YouSaid · the spoken record

Bob Spitz

lines on the record

73

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2026-05-13

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2026-05-13

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1

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Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

1. “An easy answer. I think there are no more musicians. The bands that come out today, they're performers. They let their producers push all the buttons in the studio. And they do sing, but they're much more interested in showmanship. And I think they've lost their edge in that respect because they're not really thinking in terms of studio excellence, of they're not mastering instruments. It's a different form of music. Look, I have learned to step aside and give them a wide berth. My daughter is of that age. My parents stepped aside and gave me a wide berth when I discovered the Beatles and Elvis Presley and the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan, of course. But I may not understand my daughter's music or the music of today, but it's their music. And I don't begrudge them that.”

   2026-05-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Bob Spitz on the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and the Art of Biography · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

2. “Every tour that comes along, he negotiates with the promoters, every date he oversees, he designs the stage, and he invests the stone's money, so remarkable that this guy who's a London school of economics dropout, let's call him that, has done so well for the rest of the band.”

   2026-05-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Bob Spitz on the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and the Art of Biography · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

3. “I do not, actually, but I think it's incredible that Mick had favored economists. We do know that Mick was a scholarship student to the London School of Economics, and that for two and a half years he attended and got pretty good grades. I mean, he did fairly well. The one thing that amazes me about Mick coming out of that London school of economics is this. After 1967, when Andrew Liu Holden stopped managing the stones, they have never had another manager. They've had some money managers. But as far as managers go, Mick Jagger, was their manager? He has served as the Rowing Stone's manager, bringing all of his experience from the London School of Economics since nineteen sixty seven, and so he has negotiated all of the recording contracts, their publishing contracts.”

   2026-05-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Bob Spitz on the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and the Art of Biography · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

4. “I wasn't. No, Keith thought it was it too. It offended Keith. He couldn't believe that number one would want to make his own album. But more than that, that Mick would want to go on the... Who stands up for him is the best man, Mick Jagger. And so it's that unshakable bond which keeps that band on the road, those guys are intertwined, their lives are intertwined, their mates for life, and they are the rolling stones”

   2026-05-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Bob Spitz on the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and the Art of Biography · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

5. “Never learned. In 1966, the Beatles stopped performing. They stopped connecting with their audience. They stopped getting a response from their audience. And they soon came apart. They broke up in the studio. Also, John and Paul competed to be the top musician in that band. So no competition with the stones. They really endure because Mick and Keith love being out there. And the minute they stop recording in the studio, Mick says, let's go on the road because the bad boys know that if they are not performing, if they're not in the studio, then trouble arises. And so to keep them out of trouble, to keep them stable, I'll use your word, Tyler, Mick keeps them working. And I think that is the secret to the Rolling Stones longevity.”

   2026-05-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Bob Spitz on the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and the Art of Biography · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

6. “Stable is never a word that I would use with the Rolling Stones, maybe enduring is the proper word. But stability, I don't know, their foundation has been rocked time and time again, first with Brian's death, the drug busts. There are times when Mick and Keith don't speak to each other. But let's talk about their endurance. Their endurance begins with Mick and Keith. The entire enterprise depends on their rapport. Mick being the libidinous peacock, the showman, Keith being the consummate musician, and the great thing about it is they do not interfere with each other. They have different tasks. Keith is so happy to let Mick be the frontman as long as he can play music. And so they endure because they love what they do and they perform. It's one thing that John and Paul”

   2026-05-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Bob Spitz on the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and the Art of Biography · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

7. “John Lynn and absolutely went to Liverpool College of Art. And it was an incubator for the arts, but also for rock and roll because people brought their instruments to school and they would play in the cloakrooms. And that's where they really form bands and learned how to play with other musicians. So the art school movement really gave us that whole British rock and roll sing to this very day. I mean, Florence Welch of Florence and the machine came out of it. Jarvis Cocker came out of art schools. They're still thriving in the UK. And they're still giving us new innovative music.”

   2026-05-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Bob Spitz on the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and the Art of Biography · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

8. “Oh, well, art colleges. We don't have them here, but they are a foundation of UK education. There is an 11 plus test that is given to every student when they're 11 years old. And it really determines whether or not they're going to go on to university or they're going to go to a vocational school. And in those early days, a vocational school meant that you'd wind up working in a factory, you'd wind up working as a clerk for the railroad, take on one of those jobs. But art schools came into being and this was a kind of repository for people who had talent but didn't know what to do with it and weren't that academic. So art schools sprang up in almost every community in the UK. And we have people like Jimmy Page coming out of art school, Keith Richards, Jeff Beth. Pete Townsend, all the great.”

   2026-05-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Bob Spitz on the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and the Art of Biography · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

9. “And Mick looks at him and says, Yeah, Brian, what can you play? Because he just wasn't contributing at all to the band after that.”

   2026-05-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Bob Spitz on the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and the Art of Biography · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

10. “Yeah, not much. He didn't bring much to the stones. As you know, Brian was the leader of the Rolling Stones at one point. He founded the band. He put it together. He named the band. And Brian was a musical savant. He could play anything. When he was a young boy, he played piano and saxophone at an incredible level. Of course, learn the guitar, played every kind of instrument, including the sitar without ever taking a lesson on the sitar. So he brought a lot of intricate musical sounds to the early stones. But once his ego got involved, once he lost his will to be the bandleader, once he couldn't write music, he stopped contributing. He really did. And there's one session in the book in 1968 when Brian shows up at a session and says to Mick, hey, Mick, what can I play?”

