It’s impossible to have a quiz book of this ilk without a section devoted to rock’s great cryptic troubadour. Not just a rock and roll figure, Bob Dylan was (though he might deny it) one of the most significant figures in sixties counter-culture. Here, the first 20 questions are about his work and life. The last ten take the format of the Classic Albums quizzes, whereby you get three tracks and have to deduce which album they were on, and its decade of release.
Answers: here
1 When Dylan won a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 1991, which of his sixties songs did he sing in response to the Gulf War? Which world leader, at a presentation six years later, praised him for having ‘disturbed the peace and discomfited the powerful’?
2 What was the title of the 1975 album by Bob Dylan and the Band from recordings made while he was recuperating from a motorcycle accident in 1966? Under what name did the Band act as Dylan’s touring band during 1965?
3 Who was Bob Dylan’s first wife, and what name did he give her in the film he directed in 1978?
4 Jacques Levy, a trained psychologist and the director of the erotic Broadway stage show Oh Calcutta!, was an odd co-writer for Dylan – but on which album did he co-write all but two of the songs? One of them, ‘Hurricane’, was about the wrongful arrest and prosecution of which boxer?
5 ‘Come in, she said, I’ll give you. . . .’ on Dylan’s 1975 classic Blood on the Tracks? On the same album is a narrative song called ‘Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts’: which mean mine owner do that trio thwart?
6 The seventh volume of the Bootleg series of Dylan releases was the soundtrack to a 1995 TV documentary. What was it called and who directed it?
7 Which 1979 album is regarded as the first of Dylan’s Christian albums? Which famous studio in Sheffield, Alabama, known for its soul sounds and top drawer horn section, was it made in?
8 ‘Baby Stop Crying’ was one of two only UK Top 20 singles Dylan enjoyed post-1970. The other was a 1973 track from the Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid soundtrack: what was the song? Who directed the film?
9 In the mid-nineties Dylan released two albums of traditional folk songs. What marked Good as I Been to You (1992) as the first of its kind since Another Side of Bob Dylan in 1964? The song ‘Blackjack Davey’ was a rendering of which Scottish folk ballad?
10 Which Jamaican rhythm section did Dylan hire to work on his 1983 album, Infidels? Who played guitar on, and also produced, the album?
11 In which year did Dylan’s eponymous debut album hit the stores? What was the oft-covered Blind Lemon Jefferson song, a mordant take on impending death?
12 Which Dylan album, released in April, 2009, was his first UK number one since 1970’s New Morning? Robert Hunter, Dylan’s songwriting partner on the 2009 album, was also a member of, and the lyricist, in which band?
13 The patchy 1986 Knocked Out Loaded contains one masterpiece, an 11-minute track that opens side two of the vinyl release. What is the song and which American playwright is credited as co-writer?
14 Which long narrative song took up the entire fourth side of Blonde on Blonde? Where and with what did Dylan get stuck on this album?
15 The royalties from Dylan’s first Christmas album, Christmas in the Heart (2009) were given to charities in which area of work? Which of these Christmas songs does NOT appear on the album: ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’; ‘Little Drummer Boy’; ‘Silent Night’; ‘Winter Wonderland?’
16 What was the 1965 Festival where Dylan was booed for playing an electric set? Who was his guitarist that day, known also for his work with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Electric Flag?
17 Which song from Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan did the artist re-record as a duet on ‘Nashville Skyline’, and which country legend sang with him?
18 Shadows in the Night (2015) saw Dylan covering popular jazz standards. What was his main criterion for selection? Which song from South Pacific appeared on there?
19 Which Dylan song was voted as the greatest rock song of all time in polls published by Rolling Stone magazine in both 2004 and 2011? What is the first line of the song?
20 Which legendary critic and enthusiastic chronicler of Bob Dylan began his review of Self Portrait (1970) in Rolling Stone with the words, ‘What is this shit?’ Which Paul Simon song from Bridge Over Troubled Water did Dylan cover on the album?
Like we said, identify the album and decade of release from these song titles.
21 ‘Lenny Bruce’; ‘Property of Jesus’; ‘Every Grain of Sand’
22 ‘Standing in the Doorway’; ‘Cold Irons Bound’; ‘Not Dark Yet’
23 ‘We Better Talk This Over’; ‘Is Your Love In Vain?’; ‘Changing of the Guards’
24 ‘Bob Dylan’s Dream’; ‘Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright’; ‘A Hard Rain’s a Gonna Fall’
25 ‘Disease of Conceit’; ‘Man in the Long Black Coat’; ‘Everything is Broken’
26 ‘Tin Angel’; ‘Duquesne Whistle’; ‘Long and Wasted Years’
27 ‘Wiggle Wiggle’; ‘Cat’s in the Well’; ‘Born in Time’
28 ‘On a Night Like This’; ‘Never Say Goodbye’; ‘Forever Young’
29 ‘The Levee’s Gonna Break’; ‘Thunder on the Mountain’; ‘Rollin’ and Tumblin’’
30 ‘Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues’; ‘Desolation Row’; ‘Like a Rolling Stone’