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The Bruce Springsteen Quiz

How well do you know The Boss?

Alanna Nash,

AARP

En español

Published September 23, 2020

10 Questions

The Bruce Springsteen Quiz

[ {
  "question" : "Which 1984 Bruce Springsteen hit featured future \"Friends\" star Courteney Cox in the video?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "“Glory Days”",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "“Dancing in the Dark”",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "“I’m on Fire”",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "“My Hometown”",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "The first single released from \"Born in the USA\" spent four weeks at No. 2 beginning the week of June 30, 1984.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "Which Springsteen tune became a No. 1 hit when Manfred Mann’s Earth Band sang it?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "“Blinded by the Light”",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "“Growin’ Up”",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "“The Angel”",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "“It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City”",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "Springsteen’s own version of the song flopped, but the British band’s version, with altered lyrics and the insertion of a “Chopsticks” melody on piano, landed atop Billboard’s Hot 100 list in 1977.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "In his hit stage show \"Springsteen on Broadway\" (now on Netflix), what confession did he make?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "“I was born to run, but I got shin splints.”",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "“I took a wrong turn, and I just kept going – but it was a MapQuest error.”",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "“I never sat in the campfire light or took a last-chance power drive.”",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "“I’ve never seen the inside of a factory.”",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "“I loathe the color pink, and would never drive a Cadillac.”",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "In his stage show, he said, \"I've never seen the inside of a factory and yet it's all I've ever written about. Standing before you is a man who has become wildly and absurdly successful writing about something of which he has had absolutely no personal experience.\"",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "When Springsteen won a Tony Award, the Oscar of theater, who presented it to him?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "Roy Orbison",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Paul Simon",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "James Corden",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Billy Joel",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "Lin-Manuel Miranda",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "Springsteen, who also earned an Oscar, a Golden Globe, a Peabody, 20 Grammys, and three Emmy nominations, told Billy Joel and the theater crowd, “Thanks for making me feel so welcome on your block.”",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "This first music video by Springsteen surfaced on MTV in 1984, more than a decade after the song was recorded and five years after the clip was filmed.",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "“Incident on 57th Street”",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : " “Spirit in the Night”",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "“Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)”",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "“The E Street Shuffle”",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "On July 8, 1978, a film crew shot a Springsteen show at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix that yielded a technically imperfect cut of the highly energetic showstopper, a track from 1973’s \"The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle.\"",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "Which Springsteen album was leading rock critic Lester Bangs referencing when he wrote in \"Rolling Stone\" magazine, “What makes Bruce totally unique and cosmically surfeiting is his words. Hot damn, what a passel o’ verbiage!”",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "\"Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.\" ",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "\"Born to Run\"",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "\"Darkness on the Edge of Town\"",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "\"The River\"",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "Bangs and a majority of music pundits heaped praise on Springsteen’s 1973 debut, though the album initially suffered weak sales and is Springsteen’s poorest chart performer, peaking at No. 60 on Billboard. After hearing too many Bob Dylan comparisons, Springsteen abandoned the album’s verbose writing style.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "On his first attempt to write a tune for a movie, Springsteen comes up with this haunting ballad that snared an Academy Award for Best Original Song.",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "“Dead Man Walkin’\"",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "“Streets of Philadelphia”",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "“Secret Garden”",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "“The Wrestler”",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "Springsteen wrote “Streets of Philadelphia” for Jonathan Demme’s AIDS-themed \"Philadelphia,\" starring Tom Hanks, and in 1994 he became the first rock artist to win the Oscar for best song. (“The Wrestler” won a Golden Globe in 2009.)",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "This fellow rock star, who said The Boss “owns America’s heart,” inducted Springsteen into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "Patti Smith",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Neil Young",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Tom Petty",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Bono",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "In his induction speech, U2 singer Bono characterized Springsteen as an unusual rocker: “No drug busts. No blood changes in Switzerland. Even more remarkable, no golfing. No bad hair period, even in the ’80s. No bad movie roles, no pet snakes, no monkey, no exhibitions of his own paintings, no public brawling or setting himself on fire on the weekends … (just) a catastrophe of great songs.”",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "This inspired Springsteen’s exuberant 1981 hit “Cadillac Ranch.”",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "A Nashville saloon",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "A Texas art installation ",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "A Route 66 car dealership",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "A salvage yard in Trenton, N.J.",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "The Ant Farm’s 1974 sculpture consists of 10 garishly painted Cadillacs — half buried, hood first — in an Amarillo cow pasture.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "As a boy, Springsteen joined his grandfather on Thursday nights to scavenge neighborhood trash bins in search of what?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "Milk crates",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Newspapers",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Radios",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "Scrap metal",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "To help his family make ends meet, Springsteen assisted his grandfather, the “radio man,” in finding and restoring discarded radios to resell for $5 a pop, to mostly Southern black migrant workers who harvested crops in rural Monmouth County.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
} ]

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The Bruce Springsteen Quiz

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Alanna Nash is a contributing writer who covers celebrity and entertainment. She has written 10 books, including several on Elvis Presley and Dolly Parton. She received a Country Music Association Media Achievement Award and a Charlie Lamb Award for Excellence in Country Music Journalism.