“Y’know, an actress is not expected to continue to play her ingenue roles. I’ve written roles for myself to grow into gracefully but there is no “growing into gracefully” in the pop world. Basically the reason I’m so unruly in this business is cause I never wanted to be a human jukebox” - Joni Mitchell

“Y’know, an actress is not expected to continue to play her ingenue roles. I’ve written roles for myself to grow into gracefully but there is no “growing into gracefully” in the pop world.


Basically the reason I’m so unruly in this business is cause I never wanted to be a human jukebox”

- Joni Mitchell

“I understand that all an audience wants is sex and violence. I know that ‘cause I used to watch television all day long. That’s all I ever did.” “We’re the ultimate American band… merely the end product of an affluent society.” - Alice Cooper, 1972

“I understand that all an audience wants is sex and violence. I know that ‘cause I used to watch television all day long. That’s all I ever did.”

“We’re the ultimate American band… merely the end product of an affluent society.”

- Alice Cooper, 1972

“Maybe by talking about things that may be a little dark or more on the negative side of our existence, by dealing with them, maybe that’s where I find my happiness.”- Eddie Vedder

“Maybe by talking about things that may be a little dark or more on the negative side of our existence, by dealing with them, maybe that’s where I find my happiness.”
- Eddie Vedder

“I always thought that nobody could do anything better than me. I don’t have no second guesses. At least, I don’t assume anybody can do it better… I’m just bashful. I have nothing to say that’s bullshit. So when I hear bullshit, I can detect it.” Miles Davis, 1969

“I always thought that nobody could do anything better than me. I don’t have no second guesses. At least, I don’t assume anybody can do it better… I’m just bashful. I have nothing to say that’s bullshit. So when I hear bullshit, I can detect it.”

Miles Davis, 1969

Do you think that music moves the country or does the country move the music?      I think I understand the root of your question. The dollar dictates what music is written. For instance, if a certain pattern, like “soul” or jazz or mambo, from which I have seen these three passages come, and it starts selling… everybody knows about charts, at least the producers know about charts, and they wish for these things to be recorded in order that they can get sales, and everybody jumps on the bandwagon to record such.      For instance, when the first psychedelic music came out, there was a couple of big sales on a couple of numbers, and later, it began to jump on the bandwagon, with a few more big sales, and first thing you know, we had psychedelic music now, it’s going over.      I understand that there’s a rock revival coming back… well, these phases are done not by somebody inserting something into the music pot, but I think the disk jockeys have a great percentage in which type of music is going to be popular, because they actually… when they put it to your ear, and you hear it over and over, it’s human nature that you’ll catch on to it, and you’ll like it. Chuck Berry interview, 1969

Do you think that music moves the country or does the country move the music?

     I think I understand the root of your question. The dollar dictates what music is written. For instance, if a certain pattern, like “soul” or jazz or mambo, from which I have seen these three passages come, and it starts selling… everybody knows about charts, at least the producers know about charts, and they wish for these things to be recorded in order that they can get sales, and everybody jumps on the bandwagon to record such.

     For instance, when the first psychedelic music came out, there was a couple of big sales on a couple of numbers, and later, it began to jump on the bandwagon, with a few more big sales, and first thing you know, we had psychedelic music now, it’s going over.

     I understand that there’s a rock revival coming back… well, these phases are done not by somebody inserting something into the music pot, but I think the disk jockeys have a great percentage in which type of music is going to be popular, because they actually… when they put it to your ear, and you hear it over and over, it’s human nature that you’ll catch on to it, and you’ll like it.

Chuck Berry interview, 1969

What do you think about music now? Rock and roll music obviously has this tremendous thing with young people. What tires me in this business today is that I’m tired really of hearing somebody’s dreams and somebody’s experiences. I would like to hear a little bit more of… I mean the Beatles combined it; and they do it well—their experiences, their love and their feelings. I don’t know if they lived “Yesterday,” but I know they wrote it. Now I’m getting a little tired of hearing about, you know, everybody’s emotional problems. I mean it’s too wavy. Like watching a three or four hour movie. I’m getting so fed up with it. No concept of melody—just goes on and on with the lyric, and on and on with the lyric. They’re making it a fad. If it had more music it would last, but it can’t last this way. Phil Spector interview, 1969

What do you think about music now? Rock and roll music obviously has this tremendous thing with young people.

