Quotes about song
page 13

“Why did the little girls grow crippled
While the little boys grow strong
The boys allowed to come of age
The girls just came along
The girls were told sing harmonies
The boys could all sing songs
That's why little girls grew crippled
While little boys grew strong.”

Harry Chapin (1942–1981) American musician

Why Do Little Girls?
Song lyrics, Living Room Suite (1978)

Age, Girl, Boy, Strong

“Re-wind when the crowd say Bo' Selecta ** song Artful Dodger Feat. Craig David - Re-Rewind”

Craig David (1981) English singer

Art

“In law also the emphasis makes the song.”

Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) American judge

Bethlehem Steel Co. v. New York State Labor Relations Board 330 U.S. 767, 780 (1947).
Judicial opinions

Law

“If you hear a song you like, start dancing. That's what I do, I'll just start dancing, and that's it. That's all there is to it.”

Krist Novoselic (1965) Croatian-American rock musician

34:23–34:29 "Nirvana's Krist Novoselic on Punk, Politics, & Why He Dumped the Dems" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4TPRH2uK9w

Dance

“The Song of Solomon
The song of everyone
Who walks the path
Of the solitary heart.”

Kate Bush (1958) British recording artist; singer, songwriter, musician and record producer

Song lyrics, The Red Shoes (1993)

Heart

“Basically, I write from a two person standpoint. First, I let the song take hold and I put down the idea as a raw emotional statement. Then I let it breathe and come back, approaching from more of an objective point of view. This allows me to rediscover the true meaning I intended in the beginning, shedding new light on how I can best represent that to the listener.”

Bradley Joseph (1965) Composer, pianist, keyboardist, arranger, producer, recording artist

Indie Journal Interview http://web.archive.org/web/20041101084648/http://www.indiejournal.com/indiejournal/interviews/bradleyjoseph.htm

Idea, Light, Personality

“The album is very different from the all the other albums today. First of all, the album was one year delayed because I wasn’t happy and every time I did an album it was unofficially finished. I had some time to listen to some new songs and plug into some music programs and discovered this new song and delayed the release for a month, because I wanted to update the new tracks to these new sounds I found… so then when I did that all the other songs sounded like crap compared to the new ones! So I said f*** this I need to reproduce the other ones as well. Then I scrapped a few songs and produced new ones. So to produce this album I pretty much produced maybe about 50 tracks and picked out the best of them. You know when you buy an album from a producer/artist, you kind of hear the same sound repeating in each song, you hear the same sound repeating, but this album is like every song is individual. Like you wont find two songs which have the same sound. Each song is completely different which I think kind of represents what I do because I produce everything and I love producing everything. Sometimes I’m in the mood to produce you know a dance song, sometimes I’m in the mood to produce an R&B song, it’s just interesting because I just want to show people that I can deliver to all ears.”

Basshunter Calling Time

Guestlist interview with Ria Talsania (10 July 2013) https://guestlist.net/article/9219/catching-up-with-basshunter Calling Time

Love, Happiness, People, Music

“David is the song upon God's lips,
And Our Lady is the goblet that He sips:
And Gabriel's the breath of His command,
But Saint Michael is the sword in God's right hand. The Ivory Tower is fair to see,
And may her walls encompass me!
But when the Devil comes with the thunder of his might,
Saint Michael, show me how to fight!”

Joyce Kilmer (1886–1918) American poet, editor, literary critic, soldier

Main Street and Other Poems (1917), The Thorn

God, Fight

“Rough wind, the moanest loud
Grief too sad for song;
Wild wind, when sullen cloud
Knells all the night long;
Sad storm, whose tears are vain,
Bare woods, whose branches strain,
Deep caves and dreary main, —
Wail, for the world's wrong!”

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Romantic poet

A Dirge http://poetryarchive.bravepages.com/RSTU_poets/shelley_percy.b.htm#dirge (1821)

World, Sadness, Tear, Night

“Roger: We’re playing like three songs and the old stuff that everyone wants to hear too. We can’t play just all brand new songs you got to mix it up a little.”

Roger Manganelli (1973) American musician

“I am a big Beatles fan. And, you know, unbeknownst to anyone, I used to be one. But I have no problems of putting titles and lines from other songs in my songs, because they're great lines and great titles. And some of them I even thought of. You know, I think this is the third time I've used "It Don't Come Easy." I used that on "Time Takes Time," I think, as well. So it's just a great line that, you know, expresses so much. So I just put it in again.”

Ringo Starr (1940) British musician, former member of the Beatles

Ringo Rama promotional interview with Jody Denberg (July 2003) http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/jodyringorama.html

Problem, Thinking, Time

“Then cricket sing thy song, or answer mine
Thine whispers blame, but mine has naught but praises
It matters not. — Behold the autumn goes,
The Shadow grows,
The moments take hold of eternity;
Even while we stop to wrangle or repine
Our lives are gone
Like thinnest mist,
Like yon escaping colour in the tree: —
Rejoice! rejoice! whilst yet the hours exist
Rejoice or mourn, and let the world swing on
Unmoved by Cricket-song of thee or me.”

Frederick Goddard Tuckerman (1821–1873) American poet

"The Cricket" lines 120–131

World, Autumn, Tree, Singing

“A song is communicating with people. Entertainment is a different area.”

Ronnie Drew (1934–2008) Irish musician

Source: Ronnie (2008, posthumous), p. 72

People, Communication

“What's left is only bittersweet
For the rest of my life,
admitting the best is behind me Now I'm drunk and afraid
Wishing the world would go away
What's the point of singing songs
If they'll never even hear you?”

Sufjan Stevens (1975) American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist

"Eugene"
Lyrics, Carrie and Lowell (2015)

Life, World, Singing

“What am I singing?
A song of seeds — The food of love. Eat the music.”

Kate Bush (1958) British recording artist; singer, songwriter, musician and record producer

Song lyrics, The Red Shoes (1993)

Love, Food, Music, Singing

“At the audition, your assignment is to find something new in the song. Something you've never noticed before. A breath carried over, a thought that ties the whole thing together. Then take the risk and do it.”

