Rock N Roll Music Quotes

I grew up listening to a lot of player-piano music in my house and a lot of old Tin Pan Alley songs and American standards. My dad listened to a lot of traditional Irish music and I grew up doing musical theater. So most of the music I was exposed to as a kid was pre-rock n' roll. ~ John C. Reilly

It was the early days of Rock 'n' Roll in this country. We were all struggling to learn music, it might be Country, Jazz, Classical, Blues or even Rock 'n' Roll. ~ Jim Sullivan

Oh, I think country has changed tremendously. I think country has totally changed. Country music when I was a kid was Hank Williams. If you put Hank and Elvis together, there wasn't that musical difference. But as the Beatles showed up and the English invasion, I think country music got pretty far away from rock n' roll. ~ John Mellencamp

I had written a tune called 'Shake, Rattle and Roll,' but the white stations refused to play it - they thought it was low-class black music. We thought what we needed was a new name. But a white disc jockey named Alan Freed laid on it, and he thought up the name 'rock n' roll.' ~ Jesse Stone

I was listening to music long before rock 'n roll. ~ Bill Wyman

I'm mostly a jazz fan and I've never really been into rock 'n' roll music - although I guess Coldplay isn't really rock 'n' roll - but he's made me a convert. I do go to their concerts whenever we're in the same town and I don't even have to wear earplugs any more, which I did in the beginning. ~ Blythe Danner

I only know two cats in this business that really had it all; Elvis was one of those guys, the other was Ricky Nelson. There was a difference in those two guys though. Elvis moved ... Ricky never had to; he stood flat footed and captivated his audience with his good looks. We grew up with him; those who didn't missed something. History books are gonna have to say that he played a big role in Rock 'n' Roll music ... and he did it his way. ~ Carl Perkins

No change in musical style will survive unless it is accompanied by a change in clothing style. Rock is to dress up to. ~ Frank Zappa

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

The hippies wanted peace and love. We wanted Ferraris, blondes and switchblades. ~ Alice Cooper

Playing rock 'n' roll music, it's going to be integrated, but being black you didn't want to go into some neighborhood where you weren't wanted. ~ Gail Ann Dorsey

There are many fans of hard rock music that have been wrongly pigeonholed as apathetic. This music is not music for the elitist coffeehouse culture in SoHo. It' s rock 'n' roll music for kids across the land, and I think that makes it much more subversive in a way, in that it has the form and the function of a powerful, populist music, but it can carry very incendiary messages. ~ Tom Morello

Sending grown-ups up the wall is one of the things adolescence is all about. A few years ago it was done with rock 'n' roll music. Now at least they can do it quietly with a home computer. ~ Russell Baker

Punk [rock] seemed like rock 'n' roll music utterly without the music. ~ Steve Winwood

The rock 'n roll music gets louder, the dancers get more frantic, and the lights start going on and off like crazy. And there are spotlights blinking in our eyes, and car horns beeping, and Gerard Malanga and the dancers are shaking like mad, and you don't think the noise can get any louder, and then it does, until there is one rhythmic tidal wave of sound, pressing down around you, just impure enough so you can still get the beat; the audience, all of it fused together into one magnificent moment of hysteria. ~ George English

When you sit down and think about what rock 'n' roll music really is, then you have to change that question. Played up-tempo, you call it rock 'n' roll; at a regular tempo, you call it rhythm and blues. ~ Little Richard

I had never done TV. I think it's a foolish medium for, most rock 'n roll music. Nobody ever comes off well on TV. ~ Dan Fogelberg

Rock 'n' Roll might not solve your problems, but it does let you dance all over them ~ Pete Townshend

I came upon a child of god, He was walking along the road And I asked him, where are you going And this he told me: I'm going on down to Yasgur's farm I'm going to join in a rock 'n' roll band I'm going to camp out on the land, I'm going to try an' get my soul free. ~ Joni Mitchell

Any time you play your horn, it helps you. If you get down, you can help yourself even in a rock 'n' roll band. ~ John Coltrane

What you do in the Lord is not in vain. You are not oiling the wheels of a machine that's about to roll over a cliff. You are not restoring a great painting that's shortly going to be thrown on the fire. You are not planting rosed in a garden that's about to be dug up for a building site. You are -- strange though it may seem, almost as hard to believe as the resurrection itself -- accomplishing something that will become in due course part of God's new world. Every act of love, gratitude, and kindness; every work of art or music inspired by the love of God and delight in the beauty of his creation; every minute spent teaching a severely handicapped child to read or walk; every act of care and nurture, of comfort and support, for one's fellow human beings and for that matter one's fellow nonhuman creatures; and of course every prayer, all Spirit-led teaching, every deed that spreads the gospel, builds up the church, embraces and embodies holiness rather than corruption, and make the name of Jesus honored in the world -- all of this will find its way, through the resurrecting power of God, into the new creation that God will one day make. ~ N.T. Wright

T-shirt and jeans style now is where I'm at. Maybe a little rock 'n' roll T-shirt and jeans. ~ Josh Hutcherson

What changed our lives forever was when Malcolm had the idea to sell rock 'n roll records to trendy customers. ~ Vivienne Westwood

Rock n' roll is about attitude and rebellion. It's supposed to be fun and spontaneous. ~ Slash

When I was younger, I felt it was my duty to wake people up. I thought poetry was asleep. I thought rock 'n' roll was asleep. ~ Patti Smith