What tires me in this business today is that I’m tired really of hearing somebody’s dreams and somebody’s experiences. I would like to hear a little bit more of… I mean the Beatles combined it; and they do it well—their experiences, their love and their feelings. I don’t know if they lived “Yesterday,” but I know they wrote it.

Now I’m getting a little tired of hearing about, you know, everybody’s emotional problems. I mean it’s too wavy. Like watching a three or four hour movie. I’m getting so fed up with it. No concept of melody—just goes on and on with the lyric, and on and on with the lyric. They’re making it a fad. If it had more music it would last, but it can’t last this way.

Phil Spector interview, 1969

“Years ago,” he was quoted in a conversation in Downbeat, “I’d say back in ‘47 or ‘8 - Little Walter, Jimmy Rogers, and myself, we would go around looking for bands that were playing. We called ourselves the Headhunters, ‘cause we’d go in and if we got a chance we were gonna burn ‘em. We’d come in and win the contest, they’d have an amateur contest with a prize, but the guy would come up to me after he found out who I was and say, ‘Uh-uh, Muddy, you’s too heavy. You can work for me if you wants, but you’s too heavy to be in the contest.’” He recalls those days with relish but then adds, “Of course I ain’t like that no more. I know different now. Cause you can’t be the best. You can just be a good ‘un.” - Muddy Waters, 1971

“Years ago,” he was quoted in a conversation in Downbeat, “I’d say back in ‘47 or ‘8 - Little Walter, Jimmy Rogers, and myself, we would go around looking for bands that were playing. We called ourselves the Headhunters, ‘cause we’d go in and if we got a chance we were gonna burn ‘em. We’d come in and win the contest, they’d have an amateur contest with a prize, but the guy would come up to me after he found out who I was and say, ‘Uh-uh, Muddy, you’s too heavy. You can work for me if you wants, but you’s too heavy to be in the contest.’” He recalls those days with relish but then adds, “Of course I ain’t like that no more. I know different now. Cause you can’t be the best. You can just be a good ‘un.”

- Muddy Waters, 1971

“You get really hung up and try to write pop songs or create a pop image. I went through that stage and it was a shame because I was not being true to myself. I am and always will be a blues guitarist.” - Eric Clapton, 1968

“You get really hung up and try to write pop songs or create a pop image. I went through that stage and it was a shame because I was not being true to myself. I am and always will be a blues guitarist.”

- Eric Clapton, 1968

I have my orgasms onstage now, you know what I mean? Not that I wouldn’t want ‘em in bed as well, but the audience is my boyfriend now.- Ronnie Spector, 1980

I have my orgasms onstage now, you know what I mean? Not that I wouldn’t want ‘em in bed as well, but the audience is my boyfriend now.

- Ronnie Spector, 1980

I can no longer see the sense of soloing willy-nilly. If you’re putting notes and whole phrases that you don’t mean on a record, take them off and wait until you do mean them.- Jeff Beck, 1980

I can no longer see the sense of soloing willy-nilly. If you’re putting notes and whole phrases that you don’t mean on a record, take them off and wait until you do mean them.

- Jeff Beck, 1980

There was a time when you had to try to cram whatever you wanted to say musically into two minutes and 40 seconds at the outside. Now you can have a song seven-minutes-and-40-seconds long. That’s freedom, when you can just say it until you get tired.- Smokey Robinson, 1975

There was a time when you had to try to cram whatever you wanted to say musically into two minutes and 40 seconds at the outside. Now you can have a song seven-minutes-and-40-seconds long.

That’s freedom, when you can just say it until you get tired.

