A biography for Dick Clarkhasn’t been written yet.
“Well, I'm using a cane, so what? So what if they shot me sitting in a wheelchair? That's life!”
“I was roundly criticized for being in and around rock & roll music at its inception. It was the devil's music: it would make your teeth fall out and your hair turn blue, whatever the hell. You get through that.”
“In Presley's time, you didn't dare not to be a fan of his, because you were part of a club. Now you can say I prefer Billy Joel or Tina Turner or someone else. It's all fractionalized.”
“Between Alan Freed in Cleveland and Bob Horn and Lee Stewart in Philadelphia and George 'Hound Dog' Lorenz in Buffalo, they began to find out that white kids liked black music. It was a very significant period of time before I got there.”
“I've never relegated the lip-synch to a lower form of entertainment. Lip-synching is an art unto itself. A lot of people can't do it.”
“Rock had a huge impact. Anything that the older generation hates is usually loved by kids. Nothing much changes - that still continues today.”
“Music is the soundtrack of your life.”
“It can be embarrassing. People come up to me and say, 'I love your show,' and I have no idea which one they're talking about.”