Pete Seeger (1919–2014) American folk singer

Source: How Can I Keep from Singing: Pete Seeger (1981), p. 119

“May you build a ladder to the stars and climb on every rung. May your song always be sung, May you stay forever young.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Song lyrics, Planet Waves (1974), Forever Young

Star

“Honolulu, Hawaii: (At a luau) "…a unique native stunt though the Hawaiian food we were made to eat was too revolting for words…. One got rather tired of the native songs & longed for some of our tunes"”

Edward VIII of the United Kingdom (1894–1972) king of the United Kingdom and its dominions in 1936

14 April 1920
Around the World with the Prince of Wales

Food

“It’s like I say. We used to all sit around … me and Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins and we’d talk about things. If one of us had a hit, we’d say: "That’s fabulous. It’s a damn good song." But now, the people that I meet are so damn big headed … it’s not music any more, it’s business. But now … I’ve met Jim Morrison of the Doors … a fantastic person. Really a nice guy, and he takes me back to the people I knew in the old days. Listen, a star is not a star. We never considered ourselves that. I’m always pushing, man, to get something better. And that’s the same with Jim and fellas like John Sebastian.”

Gene Vincent (1935–1971) American musician

People, Music, Guy, Star

“The old lady Felderal had long railed at the emperor for not declaring war. She pretended that he feared to call on his subjects for the requisite means, lest their avarice, stronger than their patriotism, should depose him. When, however, war was declared, and the emperor's forces were victorious, she became enamoured of peace, and maintained that a moral and religious people ought not to rejoice at victories purchased by the sacrifice of human life. She invented a song, whose burden was "the golden days of commercial prosperity," and she organized a peace society, whose tenets compelled the members not to fight even an invading army. Finally, as these expedients failed to destroy the emperor, she collected the most desperate of her adherents, to concert means for tying his hands behind his back, "peaceably if they could, forcibly if they must," and delivering him to the king of Glanden.”

Alexander Bryan Johnson (1786–1867) United States philosopher and banker

The Philosophical Emperor, a Political Experiment, or, The Progress of a False Position: (1841)

Life, War, People, Fear

“You may glory in a team triumphant, but you fall in love with a team in defeat. Losing after great striving is the story of man, who was born to sorrow, whose sweetest songs tell of saddest thought, and who, if he is a hero, does nothing in life as becomingly as leaving it.”

Roger Kahn (1927–2020) American baseball writer

Source: The Boys Of Summer, Lines On The Transpontine Madness, p. xii

Love, Life

“Like Shakespeare, I too am often occupied with the pursuit of my creative endeavors and dealing with all aspects of life's mundane matters. "Who are the best musicians for these songs?" "Am I recording in the right studio?" "Is this song in the right key?" Some things never change, even in 400 years. Not once have I ever had the time to ask myself, "Are my songs literature?" So, I do thank the Swedish Academy, both for taking the time to consider that very question, and, ultimately, for providing such a wonderful answer.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Nobel Banquet Speech

Life, Literature, Question, Change

“Mark: Um. I don't know Hayley. I don't know. Because I admire the fact that you keep challenging yourself. You know, last week was an enormous challenge for you and you keep doing that and I don't want to discourage that because it's a fantastic thing about you. But honestly, I just really don't think that you totally connected with that at the level that Anastacia actually bought the meaning of that song and what it meant to her. I didn't feel it from you. It didn't connect for me like some of the others that you've done have.”

Hayley Jensen (1983) Australian singer

Australian Idol, Final Performances, Final 11

Feeling, Thinking

“The phenomenal Celia Cruz [is missing]. But although she couln't be here physically [Cruz died in 2003], I felt her presence throughout the entire recording of the album. It's still impossible for me to feel like Celia's gone, simply because she is still so alive to me through her music and the friendship we shared for so many years. There were moments during this recording that felt to me like she was directing me to a degree or giving me ideas for where to go with the song.”

Gloria Estefan (1957) Cuban-American singer-songwriter, actress and divorciada

Reuters (July 23, 2007)
2007, 2008

Friendship, Music, Feeling, Idea

“I wrote these two songs ["Coming Out of the Dark" and "Always Tomorrow"] as a celebration of hope. And, I want to send it out to all of those people who are suffering through this terrible disaster [Hurricane Katrina], and please know that you are not alone -- and you will not be.”

Gloria Estefan (1957) Cuban-American singer-songwriter, actress and divorciada

Larry King Live television program (September 9, 2005)
2007, 2008

People, Hope, Suffering

“My philosophy is I'm gonna fight as hard as I can to keep all the bad things from happening. But if they are gonna happen and I happen to be in the city where they are happening — like in the song, "California Earthquake" — then there's not much I can do about it. I can't uproot my whole life, just because I have a feeling that things may not work out all right. There's also always the chance that everything is going to be just swell, guys. Just hang in there. But I don't think it can happen on it's own.”

Cass Elliot (1941–1974) American singer

Rolling Stone interview (1968)

Life, Guy, Feeling, Thinking

“At the party, Rob Partridge said to me, "You gave hope to other balding men." My new epitaph: "Co-wrote a couple of decent songs and went bald shamelessly."”

Brian Eno (1948) English musician, composer, record producer and visual artist

Source: A Year With Swollen Appendices (1996), p. 285

Men, Hope

“On the beryl-rimmed rebecs of Ruby
Brought fresh from the hyaline streams,
She played on the banks of the Yuba
Such songs as she heard in her dreams.”

Thomas Holley Chivers Lily Adair

Lily Adair.

Dreams

“When we first started, they basically went John and Paul's way because they were the writers and they would say, "This is the song," and I would play as creatively as I could. Sometimes I would have three people telling me how to do it. They were saying play it this like on that track. I'm saying, "For Christ's sake, there are two drummers there." They could never hear that, you know. You'd have to have four arms to do half the stuff they wanted me to do.”

Ringo Starr (1940) British musician, former member of the Beatles

Interview in Viva magazine (1978)

People, Way, Christ

“We actually aren't able to play other people's songs. The one Stones song we tried to play was "Jumpin' Jack Flash." It was really bad. So we started writing our own — it was easier.”

