Roger Ebert (1942–2013) American film critic, author, journalist, and TV presenter
Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/battlefield-earth-2000 of Battlefield Earth (12 May 2000) <br class="br">Reviews, Half-star reviews
Roger Ebert (1942–2013) American film critic, author, journalist, and TV presenter
Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/battlefield-earth-2000 of Battlefield Earth (12 May 2000) <br class="br">Reviews, Half-star reviews
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1960s, The Drum Major Instinct (1968)
Randall Jarrell book Pictures from an Institution
When I asked him how he had thought of it he said placidly: “De devil soldt me his soul.”
Source: Pictures from an Institution (1954) [novel], Chapter 4: “Constance and the Rosenbaums”, p. 136
Baba Amte (1914–2008) Indian freedom fighter, social worker
On leadership
Baba Amte's Words of Wisdom
Roger Ebert (1942–2013) American film critic, author, journalist, and TV presenter
Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/death-race-2008 of Death Race (22 August 2008) <br class="br">Reviews, Half-star reviews
“As a sleuth you are poor. You couldn’t detect a bass-drum in a telephone-booth.”
P.G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) English author
The Man with Two Left Feet (1917)
“Less glory is more liberty. When the drum is silent, reason sometimes speaks.”
Albert Pike book Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry
Source: Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871), Ch. I : Apprentice, The Twelve-Inch Rule and Common Gavel, p. 1
“A serjeant is a soldier with a halbert, and a drummer is a soldier with a drum.”
Thomas Denison (1699–1765) British judge (1699–1765)
Lloyd v. Wooddall (1748), 1 Black. 30.
Justin D. Fox (1967) South African author, photojournalist, lecturer and editor
The Marginal Safari: Scouting the Edge of South Africa (2010)
Alexander Woollcott (1887–1943) American critic
"George the Ingenuous" in Cosmopolitan (November 1933); reprinted in Ch. IV: "'...A Young Colossus...'" https://books.google.com/books?id=ATcjgQTx0uIC&pg=PA45#v=onepage&q&f=false from Gershwin Remembered (1992) by Edward Jablonski, pp. 44-45
Gloria Estefan (1957) Cuban-American singer-songwriter, actress and divorciada
www.huffingtonpost.com (September 7, 2007)
2007, 2008
Clare Fischer (1928–2012) American keyboardist, composer, arranger, and bandleader
From "Clare Fischer on Bossa Nova" http://www.mediafire.com/view/fix6ane8h54gx/Clare_Fischer#3f6344g3cshffpj in Downbeat (November 8, 1962), p. 23
“I can hear another drum beating for the dead that rise, whom Nature's beast fears as they come.”
Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist
Song lyrics, Empire Burlesque (1985), Dark Eyes
Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770–1827) German Romantic composer
10th October, 1814
In: Johann Wenzel Tomaschek, "A Talk with Beethoven", The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular, Vol. 33, Beethoven Supplement (Dec. 15, 1892)
“In a world become blind,
I beat the drum of the Deathless.”
Gautama Buddha (-563–-483 BC) philosopher, reformer and the founder of Buddhism
Ariyapariyesana Sutta http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.026.than.html <br class="br">Unclassified
Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788) English portrait and landscape painter
Quote in a letter of Gainbourough, 1772; as cited in Thomas Gainsborough, by William T, Whitley https://ia800204.us.archive.org/6/items/thomasgainsborou00whitrich/thomasgainsborou00whitrich.pdf; New York, Charles Scribner's Sons – London, Smith, Elder & Co, Sept. 1915, p. 88 <br class="br">1770 - 1788
Maxime Bernier (1963) Canadian politician
16 August 2018 https://twitter.com/MaximeBernier/status/1030087576328105985
Van Morrison (1945) Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician
Everyone
Song lyrics, Moondance (1970)
“The harder they hit us, the louder we become, kind of like the skin on a drum.”
Michael Franti (1966) American rapper
Skin On The Drum, Stay Human (2001)
Ziauddin Barani (1285–1357) Indian Muslim historian and political thinker (1285–1357)
Quoted from Goel, Sita Ram (2001). The story of Islamic imperialism in India. ISBN 9788185990231
Laurie Lee (1914–1997) British writer
Eight-Year-Old World, p. 26.
