Frivolous Friday − Name Dropping

We are occasionally reminded by reader comments that all work and no play makes DDLaw a dull blog. It's been a long time since we did one of our "Friday Frivolity" posts, but that doesn't mean that we can't.

So what we're doing today - if you choose to participate − is quizzing our readers about references in rock and roll songs to actual historical figures. Here are the guidelines:

First, the references must be to real people, not characters from fiction. Thus, references to "Tom Sawyer" would not count, but "Mark Twain" (or Samuel Clemens) could be (we're not saying it is) a proper answer. Second, we are not including euphemisms for real life people. Actual names only. Thus, in Don McLean's "American Pie," "in a coat he borrowed from James Dean" is a possibility, but "Jack Flash sat on a candlestick" as a reference to Mick Jagger would not be. Third, we're not including - because it would make things too easy - songs where the historical individual's name is the song. So no "So Long Frank Lloyd Wright" by Simon & Garfunkle, "Hurricane" by Bob Dylan, "James Dean" by the Eagles, or "Mr. Crowley" by Ozzy Osbourne. Fourth, we're limiting ourselves to rock and roll. No show tunes, since we could fill this quiz with nothing but lines from "Hamilton" (and no reference to "LBJ" from "Initials" in "Hair"), and no folk, rap (second ding on "Hamilton"), R&B, or c/w, which we just don't know as well. Fifth, the references must be to a reasonably famous person. We're not including references such as to "Funky Claude" from Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water," or "Yasgur's farm" in CSNY's "Woodstock," even though Claude Nobs and Max Yasgur were a real people, because they are too obscure. Finally, to avoid inadvertently taking sides in any religious debates, we're avoiding references to messiahs or prophets; so no "Jesus Christ Superstar" or "Kung Fu Fighting" − also out due to other rules above. What follows - in no particular order − are fifty excerpts from lyrics (they're all available online, whether you cheat or not is your business) from rock songs that reference famous people by name. Sometimes the lines have asterisks. The asterisks are in place of lyrics that repeat the title of the song, which would be too much of a giveaway.

Give yourself one point each for the song title, and one point each for the name of the group, for a total of 100 points. Feel free to tell us how you did, but only if you didn't cheat.

Finally, you can check your answers...