Bono (1960) Irish rock musician, singer of U2

Rolling Stone interview (2005)

People

“Hahaha… I can't understand why people constantly speak about the romantic quality in my voice. I have never made a conscious effort to sing with an extra romantic effect. But, I do enjoy love songs, as I am a romantic person.”

Shreya Ghoshal (1984) Indian playback singer

A romantic voice http://www.mid-day.com/articles/jab-we-met-shreya/64865

Love, People, Understanding, Effort

“More than the atrocities committed or the condemnations that followed, perhaps the most important and also inspirational element of the events of last Friday was the demonstrations themselves. Tens of thousands of Palestinians congregated in disciplined, organized demonstrations at various points along the fence of the besieged Gaza Strip. People of all ages joined, songs were sung, meals were cooked, pick-up volleyball games were played. All of this, importantly, was done as a unified Palestinian front. Despite Israel’s efforts to slap a Hamas label on it, the only visible flags were Palestinian, not factional. For Palestinians, this was a vision that brought us together with great hope.”

Yousef Munayyer American writer

In Gaza, Israel Aims To Massacre Hope (2018)

People, Age, Hope, Game

“So when or you or I are made
A fable, song, or fleeting shade,
All love, all liking, all delight
Lies drowned with us in endless night.”

Robert Herrick book Hesperides

"Corinna's Going A-Maying".
Hesperides (1648)

Love, Night

“A man with a dream of pleasure can go forth and conquer a crowd and three. With a new song's measure can trample a kingdom down.”

Fred Shero (1925–1990) Former ice hockey player and coach

Message Shero wrote on the team's blackboard prior to Game 6 of the 1975 Stanley Cup Finals Flyers Hall of Fame Profile, Flyers History, 2009-04-29 http://www.flyershistory.net/cgi-bin/hofprof.cgi?007,

Pleasure, Dreams

“By the winding stream we shall lie and dream
We'll make dreams come true if we want them to
Yes all will come play the pipes and drum
Sing a happy song and we'll sing along.”

Van Morrison (1945) Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician

Everyone
Song lyrics, Moondance (1970)

Happiness, Lie, Dreams, Singing

“Dicko: It was good to see you step outside the AC role that you entered the competition as. Um, I would take those movement coaching sessions a little more seriously. Simply put, um, performing a song is about communicating emotions and whether we like it or not 80% of communication is non-verbal. You communicate with your body, you communicate in emotion, sensuality and a sense of power and that's something that Anastacia does pretty well. I think it's something that you really need to work on because actually seeing that piece before you performed highlighted the fact that that's a bit of a failing of yours. I think your voice is great. It's really holding up well and actually preferred it to the version of Anastacia or Miriam as I sometimes call him. Her.”

Hayley Jensen (1983) Australian singer

Australian Idol, Final Performances, Final 11

Communication, Thinking, Sense

“I have discovered in the Hebrew Bible teachings of righteousness, humaneness, and human dignity—at the source of my parents' teachings of mentschlichkeit—undreamt of in my prior philosophizing. In the idea that human beings are equally God-like, equally created in the image of the divine, I have seen the core principle of a humanistic and democratic politics, respectful of each and every human being, and a necessary correction to the uninstructed human penchant for worshiping brute nature or venerating mighty or clever men. In the Sabbath injunction to desist regularly from work and the flux of getting and spending, I have discovered an invitation to each human being, no matter how lowly, to step outside of time, in imitatio Dei, to contemplate the beauty of the world and to feel gratitude for its—and our—existence. In the injunction to honor your father and your mother, I have seen the foundation of a dignified family life, for each of us the nursery of our humanization and the first vehicle of cultural transmission. I have satisfied myself that there is no conflict between the Bible, rightly read, and modern science, and that the account of creation in the first chapter of Genesis offers "not words of information but words of appreciation," as Abraham Joshua Heschel put it: "not a description of how the world came into being but a song about the glory of the world's having come into being"—the recognition of which glory, I would add, is ample proof of the text's claim that we human beings stand highest among the creatures. And thanks to my Biblical studies, I have been moved to new attitudes of gratitude, awe, and attention. For just as the world as created is a world summoned into existence under command, so to be a human being in that world—to be a mentsch—is to live in search of our summons. It is to recognize that we are here not by choice or on account of merit, but as an undeserved gift from powers not at our disposal. It is to feel the need to justify that gift, to make something out of our indebtedness for the opportunity of existence. It is to stand in the world not only in awe of its and our existence but under an obligation to answer a call to a worthy life, a life that does honor to the special powers and possibilities—the divine-likeness—with which our otherwise animal existence has been, no thanks to us, endowed.”

Leon R. Kass (1939) American academic

Looking for an Honest Man (2009)

Life, Men, God, World

“The heavenly bodies are nothing but a continuous song for several voices (perceived by the intellect, not by the ear); a music which… sets landmarks in the immeasurable flow of time. It is therefore, no longer surprising that man, in imitation of his creator, has at last discovered the art of figured song, which was unknown to the ancients. Man wanted to reproduce the continuity of cosmic time… to obtain a sample test of the delight of the Divine Creator in His works, and to partake of his joy by making music in the imitation of God.”

Johannes Kepler book Harmonices Mundi

Book V, Ch. 7 as quoted in Arthur Koestler, The Sleepwalkers (1959)
Harmonices Mundi (1618)

God, Art, Music, Time

“The Pilgrim of Eternity, whose fame
Over his living head like Heaven is bent,
An early but enduring monument,
Came, veiling all the lightnings of his song
In sorrow.”

Percy Bysshe Shelley Adonaïs

St. XXX
Adonais (1821)

“On the project The Celts I was asked to … to write a song. And, at the time I was … arranging with Nicky, and writing the music and performing … so, no desire whatsoever to write lyrics!… But Roma was actually writing poetry at the time, and she was involved, with listening in the studio … being the audience in the studio … so she was involved with the project. So, it was very obvious that she would write the lyrics.”

Enya (1961) Irish singer, songwriter, and musician

KSCA interview (1996)

Music, Time

“It's hip to be square. Remember that shitty song by that shitty band 20 motherfuckin' years ago?”

