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" It's self-effacing, it's hard-luck, the shtetl stories. All those Coasters things are an amalgam of Yiddish and black humor. "
Jerry Leiber
Humor
Black
Those
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" I heard this music coming out of the radio and it was 'Ain't Nobody's Business.' It got me. I thought, 'I can do this.' I decided just like that. No romantic story. "
Jerry Leiber
Romantic
Thought
Music
" Elvis was incredibly cooperative. He would try anything. He wasn't a diva, no prima donna. When it came to work, he was a workhorse. "
Jerry Leiber
Try
Work
Diva
" And there's always one special element. In 'There Goes My Baby,' it's the out-of-tune timpani. 'Stand by Me,' it's the bass pattern. Of course, all the elements come together to make a great record. But there's always one standout. "
Jerry Leiber
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Always
Baby
" Elvis Presley, you can't define him in a couple of sentences, but he was a country boy and he was very respectful. "
Jerry Leiber
Him
Boy
Country
" Our songs did not transcend being R&B hits. They were R&B hits that white kids were attracted to. And if people bought it, it became rock & roll. That's marketing. Why couldn't it still be R&B? The bass pattern didn't change. The song didn't change. It was still 'Yakety Yak' and 'Searchin'.' "
Jerry Leiber
Why
Song
Rock
" I felt black. I was as far as I was concerned. And I wanted to be black for lots of reasons. They were better musicians, they were better athletes, they were not uptight about sex, and they knew how to enjoy life better than most people. "
Jerry Leiber
Black
People
Life
" Irving Berlin was the greatest songwriter of all time. I was in awe of him. But his music wasn't my music. My music was the blues. "
Jerry Leiber
Music
Awe
Greatest
" The first memory I have was my sisters dancing to the radio when they played records by Benny Goodman and Harry James and of the sort. But the record that got me was a record by Derek Sampson, who was a young guy, called 'Boogie Express,' and it was boogie-woogie. Really, it was on fire, and that got me. "
Jerry Leiber
Radio
Young
Me
" I was brought up in black neighborhoods in South Baltimore. And we really felt like we were very black. We acted black and we spoke black. When I was a kid growing up, where I came from, it was hip to be black. To be white was kind of square. "
Jerry Leiber
Growing
White
Kind
" Teenagers especially are very, very conscious about what is hip and what is lame and what is square and what is out and what is in, you know. And, I mean, I grew up right there in the middle of a black culture. And I knew dead-on what it was. "
Jerry Leiber
Mean
Right
You
" Red-hot songs were born on the black streets of Baltimore, where I delivered five-gallon cans of kerosene and ten-pound bags of coal. "
Jerry Leiber
Songs
Baltimore
Black
" The Jewish background is not that far from the black groove. Blacks are downtrodden, Jews are downtrodden, therefore they have something in common in that affliction. Being downtrodden often makes one more empathetic and sympathetic. "
Jerry Leiber
Black
Far
Background
" 'Hound Dog' took like twelve minutes. That's not a complicated piece of work. But the rhyme scheme was difficult. Also the metric structure of the music was not easy. 'Kansas City' was maybe eight minutes, if that. Writing the early blues was spontaneous. You can hear the energy in the work. "
Jerry Leiber
Work
Writing
Dog
" Listen to any cantor, any good hazan, sing and you can hear a little bit of Ray Charles going on. "
Jerry Leiber
Listen
Hear
You