[Andy, and Michael Parsons, McCue, http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9593_22-5397733.html, Ballmer talks tech, Application Development, ZDNet News, 5 October 2004, 2007-04-20]
2000s
“Most people die with their music still locked up inside them.”
“Most people live and die with their music still unplayed. They never dare to try.”
The Guardian (13 February 1992)
“Most people go to their grave with their music inside them.”
“The Taste of the Age”, p. 12
A Sad Heart at the Supermarket: Essays & Fables (1962)
Context: The fact that so many books still name the Beatles "the greatest or most significant or most influential" rock band ever only tells you how far rock music still is from becoming a serious art. Jazz critics have long recognized that the greatest jazz musicians of all times are Duke Ellington and John Coltrane, who were not the most famous or richest or best sellers of their times, let alone of all times. Classical critics rank the highly controversial Beethoven over classical musicians who were highly popular in courts around Europe. Rock critics are still blinded by commercial success: the Beatles sold more than anyone else (not true, by the way), therefore they must have been the greatest. Jazz critics grow up listening to a lot of jazz music of the past, classical critics grow up listening to a lot of classical music of the past. Rock critics are often totally ignorant of the rock music of the past, they barely know the best sellers. No wonder they will think that the Beatles did anything worth of being saved.
As quoted in The Philippine Daily Inquirer (December 1998).