David Cross (1964) American comedian, writer and actor

Shut Up, You Fucking Baby

“It's just rock and roll. A lot of times we get criticized for it. A lot of music papers come out with: 'When are they going to stop playing these three chords?' If you believe you shouldn't play just three chords it's pretty silly on their part. To us, the simpler a song is, the better, 'cause it's more in line with what the person on the street is.”

Angus Young (1955) Scottish Australian guitarist

Interview with the Atlanta Gazette in May 1979

Music, Time, Parting, Personality

“I always loved the original Oliver! film, especially the songs, so to be playing the role alongside Ron Moody, who played Fagin in the original version, feels like a dream. But every day of the past year has felt so fantastic, so brilliant, it seems unreal.”

Joseph McManners (1992) British singer, actor

After singing at his family reunion:

Love, Dreams, Feeling, Past

“I don't sing a song without it meaning something to me, or adding my own interpretation to them.”

Jack Vidgen (1997) Australian singer

Jack Vidgen Inspire Interview http://www.girl.com.au/jack-vidgen-inspire-interview.htm, May 2012.

Singing

“How divinely full of glory and pleasure shall that hour be when all the millions of mankind that have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God shall meet together and stand around Him, with every tongue and every heart full of joy and praise! How astonishing will be the glory and the joy of that day when all the saints shall join together in one common song of gratitude and love, and of everlasting thankfulness to this Redeemer! With what unknown delight, and inexpressible satisfaction, shall all that are saved from the ruins of sin and hell address the Lamb that was slain, and rejoice in His presence!”

Isaac Watts (1674–1748) English hymnwriter, theologian and logician

Source: Attributed from postum publications, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 520.

Love, God, Pleasure, Hell

“The song's about coming together as one in an ideal world. And we might not be able to accomplish that, but tonight we can start by making it a better place.”

Blake Lewis (1981) American musician

Commenting on his take of Imagine by John Lennon in the Inspirational week in his pre-performance clip on April 24, 2007.
Attributed, On American Idol

World

“The whole trouble with a folk song is that once you have played it through there is nothing much you can do except play it over again and play it rather louder. Most Russian music, indeed, consists in ringing changes on this device, skilfully disguised though the fact may be.”

Constant Lambert (1905–1951) British composer and conductor

"The Conflict Between Nationalism and Form", p. 146.
Music, Ho! (1934)

Music, Change

“The past we’ve got we must forget. Future hasn’t happened yet. Carry this moment in a song. Insha Allah, it won’t be long.”

Dawud Wharnsby (1972) Canadian musician

"Let It Go"
Out Seeing The Fields (2007)

Past, Future, Forgetting

“It'll sometimes hit me in the middle of a song, like, who do I think I am standing up here…playing.”

Jack White (1975) American musician and record producer

On having a calling to stand on stage and perform to people—as a priest or as a musician Marc Maron (June 8, 2012). " Jack White http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episodes/episode_289_-_jack_white". WTF With Marc Maron. Season 2. Episode 289. 21:48 minutes in. 2010

Thinking

“I went to an art exhibition recently, and the guy had a quote of mine from that song there — "The only way to change things is to shoot men who arrange things." I wouldn't agree with shooting people at all. I was just anti-love. I feel differently now. But, you know. It's OK. That's how it was then, and it's good.”

Kevin Rowland (1953) English singer-songwriter

Tangents 2001 interview

Love, Men, People, Art

“Then re-united to the friends with whom vve took sweet counsel upon earth, we shall recount our toil, only to heighten our ecstasy; and call to mind the toil and the din of war, oniy that, with a more bounding throb and a richer song, we may fee! and celebrate the wonders of redemption.”

Henry Melvill (1798–1871) British academic

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 305.

War

“While yonder, wild and blue,
the wild blue yonder looms.
'Till we are wracked with rheum,
by roads, by songs entombed.”

Joanna Newsom (1982) American musician

Swansea
The Milk-Eyed Mender (2004)

“all which isn't singing is mere talking
…
and all talking's to oneself alone
but the very song of(as mountains
feel and lovers)singing is silence”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

32
73 poems (1963)

Feeling, Mountain, Lovers, Silence

“The sun shines not on us but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us, thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them glide and sing. The trees wave and the flowers bloom in our bodies as well as our souls, and every bird song, wind song, and tremendous storm song of the rocks in the heart of the mountains is our song, our very own, and sings our love.”

John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American naturalist and author

1872(?), page 92
John of the Mountains, 1938

Love, Soul, Mountain, Flowers

“Sing a song of love and truth
We’ll soon remember if you do
When all things were tall
And our friends were small
And the world was new”

Cat Stevens (1948) British singer-songwriter

Silent Sunlight
Song lyrics, Catch Bull at Four (1972)

Love, Truth, World, Singing

“A bizarrerie of fires, cunabulum of light, it moved with a deft, almost dainty deliberation, phasing into and out of existence like a storm-shot piece of evening; or perhaps the darkness between the flares was more akin to its truest nature — swirl of black ashes assembled in prancing cadence to the lowing note of desert wind down the arroyo behind buildings as empty yet filled as the pages of unread books or stillnesses between the notes of a song.”

Roger Zelazny book Unicorn Variation

Unicorn Variation (1982)

Books, Nature, Light

“Song ideas have come to me in the middle of interviews, in the shower, or while I'm writing another song.”

Joe Satriani (1956) American guitar player

As quoted in Guitar Magazine (March 1990).

Idea

“I should be glad of loneliness
And hours that go on broken wings,
A thirsty body, a tired heart
And the unchanging ache of things,
If I could make a single song
As lovely and as full of light,
As hushed and brief as a falling star
On a winter night.”

Sara Teasdale (1884–1933) American writer and poet

"Compensation"
Flame and Shadow (1920)

Love, Star, Light, Winter

“I've seen some cold nights and bloody days
They grabbed me bullets spray, they used me wrong so I sing this song 'til this day.”

Nas (1973) American rapper, record producer and entrepreneur

I Gave You Power
On Albums, It Was Written (1996)

Singing, Night

“I was so, so lost and unhappy. If you listen to the songs on the first album, you can hear it. They’re really sad songs and they come from a lonely place. The relationship broke up, and I went into free fall. I saw drugs as a way of avoiding…the darkness.”

