Quotes about song
page 18

“She began life as a poet, in later years when the compulsion of events drew into the national struggle, she plunged into it with all the zest and fire she possessed…. whose whole life became a poem and a song and who infused artistry and grace in the national struggle, just as Mahatma Gandhi had infused moral grandeur to it.”

Sarojini Naidu (1879–1949) Indian politician, governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh from 1947 to 1949

Jawahar Lal Nehru quoted in "Selected Letters, Gandhi -Sarojini Naidu Correspondence, Preface".

Life

“Sarojini Naidu repositioned her own title of Nightingale of India on to Subbalakshmi’s avian frame, it was because that daughter of Bengal saw the gift of song arriving and alighting on this daughter of India’s south, like a migratory bird from the collective genius of our music.”

M. S. Subbulakshmi (1916–2004) singer,Carnatic vocalist

Gopal Gandhi in his book [Gandhi, Gopal, Of a Certain Age: Twenty Life Sketches, http://books.google.com/books?id=Inp4jPFUHUkC&pg=PA164, 2011, Penguin Books India, 978-0-670-08502-6, 166]
About M.S.

Music, Bird, Daughters

“Even if Subbalakshmi merely recited the words of her songs without singing them, he would prefer to hear them than anybody else.”

M. S. Subbulakshmi (1916–2004) singer,Carnatic vocalist

Mahatma Gandhi quoted here.[Johri, Meera, Greatness of Spirit: Profiles of Indian Magsaysay Award Winners, http://books.google.com/books?id=j1iegDJAYakC&pg=PA55, 2010, Rajpal & Sons, 978-81-7028-858-9, 58]
About M.S.

Singing

“The above praise-song appeared on the back cover of the biography in question; and, since capitalist publishers treat books just like boxes of soap powder, one has admittedly to be suspicious of any advertisement designed to sell the book.”

Walter Rodney book How Europe Underdeveloped Africa

Source: How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972), p. 200.

Books, Question, Appearance, Box

“What made her talent so great was her capacity to live what she sang. Her music was deepened by her connection to the struggles and the triumphs of the African American experience growing up in her father’s church, the community of Detroit, and her awareness of the turmoil of the South. She had a lifelong, unwavering commitment to civil rights and was one of the strongest supporters of the movement. She was our sister and our friend. Whenever I would see her, from time to time, she would always inquire about the well-being of people she met and worked with during the sixties.When she sang, she embodied what we were fighting for, and her music strengthened us. It revived us. When we would be released from jail after a non-violent protest, we might go to a late night club and let the music of Aretha Franklin fill our hearts. She was like a muse whose songs whispered the strength to continue on. Her music gave us a greater sense of determination to never give up or give in, and to keep the faith. She was a wonderful, talented human being. We mourn for Aretha Franklin. We have lost the Queen of Soul.”

Aretha Franklin (1942–2018) American musician, singer, songwriter, and pianist

John Lewis, "Congressman John Lewis on Aretha Franklin: ‘One of God’s precious gifts’" https://www.ajc.com/lifestyles/congressman-john-lewis-aretha-franklin-one-god-precious-gifts/PRXHP5dgRpjhhuIUdjGEsO/, Atlanta Journal-Constitution (August 16, 2018)

People, Faith, Music, Soul

“Rufus Wainwright has as true a voice as you can hear and as sweet and acute a sensibility as you can imagine. His musicianship combined with his poetic, intelligent and humane outlook on life make for one of the great performers of our day. I adore his singing, his song-writing, everything about him…”

Rufus Wainwright (1973) American-Canadian singer-songwriter and composer

Stephen Fry, [July 28, 2011, http://www.digster.co.uk/playlists/rufus-wainwright-by-stephen-fry/, Rufus by Stephen Fry]

Life, Making love, Imagination, Intelligence

“Tonight there was music in the saloon, a piano and a violin; two fat women with hard masculine faces and short haircuts. Their song was Over the Waves.”

John Fante book Ask the Dust

Ta de da da, and I watched Camilla dancing with her beer tray. Her hair was so black, so deep and clustered, like grapes hiding her neck. This was a sacred place, this saloon. Everything here was holy, the chairs, the tables, that rag in her hand, that sawdust under her feet. She was a Mayan princess and this was her castle. I watched the tattered huaraches glide across the floor, and I wanted those huaraches. I would like them to hold in my hands against my chest when I fell asleep. I would like to hold them and breathe the odor of them.
Ask the Dust (1939)

Women, Music

“Her songs are a part of my life, from Começar de Novo (Malu Mulher). I like to watch her on the stage. She transmits security, but is also strong and sweet.”

