Elvis Transcends His Talent To The Point

Along With A Lot Of Other Things, Becoming A Bob Dylan Fan Made Me A Writer. I Was Never Interested In Figuring Out What The Songs Meant. I Was Interested In Figuring Out My Response To Them, And Other People's Responses. I Wanted To Get Closer To The Music Than I Could By Listening To It - I Wanted To Get Inside Of It, Behind It, And Writing About It Through It, Inside Of It, Behind It, Was My Way Of Doing That.

We Make The Oldest Stories New When We Succeed, And We Are Trapped By The Old Stories When We Fail

As I Write, Johnny Rotten's First Moments In "anarchy In The U.k." - A Rolling Earthquake Of A Laugh, A Buried Shout, Then Hoary Words Somehow Stripped Of All Claptrap And Set Down In The City Streets - I Am An Antichrist - Remain As Powerful As Anything I Know. Listening To The Record Today - Listening To The Way Johnny Rotten Tears At His Lines, And Then Hurls The Pieces At The World; Recalling The All-consuming Smile He Produced As He Sang - My Back Stiffens; I Pull Away Even As My Scalp Begins To Sweat.

Van Morrison Remains A Singer Who Can Be Compared To No Other In The History Of Modern Popular Music.

Rock 'n' Roll Is A Combination Of Good Ideas Dried Up By Fads, Terrible Junk, Hideous Failings In Taste And Judgment, Gullibility And Manipulation, Moments Of Unbelievable Clarity And Invention, Pleasure, Fun, Vulgarity, Excess, Novelty And Utter Enervation.