Guitarists From The United States

"Hi. We're Hole. As in "asshole.""

"I didn't ever really talk until I started hanging out in '80 or '81 with the drag queens at the Metropolis [or Met, a gay new wave club] in Portland. I was very, very quiet. So much so that at one point when I was very young I was diagnosed as a probable autistic. And then I started hanging around with bitchy drag queens and with [my friends] Ursula and Robin, and they basically raised me. I found my inner bitch and I ran with her."

"With me and Kurt, it was either Bonnie and Clyde, Sid and Nancy, or mommy. That's where it got at the end, but the rest of the time it was equal. The equality was based on Bonnie and Clyde, which is fucking goddamn fun. And Romeo and Juliet. But it was also Hamlet and Hamlet. Not Hamlet and Ophelia. These two fucking Hamlets sitting around."

"It’s been twenty years—we didn’t even talk at [Kurt's] funeral. None of us. And so, twenty years of me getting Yoko-bashed, and Dave bashing, and me bashing and making it worse, all that shit. The legal stuff, the trial. We just buried it. It was really deep. It brings tears to my eyes to even talk about it."

"If I see a chick playing guitar, I’m drawn to that band immediately. I want to know everything, even if it’s completely electronic. But you have to really get my attention if you’re male. I can’t help it. It’s part of my nature."

"When I was a teenage whore My mother asked me, she said, "Baby, what for?""

"When my looks are shot—which I reckon will be in about six years—I’ll have plastic surgery here on my chin, and they can pull my cheeks back, but I’m not ready for that. And because of the smoking, the mouth is starting to give."

"The first popular performer to sing, play and write his own material, Chuck Berry roared into rock and roll in 1955 with the country two-beat rhythms of “Maybellene” and claimed the genre for his own. His influences were similar to those of B.B. King but also include jump blues and country-and-western music. It was Berry’s songs from the late Fifties with cut boogie patterns—like “Roll Over Beethoven,” “Johnny B. Goode” and “Carol”—that realized electrically the guitar ambitions first dreamt by Robert Johnson. Berry’s tone—courtesy of a hollow-body Gibson through a tweed Fender amp—was raw and loud. This, along with his duckwalk, ringing double-stops and songs about cars and girls, grabbed the youth market. Tall and handsome, he brought the guitar as the “cool” instruments to a ready audience via appearances on TV and in movies, in a way that the Beatles would repeat in the early Sixties."

"I learned more from Chuck Berry about America than I could have from the U.S. Information Service in London."

"Chuck Berry is the greatest of the rock and rollers. Elvis competes with Frank Sinatra, Little Richard camps his way to self-negation, Fats Domino looks old, and Jerry Lee Lewis looks down his noble honker at all those who refuse to understand that Jerry Lee has chosen to become a great country singer."

"She followed him around where he played his guitar Till he got so popular they made him a star Then she could only see him on a TV screen And hoped someday that he'd come back to New Orleans Everybody liked her and was knocking on wood But soon there came a baby for Lady B. Goode"

"I was looking for joy Yes, yes, yes, yes When I was little bitty boy If I would have known what makes a world go 'round I would have known what goes up must come down If you love me like I love you Mademoiselle, je vous aime, voulez-vous?"

"If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry."

"I feel good, like it's party time, don't you know And it blew my mind when she smiled and said hello But it broke my heart when she told me it's time to go"

"While no individual can be said to have invented rock and roll, Chuck Berry comes the closest of any single figure to being the one who put all the essential pieces together."

"Can’t help it, but I love it Stand here, sing to you Brings back so many memories Many things we used to do ‘Till I see you here again Take care, good luck to you"

"Tulane and Johnny opened a novelty shop Back under the counter was the cream of the crop Everything was clickin’ and the business was good Till one day, lo and behold, an officer stood Johnny jumped the counter but he stumbled and fell But Tulane made it over Johnny just as he yelled Go head on, Tulane, he can’t catch up with you Go Tulane, he ain’t man enough for you Go Tulane, use all the speed you got Go Tulane, you know you need a lot Go Tulane, he’s laggin’ behind Go head on, Tulane"

"Send more Chuck Berry."

"In his 1958 masterpiece “Johnny B. Goode,” Berry created the ultimate rock-and-roll folk hero in just a few snappy verses. As we all know, Goode wasn’t pounding a piano, singing into a microphone, or blowing a sax. In his choice of the electric guitar, something sleek and of the moment, the fictional character of Goode would forge an image of the archetypal rocker, doing as much to shape the history of the instrument as any real-life figure ever has. The song’s opening riff is a clarion call — perhaps the greatest intro in rock-and-roll history. It was played by Berry on an electric Gibson ES-350T, and it indeed sounded “just like a-ringin’ a bell.”"