Simone Bittencourt de Oliveira (1949) Brazilian singer

Regina Duarte

Life, Strong, Parting

“I think many people have been made curious about Henry Darger because of the song on my album Motherland.”

Natalie Merchant (1963) American singer-songwriter

Henry Darger (1892-1973) was the author and illustrator of what could possibly be the longest unfinished fictional work of all time. His towering hand-bound manuscript of 17,000 pages was found in this obscure retired hospital janitor’s apartment after his death. Henry worked in obsessed isolation for six decades on his saga entitled, The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion.
Quotes from NatalieMerchant.com

People, Thinking

“Lyrics for songs written for the film; the music for the songs composed by Ennio Morricone.”

Joan Baez (1941) American singer

Sacco e Vanzetti (1971)

Music

“Is this some kind of fucking radio promotion? What the fuck is this? Let me just say that if whatever said radio station tries to blacklist us for my comments about their balloons, I would like them to know I want a written apology tomorrow for interrupting my song.”

Jack White (1975) American musician and record producer

AT The Greek Theatre in Berkeley, California after some balloons bearing a radio station's logo floated on stage. Chonin, Neva (2005). "White Stripes huge but not bloated" http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/08/15/DDGTAE7B261.DTL&type=music SFGate.com (accessed June 19, 2007) 2010

“My Soul gave me good counsel, teaching me that the lamp which I carry does not belong to me, and the song that I sing was not generated from within me. Even if I walk with light, I am not the light; and if I am a taut-stringed lute, I am not the lute player.”

Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese artist, poet, and writer

The Vision: Reflections on the Way of the Soul (1994)

Soul, Light, Singing

“The condition of mankind is, and always has been, so miserable and depraved that, if anyone were to say to the poet: "For God's sake stop singing and do something useful like putting on the kettle or fetching bandages," what just reason could he give for refusing? But nobody says this. The self-appointed unqualified nurse says: "You are to sing the patient a song which will make him believe that I, and I alone, can cure him. If you can't or won't, I shall confiscate your passport and send you to the mines."”

W. H. Auden book The Dyer's Hand

And the poor patient in his delirium cries: "Please sing me a song which will give me sweet dreams instead of nightmares. If you succeed, I will give you a penthouse in New York or a ranch in Arizona."
"Writing", p. 27
The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)

God, Making love, Singing, Self-confidence

“The Mississippi and its paddle boats, and the rivers of Bengal and their gleaming steamers evoked a similar atmosphere of romance, of long, song-filled voyages, high winds and lonely sunsets.”

Qurratulain Hyder (1927–2007) Urdu author

Qurratulain Hyder, Fireflies in the Mist

“It is actually, in a way, an incredibly mundane experience. Not everyone has a heart attack but everyone has something or other, so I'm not remotely special. Just because I write songs doesn't make it a better or worse near-death experience.”

Peter Hammill (1948) British musician

Interview with Mike Barnes, The Wire, March 2007

Death, Making love, Way, Heart

“On this day the whole nation at all levels, in all its professions, occupations, and estates, acknowledges the dignity and blessedness of labour. On a day when in former times we heard the rattles of machine-guns and the hate-inspired songs of the class struggle and the Internationale, in this first year of Hitler’s government and the German people is assembled in unanimous, unswerving loyalty to the state, the race (Volk), and the German nation to which we all belong. Every difference is wiped away. The barriers of class hatred and the arrogance of social status that for over 50 years divided the nation from itself have been torn down. Germans of all classes, tribes (Stämme), professions, and denominations have joined hands across the barriers that separated them and have vowed henceforth to live as a community, to work and fight for the fatherland that unites us all. … The class struggle is at an end. The idea of the national community rises above the ruins of the bankrupt liberal-capitalist state. … Thus the German people marches into the future.”

Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945) Nazi politician and Propaganda Minister

Speech at the first Labor Day celebration held under Nazi auspices (1 May 1933) Sheri Berman, Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe: From the Ancient Regime to the Present Day, New York, Oxford University Press, (2019) p. 254
1930s

Hate, People, Communication, Idea

“Birds' songs express joy, beauty, and purity, and evoke in us vitality and love. So many beings in the universe love us unconditionally. The trees, the water, and the air don't ask anything of us; they just love us. Even though we need this kind of love, we continue to destroy them. By destroying the animals, the air, and the trees, we are destroying ourselves.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Love in Action: Writings on Nonviolent Social Change (1993), p. 131

Love, Making love, Beauty, Bird

“Although I am unacquainted with astrological lore, I was drawn to the symbolic power of the pervasive dream in our popular culture: that after a dark, violent age, the Piscean, we are entering a millennium of love and light—in the words of the popular song, "The Age of Aquarius," the time of "the mind's true liberation."”

Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) American writer

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Introduction

Love, Age, Making love, Dreams

“Nature's sturdiest buds and her best-fed butterflies belong to this sex; her female spiders are large enough to eat up a score of her little males; some of her mother-fishes might parody the nursery-song, "I have a little husband no bigger than my thumb."”

Antoinette Brown Blackwell (1825–1921) American minister

September 1874, Popular Science Monthly Vol. 5, Article: The Alleged Antagonism Between Growth and Reproduction , p. 608
The Alleged Antagonism Between Growth and Reproduction (1874)

Sex, Nature, Fish

“I shall not stop,
I shall not stop
Beneath the moon clothed in white,
Drowning in the morrow
With a fast-beating heart.
You remain mine, when I am aware,
You remain mine, when I am unaware.
There, in the dome of mist,
In the wells of spacious churches,
In festivals
And the glimmering of windows,
The fields of folk-song,
The desperate hum of din,
The departure of ships and wine,
You remain mine.
The shriveled and the fresh stop short,
And the earth stretches forth its head
And pursues us from word to word,
From bird
To bird
I heard from afar,
And when I tried to approach,
You held up your hand.
I heard from afar
And saw the ancient peoples
There, beyond the woods.”

Ounsi el-Hajj (1937–2014) Lebanese poet, journalist, and translator

An Anthology of Modern Arabic Poetry, p. 73
Poetry, A Cup

People, Departure, Bird, Relation ships

“Yet was Rob Roy as wise as brave;
Forgive me if the phrase be strong;—
A Poet worthy of Rob Roy
Must scorn a timid song.”

William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Romantic poet

Rob Roy's Grave, st. 3
Memorials of a Tour in Scotland (1803)

Forgiveness, Strong

“What few songs I wrote during my brief career, there ain’t a genre that somebody didn’t record them in. I’m not a virtuoso, but I was able to write songs that people could identify with. I don’t think I’ve done bad for a guy from Slab Fork, West Virginia.”

Bill Withers (1938–2020) American singer-songwriter and musician

Rollingstone interview (2015)

Bad luck, People, Guy, Thinking

“Kiss a little baby
Give the world a smile
If you take an inch
Give 'em back a mile
Cause if you lie like a rug
And you don't give a damn
You're never gonna be
As happy as a clam
So I'm sitting in a hotel
Trying to write a song
My head is just as empty
As the day is long.”

John Prine (1946–2020) American country singer/songwriter

"It’s a Big Old Goofy World"
Song lyrics, The Missing Years (1991)

Happiness, Lie, World, Smile

“I know what it is to go over the same songs over and over again, and to try to make them perfect. It’s interesting and it’s hard and it’s difficult at the same time…You have to stay on top of things.”

Roberta Flack (1937) American singer

On staying in top form despite suffering a stroke in 2016 in “Roberta Flack Ready to Sing Again at Jazz Foundation of America Honors” https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/8479635/roberta-flack-ready-to-sing-again-jazz-foundation-of-america-honors in Billboard (2018 Oct 12)

Making love, Time, Perfection

“I sang it about soldiers, then, later, about gay men. It touches me deeply every time. I used to perform this song at Mr Henry’s and people would be totally silent. I knew it moved them.”

Roberta Flack (1937) American singer

On the song “Ballad of the Sad Young Men” in “Roberta Flack: 'My music is my expression of what I feel in a moment'” https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jan/21/roberta-flack-interview-music-grammys in The Guardian (2020 Jan 21)

Men, People, Time

“Oh, for fuck sake stop lighting off fireworks and shouting & screaming I'm trying to sing a song! I mean I don't care. If you don't want to hear it. You know fuck you. I'm sure there are a lot of people here who do want to hear it. So why don't you just be quiet. If you want to light your fireworks off go outside and light them off out there and if you want to shout and scream well then go and do it out there.... but. I am trying to sing a song that some people want to listen to. I want to listen to it.”

