“Commercial rock ’n’ roll music is a brutalization of the stream of contemporary Negro church music … an obscene looting of a cultural expression.”

— Ralph Ellison

"Some Questions and Some Answers" (1958), in The Collected Essays, ed. John F. Callahan (New York: Modern Library, 1995), p. 298.

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Ralph Ellison 82

American novelist, literary critic, scholar and writer 1914–1994

Lester Bangs (1948–1982) American music critic and journalist

“[Rock 'n' roll] really is not given to thinking — and resents thinking. Which I believe is the big error of rock 'n' roll. It's always aspired to be the music of the working class. And it's never been looked upon as a vocabulary for art and artistic thinking… We have to be able to expand the vocabulary to express more complex thoughts.”

Paul Simon (1941) American musician, songwriter and producer

Interview in Musician (March 1984), p. 66-68

“She gets rock n roll, a rock n roll station
And a rock n roll dream.
She's making movies on location.
She don't know what it means.
But the music make her wanna be the story.
And the story was whatever was the song, what it was.
Rollergirl don't worry.
D. J. plays the movies all night long.”

Mark Knopfler (1949) English guitarist

Skateaway
Song lyrics, Making Movies (1980)

“Some say it's too country, some say it's too rock n' roll. But it's just good music if you can feel it in your soul.”

Tim McGraw (1967) American country singer

“The point is that, like Richard Hell says, rock 'n' roll is an arena in which you recreate yourself, and all this blathering about authenticity is just a bunch of crap. The Clash are authentic because their music carries such brutal conviction, not because they're Noble Savages.”

Lester Bangs (1948–1982) American music critic and journalist

"The Clash" (December 1977), p. 227
Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung (1988)

“Beatles' "aryan" music removed any trace of black music from rock and roll: it replaced syncopated african rhythm with linear western melody, and lusty negro attitudes with cute white-kid smiles.”

Piero Scaruffi (1955) Italian writer

Beatles The History of Rock Music http://www.scaruffi.com/vol1/beatles.html

“Most people don’t listen to classical music at all, but to rock-and-roll or hillbilly songs or some album named Music To Listen To Music By…”

Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) poet, critic, novelist, essayist

“The Taste of the Age”, p. 12
A Sad Heart at the Supermarket: Essays & Fables (1962)

“I didn't plan on rock 'n' roll. I wanted to learn jazz; I got to know some people doing rock 'n' roll with jazz, and I thought I could make money playing music. In rock 'n' roll you can realize anything that you can in jazz or anything. There's no limitation other than the beat. You have more freedom than you do in anything except jazz — which is dying — as far as making any money is concerned.”

Robby Krieger (1946) American rock guitarist and songwriter

Comment posted at his official website http://www.robbykrieger.com.

“Rock 'n' roll. Deal with it.”

Bret Easton Ellis The Rules of Attraction

Source: The Rules of Attraction

“The rock and roll business is pretty absurd, but the world of serious music is much worse.”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

Interview on London Plus (24 September 1984) - YouTube video http://youtube.com/watch?v=CR2N040drg0

“Commercial rock ’n’ roll music is a brutalization of the stream of contemporary Negro church music … an obscene looting of a cultural expression.”

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Ralph Ellison 82

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