I Can't Stay Long (1975)
Louis MacNeice (1907–1963) poet
"The British Museum Reading Room", line 4, from Plant and Phantom (1941)
Ian McCulloch (1959) singer, musician
When asked if the media attention focussing on him caused problems.
NME (1980)
Ringo Starr (1940) British musician, former member of the Beatles
"Drumming Is My Madness," from Stop And Smell The Roses (1981)
Captain Beefheart (1941–2010) musician
On Trout Mask Replica
The Artist Formerly Known as Captain Beefheart (1997)
Aurangzeb (1618–1707) Sixth Mughal Emperor
Akhbarat-i-Darbar-i-Mu‘alla, Julus 10, Shawwal 24 / April 9th 1667.
Quotes from late medieval histories, 1660s
Dawud Wharnsby (1972) Canadian musician
"The War/La Ilaha Il Allah"
Out Seeing The Fields (2007)
Elvis Costello (1954) English singer-songwriter
New Music Express interview with Nick Kent (1978); quoted in Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell, and the Torch Song Tradition (2004) by Larry David Smith, p. 166
George Galloway (1954) British politician, broadcaster, and writer
The Mirror http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/margaret-thatcher-fawning-gone-far-1836314 George Galloway blasts cancellation of PMQs for Margret Thatchers funeral 16 April, 2013
Cyrano de Bergerac (1619–1655) French novelist, dramatist, scientist and duelist
The Other World (1657)
Bill Downs (1914–1978) American journalist
Describing the Allied assault on the Nijmegen bridge during Operation Market Garden in 1944
Gloria Estefan (1957) Cuban-American singer-songwriter, actress and divorciada
Reuters (November 17, 2006)
2007, 2008
Titian (1488–1576) Italian painter
Quote in his letter to Titian's friend and agent Pietro Aretino, From Asti, 31 May, 1536; in Lettere a Pietro Aretino, i. p. 146 and reprinted in Ticozzi (Vecelli, p. 309); transl. J.A.Y. Crowe & G.B. Cavalcaselle
At Asti, it would seem, Titian was quite in Spanish waters. He doubtless met and perhaps again portrayed the Emperor Charles V.
1510-1540
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1960s, The Drum Major Instinct (1968)
Chuba Okadigbo (1941–2003) Nigerian politician
Address to the December 2001 debates concerning Biafra, USAfrica Online http://www.usafricaonline.com/okadigbo.biafra2001.html
Alex Salmond (1954) Scottish National Party politician and former First Minister of Scotland
Speech at the SNP annual conference (24 September 2004), quoted in The Independent, ' Salmond back with threat to impeach PM http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/salmond-back-with-threat-to-impeach-pm-6160873.html' (25 September 2004).
John Donne (1572–1631) English poet
VI. Metuit. The physician is afraid
Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions (1624)
Kenneth Clark (1903–1983) Art historian, broadcaster and museum director
Source: The Romantic Rebellion (1973), Ch. 3: Goya
John Diamond (doctor) (1934) Australian doctor
Source: The Way of the Pulse: Drumming with Spirit (1999), p. 79
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy (1877–1947) Ceylon-American art historian
By Ananda Coomaraswamy in "Nataraja".
Omar Khayyám (1048–1131) Persian poet, philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer
The Rubaiyat (1120)
Stephen Crane (1871–1900) American novelist, short story writer, poet, and journalist
Do Not Weep, Maiden, For War is Kind, st. 2
War Is Kind and Other Lines (1899)
Robert Burton book The Anatomy of Melancholy
The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Democritus Junior to the Reader
Brian Tyler (1972) American composer, producer, conductor, and film producer
Interview with Brian Tyler https://8dio.com/2012/12/05/interview-with-brian-tyler/ (December 5, 2012)
Tanya Reinhart (1943–2007) Israeli journalist
Counterpounch, Interview with Tanya Reinhart (October 2, 2006) http://www.counterpunch.org/hazan10022006.html
Harry Chapin (1942–1981) American musician
Six String Orchestra
Song lyrics, Verities & Balderdash (1974)
Helen Schucman (1909–1981) Clinical Psychologist
Helen Schucman (1976), in interview by David Hammond August 1976 in Belvedere, California. Quoted in: The Voice: A Historical Moment with Helen https://acim.org/Scribing/the_voice.html at acim.org. Accessed May 21, 2014. Also online ar merelyacim.wikispaces.com http://merelyacim.wikispaces.com/An+interview+with+Helen+Schucman.<br>In answer of question: "Regarding the voice you heard in the scribing A Course in Miracles, did it come from outside or from within?"