Roger Waters (1943) English songwriter, bassist, and lyricist of Pink Floyd

During a concert for the "Animals" tour in Montreal, Quebec, 1977 [can be heard on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b2J9Qevo1E] Miscellaneous

People, Light, Singing

“Jung believed there was a large pattern to life, that it wasn't just chaos. Our song Synchronicity II is about two parallel events that aren't connected logically or causally, but symbolically.”

Sting (1951) English musician

Life

“…I engage with poetry musically. I think I hear the music of the poem before I put words to it. The poem comes to me as it were a song more than a string of words or images. If I can’t transport that musical quality to the poem, then the poem doesn’t exist for me…”

Lucha Corpi (1945)

On how she favors a musical quality to her poetry in the book Truthtellers of the Times: Interviews with Contemporary Women Poets https://books.google.com/books?id=LkVO9mmfwZYC&pg=PA23&lpg=PA23&dq

Music, Thinking

“Black Dove [“Paloma Negra”] is a mariachi song, and we Mexicans love our mariachis; we'd go celebrate Mother's Day or a birthday or something and ask for a song that brings a great deal of sentimental feeling to us individually or the table. That's how I feel with Black Dove.”

Ana Castillo (1953) novelist, poet, essayist, short story writer

In the book I explain that it's a song that my mother actually sang as I left home as a young woman. My mother was very traditional, and in her mind, the way a girl leaves home is through marriage—me going out with my little satchel was not how they imagined it. They imagined the worst, that I was going to end up in a cabaret as one of those that dances for a few fellas. On how she chose the title of her 2016 memoir in “'Write What's Tearing at Your Heart': Feminist Ana Castillo on Writing Her Rape” https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/d7anqq/write-whats-tearing-at-your-heart-feminist-ana-castillo-on-writing-her-rape in Vice (2016 May 10)

Love, Making love, Feeling, Birthday

“I write music with my mouth — first lyrics, then song, then rhythm.”

Tato Laviera (1950–2013) Puerto Rican writer

On his creative process in “An Interview with Tato Laviera, the King of Nuyorican Poetical Migrations” https://www.latinorebels.com/2012/07/11/an-interview-with-tato-laviera-the-king-of-nuyorican-poetical-migrations/ in Latino Rebels (2012 Jul 11)

Music

“Godself sings one song
moment by moment
with infinite variations”

Alex Grey (1953) American artist

uni : one
verse : poem or song
Art Psalms (2008), Universe

Singing

“It’s the same old song,
You’ve gotta be somewhere at sometime,
And they never let you fly.
It’s like broken glass,
You get cut before you see it,
So open up your eyes.”

Ronnie James Dio (1942–2010) American singer

"Stand Up and Shout" on Holy Diver (1983)
Lyrics

Flying

“The time I enjoy music most is when it’s not a performance. It’s just trading instrumentals and finding that part in the song that you feel best singing.”

Carly Simon (1943) American singer-songwriter, musician and author

On how much she loves performing music with her family in “Carly Simon on Trolling Trump With ‘You’re So Vain,’ Lost Mick Jagger Duet” https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/carly-simon-on-trolling-trump-with-youre-so-vain-lost-mick-jagger-duet-118291/ in Rolling Stone (29 Nov 2016)

Music, Feeling, Singing, Time

“I pretended I was Cat Stevens. I started out with very Cat Stevensy chords, very abrupt. I was so stuck in the moment of being fearful so as a lesson to myself I said: ‘but we can never know about the days to come’. I didn’t know when the door-bell was going to ring. I liked that. It was all of a sudden a quarter to eight and I had written the whole song.”

Carly Simon (1943) American singer-songwriter, musician and author

On her song “Anticipation” in “Carly Simon explains ‘Anticipation’ was about Cat Stevens” http://www.music-news.com/news/Underground/101225/Carly-Simon-explains-Anticipation-was-about-Cat-Stevens in Music-News.com (31 Oct 2016)

Fear, Cats

“It is the purity of a truth of which you have had only a glimpse. This is the feast, and the tiny tidbits you tasted before, back there, had made you hope for the existence of the Whole. The nameless emotion, longing, nostalgia, sense of destiny that you felt back there when you stared at the cloud layered sunset in Hawaii, when you stood quietly among the tall, waving trees in the silent forest, when a musical selection, passage, or song recalled memories of the past or brought forth a longing for which there was no associated memory, when you longed for the place where you belonged, whether city, town, country, nation, or family—these are now fulfilled. You are Home. You are where you belong. Where you always should have been.”

