Bob Stanley > Quotes

“Metal is starter-pack rock. It works as both a gateway to other forms of modern pop, via volume, speed, and power, and as a model of pure escapism—the roar of the fairground, the cheap thrills of the slasher movie, sex, and horror. Besides,”
― Bob Stanley, Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!: The Story of Pop Music from Bill Haley to Beyoncé

“Meter, melody, and everything else that relates to the construction of a song are secondary. All that is necessary is to have something to say and to say it as quickly as possible. Irving Berlin”
― Bob Stanley, Let's Do It: The Birth of Pop

“One story sums up their magical quality. On June 30th 1968, at the height of Apple optimism, Paul McCartney and Derek Taylor were driving back to London from Saltaire, Yorkshire, where they had been recording the Black Dyke Mills Band on a song of Paul’s called ‘Thingummybob’. They were in Bedfordshire. Let’s pick a village on the map and pay it a visit, said Beatle Paul. He found a village called Harrold, which they found quite hilarious, and turned off the A5. Harrold turned out to be a picture-perfect village, with a picture-perfect pub at its heart. The pub was closed, but when the villagers saw there was a Beatle at the door they opened it up. Soon the whole village was in the pub, listening to Paul McCartney on the pub piano playing the as-yet-unreleased ‘Hey Jude’. Every Harrold resident danced and sang along, and the revelry went on until 3 a.m. It was beautiful, perfect, spontaneous and full of love. Harrold. You couldn’t make it up.”
― Bob Stanley, Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop

“But tell me, does she kiss like I used to kiss you?’ It’s the sound of the Shangri-Las grown up, two kids upstairs asleep, a bottle of red wine open on the kitchen table. Sung by Agnetha, alone at the microphone, to her ex-husband in the control booth, ‘The Winner Takes It All’ was pure musical theatre, but frightening because it was clearly real – anyone listening knew they were intruding on the private grief of an ex-couple”
― Bob Stanley, Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop

“What Berlin had created was a hybrid pop song. It had a great hook and a memorable title, and it was easy to sing. It also melded a slight melancholy, which Berlin reckoned he had learned from ‘Slavonic and Semitic folk tunes’, with the vogueish ragtime style, which is what gave it a subtle urban edge (he later wrote an essay called ‘Song and Sorrow Are Playmates’).”
― Bob Stanley, Let's Do It: The Birth of Pop

“Radio killed the vaudeville star”
― Bob Stanley, Let's Do It: The Birth of Pop

“Fuck them.” Finally, Norman Newell called again: “Well, what do you know, we’re number one!” I said, “Yeah, I’d noticed that.” He said, “Isn’t it amazing, this business, you never know what’s going to happen, do you?” I said, “No, you don’t, do you?” We followed that with another ten Top 5 hits.”
― Bob Stanley, Let's Do It: The Birth of Pop

“In the 1960s he had scratched his jazz itch on 1965’s A Shot in the Dark, which sat alongside contemporary scores by Herbie Hancock (Blow Up), Neal Hefti (Barefoot in the Park), Quincy Jones (The Pawnbroker, In the Heat of the Night, In Cold Blood) and Lalo Schifrin (Bullitt).”
― Bob Stanley, Let's Do It: The Birth of Pop