For the so-called New Wave to evolve into something more than a pathetic little trickle—commercially— there will have to be a major shift— and I mean major—in the taste of the American public. It'll mean bye-bye to long, tasty, self-indulgent licks, byebye to the whole concept of guitarworship, bye-bye to complex chord progressions and instrumental virtuosity as we know it, bye-bye to fancy production techniques. Unlikely? Well, it has happened before, and it may be happening again.

Speaking 22 years ago, Frank Sinatra—more recently one of Elvis' more misty-eyed eulogizers—had this to say about the King: "Rock 'n' roll is phony and false. It is sung, played and written for the most part by cretinous goons, and by means of imbecilic reiteration and sly, lewd; in plain fact, dirty lyrics...it manages to be the martial music of every sideburned delinquent on the face of the earths"