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
Paraphrased on the Stone of Hope in the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial in Washington, DC as "I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness." (Rachel Manteuffel, "Martin Luther King a drum major? If you say so." http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/martin-luther-king-a-drum-major-if-you-say-so/2011/08/25/gIQAmmUkeJ_story.html The Washington Post, 25 August 2011) The monument plans used a correct and contextualized quote, but the lead architect and the sculptor altered it to use fewer words for visual appearance. (Rachel Manteuffel, "Correcting the Martin Luther King memorial mistake", http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mlk-memorials-drum-major-quote-will-be-corrected-interior-secretary-says/2012/01/13/gIQAnjYvwP_story.html The Washington Post, 13 January 2012) <br class="br">1960s, The Drum Major Instinct (1968) <br class="br">Context: Every now and then I guess we all think realistically about that day when we will be victimized with what is life's final common denominator — that something we call death. We all think about it. And every now and then I think about my own death, and I think about my own funeral. And I don't think of it in a morbid sense. Every now and then I ask myself, "What is it that I would want said?" And I leave the word to you this morning.<br>If any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don't want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long. Every now and then I wonder what I want them to say. Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize, that isn't important. Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred other awards, that's not important. Tell him not to mention where I went to school.<br>I'd like somebody to mention that day, that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others. I'd like for somebody to say that day, that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody. I want you to say that day, that I tried to be right on the war question. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked. I want you to say, on that day, that I did try, in my life, to visit those who were in prison. I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity.<br>Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice; say that I was a drum major for peace; I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won't have any money to leave behind. I won't have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. And that's all I want to say.
Marshall McLuhan book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man
Understanding Media (1964)
Context: Radio affects most intimately, person-to-person, offering a world of unspoken communication between writer-speaker and the listener. That is the immediate aspect of radio. A private experience. The subliminal depths of radio are charged with the resonating echoes of tribal horns and antique drums. This is inherent in the very nature of this medium, with its power to turn the psyche and society into a single echo chamber. (p. 261)
Joanna Newsom (1982) American musician
Sunday Service, 13 December 2004
Context: I'm not terribly interested in playing harp on other people's music right now. Partly because I feel like many people view the harp as this kind of gimmick. You know, like they have songs that are fully realized, complete songs, and then they think "How do we make this special? - Ooh, let's bring the harp in!" and they kind of want a harpist to play a glissando and play some heavenly noise in the background. I'm really interested in the harp as a fully actualized, self-contained way of presenting songs. That there is a bass in the harp - there is a way to create a rhythmic sense without drums - there's a way to have all sorts of textural variations and expressive variations.
I also don't want to feel bound to the harp, I'd be interested in bringing other instruments in at some time. But I think the harp has been viewed in one particular way for so long, and has been limited for so long, that I feel like I am really interested in stretching the boundaries of what it's capable of doing and how it's perceived.
“The worm stood straight on God's blood-splattered threshold then
and beat his drum”
Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957) Greek writer
Odysseus' song, Book III, line 424
The Odyssey : A Modern Sequel (1938)
Context: The worm stood straight on God's blood-splattered threshold then
and beat his drum, beat it again, and raised his throat:
'You've matched all well on earth, wine, women, bread, and song,
but why, you Murderer, must you slay our children? Why?'
God foamed with rage and raised his sword to pierce that throat,
but his old copper sword, my lads, stuck at the bone.
Then from his belt the worm drew his black-hilted sword,
rushed up and slew that old decrepit god in heaven!
And now, my gallant lads — I don't know when or how —
that worm's god-slaying sword has fallen into my hands;
I swear that from its topmost iron tip the blood still drips!
The End
Context: After the blast of lightning from the east,
The flourish of loud clouds, the Chariot Throne;
After the drums of time have rolled and ceased,
And by the bronze west long retreat is blown,
Shall Life renew these bodies? Of a truth,
All death will he annul, all tears assuage? —
Or fill these void veins full again with youth,
And wash, with an immortal water, age?