Robert Monroe (1915–1995) American founder of The Monroe Institute

Journeys Out of the Body (1971), Chapter 8. Because the Bible Tells Me So

Truth, Family, Hope, Music

“Ayodhya, an ancient Indian city, where the first Indian monarchs on the Ganges resided, was situated on the river Deva, in the latitude of 250, exactly in the spot where Faizabad now stands. It was the birthplace of Shirama, or Rama, an Indian hero, or the younger Bacchus, whose heroic achievements were celebrated in songs before the times of the Pagan Indians.”

Paulinus of St. Bartholomew (1748–1806) Austrian Carmelite missionary and Orientalist

Journey to the East Indies, 1800. as quoed in Kishore, Kunal (2016). Ayodhyā revisited.

Time

“Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter: therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear’d,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone.
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal — yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!”

John Keats Ode on a Grecian Urn

Stanza 2
Poems (1820), Ode on a Grecian Urn

Love, Youth, Making love, Lovers

“I see a face of love,
Fair as sweet music when my heart was strong:
Yea — art thou come again to me, great Song?”

George Eliot (1819–1880) English novelist, journalist and translator

The face bent over him like silver night
In long-remembered summers; that calm light
Of days which shine in firmaments of thought,
That past unchangeable, from change still wrought.
The Legend of Jubal (1869)

Love, Making love, Art, Music

“Fashion will never give you as much emotion as your song.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) La moda non ti darà mai emozione quanto una tua canzone.
Source: prevale.net

Fashion

“It's Christmas every time you smile at a child, holding his hand. It's Christmas every time you recognize your limits, your mistakes. It's Christmas every time you stay silent to hear each other. It's Christmas every time you give your sweetness with love. It's Christmas every time you listen to the song of the heart.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) È Natale ogni volta che sorridi a un bimbo, tenendogli la mano. È Natale ogni volta che riconosci i tuoi limiti, i tuoi errori. È Natale ogni volta che rimani in silenzio per ascoltare l'altro. È Natale ogni volta che doni con amore la tua dolcezza. È Natale ogni volta che ascolti la canzone del cuore.
Source: prevale.net

Love, Making love, Smile, Time

“The best parts of this book grow out of poems and song lyrics.”

Zhiyanzhai

Comment on the scene in which Baoyu meets Hsiao-hung for the second time in chapter 25, as reported and quoted in Enchantment and Disenchantment: Love and Illusion in Chinese Literature by Wai-yee Li (Princeton University Press, 1993), footnote on p. 168

Books, Parting

“People don't understand how important it is for funk to be funky, the only way to do that is to allow space to happen. Space is the most important part of music, it's the space that allows the song to breathe that's so important.”

Sheila E. (1957) American singer and percussionist

On her collaboration with Prince on the song “Erotic City” in “An Interview with the Legendary Sheila E” https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/z4ngbx/an-interview-with-the-legendary-sheila-e in Vice Magazine (2016 Dec 18)

People, Music, Way, Understanding

“What use the green river, the gold place, if time and
death pinned human in the pocket of my land not rest
from taking underground the green all-willowed and
white rose and bean flower and morning-mist picnic of
song in pepper-pot breast of thrush?”

Janet Frame (1924–2004) New Zealand author

Owls Do Cry, pt, 1, chap. 4, 1961

Death, Flowers, Time

“It doesn’t matter if radio thinks it’s a dying genre, or if there are people who thinks it sounds like ‘this or this or that’. If you write a good song, and it’s pop-punk, people will like it; because pop-punk doesn’t really mean a whole lot: it just means that it’s got that pop catchiness to it, but it’s got that punk energy and speed, and stuff that makes you want to jump up and down or drive a car real fast; and that’s something that will never get old.”

Pierre Bouvier (1979) Canadian musician

Simple Plan: The 13th Floor Interview https://www.13thfloor.co.nz/simple-plan-the-13th-floor-interview/ (February 7, 2018)

People, Making love, Cars, Thinking

“I wanted to try to be a real live person, rather than just singing songs about them.”

Thao Nguyen (1984) American singer-songwriter

As quoted in "The Rumpus Interview with Thao Nguyen" in The Rumpus (5 August 2013) https://therumpus.net/2013/08/the-rumpus-interview-with-thao-nguyen/

Singing, Personality

“Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea,
And love is a thing that can never go wrong
And I am Marie of Roumania.”

