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

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

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

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?
(a) They were inheritors of rock 'n' roll.
(b) They were musical geniuses.
(c) They stole from the best and pieced it together.
(d) They studied under many different bands.

5. What is the last number on The Band album?
(a) "Whispering Pines."
(b) "King Harvest."
(c) "Dixie."
(d) "Crossing the Great Divide."

Short Answer Questions

1. The song "We Can Talk About It Now" creates what kind of image?

2. What does Marcus claim in "The Band" is not community?

3. What is the name of The Band's second album?

4. Why does Marcus believe it is important to study the stories of some performers even if the book does not encompass everything?

5. What is the "old American idea" that the worried man is stuck in according to Marcus?

Short Essay Questions

1. Compare and contrast Ahab and Huck using Marcus' descriptions from "Harmonica Frank - 1951." How are they different? How are they similar?

2. In the section entitled "The Weight" in "The Band," what does Dominique Robertson have to say about living in Woodstock? What does this say about community?

3. According to Marcus in the introduction to "The Band," what message did The Band send to its audience?

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

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

6. Just before "The Righteous Land," Marcus quotes from "We Can Talk About It Now." The storyteller in the song tells "there's no need to slave. The whip . . . is in the grave" (53). What type of imagery does this line have and what does it mean?

7. What type of music was Sam Phillips attempting to find and why?

8. There are several dualisms that Marcus identifies the Band reflecting on in "The Righteous Land " section of "The Band." What are two of these dualisms and what aspect of America do they reflect?

9. Marcus analyzes Robert Johnson's "Stones in My Passway" in "Robert Johnson -1938." What is the song about and what are the tools that Johnson uses to create the mood?

10. 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?

(see the answer keys)

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