In 1976, the culture critic asked, “What is it that Americans share?”

“Girl group records were based in the relationship of a young girl and an older man (white, until Berry Gordy) who put her on a pedestal and held her in thrall; out of that relationship came some of the most urgent and intense rock and roll ever made.”

At the end of 'Mystery Train' by Greil Marcus, we appreciate that we have only begun to hear what the most popular music of our time is telling us.

“A great artist, a great rocker, a great purveyor of schlock, a great heartthrob, a great bore, a great symbol of potency, a great ham, a great nice person, and, yes, a great American”

“The situationists were bent on discovering the absolute ability to criticize anyone, anywhere — without re­straint, without the pull of alliances, and without self-satisfaction. And they were bent on turning that criticism into event.”

"Lester ennobled the ludicrous inner life of pop fans by telling the truth about it — by discerning that inner lives, and not music, were what pop music was about"

“The tension of wanting to say more than the tradition can allow explodes the tradition.”

"Do not the dead deserve an accounting at least as irreproachable as the survivors receive with each week’s edi­tion of Billboard?"

“Art shtick … murderous year for romance … hearing the unhearable … leading more than a band.”

Algiers rage with ‘Cleveland,’ Pussy Riot rock with France