(d) Harmonica Frank.

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

11. What "spirit" does Harmonica Frank have that Marcus believes is truly American?
(a) Unrepentant and free.
(b) Tender and free.
(c) Crazy and chaotic.
(d) Cruel and truthful.

12. With whom did the Band play from 1965 to 1966, helping him and themselves to improve and gain popularity?
(a) Elvis Presley.
(b) Bo Diddley.
(c) Bob Dylan.
(d) Ronnie Hawkins.

13. In "The Band," to what does Marcus compare the song "We Can Talk About It Now"?
(a) A roller coaster.
(b) The beginning of a new relationship.
(c) A reunion.
(d) A merry-go-round.

14. According to Marcus in "The Band," what is the storyteller in the second album?
(a) Farmer.
(b) Jokester.
(c) Settler.
(d) Murderer.

15. According to Marcus in "Robert Johnson -1938," what is the only way to quiet Johnson's song "Stones in My Passway"?
(a) Turn it off.
(b) Ear plugs.
(c) Turn it down.
(d) Walk away.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What type of music did Harmonica Frank sing?

3. According to Marcus in "Robert Johnson -1938," what is the American struggle?

4. In "The Band," what problem does Marcus reveal about The Band's sense of community?

5. Who said "If you have a mother-in-law with only one eye, and that eye is in the middle of her forehead, you don't keep her in the living room"?

(see the answer keys)

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