‘He used colours: colours corresponding with notes.’ ibid.
Jimi’s problems seemed to get worse. ibid.
Hendrix was like a one-off. You’ll never see anything like him again. You’ll never see anyone have that much control of his instrument. ibid. Lemmy of Motorhead
Being a rock star is like being a cult leader – you really have to be in your own religion. Courtney Love
Fucking rock-n-roll, baby. The Wild & Wonderful Whites of West Virginia, 2009
Rock-n-Roll’s been going downhill ever since Buddy Holly died. American Graffiti 1973 starring Richard Dreyfuss & Ron Howard & Harrison Ford & Paul Le Mat & Charles Martin Smith & Candy Clark & Wolfman Jack & Bo Hopkins & Kathleen Quinlan et al, director George Lucas
At the dawn of the 1970s a new sound emerged from the American deep south ... This generation of bands would transform America. Sweet Home Alabama: The Southern Rock Saga, BBC 2016
Days after [Martin Luther] King’s death, the 20-year-old Gregg Allman wrote God Rest His Soul. ibid.
Towards the end of the decade there was an explosion of counter-culture rock music on the east and west coast of America. ibid.
Lynyrd Skynyrd – that year Alan Walden left Capricorn after the Allman Brothers debut failed to explode and struck out on his own. ibid.
With Fillmore East, the Allmans had finally broken out of the South and onto FM radio with a huge hit album. ibid.
Al Cooper produced Lynyrd Skynyrd’s debut album Pronounced. ibid.
Capricorn snapped up a number of southern rock bands. ibid.
The southern rock sound was now moving beyond the deep south and across the sun belt. ibid.
ZZ Top from Texas, Black Oak Arkansas, the Atlanta Rhythm Section and the Ozark Mountain Dare Devils were spreading the gospel. ibid.
Sweet Home Alabama was a game-changer. ibid.
A southern rock classic: Freebird. ibid.
Capricorn records folded in 1979. ibid.
The Allman Brothers Band reformed in 1979. 10 years after the plane crash, the surviving members of Lynyrd Skynyrd reunited. Both bands record and perform to this day. Phil Walden successfully relaunched Capricorn Records in the 1990s. He died in 2006. ibid.
June 1969: Up-state New York: Woodstock. A weekend concert for over 100,000 ticket holders is overrun by nearly half a million baby- boomers. Over a million more try to get in. It’s the world’s biggest ever music festival. America: The Story of the US: Millennium, History 2010
Rock giants such as Eric Clapton, Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac and Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd were all deeply influenced by B B King’s guitar style. A Journey Through American Music, 2010
Ike Turner – he was a member of the band who recorded the ground-breaking track Rocket 88 ... The first true rock-n-roll track. ibid.
Ike Turner started out playing sessions on guitar and piano for the likes of B B King, Howlin’ Wolf, Otis Rush and Buddy Guy. ibid.
Ike claims to remember sneaking a young Elvis Presley into a black club in Memphis and hiding him behind his piano. ibid.
In 1956 Ike met a young singer called Anna Mae Bullock. She soon became Tina Turner and they had their first hit together, A Fool for Love, in 1960. ibid.
Ike also played piano on the album Demon Days by the cartoon band Gorillaz. ibid.
Frank Zappa said Gatemouth was the guitarist he admired the most. ibid.
Clapton has said that Buddy Guy is the best guitarist alive. Others see him as the link between blues and rock. ibid.
In rock-n-roll those three chords are still the status quo. Howard Goodall’s Story of Music: The Age of Elegance & Sensibility, BBC 2013
Rock journalism is people who can’t write interviewing people who can’t talk for people who can’t read. Frank Zappa
Soft rock music isn’t rock, and it ain’t music. It’s just soft. George Carlin
It is deplorable. It is Tribal. And it is from America ... We sometimes wonder if this is the Negro’s revenge. Daily Mail, article 1950s
The hippies wanted peace and love. We wanted Ferraris, blondes and switchblades. Alice Cooper
I was ten when I heard the music that ended the first phase of my life and cast me hurtling into a new horizon. Drenched to the skin, I stood on Dunoon’s pier peering seawards through diagonal rain, looking for the ferry that would take me home. There, on the everwet west coast of Scotland, I heard it: like sonic scalpels, the sounds of electric guitars sliced through the dreich weather. My body hairs pricked up, each one a willing receiver for the Thunder-God grooves. To my young ears, the sound of these amplified guitars was angelic (although, with hindsight, I don’t suppose angels play Gibson guitars at ear-bleeding volume). A voice that suggested vocal chords of polished silver soared alongside razor-sharp overdriven riffs. I knew that I was hearing the future. Mark Rice, Metallic Dreams
I hate the Rock music tradition. I can’t bear it. Brian Eno
There’s just no great rock albums any more. There’s a lot of rock music out there, but it’s very bland and disposable. Marilyn Manson
Society has traditionally always tried to find scapegoats for its problems. Well here I am. Marilyn Manson, 1996
Anthemic rock music is inherently fascist – anything intended to move huge masses of people is politically offensive to me. Donald Fagen
I hate most of what constitutes rock music, which is basically middle-aged crap. Sting
Rock-n-roll music, if you like it, if you feel it, you can’t help but move to it. That’s what happens to me. I can’t help it. Elvis Presley
Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue with that. I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now. I don’t know which will go first – Rock-n-roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me. John Lennon
I’d rather be dead than cool. Kurt Cobain
If it’s illegal to rock-n-roll, throw my arse in jail! Kurt Cobain
Ever since the beginning of rock-n-roll, there’s been an Axl Rose. And it’s just boring. It’s totally boring to me. Kurt Cobain
Rock-n-Roll keeps you in a constant state of juvenile delinquency. Eddie Spaghetti
Keith Moon, God rest his soul, once drove his car through the glass doors of a hotel, driving all the way up to the reception desk, got out and asked for the key to his room. Pete Townsend, 2005
Heavy metal drives me bonkers. It makes me want to vomit. Heavy metal really is a pile of puke. Ian Gillan of Deep Purple, 1987
One time we saw some hookers but when we got closer we realized it was Mötley Crüe. James Hetfield of Metallica, 1989
Sex and drugs and rock-n-roll
Is all my brain and body need
Sex and drugs and rock and roll
Are very good indeed … Ian Dury & The Blockheads
Our latest song, actually. Yeah, it’s called Bad News, although you’ve probably worked that out. It’s a kind of statement. The Comic Strip Presents ... Bad News Tour Alan, Channel 4 1983
I’m getting out of here if we’re anything to do with the new romantics. ibid. Den
We’d be as rich as the Stones if we’d sold as many records as them. ibid. Alan
We were on a straight forty quid. ibid.
They have violated with voltage and volume. The Comic Strip Presents ... More Bad News, Saunders, Channel 4 1988
Since the last time we met I have become erm metaphysical. ibid. Edmondson
You’ve been playing that wine-bar Sunday lunchtime – he’s been playing Mary Hopkins numbers on acoustic guitar. ibid. Planer
Just imagine – I could have just dumped in the same bog as Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger ... Bananarama. ibid.