“May 21, 1994, Melody Maker.”
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Eddie Vedder 14
musician, songwriter, member of Pearl Jam 1964Related quotes

“We may become the makers of our fate when we have ceased to pose as its prophets.”
Introduction
The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945)

“There are melodies that must have words… and melodies that sing themselves without words.”
Mekubolim, 1906. Alle Verk, vi. 53.
Context: There are melodies that must have words... and melodies that sing themselves without words. The latter are of a higher grade. But these, too, depend on a voice and lips,... hence are not yet altogether pure, not yet genuine spirit. Genuine melody sings itself without a voice. It sings inside, within the heart, in man's very entrails!

The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî (1870)
Context: Is not the highest honour his who from the worst hath drawn the best;
May not your Maker make the world from matter, an it suit His hest? Nay more, the sordider the stuff the cunninger the workman's hand:
Cease, then, your own Almighty Power to bind, to bound, to understand.

Extract from Prison Diaries, published in The Guardian, 2006
Music and politics

“Simple melody and variety in rhythm.”
Melodia semplice e varietà nel ritmo.
His motto for Italian music, formulated in a letter to Filippo Filippi, August 26, 1868; Luca Somigli Legitimizing the Artist (2003) p. 103.
Often misquoted as "Simple melody – clear rhythm!"