- Smokey Robinson, 1975

I realize the Beatles did fill a space in the Sixties. And all the people who the Beatles meant something to have grown up. It’s like with anything. You grow up with it and you get attached to it. That’s one of the problems in our lives, becoming too attached to things. But I understand the Beatles in many ways did nice things, and it’s appreciated, the people still like them. The problem comes when they want to live in the past, and they want to hold onto something and are afraid of change. - George Harrison at his Los Angeles press conference, October 23rd, 1974

I realize the Beatles did fill a space in the Sixties. And all the people who the Beatles meant something to have grown up. It’s like with anything. You grow up with it and you get attached to it. That’s one of the problems in our lives, becoming too attached to things. But I understand the Beatles in many ways did nice things, and it’s appreciated, the people still like them. The problem comes when they want to live in the past, and they want to hold onto something and are afraid of change.

- George Harrison at his Los Angeles press conference, October 23rd, 1974

“I don’t make fun of it, I love country music. But when I started out, my friends downed me for listening to country music, and I used to have to hide my records because the kids would laugh, but I like it. I really like it, and I’m glad I don’t have to hide it anymore. I like ‘Galveston’ and ‘Wichita Lineman,’ whose songs have a whole lot of feeling in them. I like a lot of country phrasing, because it’s soulful to me. Like when Glen Campbell says one word ‘Galveston’ — it shakes me up. ‘Galveston, oh Galveston, da-da-da da- dum-dum- dum,’ it takes me man, that’s the whole soul of it right there, when he says that one word. It’s a thing, and so I dig it. I wouldn’t make fun of it because it’s too pure and real, that music is as real as blues.” - Little Richard, 1970

“I don’t make fun of it, I love country music. But when I started out, my friends downed me for listening to country music, and I used to have to hide my records because the kids would laugh, but I like it. I really like it, and I’m glad I don’t have to hide it anymore. I like ‘Galveston’ and ‘Wichita Lineman,’ whose songs have a whole lot of feeling in them. I like a lot of country phrasing, because it’s soulful to me. Like when Glen Campbell says one word ‘Galveston’ — it shakes me up. ‘Galveston, oh Galveston, da-da-da da- dum-dum- dum,’ it takes me man, that’s the whole soul of it right there, when he says that one word. It’s a thing, and so I dig it. I wouldn’t make fun of it because it’s too pure and real, that music is as real as blues.”

- Little Richard, 1970

“When people who are 40 years old buy your albums, and they like your music, I liked that. That turns me on that they did that. That’s very fine to me. That’s what it’s about — that’s music.I don’t say, ‘Don’t you listen to this music, you, this isn’t for you.’ I want everybody to listen to it. I hope everybody likes it.” - Paul Simon, 1972

“When people who are 40 years old buy your albums, and they like your music, I liked that. That turns me on that they did that. That’s very fine to me.
That’s what it’s about — that’s music.
I don’t say, ‘Don’t you listen to this music, you, this isn’t for you.’
I want everybody to listen to it.
I hope everybody likes it.”

- Paul Simon, 1972

“I have a difficulty in talking to most people but I’ll put something down on paper and perhaps it will tell something about me; nothing in-depth, no soul-searching, just the way I think I am.”“I love children.”“I love animals.”“I am loyal to my friends.”“I have a sense of humor.”“I have a generally happy outlook.”“I try to be on time for appointments.”“I have a good relationship with my wife.”“I take criticism well.”“I strive to do good work.”“I try to find some good in everybody.” - Bob Dylan

“I have a difficulty in talking to most people but I’ll put something down on paper and perhaps it will tell something about me; nothing in-depth, no soul-searching, just the way I think I am.”

“I love children.”
“I love animals.”
“I am loyal to my friends.”
“I have a sense of humor.”
“I have a generally happy outlook.”
“I try to be on time for appointments.”
“I have a good relationship with my wife.”
“I take criticism well.”
“I strive to do good work.”
“I try to find some good in everybody.”

- Bob Dylan