    2026-05-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Bob Spitz on the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and the Art of Biography · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

11. “Never wanted out. I think he loved it. It brought out another side of Charlie. Charlie was a straight laced guy. He didn't say much. He didn't participate in the hijinks much. When the guys sat down and computed how many women they had slept with, Charlie was out of the conversation completely. He loved to dress and he dressed beautifully, Savile rogue clothing. He was a bespoke tailor man dressed to a T, raised Arabian stallions, had a collection of the finest cars that money could buy, never had a driver's license, never drove one of them. He was an unusual man, but I think he loved to bring out this other side of him and be the Rolling Stones drummer. And of course, as you know, he was an excellent drummer.”

    2026-05-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Bob Spitz on the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and the Art of Biography · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

12. “Yes, and there are quite a good songs about Hackney Diamonds, which took me by surprise. You know, if 40 years had gone by, the stone's music wasn't as of the moment anymore. They hadn't had hits in a while. And yet they put a fabulous blues album together when they were 79 years old, which I find absolutely remarkable.”

    2026-05-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Bob Spitz on the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and the Art of Biography · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

13. “It was the follow up to satisfaction. It kind of got lost in the fewer that satisfaction made. And yet I think it has the same spark, the same energy, the same bite, the same snap. And it really showcases the stones in that whole rock and roll satisfaction garage band mode that they got”

    2026-05-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Bob Spitz on the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and the Art of Biography · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

14. “As far as I care, no, but I've had friends who would call me on the carpet for that. A lot of people hear that album in a different way than you and I heard it. They hear it as something authentic, something that moves from genre to genre. There are blue songs. There are rock songs. There are country and Western songs. For my money, I agree with Mick Tagger. Mick Jagger can't listen to that album. That isn't one of his favorites. And I think it's because he didn't really participate much on that album. He had just gotten married. They were in France. Everyone was in France, in exile. But Mick was flying all over the world with his new wife. Every once in a while he would check into the session and participate in the recording. So, you know, it's a mixed bag. We hear it in different ways, but I agree with you. Excel on Main Street is, I think they didn't need two albums and it gets sloppy and mushy.”

    2026-05-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Bob Spitz on the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and the Art of Biography · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

15. “Yeah. Well, listen, I am a beggar's banquet. Let it bleed, man. Those two albums. All the hits. There they are. I mean, you know, that was the hotspot of the Rolling Stones career as far as I care.”

    2026-05-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Bob Spitz on the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and the Art of Biography · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

16. “I don't know if I'd say that. The Beatles had concept albums. Sergeant Peppers was a concept album. Abby Rhode is a concept album in its own way. Even the White album is somewhat of a concept album and certainly magical mystery tour. But the stones didn't do that. I think their albums were solid. They followed a pattern. They knew how to sequence the music so that the music built on the albums the same way that the Beatles built their energy on each album. And I think perhaps the stones when it came to engineering, when it came to production, worked even a little harder than the Beatles. They were in the studio a lot longer.”

    2026-05-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Bob Spitz on the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and the Art of Biography · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

17. “Yeah, it just wasn't in their wheelhouse. They were not a psychedelic band. They certainly did as many psychedelic drugs as the Beatles, perhaps more. But the music just didn't come to them easily. And so they gave it a shot. And then they went back to what they did best.”

    2026-05-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Bob Spitz on the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and the Art of Biography · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

18. “I don't disagree at all. Yeah, it was a failure. What they did was they were trying to mimic the Beatles Sergeant Peppers. And you can't copy. You really have to play what's in your heart. And I think they knew it. Certainly the other people who took part in that satanic majesty's knew it. The albums rarely played, rarely listened to.”

    2026-05-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Bob Spitz on the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and the Art of Biography · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

19. “I would rate them maybe a B minus. The rock and roll melodies are spectacular. Gimme Shoulder, Jumpin' Jack Flash. You know, you can't always get what you want. These are melodies that I would put up against some of the Beatles better songs, but perhaps not as lush, not as romantic as the Beatles. Melodies in a different mode.”

    2026-05-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Bob Spitz on the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and the Art of Biography · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

20. “Absolutely. They took the records that the American servicemen had left behind after World War II. They left thousands of records behind. And the majority of them were country and Western records. And so the stones grew up, like the Beatles did too, loving country in Western music. Courtesy of the American servicemen.”

    2026-05-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Bob Spitz on the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and the Art of Biography · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

21. “The X is rock and roll. I mean, they jacked it up, they hotwired the blues, and they turned it into a sound that we now know as rock and roll. Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley started that sound. But then the stones really gave it extra power and ferocious guitar and gave us the sound that we now know is rock and roll today.”

    2026-05-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Bob Spitz on the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and the Art of Biography · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

22. “No, not really. The stones never dreamed that they would write music. It was beyond them. They were blue singers. And so their primary goal in life was to bring that rich catalog of Dilda and Mississippi and Chicago blues to the world. They did not care about writing songs at all. They saw themselves as authentic blues masters. It was only their young manager, Andrew Aldham, who insisted if they were going to go anywhere, if they weren't going to compete in the music world, the pop music world, they would have to write music. And so they gave it a try. But this came maybe two years after they were already on the road.”

    2026-05-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Bob Spitz on the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and the Art of Biography · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

23. “Noah, actually, they did. They worked in a little club called the Crawdaddy Club, which was in Richmond, a suburb of London. And they work long and hard there. In fact, the first time, and I document this in the book, the first time they show up, only like six kids show up. And they're despondent. And they go and talk to the head of the club. And he said, look, play as if there are a hundred people there and next week there will be a hundred people. And next week there was a hundred people and they played as if there were 100. And the next week 200 came. And so they work in that club for about six months. Then they went on the road. They played a lot of really crappy little places. The same way that the Beatles did. Perhaps not as long an apprenticeship, but they served their time pretty well.”

    2026-05-13 · Conversations with Tyler · Bob Spitz on the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, and the Art of Biography · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source