Pete Doherty (1979) English musician, writer, actor, poet and artist

The Sunday Times, May 14, 2006
Drugs

Sadness, Way

“So what did they do? They solemnly asked Parliament, not to approve or disapprove, but to 'take note' of our decision. Perhaps some of the older ones among you will remember that popular song: 'She didn't say "Yes", she didn't say "No". She didn't say "stay", she didn't say "go". She wanted to climb, but dreaded to fall, she bided her time and clung to the wall.'”

Harold Macmillan (1894–1986) British politician

"Mr Macmillan Denies Threat to Britain's Sovereignty", The Times, 15 October 1962, p. 6.
Speech to the Conservative Party conference, Blackpool, 13 October 1962, having some fun at the expense of the opposition Labour Party.
1960s

Decision, Time

“[Anne Murray] embodies the Canadian popular music industry. She's been so successful within Canada and internationally. She's really identified with Canada, even one of her songs Snowbird, that's so Canada.”

Anne Murray (1945) Canadian singer

Brock Silversides, director of University of Toronto Libraries' Media Commons As quoted in Noreen Ahmed-Ullah, "'Canada's sweetheart' Anne Murray donates archives to U of T", 16 November 2017, University of Toronto, utoronto.ca https://www.utoronto.ca/news/canada-s-sweetheart-anne-murray-donates-archives-u-t

Music, Success

“The trees that whisper in the evening
Carried away by a moonlight shadow
Sing a song of sorrow and grieving
Carried away by a moonlight shadow
All she saw was a silhouette of a gun
Far away on the other side
He was shot six times by a man on the run
And she couldn't find how to push trough
I stay, I pray, see you in heaven far away
I stay, I pray, see you in heaven one day…”

Mike Oldfield (1953) English musician, multi-instrumentalist

Song lyrics, Crises (1983)

Tree, Singing, Time

“We went to a club where singers and stand-up comedians performed in the hope of being discovered. A thin girl with bright red hair and sequined T-shirt reached the end of her passionately murmured song on a sudden shrill, impossible top note. All conversation ceased. Someone, perhaps maliciously, dropped a glass. Halfway through, the note became a warbling vibrato and the singer collapsed on the stage in an abject curtsy, arms held stiffly in front of her, fists clenched. Then she sprang to her tiptoes and held her arms high above her head with the palms flat as if to forestall the sporadic and indifferent applause."They all want to be Barbra Streisand or Liza Minnelli," George explained as he sucked a giant cocktail through a pink plastic straw. "But no one's looking for that kind of stuff anymore."”

Ian McEwan book In Between the Sheets

Page 139. (From the seventh and final short story, 'Psychopolis')
In Between the Sheets (1978)

Hope, Girl, Passion, Indifference

“Esperando (Cuando Cuba Sea Libre) is probably one of the most personal songs from the new [September, 2007] CD, "90 Millas"... as it really speaks about the celebration, nostalgia and emotion that will happen the day Cuba is free. If we're to move forward in Cuba, we really have to have a lot of forgiveness for each other and look towards the future.”

Gloria Estefan (1957) Cuban-American singer-songwriter, actress and divorciada

www.gloriaestefan.com (March 28, 2007)
2007, 2008

Forgiveness, Nostalgia, Future, Personality

“Dry your eyes and take your song out.
It's a newborn afternoon.
And if you can't recall the singer,
You can still recall the tune.Dry your eyes and play it slowly,
Like you're marching off to war.
Sing it like you know he'd want it,
Like we sang it once before.”

Neil Diamond (1941) American singer-songwriter

Dry Your Eyes, co-written with Robbie Robertson
Song lyrics, Beautiful Noise (1976)

War, Singing

“He's now trying to make social comment, this is the guy who hid who he actually was from the public for 20 years. Now, all of a sudden, he's got something to say about the way of the world. I find it laughable. That's even before you get to the song, which is diabolical.”

Noel Gallagher (1967) British musician

Noel Gallagher cited in " Gallagher attacks 'liar' Michael http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/2115582.stm" at news.bbc.co.uk, 8 July 2002. Remarks on George Michael's song "Shoot the Dog." Controversy with other artists

World, Way, Guy

“A scrip on my back, and a staff in my hand,
I march on in haste through an enemy's land;
The road may be rough, but it cannot be long;
And I'll smooth it with hope, and I'll cheer it with song.”

Henry Francis Lyte (1793–1847) Anglican priest, hymn-writer and poet

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 49.

Hope

“Pooh! Pooh! Nonsense!' was the reply, 'that's all very well in theory, but it doesn't work so. The returning of slaves amounts to nothing in fact. All that is obsolete. And why make all this row? Can't you hush? We've nothing to do with slavery, we tell you. We can't touch it; and if you persist in this agitation about a mere form and theory, why, you're a set of pestilent fanatics and traitors; and if you get your noisy heads broken, you get just what you deserve'. And they quoted in the faces of the abolitionists the words of Governor Edward Everett, who was not an authority with them, in that fatal inaugural address, 'The patriotism of all classes of citizens must be invited to abstain from a discussion which, by exasperating the master, can have no other effect than to render more oppressive the condition of the slave'. It was as if some kindly Pharisee had said to Christ, 'Don't try to cast out that evil spirit; it may rend the body on departing'. Was it not as if some timid citizen had said, 'Don't say hard things of intemperance lest the dram-shops, to spite us, should give away the rum'? And so the battle raged. The abolitionists dashed against slavery with passionate eloquence like a hail of hissing fire. They lashed its supporters with the scorpion whip of their invective. Ambition, reputation, ortune, ease, life itself they threw upon the consuming altar of their cause. Not since those earlier fanatics of freedom, Patrick Henry and James Otis, has the master chord of human nature, the love of liberty, been struck with such resounding power. It seemed in vain, so slowly their numbers increased, so totally were they outlawed from social and political and ecclesiastical recognition. The merchants of Boston mobbed an editor for virtually repeating the Declaration of Independence. The city of New York looked on and smiled while the present United States marshal insulted a woman as noble and womanly and humane as Florence Nightingale. In other free States men were flying for their lives; were mobbed, seized, imprisoned, maimed, murdered; but still as, in the bitter days of Puritan persecution in Scotland, the undaunted voices of the Covenanters were heard singing the solemn songs of God that echoed and re-echoed from peak to peak of the barren mountains, until the great dumb wilderness was vocal with praise — so in little towns and great cities were heard the uncompromising voices of these men sternly intoning the majestic words of the Golden Rule and the Declaration of Independence, which echoed from solitary heart to heart until the whole land rang with the litany of liberty.”