"California, California Soon I'll be with you watching your sunset in the evening Movies and show plays, beaches and free ways California, from my home I'll be leaving"

"Ow! Have mercy on my little Tulane She's too alive to try to live alone And I know her needs And although she loves me She's gonna try to make it While the poor boy's gone Somebody should tell her to live And I'll understand it And even love her more When I come back home"

"Los Angeles give me Norfolk Virginia Tidewater four ten o nine Tell the folks back home this is the promised land callin' And the poor boy's on the line"

"Well Dad, send the money, See what I can see, Try to find a Cadillac, A Sixty-two or three. Just something that won't worry us To keep it on the road. Sincerely, your beloved son, Henry Junior Ford"

"So let me be your driver, let me be your driver I would love to ride you, I would love to ride you downtown Drive you so slow and easy you won't wanna put me down"

"Thunderbird saw the Jaguar gainin' speed And waved "Goodbye, Jaguar" and pulled in the lead Jaguar said, "You ain't won the race yet" And pulled back around the Bird like a sabre jet Sheriff's front bumper was a yard behind When the T-Bird, Jaguar crossed the line"

"Let me tell you 'bout a girl I know I met her walkin' down a uptown street She's so fine you know I wished she was mine I get shook up every time we meet"

"Did I miss the skyscrapers, did I miss the long freeway? From the coast of California to the shores of The Delaware Bay You can bet your life I did, till I got back in the U.S.A."

"Later in the evening when the sun is sinking low All day I been waiting for the whistle to blow Sitting in a teepee built right on the tracks Rolling them bones until the foreman comes back Pick up you belongings boys and scatter about We've got an off-schedule train comin' two miles out"

"She remembered taking money out from gathering crop And buying Johnnys guitar at the broker shop As long as he would play it by the railroad side And wouldn't get in trouble, he was satisfied But never thought that there would come a day like this When she would have to give her son a goodbye kissGoing bye, bye, bye, bye Bye, bye, bye, bye Bye, bye Johnny Bye, bye Johnny B. Goode"

"So come on, I wanna see you baby, come on I don't mean maybe, come on I'm tryin' to make you see That I belong to you and you belong to me"

"Sweet little rock and roller, sweet little rock and roller Her daddy don’t have to scold her, her mother can’t hardly hold her She never gets any older, sweet little rock and roller"

"Long distance information, give me Memphis Tennessee Help me find the party trying to get in touch with me She could not leave her number, but I know who placed the call 'Cause my uncle took the message and he wrote it on the wall"

"Tell me who's the queen standin' over by the record machine Lookin' like a model on the cover of the magazine She's too cute to be a minute over seventeen Mean while I was still thinkin'If it's a slow song we'll omit it If it's a rocker, that we'll get it And if it's good, she'll admit it C'mon Queenie, let's get with it"

"Beautiful Delilah, dressed in the latest style Swingin' like a pendulum, walkin' down the aisle Deep romantic eyes, speak so low in miles Maybe she will settle down and marry after a while"

"His mother told him, "Someday you will be a man, And you will be the leader of a big old band. Many people coming from miles around To hear you play your music when the sun go down. Maybe someday your name will be in lights Saying 'Johnny B. Goode tonight'.""

"Oh Carol, don't let him steal your heart away I'm gonna learn to dance if it takes me all night and day"

"Just like a bolt of thunder and a streak of heat Leo covered Jo Jo with all four feet Jo Jo was screamin' with tears in his eyes Said," Please Mr. Leo, I apologize""

"Nadine, honey is that you? Oh, Nadine, honey is that you? Seems like every time I see you Darling, you got something else to do"

"Yeah 'n' I'm doin' all right in school. They ain't said I broke no rule. I ain't never been in Dutch. I don't browse around too muchDon't bother me leave me alone Anyway I'm almost grown"

"Hey, the band was rockin' Goin' around and around Well, reelin' and a rockin' What a crazy sound Well, they never stopped rockin' Till the moon went down"

"Milo Venus was a beautiful lass, She had the world in the palm of her hand. But she lost both her arms in a wrestling match, To get a brown eyed handsome man."

"Well I looked at my watch, it was 9:54 I said, "Dance ballerina girl, go go go!" And we rolled, reelin' and a rockin' We was reelin' and a rockin' Rollin' till the break of dawn"

"Way down South they gave a jubilee Them Georgia folks they had a jamboree They’re drinking home brew from a wooden cup The folks dancing there got all shook up."

"Hail, hail rock and roll; deliver me from the days of old. Long live rock and roll; the beat of the drums, loud and bold. Rock, rock, rock and roll; the feelin' is there, body and soul."

"Me still alone, me sip on the rum Me wonder when the boat she come To bring me love, oh sweet little thing She rock 'n' roll, she dance and sing She hold me tight, she touch me lips Me eyes they close, me heart she flip Havana moon, Havana moon"

"She’s got the grownup blues Tight dresses and lipstick She’s sportin’ high-heeled shoes Oh but tomorrow morning She’ll have to change her trend And be sweet sixteen And back in class again."

"Baby doll! When bells ring out the summer free Oh baby doll! Will it end for you and me? We'll sing our old Alma Mater And think of things that used to be"

"I bought a brand-new air-mobile It custom-made, 'twas a Flight De Ville With a pow'ful motor and some hideaway wings Push in on the button and you can hear her sing Now you can't catch me, baby you can't catch me 'Cause if you get too close, you know I'm gone like a cool breeze"

"The little girl's creative, a repertoire that rings, And Hollywood is waiting, to see the way she swings. She'll be graduating, goin' on to higher things, The little girl from Central is gonna take on wings."

"I wanted to write about school because most of my audience at the particular time was of a school element."