I'm a hard man to fight and an easy man to please ... A Rock n' Roll Outlaw on a Sweet Romance.. I Want To Be Your Man. ~ Ashley Purdy

Give me a mandolin and I'll play you rock 'n' roll. ~ Keith Moon

Rock n' roll is not just a fashion statement; it is the attitude, and it has a political posturing as well. ~ CeeLo Green

Destroy everything. That's all well and fine, but you got to offer something in it's place. Since I always have a point and purpose to what I do, thats why people accuse me of being calculated. it's the way I am. I always know my next move. I could never conjure up a death wish, this is all I have is life. I don't know what comes next, and frankly I'm in no rush to find out. I don't believe in playing a martyr just for the sheer hell of it. And for something as chidish as Rock 'N' Roll is not on. ~ John Lydon

I love to rock 'n roll. But my finest suit, of all the things I do, is as a songwriter. ~ Dan Fogelberg

When Bon Jovi goes out on tour again, that's who I'm going to go see because some of it survives... while the rest becomes compost in the garden of rock 'n' roll. ~ Lonn Friend

At heart I cannot accept that I am a well-known rock 'n' roll star and one of the greatest drummers in the world. ~ Keith Moon

Rock n' roll is our religion, and we will continue to lose disciples as we go, but we pick up the fallen flag and keep moving forward, bringing forth the good news that our heroes have helped create, their bodies lost, but their spirits and their good work everlasting. ~ Steven Van Zandt

I wish the rock 'n' roll scene to be back in. ~ Brendan Fraser

They'll see it. And it doesn't matter if they don't. It's only Rock 'n' Roll. But I do intend to move more into the Mainstream. Marilyn Manson is just the First phase. ~ Marilyn Manson

The god of the Hebrews is wrath. The god of the Christians is forgiveness. The god of rock 'n' roll is energy. The enemy of that god is arena rock, which looks and feels like real rock but is in truth an abomination. ~ Rich Cohen

Yeah, I don't like, um, I'm not interested in rock 'n' roll piano. I find it a little grating. ~ Warren Zevon

There was this really rock n' roll guy who was very obviously dragged to my concert by his girlfriend. He had tattoos all over, and he was wearing a Metallica T-shirt. He came up to me said it was one of his favorite concerts because I had reached for his heart and dragged it out and put it in front of his face. ~ Lou Doillon

I remember when in the early days of rock'n'roll, when everything sounded totally different, all amazing and blah blah blah blah blah. Now you can play me one second of any record from that time, and I'll say "1959" or "1961." I can hear precisely. It's like it has a huge date stamp on it. ~ Brian Eno

My personal definition of rock'n'roll is people attempting to do something that's beyond their ability to do it well. And whatever the outward contradictions, I do call us a rock'n'roll band. ~ David First

For me, my awkward phase corresponded to an interest in rock n' roll. From experience, I'm guessing an insecure childhood is probably quite a common thing among people who start a rock band. ~ The Edge

I did the rock 'n roll-pop cliche of getting burnt out. I'm not the first person that happened to, and I'm sure I won't be the last. ~ Robbie Williams

Wherever there are rock 'n' rollers, we'll play. That's what we've been doing for more than 30 years - rock 'n' roll. It's made me everything from an honorary mayor to honorary member of a motorcycle gang. ~ Ronnie Hawkins

You want a showman, go see rock 'n' roll bands today. You want to have a shamanistic experience, get psychedelic, then you watch The Doors. ~ Ray Manzarek

As much as I can, as much as I can afford, I keep ticket prices down. Rock 'n' roll was developed as the people's voice, the people's art, it was grassroots. I don't believe that the people should be estranged from their rock stars. They're not kings and queens - all rock stars are those who are able to give back a bit of culture to other people. It's people's heritage. ~ Patti Smith

I love what Alabama Shakes is doing - it's kind of like what grunge did to rock 'n' roll, they're doing to R&B. ~ John Oates

What I wanted to do in rock 'n roll was merge poetry with sonic scapes, and the two people who had contributed so much to that were Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison. ~ Patti Smith

You can take things that Jimi Hendrix took, from Curtis Mayfield or from Buddy Guy for example, because we are all children of everything, even Picasso. But if you want to stand out, you have to learn to crystallize your existence and create your own fingerprints. ~ Carlos Santana

Video games are bad for you? That's what they said about rock n' roll. ~ Shigeru Miyamoto

One time we saw some hookers but when we got closer we realized it was Motley Crue. ~ James Hetfield

Deplorable, a rancid smelling aphrodisiac ... It fosters almost totally negative and destructive reactions in young people. ~ Frank Sinatra

I'm into rock'n'roll because rock'n'roll, to me, means freedom. ~ Ozzy Osbourne

Rock 'n' roll and playing live is very addictive. But you have to really be careful, because you don't want to do it all the time. It's like when you are young and you think if you are not having sex you're wasting your time. But as you get older you realise everything has its place. It's the same thing with performing ... Performing is a great thing to do but you don't want to have to be doing it every night. ~ Mick Jagger

Yeah, the industry has always been both the enemy and the best friend of the artist. They need each other. That's the bottom line. ~ Chrissie Hynde

I am the architect of rock n' roll. I have to be a fan of all its forms. ~ Little Richard

It's an unmeetable level of writing. But even if it's something I feel like I can't ever attain, it doesn't crush my spirit. I figured out early on that you gotta find your own strengths and hone them rather than trying to emulate something that impresses you. ~ Paul Banks