George William Curtis (1824–1892) American writer

1850s, The Present Aspect of the Slavery Question (1859)

Love, Life, Men, God

“The island lies like a strange, misshapen dagger in the blue Ionian Sea, midway along the Greek and Albanian coastlines.
In the past, it has fallen into the hands of a dozen different nations, from all of which it has absorbed what it found good and rejected the rest, thus keeping its individuality. Unlike so many parts of Greece, it is green and lush, for when it was part of the Venetian empire they used it as their oil store, planting thousands of olive trees, so that now the bulk of the island is shaded by these carunculated giants with their wigs of silvery-green leaves. Between them run the admonishing fingers of black-green cypress, many planted in groves as dowries. All this creates a mystical landscape, bathed in sharp brittle sunlight, orchestrated by the knife-grinder song of the cicadas, framed in the blue, still sea. Of all the wonderful and fascinating parts of the planet I have been privileged to visit, Corfu is the nearest approach to home for me, since it was here, nurtured in sunlight, that my fascination for the living world around me came to fruition.”

Gerald Durrell (1925–1995) naturalist, zookeeper, conservationist, author and television presenter

How to Shoot an Amateur Naturalist (1984)

World, Home, Tree, Past

“I think that the public judges a song on the overall feel, not individual samples. If a sample contributes too heavily to the song, and the sample is recognized, the opinion of the piece goes down.”

Andrew Sega (1975) musician from America

Static Line interview, 1998

Feeling, Thinking

“He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.”

W. H. Auden (1907–1973) Anglo-American poet

Source: Funeral Blues (1936)

Love

“To win, beloved Caroline from thee,
One thought, in years when we shall sever'd be--
--Sever'd, perchance, by those deep waves, which pour
Their billowy murmurs round our native shore,--
For this, I wander'd round the Bow'rs of Song,
A weary, and rejected suppliant long,
And of the Muses crav'd in humblest tone
From their rich wreaths, one simple bud alone:
They did but fling their wildest weeds at me,
And thus I twin'd them into verse for thee!”

Eliza Acton (1799–1859) Poet, cook

To Caroline (1826)

“A cup of wine, under the flowering trees;
I drink alone, for no friend is near.
Raising my cup I beckon the bright moon,
For he, with my shadow, will make three men.
The moon, alas, is no drinker of wine;
Listless, my shadow creeps about at my side.
Yet with the moon as friend and the shadow as slave
I must make merry before the Spring is spent.
To the songs I sing the moon flickers her beams;
In the dance I weave my shadow tangles and breaks.
While we were sober, three shared the fun;
Now we are drunk, each goes his way.
May we long share our odd, inanimate feast,
And meet at last on the Cloudy River of the sky.”

Li Bai (701–762) Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty poetry period

"Drinking Alone by Moonlight" (月下獨酌), one of Li Bai's best-known poems, as translated by Arthur Waley in More Translations From the Chinese (1919)
Variant translation:
From a pot of wine among the flowers
I drank alone. There was no one with me—
Till, raising my cup, I asked the bright moon
To bring me my shadow and make us three.
Alas, the moon was unable to drink
And my shadow tagged me vacantly;
But still for a while I had these friends
To cheer me through the end of spring...
I sang. The moon encouraged me.
I danced. My shadow tumbled after.
As long as I knew, we were boon companions.
And then I was drunk, and we lost one another.
...Shall goodwill ever be secure?
I watch the long road of the River of Stars.
"Drinking Alone with the Moon" (trans. Witter Bynner and Kiang Kang-hu)

Men, Way, Spring, Flowers

“This song brings me back … I was brutally raped to this song.”

Sarah Silverman (1970) American comedian and actress

In response to the DJ playing Motley Crue's "Girls Girls Girls" as her intro. Holllywood Improv

“We sat on a crate of oranges and thought what good men most biologists are, the tenors of the scientific world — temperamental, moody, lecherous, loud-laughing, and healthy. […] Your true biologist will sing you a song as loud and off-key as will a blacksmith, for he knows that morals are too often diagnostic of prostatitis and stomach ulcers. Sometimes he may proliferate a little too much in all directions, but he is as easy to kill as any other organism, and meanwhile he is very good company, and at least he does not confuse a low hormone productivity with moral ethics.”

John Steinbeck book The Log from the Sea of Cortez

Source: The Log from the Sea of Cortez (1951), Chapter 4

Men, World, Singing

“Roger: The new Metallica. The new Metallica record is pretty rockin’ I’ve been listening to that. I’ve been listening to the Josie and the Pussycats Soundtrack on repeat since about 2003. Les Paul the guitar player, Les Paul and Mary Ford – check that out, it’s good stuff. I’m like really picky. I don’t like very many new bands. I feel like I’m in trouble, not naming the hottest five bands out right now. Actually I heard a pretty good Hillary Duff song the other day, I was impressed. It was catchy. It was good pop.”

Roger Manganelli (1973) American musician

Feeling

“Women are still a relative rarity in rock bands, and studies of women's experiences with pop and rock music have indicated that girls are socialized to pop and rock music differently from boys: boys and young men tend to learn songs by ear and talk about popular music's technical aspects, while girls and young women tend to focus on lyrics rather than on equipment and instrumentation, and to resist learning songs by ear. Miki Bernyi's experience testifies to the truthfulness of those findings:”

Holly Kruse

'Girls don't have the patience to spend six years learning someone else's music. Me and Emma [Anderson] can't jam because we only know how to play our own songs. Jamming's more of a boy's thing....I think that women play more imaginatively because they learn to play while they're writing songs, instead of waiting to be technically good first.'
Quoted in Evans, 1994, p. 44.

Women, Men, Truth, Music

“So there was Mr. Jarvis, in the second week, in this hotel with no house party at all, and no one could speak English, except himself. He was very disappointed, too, with the skiing. […] There were no ordinary length skis. There were only mini-skis about 3 ft. long. So he did not get his skiing as he wanted to. […] He did not have the nice Swiss cakes which he was hoping for. The only cakes for tea were potato crisps and little dry nut cakes. The yodler evening consisted of one man from the locality who came in his working clothes for a little while, and sang four or five songs very quickly. […] Mr. Jarvis has only a fortnight's holiday in the year. He books it far ahead, and looks forward to it all that time. He ought to be compensated for the loss of it.”

Alfred Denning, Baron Denning (1899–1999) British judge

Jarvis v. Swans Tours Ltd. [1973] Q.B. 233 (C.A).
Judgments

Books, Hope, Disappointment, Loss

“Mean songs are still better than going postal”

Sara Bareilles (1979) American pop rock singer-songwriter and pianist

"Sweet As Whole"
Lyrics, Once Upon Another Time (2012)

“In those days, dances were dances and songs were songs. Film dances always had a semi-classical or folk element to them and songs were all about soul-stirring lyrics and haunting music. These days, they are more about technique and technology, often it's the camera that's dancing, the synthesiser that's singing. Not my cup of tea.”

Vyjayanthimala (1936) Indian actress, politician & dancer

Vyjayanthimala still cuts a striking figure tall

Music, Soul, Singing, Dance

“Towards the end of the twelfth century, while Western Europe was still wavering between a dying Roman influence and a dawning Gothicism, preliminaries to a medieval era which would make possible the development of a world-wide humanism, Asia had already lived through her classical period and, sinking into decay, was preparing to face a long period of political and spiritual unrest. While India was beginning to suffer under the yoke of the victorious Mussulman, who had come down on her from the mountains of Afghanistan and the plains of Iran, and while the domination of the Khmers was reaching its climax at Angkor, China, under pressure from the barbarians of the north, was withdrawing to the south where the Song empire, thinking itself safe from invasions, continued to live a life of luxury.”

Louis Frédéric (1923–1996) French scholar

Frédéric, L. (1984). Daily life in Japan at the time of the samurai, 1185-1603. Tokyo: Tuttle.

Life, World, Mountain, Thinking

“And here's to the songs we used to sing;
And here's to the times we used to know.
It's hard to hold them in our arms again,
But hard to let them go.”

Neil Diamond (1941) American singer-songwriter

If You Know What I Mean
Song lyrics, Beautiful Noise (1976)

Singing, Time

“Clive [Davis] tried to tell me that saying certain words in a song- or as he says, ‘putting some balls into it'- isn't bad, it's just strong emotion. Well, there are certain words and emotions I don't want kids hearing, and I'm not changing because they think it's going to sell better. This is going to sound horrible, but I got 12 million votes doing what I did.”

Clay Aiken (1978) singer-songwriter, actor, record producer

Thinking, Strong, Change

“I am ice and dust. I am sky.
I can see horses wading through snowdrifts.
My broken hearts, my fabulous dances.
My fleeting song, fleeting.
The world is so loud. Keep falling. I'll find you.”

Kate Bush (1958) British recording artist; singer, songwriter, musician and record producer

Song lyrics, 50 Words for Snow (2011)

World, Heart, Horse, Dance

“Music is one of the very few things left in this world, which has an amazing power of healing. I really hope that these songs will set your imagination free, enrich your emotions and help your heart and mind feel happier.”

Edyta Górniak (1972) Polish singer

Invisible (cd), 2002

World, Hope, Music, Feeling

“But when you think: Tim McGraw,
I hope you think my favorite song.
The one we danced to all night long:
The moon like a spotlight on the lake.
When you think happiness,
I hope you think: "That little black dress."
Think of my head on your chest,
An' my old faded blue jeans.
When you think Tim McGraw,
I hope you think of me.”

Taylor Swift (1989) American singer-songwriter

Tim McGraw, written by Taylor Swift and Liz Rose
Song lyrics, Taylor Swift (2006)

Happiness, Hope, Thinking, Dance

“Through instrumental music, I’m allowed to come up with musical ideas that allow the listener to create their own impression of my song. If you add lyrics about a girl in the song, the listener doesn’t have a choice of what the song is about, it’s told to them. My musical writings allow me to express anything. It’s easier for me to tell a story of something I’ve encountered this way then to verbalize it. And my feelings are explored more in my compositions compared to what I could ever say in a few sentences.”

Bradley Joseph (1965) Composer, pianist, keyboardist, arranger, producer, recording artist

[Janus, Cicily, Radinsky, Ned, http://newfaceofjazz.com/?page_id=594, New Faces of Jazz: Bradley Joseph, (newfaceofjazz.com), 2010-08-01]

Music, Way, Feeling, Girl

“Hitchin' on a twilight train
Ain't nothing here that I care to take along.
Maybe a song
To sing when I want.
No need to say please to no man
For a happy tune.”

Neil Diamond (1941) American singer-songwriter

Cracklin' Rosie
Song lyrics, Tap Root Manuscript (1970)

Happiness, Singing, Training

“I don't intend to write depressing songs and I'd probably rather write happy ones”

Elliott Smith (1969–2003) American singer-songwriter

in Spongey Monkey #3.

Happiness

“willow of crystal, a poplar of water,
a pillar of fountain by the wind drawn over,
tree that is firmly rooted and that dances,
turning course of a river that goes curving,
advances and retreats, goes roundabout,
arriving forever:
the calm course of a star
or the spring, appearing without urgency,
water behind a stillness of closed eyelids
flowing all night and pouring out prophecies,
a single presence in the procession of waves
wave over wave until all is overlapped,
in a green sovereignty without decline
a bright hallucination of many wings
when they all open at the height of the sky, course of a journey among the densities
of the days of the future and the fateful
brilliance of misery shining like a bird
that petrifies the forest with its singing
and the annunciations of happiness
among the branches which go disappearing,
hours of light even now pecked away by the birds,
omens which even now fly out of my hand, an actual presence like a burst of singing,
like the song of the wind in a burning building,
a long look holding the whole world suspended,
the world with all its seas and all its mountains,
body of light as it is filtered through agate,
the thighs of light, the belly of light, the bays,
the solar rock and the cloud-colored body,
color of day that goes racing and leaping,
the hour glitters and assumes its body,
now the world stands, visible through your body,
and is transparent through your transparency”

Octavio Paz (1914–1998) Mexican writer laureated with the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature

Sun Stone (1957)

Fate, Happiness, World, Color

“The first song I ever wrote back then was the song that landed me the job as composer at Westwood Studios, which was remarkable for me at the time. It was basically an acoustic guitar song with electric guitar leads and keyboard strings, and raining sound effects in the background. If I had to compare it to anything, it was probably similar to an interlude Queensryche song. I never released this song before, but I've recently been thinking about re-recording it with the experience I have now and really making it sound proper. Maybe one day.”