Marie of Edinburgh, Queen of Romania (1875–1938) last Queen consort of Romania as the wife of King Ferdinand I

Dorothy Parker, "Comment"

Love, Life

“God is not interested in the freedom of black men or brown men or yellow men. God is interested in the freedom of the whole human race, the creation of a society where every man will respect the dignity and worth of personality. So when we sing We Shall Overcome, we are singing a hymn of faith, a hymn of optimism, a hymn of faith in the future.
I can still sing that song because I have faith in the future. I believe that we, as Negroes, are going to gain our freedom in America because the goal of America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with the destiny of America.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1960s, Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution (1965)

Men, God, Faith, Optimism

“Oh! Who am I; a mere Prime Minister before the queen of song.”

M. S. Subbulakshmi (1916–2004) singer,Carnatic vocalist

Once Pandit Jawhar Lal Nehru heard Subbalakshmi when he could not help exclaiming, as quoted here in "Greatness of Spirit: Profiles of Indian Magsaysay Award Winners", page=58.
About M.S.

“Being a music producer is a mission. It does not mean creating music to keep up with the times, but creating songs to convey emotions.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Essere un produttore musicale è una missione. Non vuol dire creare musica per stare al passo con i tempi, ma ideare canzoni per trasmettere emozioni.
Source: prevale.net

Music, Time

“Love exists. It's in the little things: simple, spontaneous and concrete. It's in a smile, in a job, in a song…. Love is all that is given without asking any question.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) L'amore esiste. È nelle piccole cose: semplici, spontanee e concrete. È in un sorriso, in un lavoro, in una canzone... . L'amore, è tutto ciò che si dona senza porsi alcuna domanda.
Source: prevale.net

Love, Smile, Question

“The musical note is the language of intelligence. Intelligence speaks wherever there is poetry, music and song. Colour is part of it. We love colours because we come from colour. Colour and sound.”

J. Posadas (1912–1981) Argentine Trotskyist (1912-1981)

On the Socialist Future of Humanity, 1981

Love, Music, Intelligence, Parting

“... Female song is uncommon in birds.”

David Lack (1910–1973) British ornithologist and biologist

[The Life of the Robin, https://books.google.com/books?id=wZs_AAAAYAAJ, 1943, H.F. & G. Witherby Limited] p. 28
The Life of the Robin (1943)

Bird

“A song in my head and it won't leave me alone,
I should have followed my friends,
by now they're probably at home
all warm and tucked up in bed
Instead I'm stumbling home on my own
with no charge on my phone
in the east end of London”

Example (musician) (1982) English rapper and singer

"Wrong in the Head" (song) ("Wrong in the Head" on YouTube (with lyrics)) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvZSPl7QYto Studio albums, Playing in the Shadows (2011)

Home

“Young people have to stop flattering themselves that they're Nostradamus and would have foreseen, had they been around then, everything that's unacceptable now. And for further context Mel Brooks wrote one of the most successful musicals of all time around the song 'Springtime for Hitler.'”

Bill Maher (1956) American stand-up comedian

New Rule: ‘The Woke Olympics’, (2021)

People, Music, Time, Success

“You know, what's so funny is that I actually feel lighter than I ever have in my life — outside of what's happening. But sometimes I think the service of a song is just to capture a moment or an emotion, and I really loved the catharsis of a more plaintive and plain statement.”

Thao Nguyen (1984) American singer-songwriter

As quoted in "On 'All This And More,' Thao Nguyen Tackles Post-Apocalyptic Omens" in NPR (11 November 2020) https://www.npr.org/2020/11/11/933419872/on-all-this-and-more-thao-nguyen-tackles-post-apocalyptic-omens

Love, Life, Feeling, Thinking

“Life is a song - sing it.”

Sathya Sai Baba (1926–2011) Indian guru

Life, Singing

“It all starts with a good song. You can look cool and work hard, but that won’t be enough. People will get into your coolness once they like the song. That’s when people want to find out more about an artist.”

Sébastien Lefebvre (1981) French Canadian musician

Interview with Simple Plan’s Sebastien Lefebvre https://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/latest-updates/interview-with-simple-plans-sebastien-lefebvre

People

“He bowed his head. He stood so still,
They bowed their heads as well.
And softly from the organ-loft
The song began to swell.

Come up with blood-red streamers,
The reeds began the strain.
The vox humana pealed on high,
The Spring is risen again!”

Alfred Noyes (1880–1958) English poet

The Lord of Misrule
The Lord of Misrule and Other Poems (1915)

Spring

“Heart of my heart, we cannot die!
Love triumphant in flower and tree,
Every life that laughs at the sky
Tells us nothing can cease to be:
One, we are one with the song to-day,
One with the clover that scents the world,
One with the Unknown, far away,
One with the stars, when earth grows old.”

