Neurotic quarrels always have the same theme-song: Hate me and get it over with.
When I do my solo concerts, I'm used to being on the stage for two hours solid, singing 16 songs. And when I did 'Funny Thing,' I was on the stage the whole time. This is much more difficult. It's the difference between racing and sprinting. This is sprinting. And I have to learn to pace myself.
The first song I wrote and had published was titled "Just As Long As That Someone Is You". It was written in 1959, and recorded in 1965 by Jimmy Ellege. I started writing songs because I wanted something of my own to sing. I, at that time, was not aware that the songs I heard on the radio were not written by the folks singing them. I had always loved poetry, and found it easy to integrate a melody with poetry.
I put myself into character for my songs.
Italy doesn't need American football. For what? I've been. Wine, women, song, shopping, unbelievable vistas and landscapes... You need Titans vs. Panthers? Uh, no.
There are a lot of bad worship songs, in my opinion, but there are a lot of good ones, too
Poetry, song, stories, art, our reverence for nature, are key to our survival as a species, and to the survival of all species, I believe. You can't always extract such emphatic hunches and activist stances from a scientific maxim or mathematical axiom.
A kid now can practically record a song or edit a short film on his way to school. I think that will produce, perhaps, more less-interesting things - or you'll have to search more to find the interesting things. But I also think it's exciting.
I'm a creative person and I use painting, acting, writing, writing songs, or whatever, as tools to just get a point across, in order to communicate a story or an emotion.
I use music as a tool for my own personal sanity, one might say. After a long day or something, I can always come home and sit down and play a song, or write a song, just relax and kind of space out with my guitar.
I've had a very different career than a lot of other musicians. I went through the major labels. I was signed to two major labels and bands. I've toured with Aerosmith, and I've had records on the charts, songs in the movies. If you had checklist of things a person wants to accomplish in music...I've done a lot. And I don't mean that in an egotistical way; I never take it for granted. But you can't think outside the box unless you know what's in the box.
I am a songwriter. I do get to put my personal experiences in song.
It's like visual is super important to me. So if I am writing a song, like, I have to have the title.
I'm pretty excited for people to listen to the story of each song. It's definitely like a giant book with different stories in it. They are all very child-like but also a balance between light and dark.
I was genuinely happy when I wrote that song [Training Wheels] and very in love. That's a very rare emotion to evoke out of me.
I'm glad I got to introduce myself to America by doing a Britney [Spears] song, haha!
My favorite song is Eminem's 'Rap God.' That joint is just incredible, It's six-and-a-half minutes of him just crushing the whole game. It's so different from what I hear if I listen to the radio.
In the enemy's territory, be as silent as the owl's wings; in friend's territory, be as cheerful as the nightingale's songs.
But it’s there. Just because I haven’t told anyone doesn’t mean it isn’t there, all the time, lurking in the back of my mind, like one those NSync songs you can’t get out of your head.
My life's far too complicated to be summed up in one song. It would take 20 just to represent one single day.
People feel that you'll never be able to recreate the birthplace of a song that has, at its core, the hardship of a people. Unless you underwent the respect that it takes to appropriate those songs through a ritual, then perhaps you should think twice before simply picking them up.
Opera contains music that reflects a culture of poetry and aesthetic. Spirituals are no different. What separates a spiritual for me is that I also happen to love Jesus. When I'm approaching these songs, I'm not approaching them like Mozart. I see my faith and the struggle of my ancestors and of a people seeking freedom beside what these songs are going to be in terms of their arrangement and delivery.
I've been writing joke songs since I was a kid and it served me well at S.N.L. I can write those in my sleep. In fact, I have.
I feel so good singing songs that I sang with my father.
It's the song in your heart that wants you to help make yourself a better person, and to help other people do the same. Everybody has one.
