Buddy Holly had something very different from the other great early rock n' roll stars, whether it was Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Bo Diddley. He came across as so ordinary, as such a nerd. You know, he was… — Greil Marcus Copy Share Image
After Chuck Berry died, it seemed web sites popped up like mushrooms to show where he'd taken the guitar introduction to 'Johnny B. Goode' from to prove that his music was nothing new, that it was only ignorance, or vanity,… — Greil Marcus Copy Share Image
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… — Greil Marcus Copy Share
You're going to react to a painting in a way that the painting demands you react. — Greil Marcus Copy Share
No failure in America, whether of love or money, is ever simple; it is always a kind of betrayal, of a mass of shadowy,… — Greil Marcus Copy Share
“[Listening to a song] one could experience a freedom from one's physical body, and from one's social body - the mask you wore to… — Greil Marcus Copy Share
Records that were the sound of somebody - more often than not, a she - speaking with a voice that had never been heard… — Greil Marcus Copy Share
I never could understand - it was impossible for me to get my head around - what the furor was, what the sense of… — Greil Marcus Copy Share
There is no pop category, let alone any infinitely gene-sliced genre name, to contain the lead in Rihanna's voice in 'Needed Me.' — Greil Marcus Copy Share
I'm a fan of Oliver Stone. I like his movies, I like his excess, and I think he has a great capacity for empathy… — Greil Marcus Copy Share
Bob Dylan continues to release odd and unsettling records, and to do odd and unsettling things on stage. So the term 'still' seems meaningless… — Greil Marcus Copy Share
When you're writing criticism or thinking critically, to draw a very limited minor conclusion from solid evidence is really not thinking. — Greil Marcus Copy Share
My ideal reader is somebody who trips over a copy of my book on the sidewalk; then they pick it up and read as… — Greil Marcus Copy Share
I don't know that there's a division between American and British, European, South American, Asian sensibilities when it comes to rock n' roll or,… — Greil Marcus Copy Share
We fight our way through the massed and leveled collective safe taste of the Top 40, just looking for a little something we can… — Greil Marcus Copy Share
“Banishing the love song, people discovered what else there was to sing about.” — Greil Marcus Copy Share
