View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Marcus point out as valuable in the Beach Boys music?

2. Who wrote "Papa Was a Rolling Stone?'

3. What group did Cleaver and Seale found?

4. What did some bullies call Elvis before he was a star and had grown side burns?

5. According to Marcus in "Randy Newman," what is the number one democratic desire?

Short Essay Questions

1. According to Marcus in "Sly Stone," why did Sly Stone create the album Riot ?

2. According to Marcus in "Sly Stone," how does the music produced by Sly and the Family Stone resemble freedom?

3. Why did Marcus entitle a section "Mystery Train" in "Elvis"? Why is this also the title of the book?

4. Why does Marcus compare the Fresh album by Sly to "Nietzsche's belief that he who gazes into the abyss will find the abyss looking back; that he who looks too long at monsters may well become one" (90)?

5. According to Marcus in the section "Sly Versus Superfly," why does Riot matter?

6. In the section "Sly vs. Superfly," what problems emerge from the black movies being made in the early seventies? How is real life different from the movies?

7. What is the basic plot for the Myth of Staggerlee?

8. In "Elvis," Marcus compares Elvis Presley to Abraham Lincoln, why?

9. What type of risk does Randy Newman make in his music? What risk does he avoid?

10. According to Marcus in "Elvis," what are Elvis Presley's roots?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Greil Marcus discusses The Band, Sly Stone, Randy Newman, and Elvis as the inheritors of Harmonica Frank's and Robert Johnson's music. In an essay identify how Harmonica Frank and Robert Johnson are ancestors.

Essay Topic 2

Marcus stakes a claim that Elvis Presley is one of a kind and could not be easily replaced. What is unique about Elvis Presley? How does he succeed where other failed? Why is Elvis able to stay at the top when other more seasoned artists fall off the charts and out of mind after getting their break?

Essay Topic 3

In an essay explore the reasons that Greil Marcus would discuss, in the same section, the dark and funny music of Randy Newman, the light music of the Beach Boys, and the stark imagery of Raymond Chandler. What do they have in common? What makes them different? How does Randy Newman fit into the world of the Beach Boys and of Raymond Chandler?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,231 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample