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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What single did Sly release that was the "most optimistic of all"?
(a) "Everybody is a Star."
(b) "Dance to the Music."
(c) "Stand!"
(d) "Riot."

2. Why did people riot at Sly Stone concerts in the 70s?
(a) The police showed up and made racial slurs.
(b) His music provoked angry emotions.
(c) Sly sold out.
(d) Sly showed up late or not at all.

3. What did Sly Stone call his band?
(a) Sly's Guys.
(b) The Family.
(c) The Stones.
(d) The Band.

4. What motto of Hank Williams' made him similar to Robert Johnson according to Marcus?
(a) Life goes on.
(b) Nothing really matters.
(c) The end is near.
(d) What life doesn't give me, I'll take.

5. Who sang "I tried and I failed / And I feel like going home" (154)?
(a) Carl Perkins.
(b) Hank Williams.
(c) Charlie Rich.
(d) Elvis Presley.

6. According to Marcus in "Elvis," what was the public unsure about when Elvis' music first came out?
(a) If he was country or rock 'n' roll.
(b) If he was black or white.
(c) What the music was about.
(d) How to listen to him.

7. What is the mood in the Riot album?
(a) Anger.
(b) Hope.
(c) Oppression.
(d) Joy.

8. To which historical figure does Marcus compare Elvis?
(a) Stevie Wonder.
(b) Ralph Waldo Emerson.
(c) Abraham Lincoln.
(d) Richard Nixon.

9. According to Marcus in "Randy Newman," why does Newman lack a large audience for most of his early carrier?
(a) Critics hated him.
(b) He does not try.
(c) Critics loved him.
(d) He lacks talent.

10. What did RCA first present Elvis as?
(a) A folksinger.
(b) A country singer.
(c) The boy next door.
(d) A hillbilly.

11. What does Leslie Fielder call the Beatles in "Randy Newman"?
(a) Democrats.
(b) Ancestors.
(c) Imaginary Americans.
(d) Pop stars.

12. What song by Randy Newman was a satire on bigotry?
(a) "Suzanne."
(b) "Short People."
(c) "God's Song."
(d) "Davy the Fat Boy."

13. What is the name of Elvis' mother?
(a) Gladys Presley.
(b) Helen Preston.
(c) Lisa Presley.
(d) Lydia Preston.

14. Who wrote "Papa Was a Rolling Stone?'
(a) Bob Dylan.
(b) Jimmy Hendrix.
(c) The Temptations.
(d) Sly Stone.

15. According to Marcus in "Elvis," why does Elvis NOT owe blacks anything?
(a) They did not copyright the style.
(b) They gave the style away freely.
(c) He made the music his own.
(d) The music was a throwaway.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Marcus, who is the focus in the song "Sail Away"?

2. What Randy Newman song does Marcus claim suggests that the we are being laughed at and life is a joke?

3. In what song does Sly Stone mock his own song "Thank you falettinme be mice elf Agin"?

4. According to Marcus, what did Staggerlee represent to the black community?

5. The Riot album reveals what image that Sly had for himself?

(see the answer keys)

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