You can rebel against everything adults say. When I want to find out what the new music is, I find out what parents hate.
I came in after the Smokey Robinsons, Temptations, Clovers, and Clyde McPhatter and the Drifters. I came along at that level, when there was harmonizing.
The Mothership is in the Smithsonian now. That's probably one of the biggest displays there.
I was at the Apollo Theater all the time, skipping school, and I worked in a barbershop. That's how I started with doo-wop. Now I've come full circle. I did all kinds of music. I used to work on Broadway and Tin Pan Alley.
Record companies would rather you stay dumb, not even think of it as a business, so they can either rip you off or get you out of the way in five years to make way for the new groups.
You stayed up on the record business by knowing who was doing what. You watched the Phil Spectors. That's what told you what to do, what was hot.
