"My purpose was simple: to catch the feel, the pulse of rock, as I had lived
through it. Nobody, to my knowledge, had ever written a serious book on the
subject, so I had no exemplars to inhibit me. Nor did I have any reference
books or research to hand. I simply wrote off the top of my head, whatever
and however the spirit moved me. Accuracy didn't seem of prime importance
(and the book, as a result, is rife with factual errors). What I was after was
guts, and flash, and energy, and speed. Those were the things I'd treasured in
the rock I'd loved"

--Nik Cohn, 2004 (introduction to reissue of Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom)