Music megastars' interviews went live today on Library of Congress website
November 28, 2012

Sex, drugs, 'n rock 'n roll, 'n much more are discussed in interviews with Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Ray Charles, Tony Bennett, Dick Clark, and 20 other music superstars that went live today on the Library of Congress' website www.loc.gov/rr/record/joesmith/.

Former music executive Joe Smith, whose business partner was Frank Sinatra, donated 200 revealing, unedited interviews with the biggest stars from the big band era to rock, jazz, R&B, folk, country & western...


Here's a sampling of what you can hear now:

Mick Jagger:

•"I think there was a lot of time wasted with this band with all that image stuff...it contributed to Brian (Jones) cracking up completely and to a certain extent Keith (Richards) becoming a junkie."
•"Both Keith and Brian were very much influenced by The Beatles – everyone was at that point. I must say I don’t think I was as much as they were. One envied their success, but I never really liked their music as much."
Paul McCartney:

•"That was one hell of a period – completely different, like another lifetime. We were like different people by then because of the drugs thing...Sgt. Pepper owes a lot to drugs, to pot...It was never seriously heavy stuff. Things got heavy later with one or two of us...
•"We were never sort of out on the floor like you’d hear about Stones sessions where you couldn’t wake the guitarist up."
Yoko Ono:

•"Paul was the only one trying to hold The Beatles together. But, then again, the other three felt that Paul was trying to hold The Beatles together as HIS band. They were getting to be like Paul’s band, which they didn’t like..."
•"There was an incredible period of unpleasantness for John, so he was in fact delighted that he was out of it."
Tony Bennett:

•Bing Crosby "had us all hypnotized for many years. No one could get past him...He was like 15 Beatles."
•Louis Armstrong "invented jazz. He invented the whole art of popular music...He was the fountainhead. There isn’t...anything in popular music that’s ever been done that Louis Armstrong didn’t do before anybody else. He did everything."
Ray Charles:

"The public supported me even when I was nobody, and...even through all the trials and tribulations and sufferings I went through...That’s why I believe in giving the public the best I got every night. All I got...I never go out there and half do it."

Linda Ronstadt:

"Music is just dreaming in sound."

B. B. King:

"There will continuously be blues as long as there are people on the planet, because people gonna continuously have problems."

Now online also are interviews with Aerosmith's Joe Perry & Steven Tyler; Burt Bacharach; David Bowie describing Mick Jagger as conservative; Ruth Brown; Dave Brubeck recalling working in a racially segregated society; Natalie Cole; Bo Diddley talking about Elvis copying him and Jackie Wilson; among others.

The rest of Smith's 200 interviews will be added to the site over time. Those artists include: Joan Baez; Harry Belafonte; Ella Fitzgerald; David Geffen; George Harrison; Woody Herman; Billy Joel; Elton John; Quincy Jones; Tom Jones; Artie Shaw; Paul Simon; Sting; Barbra Streisand; James Taylor; and Tina Turner.

Joe Smith, when president of Capitol Records/EMI, recorded 238 hours of interviews over two years, and published excerpts in his groundbreaking 1988 book, "Off the Record" (Warner Books).

The 84-year-old Smith said when he donated the archives last June, "I wanted to share this treasure trove with any and all who might be interested."

All will be very interested in these treasured interviews that provide a candid, on-the-record oral history of the most popular music.

For more info: Library of Congress' music interviews, www.loc.gov/rr/record/joesmith/. Many of the Library’s other resources can be explored through www.loc.gov. Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution.

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