When the Beatles cut old rock n’ roll, they were recording music still in their performing repertoire, and besides, they never thought of the music as old. – Jon Landau
It is by now beyond question that Elton John is a competent and classy entertainer. Few people who have achieved his popularity have succeeded in maintaining his standards for performance and professionalism. – Jon Landau
Since her landmark ‘Tapestry,’ Carole King has both oversimplified and over elaborated that masterful album’s style until her music has become something more overtly but less effectively personal. – Jon Landau
Ringo Starr may not have much of a voice, but when he sang a song on a Beatle album, it had its own special charm. – Jon Landau
Bob Dylan has always sealed his decisions with the unexplainable. His motives for withholding the release of the magnificent ‘Basement Tapes’ will be as forever obscure as Brian Wilson’s reasons for the destruction of the tapes for ‘Smile.’ – Jon Landau
‘Call Me’ is not an exceptional Al Green album, but it is as solid as a rock at its center. – Jon Landau
The early Bob Dylan was compulsively drawn to the conflict between stability and the search for immortality. – Jon Landau
Part of me believes that the completed record is the final measure of a pop musician’s accomplishment, just as the completed film is the final measure of a film artist’s accomplishments. – Jon Landau
What makes the Stones’ arrogance so divine is that we all believe that long ago and far away they weren’t rich and famous but poor and struggling, just like us. – Jon Landau
In the end, the sign of Aretha Franklin’s artistry is that she always leaves her mark – first, on the music, then on us. – Jon Landau
Joni Mitchell seems destined to remain in a state of permanent dissatisfaction – always knowing what she would like to do, always more depressed when it’s done. – Jon Landau
While the Beatles always had George Martin around to clean up their act, the Rolling Stones had Andrew Loog Oldham to coarsen theirs. – Jon Landau
The only criticism heard with any frequency of Elton John’s first American album, ‘Elton John,’ was that the production was too grandiose. The melodies were superb, and lyrics frequently very good, and the performances flawless. – Jon Landau
One gets the impression that Elvis Presley does what his business advisors think will be most profitable. My advice to them: Put Elvis Presley in the studio with a bunch of good, contemporary rockers, lock the studio up, and tell him he can’t come out until he’s done made an album that rocks from beginning to end. – Jon Landau
My ambition was to be a record producer, and I had started doing that in the late ’60s with my work with the MC5 and my friend Livingston Taylor. – Jon Landau
The early Stones were adolescent rockers. They were self-conscious in an obvious and unpretentious way. And they were committed to a musical style that needed no justification because it came so naturally to them. As they grew musically the mere repetition of old rock and blues tunes became increasingly less satisfying. – Jon Landau
The greatness of Mac Rebennack, alias, Dr. John, also known as John Crieux, rests on his command of the musical use of idiomatic expression. Not a technically well-endowed singer, nor a great songwriter, he leaves his mark through the discipline and control he exerts over all that he touches. – Jon Landau
Elton John can be a master of the sleight of hand. The arrangements make it seem like there are substantial melodies underneath the tracks – but almost nothing demands repeated listenings. Similarly, he always sounds like he’s singing up a storm, but his voice glosses over the material, reducing most things to an uninteresting sameness. – Jon Landau
Aretha Franklin’s ‘Let Me in Your Life’ is one of the few recent R&B albums that places the emphasis entirely and deservedly on a voice. Many R&B producers have been making records on which the singer is outshined by the song, the arrangement and the sound. – Jon Landau
There were many stars in Motown’s firmament – among them, Stevie, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Martha Reeves and Diana Ross – but I happen to have loved the Four Tops most of all. – Jon Landau
James Taylor is the kind of person I always thought the word ‘folksinger’ referred to. He writes and sings songs that are reflections of his own life, and performs in them in his own style. All of his performances are marked by an eloquent simplicity. – Jon Landau
As long as Elton John can bring forth one performance per album on the order of ‘Someone Saved My Life Tonight,’ the chance remains that he will become something more than the great entertainer he already is and go on to make a lasting contribution to rock. – Jon Landau