Pop Chronicles

The Pop Chronicles (1969 - 1971) were two radio documentary series which together "may constitute the most complete audio history of 1940s-60s popular music."[1] Both series were produced by John Gilliland. Many famous musicians were interviewed on this program.

Sourced

The Pop Chronicles

• I learned more from Chuck Berry about America that I could have from the U.S. Information Service in London.
  • Eric Burdon, Show 5 - Hail, Hail, Rock 'n' Roll: The rock revolution gets underway. Part 1, interview recorded 11.20.1967.

• American country music ... was and is ... the soul music of white people.
  • John Gilliland, Pop Chronicles, Show 9 - Tennessee Firebird: American country music before and after Elvis: Part 1, originally aired April 6, 1969.

• Elvis changed the country music scene quite a bit; he almost put country music out of business.
  • Chet Atkins, Pop Chronicles, Show 9 - Tennessee Firebird: American country music before and after Elvis: Part 1, interview recorded January 1968.

• You can't make a hit record out of nothing. ... It's baseless to think you can make any recording a hit, just by playing it over and over and over again.
  • Dick Clark, responding to payola charges, Pop Chronicles, Show 12 - Big Rock Candy Mountain: Rock 'n' roll in the late fifties. Part 2], interview recorded 3.11.1968.

• Now my attitude is very simple: I must do what artistically pleases me.
  • Bobby Darin, Pop Chronicles, Show 13 - Big Rock Candy Mountain: Rock 'n' roll in the late fifties. Part 3, interview recorded 11.5.1967.

• The things that were happening in 1955 were cosmic ... in terms of music history.
  • Frank Zappa, Pop Chronicles, Show 14 - Big Rock Candy Mountain: Rock 'n' roll in the late fifties. Part 4, interview recorded 3.5.1969.

• But now if I can wrap myself up in that song, and when that song gets to be a part of me, and affects me emotionally, then the emotions that I go through, chances are I’ll be able to communicate to you. Make the people out there become a part of the life of this song that you’re singing about. That’s soul when you can do that.[2]
  • Ray Charles, Pop Chronicles, Show 15: the Soul Reformation, interview recorded 3.8.1968.

• I went to jail for 11 days for disturbing the peace; I was trying to disturb the war.
  • Joan Baez, Pop Chronicles, Show 19 - Blowin' in the Wind: Pop discovers folk music, interview recorded 12.3.1967.

• I enjoyed all the records very much. I made them all from the heart. I made them all with art in mind, and all to reveal a picture of where I was when I made them.[3]
  • Phil Spector, Pop Chronicles, Show 21 - Forty Miles of Bad Road: Some of the best from rock 'n' roll's dark ages.

• I ... started out to become a jazz pianist; in the meantime I started singing and I sang the way I felt and that's just the way it came out.
  • Nat King Cole, spoken in VOA interview broadcast on Pop Chronicles, Show 22 - Smack Dab in the Middle on Route 66: A skinny dip in the easy listening mainstream.

• The day you open your mind to music, you're halfway to opening your mind to life.
  • Pete Townshend, Pop Chronicles, Show 23 - Smack Dab in the Middle on Route 66. Part 2, interview recorded in London 2.5.1968.

• I used to get mad about people recording my things; now I got a new thing going. ... I don't get mad about them recording my material because they keep me alive.
  • Bo Diddley, Pop Chronicles, Show 29 - The British Are Coming! The British Are Coming!: The U.S.A. is invaded by a wave of long-haired English rockers. Part 3, interview recorded 3.17.1968.

• Here, I'm going to make you a big star ... and you don't have to pay any dues. ... For that, you're going to get no respect from your contemporaries. ... To me, that was the cruelest thing.
  • Phil Spector on The Monkees, Pop Chronicles, Show 44 - Revolt of the Fat Angel: Some samples of the Los Angeles sound. Part 4, 1968 interview.

• The softer you sing, the louder you're heard.[4]
  • Donovan, Pop Chronicles, Show 48 - The British are Coming! The British are Coming!: With an emphasis on Donovan, the Bee Gees and the Who.

• Soul is truth, ... no matter where it comes from, no matter how it is presented.
  • Lou Rawls, Pop Chronicles, Show 52 - The Soul Reformation: Phase three, soul music at the summit. [Part 8], interview recorded 10.12.1967.

Pop Chronicles the 40s

• I went to hear Father Divine and he had a sermon and his subject was 'you got to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative.' And I said 'Wow, that's a colorful phrase!'
  • Johnny Mercer interview. Gilliland, John. Pop Chronicles the 40's: The Lively Story of Pop Music in the 40's. ISBN 978-1-55935-147-8. OCLC 31611854.  Tape 1, side B.
  • "'40s Sounds Return to Radio" (PDF). Oakland Tribune. 1972-10-29. Retrieved on 2009-04-03. 

External links

• The Pop Chronicles audio at the University of North Texas Music Library
• The Pop Chronicles Presents The Forties originally broadcast Sunday, November 5, 1972
• Index to Interviews at The John Gilliland Collection at the University of North Texas Music Library