Song Quotes - Page 153

I had written lyrics to a song called The Silent Extreme, which Alex later renamed Humans Being.

I just sing the songs that people don't expect you to sing, because I just love having fun at karaoke and I'm always a bit nervous to sing something serious.

My mum and dad used to make me stand up at dinner parties and sing to their friends. I had this conservatory in my house - three steps went to up to kind of a raised part of our kitchen. I used it as the stage. Every night after school I used to download backing tracks of songs I loved and perform to myself. My mum was trying to cook and I was pretending I was at the O2 arena.

I don't know if I will ever get sick of performing a song called 'Feels Like Loneliness' from Evolution. It's inspired by one of my favorite songs, 'Fever' by Peggy Lee. It's got a jazzy feel to it and I'm always able to put on a bit of character when I sing it, which is fun.

Some songs go super-quick; some take a really long time.

The Replacements definitely changed my life, I think they're just amazing. The thing that blew me away [a band like that] is that you'll get into a band from hearing one interesting song and then you'll realise that you've got seven or eight albums to listen to afterwards and every single one of them is a great record. The Replacements definitely changed my life.

I was interested in maintaining the dignity and the hearts of the songs, letting them breathe and become what they are.

A lot of the songs I write are like songs that I've never been able to find on any record, but that I've always wanted to hear. Or maybe in a style I already loved, but I was looking for something in it that I wasn't hearing yet.

The weirdest thing I've been fascinated with nowadays is the new contemporary country music, which to me sounds like very strange '70s pop, and sometimes like rock music. But some of the themes in there - maybe it's because I know how the songs were written, but it really does sound like it was written by two or three people, with the idea to appeal to the most general audience.

My definition [of genius] would be about being completely involved in your art form. So that's outside of sciences. Within the arts it's about taking people on a journey, being able to involve me completely-whether you're singing a song, whether it's in the theater, whether you're dancing-if you can make me forget I'm sitting in a seat, that's my definition of genius.

If you will show me the songs which a people or a community sing, then I will tell you the character of that community.

I feel connected to every song on this record [ 'Modern Vampires Of The City' ], but yeah I think there's something special about 'Young Lion'. It's pretty different from any song that we've had before because the vocals are kind of between two different very simple instrumental piano melodies and it's almost like something that we call a vignette, it's sort of like a miniature.

When my dad died a lot of songs came, and they're still coming.

A lot of people hear the records on the radio, they aren't absolutely sure who exactly Tears For Fears is, they just know they like the song.

I play a couple basic folks songs and break them down. I did that on a six string. I can't recall all the songs on it. There's some finger picking on it.

Now some they do and some they don't And some you just can't tell And some they will and some they won't With some it's just as well.

You wind up creating from silence, like painting a picture on a blank canvas that could bring tears to somebody's eyes. As songwriters, our blank canvas is silence. Then we write a song from an idea that can change somebody's life. Songwriting is the closest thing to magic that we could ever experience. That's why I love songwriting.

I don't enjoy songwriting.

A little child in Ethiopia will die before this song is through.

In this world of doubt, one thing is certain for me; that I will go on writing songs up to and - I hope, through heavenly means or diabolical - beyond the day I die.

Sometimes I write songs that just come out in a pop format because I grew up on melody and these amazing artists during the 80s. It's my tradition and it's something that I can't really control.

My songs don't play on pop radio; they play on black radio.

I write songs like "The Sweetest Love." Of course I'm a little cheesy. Love is cheesy. Love is corny. But it's also the greatest feeling in the whole world.

I think The Song Remains The Same is such a load of old bollocks.

I'd break out in hives if I had to sing (`Stairway to Heaven') in every show. I wrote those lyrics and found that song to be of some importance and consequence in 1971, but 17 years later, I don't know. It's just not for me. I sang it at the Atlantic Records show because I'm an old softie and it was my way of saying thank you to Atlantic because I've been with them for 20 years. But no more of `Stairway to Heaven' for me.