“When I wrote about Hank Williams 'A hundred floors above me in the tower of song', it's not some kind of inverse modesty. I know where Hank Williams stands in the history of popular song. Your Cheatin' Heart, songs like that, are sublime, in his own tradition, and I feel myself a very minor writer.”

— Hank Williams

Leonard Cohen, Who held a gun to Leonard Cohen's head? http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/fridayreview/story/0,12102,1305765,00.html The Guardian (2006-06-20)
About

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "When I wrote about Hank Williams 'A hundred floors above me in the tower of song', it's not some kind of inverse modest…" by Hank Williams?

Hank Williams 7

American country music singer 1923–1953

Related quotes

“For me, how I feel about what I wrote down turns into a song.”

Geddy Lee (1953) vocalist, bassist, and keyboardist for the Canadian rock group Rush

Global Bass interview (2000)

“If I was a better poet like William Carlos Williams I’d be able to write about anything, but I’m just a minor poet. So I just write about things like moments of crisis that tend to be on the sadder, darker side. You can spend ten minutes in a really dark place and write a song about it that lasts forever.”

John Doe (1954) American singer, songwriter, actor, poet, guitarist and bass player

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11304560, John Doe: The 'X' Man Returns, 2008-06-02, Wertheimer, Linda, 2007-06-23, audio, Weekend Edition Saturday, National Public Radio

“I’ve been listening to my father’s songs lately. He was a wonderful composer; I love his songs very much. My father used to say to me, “My son Ranariddh sang my songs the best,” because you had to sing it with your own heart. I used to sing a lot. He didn't like to sing his own songs, so I used to do it.”

Norodom Ranariddh (1944) Cambodian politician

[Post Staff, http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/recollections-king-father, Recollections of the King Father, 3 February 2013, 29 June 2015, Phnom Penh Post]

“Some songs I wrote that night, and some songs took nine months to arrange, get how I positioned them. Some songs I wrote parts of when I was twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen… Just putting it together, just finding the right place for it.”

St. Vincent (musician) (1982) American singer-songwriter

QRO Magazine interview (2007)
Context: Some songs I wrote that night, and some songs took nine months to arrange, get how I positioned them. Some songs I wrote parts of when I was twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen… Just putting it together, just finding the right place for it. So it's really been a long time coming.... I'm actually really restless, in the sense that I'd rather be always making something new. I'm really excited about making a second record. I've got a lot of things up my sleeve, I guess.

“I'm here touring with my latest record, Bass Generation. I produced and wrote all the songs, and I was really focused and wrote all the lyrics from the bottom of my heart. Each song is different, but if people listen they'll know it's a Basshunter song.”

Basshunter (1984) Swedish singer, record producer and DJ

Colorado Daily interview with Wendy Kale (5 April 2010) http://www.coloradodaily.com/music-news/ci_15016085
Bass Generation

“With all that’s been written about Temple of the Dog recently, it’s reminded me of the original meanings of those songs. Say Hello 2 Heaven, for example, was one of the songs I wrote directly for Andy Wood and the amount of times someone has requested I play that song for someone else who’s died have been numerous. That’s great that it’s become this anthem that makes somebody feel some comfort when they’ve lost someone, but recently I’ve become a little more possessive of the idea that this song was actually written for a specific guy and I haven’t forgotten that person. So I’ve been reminding myself and those in the audience where that song came from.”

Chris Cornell (1964–2017) American singer-songwriter, musician

Chris Cornell Interview: ‘There’s always been a desire in me to keep the attention of a room full of people with just one stupid guitar and nothing else’, The Independent, 20 May 2016 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/chris-cornell-interview-there-s-always-been-a-desire-in-me-to-keep-the-attention-of-a-room-full-of-a7039831.html,
Temple of the Dog Era

“Song for Prince Charles, performed with Robin Williams on We Are Most Amused”

Bill Bailey (1965) English comedian, musician, actor, TV and radio presenter and author

2008
Lyrics

“I like them all. … They're all pictures of me when I wrote them. … I have no favorite songs.”

Paul Simon (1941) American musician, songwriter and producer

Pop Chronicles Show 36 - The Rubberization of Soul: The great pop music renaissance. Part 2 http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc19795/m1/, interview recorded (20 December 1967) http://web.archive.org/web/20110615153027/http://www.library.unt.edu/music/special-collections/john-gilliland/o-s

“One more instance I will give of his interest and his knowledge. We were passing under a fir tree when we heard a small song in the tree above us. We stopped and I said that was the song of a golden-crested wren. He listened very attentively while the bird repeated its little song, as its habit is. Then he said, "I think that is exactly the same song as that of a bird that we have in America"; and that was the only English song that he recognized as being the same as any bird song in America. Some time afterwards I met a bird expert in the Natural History Museum in London and told him this incident, and he confirmed what Colonel Roosevelt had said, that the song of this bird would be about the only song that the two countries had in common. I think that a very remarkable instance of minute and accurate knowledge on the part of Colonel Roosevelt. It was the business of the bird expert in London to know about birds. Colonel Roosevelt's knowledge was a mere incident acquired, not as part of the work of his life, but entirely outside it.”

Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon (1862–1933) British Liberal statesman

Recreation (1919)

“I became aware that in Hank's recorded songs were the archetype rules of poetic songwriting. The architectural forms are like marble pillars and they had to be there. Even his words - all of the syllables are divided up so they make perfect mathematical sense. You can learn a lot about the structure of songwriting by listening to his records.”

Hank Williams (1923–1953) American country music singer

Bob Dylan, Chronicles: Volume One (2004)
About

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Hank Williams 7

Related quotes

Related topics