Excerpt from a interview w/ Lester Bangs, the one-man pan machine...

Q: Just for posterity, can I have your definition of good rock 'n' roll?

A: Good rock 'n' roll... [long pause] I don't know. I guess it's just something that makes you feel alive. It's just like, it's something that's human, and I think that most music today isn't. And it's like anything that I would want to listen to is made by human beings instead of computers and machines. To me, good rock 'n' roll also encompasses other things, like Hank Williams and Charlie Mingus and a lot of things that aren't strictly defined as rock 'n' roll. Rock 'n' roll is like an attitude, it's not a musical form of a strict sort. It's a way of doing things, of approaching things. Like anything can be rock 'n' roll.

Q: It's just like that piece in the liner notes to Velvet Underground Live 1969, some of the greatest rock stars were Beethoven, Albert Einstein.

A: I don't know about Beethoven or Einstein, but I mean, you just know it when you see it. I mean, writing can be rock 'n' roll or a movie can be rock 'n' roll. It doesn't necessarily have to have anything to do with music. It's just a way of living your life, a way of going about things.