“Put away your muskets, lay aside the drum,
Hang it by the wooden sword we made for little Peterkin!”
Alfred Noyes (1880–1958) English poet
Prelude
The Flower of Old Japan and Other Poems (1907), Forest of Wild Thyme
Context: They wouldn't mourn for Peterkin, merry little Peterkin.
Put away your muskets, lay aside the drum,
Hang it by the wooden sword we made for little Peterkin!
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) American Imagist poet and critic
'Lament of the Frontier Guard' (From Cathay, 1915)
“There comes a time that the drum major instinct can become destructive.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1960s, The Drum Major Instinct (1968)
Context: There comes a time that the drum major instinct can become destructive. And that's where I want to move now. I want to move to the point of saying that if this instinct is not harnessed, it becomes a very dangerous, pernicious instinct. For instance, if it isn’t harnessed, it causes one's personality to become distorted. I guess that's the most damaging aspect of it: what it does to the personality. If it isn't harnessed, you will end up day in and day out trying to deal with your ego problem by boasting. Have you ever heard people that—you know, and I'm sure you've met them—that really become sickening because they just sit up all the time talking about themselves. And they just boast and boast and boast, and that's the person who has not harnessed the drum major instinct. And then it does other things to the personality. It causes you to lie about who you know sometimes. There are some people who are influence peddlers. And in their attempt to deal with the drum major instinct, they have to try to identify with the so-called big-name people. And if you're not careful, they will make you think they know somebody that they don't really know. They know them well, they sip tea with them, and they this-and-that. That happens to people.
Julius Caesar (-100–-44 BC) Roman politician and general
This statement by an unknown author has also been wrongly attributed to William Shakespeare, but there are no records of it prior to late 2001. It has been debunked at Snopes.com http://www.snopes.com/quotes/caesar.htm <br class="br">Misattributed
Pete Escovedo (1935) Mexican-American jazz musician and percussionist
On the benefits of being a musician in “Drummer Pete Escovedo will stick with what he knows at Thornton Winery” https://www.pe.com/2017/07/06/drummer-pete-escovedo-will-stick-with-what-he-knows-at-thornton-winery/ in The Press-Enterprise (2017 Jul 6)
Chris Martin (1977) musician, co-founder of Coldplay
http://www.nme.com/news/music/coldplay-to-play-a-couple-more-shows-before-they-take-a-break-to-reconsider-touring-2581423 source
Reinhard Heydrich (1904–1942) German Nazi official during World War II
Heydrich recited this, one of his father's operas, on his deathbed during one of Himmler's visits on 2 June 1941.
Source: [Lehrer, Steven, Steven Lehrer, 2000, 86, Wannsee House and the Holocaust, McFarland, Jefferson, NC, 978-0-7864-0792-7, harv]
Nicolas Chamfort (1741–1794) French writer
Ce que les poètes, les orateurs, même quelques philosophes nous disent sur l'amour de la Gloire, on nous le disait au Collège, pour nous encourager à avoir les prix. Ce que l'on dit aux enfants pour les engager à préférer à une tartelette les louanges de leurs bonnes, c'est ce qu'on répète aux hommes pour leur faire préférer à un intérêt personnel les éloges de leurs contemporains ou de la postérité.
Maximes et Pensées, #85
Reflections
Gautama Buddha (-563–-483 BC) philosopher, reformer and the founder of Buddhism
M. Walshe, trans. (1987), Sutta 1, verse 1.13
Pali Canon, Sutta Pitaka, Digha Nikaya (Long Discourses)
Malcolm Lowry book Under the Volcano
Source: Under the Volcano (1947), Ch. I (p. 35)
John Prine (1946–2020) American country singer/songwriter
Caravan of Fools (co-written with Dan Auerbach and Pat McLaughlin)
Song lyrics, The Tree of Forgiveness (2018)
Harry Dean Stanton (1926–2017) American actor, musician, and singer
Actor Harry Dean Stanton Dies at 91", by Patrick Mcdonald, HollywoodChicago.com (16 September 2017) https://www.hollywoodchicago.com/news/27911/film-news-character-actor-harry-dean-stanton-dies-at-91"Character
Primary source
Source: Scrap print from Irish Labour history group