Alfred Noyes (1880–1958) English poet

Unity, § II
The Golden Hynde and Other Poems (1914)

Love, Life, World, Star

“My nails are my rhythm section, when I'm writing a song all alone. Some day, I may cut an album, just me and my nails.”

Dolly Parton (1946) American singer-songwriter and actress

As quoted in "Dolly Parton: Gee, She’s So Nice" https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/dolly-parton-gee-shes-really-nice (7 December 1980), by Roger Ebert, Roger Ebert 1980s

“During secondary school days, I started entertaining my friends during lunchtime...I had a sort of request songs and I would sing.”

Niniola (1986) Nigerian singer-songwriter

Source: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/niniola-femi-kuti-958136/amp/ Niniola speaking at an interview about her journey into music.

School, Singing

“The song was something I believed in. I wish people would listen to the artist instead of judging the artist for no reason.”

Mohammad Rasoul Arsalan Pour

People

“For me it's important to make great dance songs, growing up as a dancer. You know, not only just getting lost in the beat but getting lost in the lyrics whether it’s about having a great time or having lyrics with more of a purposeful meaning.”

Victoria Duffield (1995) Canadian actor, singer and dancer

Source: Interview with Victoria Duffield http://www.liveinlimbo.com/2011/09/24/interviews/888-interview-victoria-duffield.html (24 September 2011)

Time, Dance

“Oh, rolling round the ocean,
From a far and foreign land,
May suit the common notion
That a sailor's life is grand.
But as for me, I'd sooner be
A roaring here at home
About the rolling, roaring life
Of them that sails the foam.
For the homeward-bounder's chorus,
Which he roars across the foam,
Is all about chucking a sailor's life,
And settling down at home.
Home, home, home,
That's the song of them that roam,
The song of the roaring, rolling sea
Is all about rolling home.”

Norman Lindsay book The Magic Pudding

The Salt Junk Sarah
The Magic Pudding (1918)

Life, Home, Sea

“Feel your hair come tumbling down
Feel your feet start kissing the ground
Feel your arms are opening out
And see your eyes are lifted to God
With no words, with no song
I'm gonna dance the dream
And make the dream come true...”

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

Source: Song lyrics, The Red Shoes (1993)

God, Dreams, Feeling, Kiss

“I went to a garden party
to reminisce with my old friends
A chance to share old memories
and play our songs again
When I got to the garden party
they all knew my name
no one recognized me
I didn't look the same
But it's all right now
I learned my lesson well
You see ya can't please everyone
So ya got to please yourself
People came from miles around
Everyone was there
Yoko brought her walrus
There was magic in the air
N' over in the corner
much to my surprise
Mr Hughes hid in Dylan's shoes
wearing his disguise
But it's all right now
I learned my lesson well
You see, ya can't please everyone
So ya got to please yourself . . .”

Ricky Nelson (1940–1985) American musician (1940-1985)

- On Wikipedia: Garden Party (song) - Play on YouTube: 'Garden Party' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JK0Z6IdLF4 Songs

People, Shoe, Learning, Memory

“There's perfect harmony
In the rising and the falling of the sea.
And as we sail along,
I never fail to be astounded by
The things we'll do for promises
And a song.”

Ronnie James Dio (1942–2010) American singer

"All the Fools Sailed Away" on Dream Evil (1987)
Lyrics

Perfection, Sea

“my favorite song goes a lil something boom bop bing bong. I love the part when it says wing a ling”

#1 Broncos Fan

uhh

Love, Parting

“my favorite song goes a lil something boom bop bing bong. I love the part when it says wing a ling”

#1 Broncos Fan

uhh

Love, Parting

“When you listen to music, you can transcend your own pain and turn towards another and feel bonded with the whole of humanity because you know that they have felt that grief and love. By expressing it, by communing with that song or picture, you realize you are not alone.”

Susan Cain book Bittersweet

Walker, Suzy (interviewer). "The Big Happiness Interview: Susan Cain on how embracing sadness can make us happier", Metro, June 5, 2022.
Bittersweet

Love, Pain, Music, Feeling

“Hark, the glad sound! The Savior comes,
The Savior promised long;
Let every heart exult with joy,
And every voice be song!”

