ROCK 'N' ROLL QUOTES II
quotations about rock 'n' roll
To be the kingmaker in rock 'n' roll is the next best thing to being the king.
MICHAEL HANN
"The rise and fall of the rock star", Financial Times, October 20, 2017
Rock is where blues and jazz are sitting. It's been elbowed to the side, but I don't think it's done yet. You'll see young people give it another run for its money.
TOM PETTY
"Tom Petty Slams EDM Culture and Electric Daisy Carnival", News Radio, July 28, 2014
Hey kids, where are you?
Nobody tells you what to do, baby
Hey kids, rock and roll
Nobody tells you where to go, baby, baby, baby
R.E.M.
"Drive", Automatic for the People
Rock-and-roll works because we're all a bunch of flakes. That's something you can depend on, and a good thing too, because in the twentieth century, that's all there is: jazz and rock-and-roll. The rest is term papers and advertising.
DAVE HICKEY
Air Guitar: Essays on Art and Democracy
Rock and roll is a style in which, at least ostensibly, the best artists are rule breakers.
STEVE WAKSMAN
"Women Rock: sexism and music go together like rock and roll", Valley Advocate, January 27, 2016
In truth, [rock 'n' roll] has no beginning and no end, for it is the very pulse of life itself.
LARRY WILLIAMS
attributed, Rock from the Beginning
The thing about rock n' roll is that it doesn't go away but it's not always the most popular thing. So when everybody jumps ship, that means you've just gotta hang on and go down with it.
LZZY HALE
"Lzzy Hale on Halestorm's Next Album", Loudwire, October 20, 2017
Rock 'n' roll is tribal, the group being a commercial version of the neighborhood street clique with the same self-aggrandizing, illusory worldview and paranoiac obsessions.
IAN SVENONIUS
Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock 'n' Roll Group
The most persistent myth was the one that categorized rock and roll as rebellious and anti-Establishment. Forget the fact that it was a myth to begin with ... but now? Rock and roll is so much a part of the Establishment these days that it is difficult to keep up the pretense.
PAUL COLBY
The Bitter End: Hanging Out at America's Nightclub
Singing, I love rock and roll
So put another dime in the jukebox, baby
I love rock and roll
So come and take your time and dance with me
Ow!
JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS
"I Love Rock 'N' Roll"
From this moment on I'd dedicate my life to rock and roll and take as many drugs as possible. What could possibly go wrong?
CRAIG FERGUSON
American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot
No matter how long you play rock and roll, songs might change just as long as the balls are there, the rock balls. And that's what's important to us.
BON SCOTT
interview, Record Review, 1979
Rock and roll is a single, monolithic beast, manufactured solely for profit and the shattering of refined eardrums.
ROBERT PALMER
"Folk, Popular, Jazz, and Classical Elements in New Orleans", Folk Music and Modern Sound
Rock and roll is a tough genre right now, particularly for purists. Without big synths and horns and auto-tune, what does the genre really have to say right now? Not many bands are able to write rock tunes that feel contemporary. They tend to turn out nostalgic, treacly or, the opposite, preachy.
EMILY PATRICK
"Heartless Bastards play a special show for Asheville", Asheville Citizen-Times, February 23, 2016
It is too simplistic to say that rock and roll is nothing more than rhythm and blues played by people whose ancestors came from Europe rather than Africa. It does not go too far, though, to say that rhythm and blues and rock and roll bridged the gap between black and white culture in ways that jazz only hinted at.
JEFF WALLENFELDT
The Birth of Rock & Roll: Music in the 1950s Through the 1960s
Rock'n'roll has never been about being stupid. And people who were, were perceived as being stupid and no longer make records. Stupid is the wrong word. Careless, reckless, I think are the correct words to use.
JOHN COUGAR MELLENCAMP
interview, Spin Magazine, February 1992
We're rock 'n' roll people in a disco world.
SPARKS
"Rock 'n' Roll People in a Disco World"
I can tell by the way you walk
I can tell by the way you talk
I can tell by the way you smile
You're a rock 'n' roll woman
BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST
"Rock & Roll Woman"
Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law
Rock and Roller Cola wars, I can't take it anymore
BILLY JOEL
"We Didn't Start the Fire"
When they play their music, that hard rock music
They like it with a lot of flash
But it's still that same old back beat rhythm
That really kicks 'em in the....
HUEY LEWIS & THE NEWS
"The Heart of Rock and Roll", Sports