Song Quotes - Page 259

Just because I write in the first person doesn't mean that all my songs are autobiographical.

I think I'm a lot happier than people might think from listening to my songs.

Though the inspiration for my songs almost always comes from things that are happening around me, I am definitely not always the protagonist in the songs.

In terms of songwriting I think it might be a circular thing. I tend to go back and forth between quieter melancholy songs and more forceful, less traditional structures. I think when I find myself leaning too far in one direction I kind of rebel against it and pull the other way.

People were very passionate and over the top about showing me their love and affection and they memorized my songs in Spanish.

It was during this [as a kid] time that I came out of my shell vocally and performance wise, I learned how to really and truly sing in a different way.... my way. It was an amazing experience because I also realized my lifelong dream - to sing my own songs...I have something to say and it was a great release for me to share that part of myself with others.

It is very important to me that my songs can sound amazing with a big band or orchestra, but just as powerful and touching with just me and my guitar.

The Armstrong record that I personally like the most, is a recording of a song by Harold Arlen called, "I Got a Right to Sing the Blues" . Most of Armstrong's solos tended to stick pretty close to the melody. But for some reason, it's like he let go of the tether and suddenly he's playing this beautiful high, almost abstract line that's floating above the beat. I compare it to the way that a 19th century operatic tenor might have sang an Aria because he's just completely let loose of the background and he's making this magic sort of flying above the staff.

I look fondly back on renegade days of my youth. Not the partying or anything, but it's still the spirit that I have always adhered to. When I do work that I like, it feels like a great punk song, like a burst of adrenaline. I've always kept this spirit in me, or some sort of connection to it.

He's probably their battle poet, too." "You mean he makes up heroic songs about famous battles?" "No, no. He recites poems that frighten the enemy....When a well-trained gonnagle starts to recite, the enemy's ears explode.

You can't trust folk songs. They always sneak up on you.

‎No one remembers the singer. The song remains.

When it came to slaughtering sacred cows with such crude yet perfect musical precision, there was no one better than Frank. I wonder what songs he's teaching the angels right now? Good luck God! You've got your hands full this time.

Port Talbot is a steel town, where everything is covered with gray iron ore dust. Even the beach is completely littered with dust, it's just black. The sun was setting, and it was quite beautiful. The contrast was extraordinary, I had this image of a guy sitting there on this dingy beach with a portable radio, tuning in these strange Latin escapist songs like 'Brazil.' The music transported him somehow and made his world less gray.

Evil may be 'unscientific' but so is a song or a smile.

[Miss] Piggy was amazing, I was nervous because I wrote our opening. I wrote the song, wrote what we were going to do. And first I was hoping that they would approve it, because they're not playing.

Artists who write songs... what they're going through usually comes through in their music.

That's a song about reaching deep inside yourself where you can completely be who you are.

You can keep rummaging around until you find a song you like, but you can't predict whether it'll hit or not.

There were times I used to go to parties when I was, you know, like 15-, 16-years-old, and I'd always bring my guitar, and all my friends would be like, sing one of the Smokey songs. And everything I sang was his music, and I could sound just like him.

I was obsessed with country music when I was a kid, and it's definitely had a huge influence on the way I write songs. I was always attracted to songs that had a brilliant pun or a clever turn of phrase, but came from a dark, bitter place. As a writer, I've always gravitated towards that feeling.

My worst song is stimulating beyond words. My best songs are downright scary.

All my songs instinctively erupted from my guitar and lyrical visions followed the spirit of the music, bot image wise and rhythmical cadence wise. It remains one of life's greatest joys to this day.

I don't care if it's Bruno Mars or Aerosmith or ZZ Top... it's about songs. 'Paperback Writer,' 'Satisfaction,' 'Cat Scratch Fever,' 'Walk This Way,' all the killer songs in the world start with an identifiable guitar pattern that is basically a bastardization of either honky-tonk or boogie-woogie. And that's in every cool piece of music in the world that you and I love.

I started singing with the Amboy Dukes in '87. I sang 'Oh Baby Please Don't Go,' the old Van Morrison song by Joey Smith. I started singing more from then on.