Philip Doddridge (1702–1751) English Nonconformist leader, educator, and hymnwriter

Published 1755, Hymns, "Hark, the Glad Sound", Chambers Dictionary of Quotations, p. 278

Heart, Joy

“My problems are few
If I don't stop to think
The red golden leaves
Scream the song of the sun
The high rolling hills
Give it all in the fall
The hot days are gone... now”

Steve Forbert (1954) American singer-songwriter

Song lyrics, Little Stevie Orbit (1980)

Problem, Thinking, Sun

“I've been down this road before
I remember every tree
Every single blade of grass
Holds a special place for me
And I remember every town
And every hotel room
Every song I ever sang
On a guitar out of tune”

John Prine (1946–2020) American country singer/songwriter

Song lyrics, I Remember Everything (2020)

Tree, Grass

“Lying, robed in snowy white
That loosely flew to left and right —
The leaves upon her falling light —
Thro' the noises of the night,
She floated down to Camelot:
And as the boat-head wound along
The willowy hills and fields among,
They heard her singing her last song,
The Lady of Shalott.

Heard a carol, mournful, holy,
Chanted loudly, chanted lowly,
Till her blood was frozen slowly,
And her eyes were darkened wholly,
Turn'd to tower'd Camelot.
For ere she reach'd upon the tide
The first house by the water-side,
Singing in her song she died,
The Lady of Shalott.”

Alfred, Lord Tennyson The Lady of Shalott

The Lady of Shalott (1832)

Lying, Light, Water, Singing

“You will never make love, laugh, fight, eat, go to the movies, kiss, smile, dance, sing, run, skate, play the piano, buy candy for, argue jokingly, tell stories, look longingly at, jump on the bed with, pet the dogs with your faces, sing along with the song in the car and get the words wrong, share a secret, gossip, cop a feel, go hear a band that you both love, share a really good meal, carpool with people you don't like and make fun of them secretly later, cry, comfort, scratch backs, insist on pizza, catch them staring at you, put your arms around them, stay up too late, lean against warm bodies, feel safe with their feet sliding next to yours in bed, raise your children, go to boring dinner parties and get too drunk to drive home so you sleep in the car, spend alternate holidays with each others families, have uncontrollable lust with, followed by mind blowing fuck sessions lasting for hours and hours at a time, take a bath so hot one of you has to get out, all naked and wet and red and dizzy but not embarrassed because this is who you love and rarely are you shy with them, watch a TV show you both hate because the remote control is broken--merely happily, and maybe sometimes unhappily, share your life, and be with them, but you can't, because they're dead. Suddenly, unjustly, untimely, irretrievably--unconscionably dead.”

Margaret Cho (1968) American stand-up comedian

From Her Books, I Have Chosen To Stay And Fight, DEATH

Love, Life, Hate, Children

“Our worlds, our suns, our ages, stream,
like a dateless dream.
Each drop of blood is a starry song
and our souls are breaths of eternity.
Eyes, say, why were ye given your sight?
To light a star, to welcome of immortal skies.”

Alexis Karpouzos (1967)

Source: https://twitter.com/AKarpouzos/status/1616451289977868288

Age, World, Dreams, Soul

“Love needs no explanation, of course. There's nothing to explain. About love or longing. The thoughts that accompany our feelings. It's been there for a long time. Ever since it first came to say hello and then declared itself.

It's not something strange, not easily understood. It's like the togetherness we share today. Sit and chat with friends. Enjoying time and joking. Playing old songs, from The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Matt Monro and Elvis Presley.

We're not too old to go back to those days. Revisiting the stories of the past. Talking about paintings from Sudjojono or Affandi to Dede Eri Supria and Lucia Hartini. Arguing who is greater; Chairil, Sapardi or Sutardji?

We put aside the issues of political depravity and the news of leadership succession that is not what the public expects. Let time resolve everything. Better to talk about climate change, which is sometimes cloudy and sometimes sunny. Or the heat that does not hesitate to burn your head until it reaches 37° while in other places heavy rains cause floods everywhere. We will never know, until the wind takes us back from the past.”

Titon Rahmawan

Love, Feeling, Change, Time

“Make of your life an ever-evolving work of art, and of your trauma, a sacred song that cannot be forgotten.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Fate della vostra vita un'opera d’arte in continua evoluzione, e del vostro trauma, un canto sacro che non si dimentica.
Source: prevale.net

Life, Art

“One of the wonders of life is seeing the emotion in a person's eyes as they listen to a profound song.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Una delle meraviglie della vita è vedere l'emozione negli occhi di una persona mentre ascolta una profonda canzone.
Source: prevale.net

Life, Personality

Quotes about song page 18

Quotes about song
page 18