Country Quotes

“I believe in the power of origins, a belief that, as Ecclesiastes put it, 'that wich is done is that wich shall be done: and there is no new thing under de sun'; that we claim as originality and discovery are nothing but the airs and delusios of our innocence, ignorance, and arrogance: that whatever is said was said better - more powerfully, beautifully, and purely, long ago”
― Nick Tosches, Country: The Twisted Roots Of Rock 'n' Roll

“At a press conference in Washington, D.C., in 1957, actress Helen Hayes claimed that her son (later known as James MacArthur, sidekick of Jack Lord in “Hawaii Five-O”) had been well on the path to juvenile delinquency, brought on by rock-and-roll records. She cured him by playing a Beethoven record.”
― Nick Tosches, Country: The Twisted Roots Of Rock 'n' Roll

“(The unique echo sound of the Sun studio was achieved through the use of a tape-loop delay and a 7½-ips, instead of the more advanced 15-ips, two-track recorder. The added echo effect heard in Scotty Moore’s guitar relied on a custom-built amplifier, made in Cairo, Illinois, by a man named Ray Butts. Moore got the second amp that Butts built; the first went to Chet Atkins, the third to Carl Perkins, and the fourth to Roy Orbison. When he ceased working with Elvis in September 1957, Moore put the amp in a closet. Several closets later he withdrew it at Carl Perkins’s request and plugged it in for one of Carl’s Mercury sessions early in 1975.)”
― Nick Tosches, Country: The Twisted Roots Of Rock 'n' Roll

“It don’t mean a damned thing,” Colonel Parker was rumored to have remarked on Elvis’s death. “It’s just like when he was away in the army.”
― Nick Tosches, Country: The Twisted Roots Of Rock 'n' Roll

“A Sun record released in June 1954, a month after “Gonna Dance All Night,” came closer to the panting It: “My Kind of Carryin’ On” by Doug Poindexter and the Starlite Wranglers. It fluttered, shook like a creature flirting with madness. Sam must have slept well that night. “My Kind of Carryin’ On” was Poindexter’s only Sun single. In 1955 he retired from the music business after the breakup of his band. His lead guitarist, Scotty Moore, and his bass player, Bill Black, had joined with a new singer. Today Poindexter sells insurance in Memphis.”
― Nick Tosches, Country: The Twisted Roots Of Rock 'n' Roll

“In May “Rock Around the Clock” hit the charts, and it rose to Number One. In June it crossed over to the R&B charts, where it hit Number Four. “Rock Around the Clock” became the best-selling rock record in history, with sales of almost seventeen million to date. But what I find more fascinating, more important about the record, and about Bill Haley, is this: “Rock Around the Clock” was recorded three months before Elvis made his first record, and it was a hit nine months before Elvis appeared on the pop charts. Viewing Haley’s earlier records, such as “Rock the Joint,” as the first white rock-and-roll, and “Rock Around the Clock” as not only the first Number One rock hit, but also the first clear example of rock gone wholly astray, of fake Tin Pan Alley rock, one can plainly see that in the brief span from 1952 to 1955 rock-and-roll had already risen and fallen.”
― Nick Tosches, Country: The Twisted Roots Of Rock 'n' Roll

“That such a scrap of kitsch has endured in a way that the writing of Francis Bacon has not says much about what’s really timeless and what isn’t; that the 1959 “Deck of Cards” was far more popular with pop audiences than with country audiences says much about who the real kitschmongers are.”
― Nick Tosches, Country: The Twisted Roots Of Rock 'n' Roll

“Of course, Heraclitus was right. Everything flows; nothing abides.”
― Nick Tosches, Country: The Twisted Roots Of Rock 'n' Roll

“On February 3, 1959, near Fargo, North Dakota, an airplane carrying Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper (J. P. Richardson) crashed, killing all aboard. Waylon Jennings, who was in Holly's band at the time, gave his seat to the Big Bopper at the last minute.”
― Nick Tosches, Country: The Twisted Roots Of Rock 'n' Roll