Frank Klepacki (1974) American musician, video game music composer and sound director

Gameplay magazine

Thinking, Time

“Song "Gangnam Style" (July 2012)”

Psy (1977) South Korean singer

“And sounding in advance its victory,
My song jets forth so clear, so proud, so peremptory,
That the horizon, seized with a rosy trembling,
Obeys me.”

Edmond Rostand Chantecler

Et sonnant d’avance sa victoire,
Mon chant jaillit si net, si fier, si peremptoire
Que l’horizon, saisi d'un rose tremblement,
M’obéit.
Act II, Sc. 3
Chantecler (1910)

Victory

“We were aware of her profile, and it was… first, it’s artistic: can she do it? Is she capable of handling this? Can she handle it emotionally? The song. Because it’s a very emotional song. Can she handle it melodically? Does she have the range for it? Second, now then, you’ve got that, now you look to see…because it’s a very strange duet, and I’ve always said it was meant to be a duet. I had the song in ’86, and I don’t care what anybody else says; I know it was my song, it was given to me in ’86, I was gonna do it, it was always gonna be a duet, and I think the only real life of it is a duet. And that’s my opinion, and my opinion only. That’s it. But when it’s a duet, it’s a definitive duet. And then because of how it’s a call-and-response duet, you needed the timbre of the voices. If you get someone with the same timbres… I’m being analytical, but that’s exactly why we picked Marion Raven. And then on the fourth hand… what, she’s twenty-two years old? She can get MTV where I can’t!”

Meat Loaf (1947) American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer and actor

On working with Marion Raven in a duet performance of "It's All Coming Back to Me Now".
A chat with Meat Loaf (2006)

Life, Thinking

“Certainly there are songs out there that are massively popular, and you can use some reverse analysis to see how they're put together, but it's difficult to reliably engineer a "hit". Add to this the constantly swirling winds of cultural taste, and you can see that the music industry is more akin to playing the lottery than anything else. Having some talent or taste can give you a bit of an edge, but it's still a huge roulette wheel..”

Andrew Sega (1975) musician from America

Andrew Sega Shrine interview, 2011

Music

“The very beginning of the soul’s purgation is tranquility, in which the tongue is not given to discussing the affairs of men, nor the eyes to contemplating rosy cheeks or comely bodies, nor the ears to lowering the tone of the soul by listening to songs whose sole object is to amuse, or to words spoken by wits and buffoons—a practice which above all things tends to relax the tone of the soul.”

Basil of Caesarea (329–379) Christian Saint

vol. 1, p. 13
Letters

Men, Soul

“Marcia: Hayley, I congratulate you from a singers point of view because that's a very hard song to sing. George are the bomb. You did a great job.”

Hayley Jensen (1983) Australian singer

Australian Idol, Final Performances, Final 8

Singing

“I am not speaking, obviously, to the laughing hyenas who enjoy seeing images of the wreckage and snicker good–it–serves–the–Americans–right. I am speaking to those who, though not stupid or evil, are wallowing in prudence and doubt. And to them I say: "Wake up, people. Wake up!!" Intimidated as you are by your fear of going against the current—that is, appearing racist (a word which is entirely inapt as we are speaking not about a race but about a religion)—you don’t understand or don’t want to understand that a reverse–Crusade is in progress. Accustomed as you are to the double–cross, blinded as you are by myopia, you don’t understand or don’t want to understand that a war of religion is in progress. Desired and declared by a fringe of that religion, perhaps, but a war of religion nonetheless. A war which they call Jihad. Holy War. A war that might not seek to conquer our territory, but that certainly seeks to conquer our souls. That seeks the disappearance of our freedom and our civilization. That seeks to annihilate our way of living and dying, our way of praying or not praying, our way of eating and drinking and dressing and entertaining and informing ourselves. You don’t understand or don’t want to understand that if we don’t oppose them, if we don’t defend ourselves, if we don’t fight, the Jihad will win. And it will destroy the world that for better or worse we’ve managed to build, to change, to improve, to render a little more intelligent, that is to say, less bigoted—or even not bigoted at all. And with that it will destroy our culture, our art, our science, our morals, our values, our pleasures… Christ! Don’t you realize that the Osama Bin Ladens feel authorized to kill you and your children because you drink wine or beer, because you don’t wear your beard long or a chador, because you go to the theater or the movies, because you listen to music and sing pop songs, because you dance in discos or at home, because you watch TV, wear miniskirts or short–shorts, because you go naked or half naked to the beach or the pool, because you *** when you want and where you want and who you want? Don’t you even care about that, you fools? I am an atheist, thank God. And I have no intention of letting myself be killed for it.”

Oriana Fallaci book The Rage and the Pride

"Rage and the Pride">Oriana Fallaci - The Rage and the Pride http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rage-Pride-Oriana-Fallaci/dp/084782599X - Universe Publishing; Intl edition, 2002, ISBN 9780847825998

God, War, Children, People

“In a world where young blacks, especially, are bombarded with claims that they are being unfairly targeted by police, and where a general attitude of belligerence is being promoted literally in word and song, it is hard not to wonder whether some people's responses to policemen do not have something to do with the policemen's responses to them. Neither the police nor people in any other occupation always do what is right but automatic belligerence is not the answer.”

Thomas Sowell (1930) American economist, social theorist, political philosopher and author

"Driving While Black" http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell103107.php3 (31 October 2007), Jewish World Review. 2000s

People, World

Quotes about song page 13

Quotes about song
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