U2 is sort of song writing by accident really. We don't really know what we're doing and when we do, it doesn't seem to help.
And Honey, I miss you and I'm being good. And I'd love to be with you if only I could.
It took me a long time to learn how to write a good song.
You're not going to hear me do a rap song, you're not going to hear me do a jazz song. We have to be true to our roots, do what we do, and try to do it a little better each time.
Light up the darkness
After becoming famous once again - a 1976 song, "Hurricane," even marked a return to protest songwriting - [Bob] Dylan got addicted to drugs, found Jesus, left Jesus, and put out a lot of swill.
The songs are my lexicon. I believe the songs.
The best songs are the songs you write that you don't know anything about. They're an escape.
As long as you give my friend Jonah Lehrer a free pizza, I'll write a song about your restaurant.
You have to look at every one of your songs and be able to identify with them in a meaningful way. You can hardly sing your songs unless you're in them. If you want to fake it, go ahead. Fake it if you want. But I'm not that kind of singer.
I do know what my songs are about.
Down the street the dogs are barking And the day is getting dark. As the night comes in a-falling, The dogs´ll lose their bark And the silent night will shatter From the sounds inside my mind, For I´m one to many mornings And a thousand miles behind. From the crossroads of my doorstep, My eyes they start to fade, As I turn my head back to the room Where my love and I have laid.
Opportunities may come along for you to convert something -something that exists into something that didn't yet. That might be the beginning of it. Sometimes you just want to do things your way, want to see for yourself what lies behind the misty curtain. It's not like you see songs approaching and invite them in. It's not that easy. You want to write songs that are bigger than life. You want to say something about strange things that have happened to you, strange things you have seen. You have to know and understand something and then go past the vernacular.
You rock so, you rock so, you dip so, you dip so, you skank so, you skank so, and don't be no drag! You come so, you come so, for reggae is another bag!
There was a f**king review in f**king Melody Maker [of the first BOSSANOVA single, 'Velouria'] - 'Sounds like someone's been taking singing lessons'. Like, motherf**king A! I am the singer. Who do sing SONGS. It's like I never sang before; like I was - I don't know - reading PROSE on my previous records and now I sing. EXCUUUUUUSE me for singing
Before the Beatles, songwriters were very anonymous people and nobody paid any attention to them.
Well mostly in song writing my experience is that there isn't so much inspiration as hard work. You sit there for hours, days and weeks with a guitar and piano until something good comes.
The reason I do interviews is because I'm protecting my songs.
I think it was when I was 12 when I entered a singing competition. I sang my own original song for an audience of 1,000 people.
Without a song the day would never end Without a song the road would never bend When things go wrong a man ain't got a friend Without a song
I was still in school at the time and Cab was very popular and everybody was doing Cab Calloway so I did.
You give me a @#$%& kazoo and I'll write you a good song.
It changes over the course of life, depending on how you're feeling. There's this incredible catalog of different songs, so it depends on what you're hoping for, what your dream is and that song will come on.
Look, I got 11,052 songs on my iPod. Cyndi Lauper, Guns N' Roses, Geto Boys, N.W.A. push shuffle and anything will come on.
I've just put my heart and soul in a song and need at least a week to recover.
