I just took Rolling Stone’s Almost-Impossible Rock & Roll Quiz and I got a 45/58. Much better than I thought I’d do, and I admit I guessed on quite a few. I did know some of them cold, though after reading Rolling Stone for about 20 years now, I think 45 is a decent score.
Give it a shot, tell me what you think. Personally, the most surprising question for me was
Jimi Hendrix was disharged from the army for homosexual tendencies.
In reference to your spoiler, I had read that he allegedly represented himself that way specifically to get discharged.
As for the quiz, I was hoping for more cool obscure facts, most of these seem sort of silly.
24, although I didnt make a guess unless I thought I knew what the answer was or if it seemed obvious from the wording of the question.
Also, I can’t decide whether or not I’m a bigger geek because I knew the Robert Smith question without doing any math, or whether I had to doublecheck to make sure the math actually works out correctly!
I guessed my ass off. You should try it with guessing and see how you do.
I played that song at my wedding, so I knew it without doing the math too!
Looks like Rubystreak and I are on the same page – 45/58 as well.
A whopping 35. I think I knew the answers to maybe 10 or 15 questions on that entire test. I even got the Led Zep IV question wrong–and that’s the first album I ever bought!
30, which is strange, since I know nothing about music after the mid-80’s.
With the Robert Smith question - is this specifically related to something from the song? Because the math doesn’t work out with the correct answer. Spoilered for anyone about to take the quiz: He gets on a train from Chicago to Los Angeles at 6:15 AM, presumably Chicago time. It’s a 38 hour train trip, which to me means if you start a stopwatch at the time it departs, it will read 38:00:00 at arrival. So it arrives 6:15 + 24 hrs + 12 hrs + 2 hrs later, or 8:15 PM Chicago time one day later. However, LA is 2 hours behind Chicago, so it’s 6:15 PM LA time. Since there was no 6:15 PM choice, I entered 10:15, since I assumed whoever wrote the question added 2 hours instead of subtracting.
Your math looks right to me. I didn’t even consider all that. I just looked at the answers, and only one of the answers were on the right day.
I got 23. I guessed at all but around 8 questions. What was the time/math question answer? Never mind - I see it got posted while I was composing.
I got 19. Apparently I’m still smarter than Bush, which is nice I guess.
I only knew 3 or 4 and on the rest of them I just guessed.
I got that wrong too, but at least I got 3 of the 4 symbols in the right order.
I’m really embarrassed about that one, too, since I used to pencil that in my highschool notebook when I’d get bored in class. I knew what the first symbol was (that was easy enough), but couldn’t remember the order of the rest. There were only two answers with the correct first symbol, but I guessed the wrong one.
I got a 37 with relatively little guessing, which surprised me. I think I got the entire Steven Seagal/Tupac question right even though I guessed at two or three of them. 
I scribbled it too, but I missed the first symbol! (The other three I got right, and it wasnt a total guess because I was pretty sure about those but didn’t remember where the first one went)
Ah, OPEN SPOILERS AHEAD if anyone is reading through this thread before taking the test.
But it’s even called “The Zoso album” by some! Actually, I almost answered probably what you answered, with the three symbols being in the right order, but the Zoso at the end. For some reason, I have a distinct memory of Zoso being the last symbol, but the fact that the album is nicknamed “Zoso” made me think that perhaps it was the first symbol, and I changed my answer to that. However, putting the Zoso in the first position made the circled feather look wrong in the last position, and so I guessed the wrong one.
33 correct. I got the Led Zep one correct, even though I half-guessed. I knew Zoso was first.
I scored 27, and I’m shocked that I did that well, because I guessed on most of them.
I got 32. I guessed at a lot and wasn’t very successful.
I’m with you muldoonthief. You mean there is music after the mid-80s?
Besides the Robert Smith blooper, none of the choices for the Sly Stone question is correct. The exact title is “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” [not “Again”].