This quote from an interview with one of John Kerry's oldest acquaintances, Dan Barbiero:

He worked hard at music. For him to play bass in the Electras, to me, was surprising, because I didn't think he had -- he always surprises you because he puts so much effort into things. He played the bass in the Electras. He was listening to rock and roll, but he also had a very eclectic taste in music. He loved European music. I can skip ahead a year into a couple years into college. He was in love with the Broadway show Camelot. He loved that kind of Broadway show music, loved it.

"He was socially conscious. People tell me that one of the criticisms of John is that he's a waffler or he changes his mind. As long as I've known him -- and I've known him a long, long time -- his points of view on social issues, on environmental issues, on our relationship to the rest of the world, Europe and so on -- he's been unchanged.

The attitudes and things that he says today, he has always been saying. How to get there and what you have to do to achieve those goals may change from week to week or month to month. But his visions and his beliefs have been very, very consistent as long as I've known him. I've known him since he's 17 years old. ..."