There are moments in our lives that are more difficult than others. And I can look at each song and remember where I was during those times – from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows.
Even if I don’t release it myself, somebody else might hear it and want to record it. When you write a song, it gives it that potential.
If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.
‘Mi Gente’ is a song that embodies a special moment in music – a new sound of a Latino culture on the rise and being embraced globally.
Stony Skunk, when they were with our company, had a song which I personally like called ‘Red Light District.’
The song ‘Gave It All Away’ has a reggae sound.
I won’t squander my credibility, whatever that is, just for one silly song.
Sing me a new song; the world is transfigured; all the Heavens are rejoicing.
When I was 20, I didn’t give a damn about song construction. I just wanted to make as much noise and play as fast and as loud as possible.
When I wrote the song, I had the sea near Bombay in mind. We stayed at a hotel by the sea, and the fishermen come up at five in the morning and they were all chanting. And we went on the beach and we got chased by a mad dog – big as a donkey.
‘Sit Here and Cry’ was one of the first songs I wrote with that overdramatic sarcastic dry sense of humor, which is why the energy of the song doesn’t necessarily reflect the subject matter.
I sing in languages that I speak. So when I’m singing a Schubert song, I know precisely what every word means and, you know, when it was composed and who was the poet and all of that and whether Strauss or Wagner or French Belioz, Duparc or Debussy or whatever.
Most of my songs are about Jesus. Most of my songs are about the idea that there is salvation, and that there is a Savior. But I won’t mention his name in a song just to get a cheap play.
I can’t force myself to make up a song. Music comes to me naturally.
I also just accept that I might never want to write a song again.
Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.
A good song gathers the years in. It’s why you can sing it with such conviction 40 years after it’s been written.
And you have a record company behind it, this is a key too, you need people to fight for your records, at least a little bit. So if you have a great song, it’s catchy, and you’ve got a little bit of help, I think that’s all you need. But there hasn’t been that in music.
Art, a book, a painting, a song, can definitely inspire change, whether it’s a small change or a big change but you know there’s novels I’ve read or a scene in a film that I’ve seen where I definitely inspired something and made a change or addressed an issue in my life or done something cliche like make a phone call.
I played with Prince in 2010… the America tour. The one with Misty Copeland dancing on top of the piano! But Prince played the piano on that song. But I played two dates with him on that tour. When we played the gig, every couple of songs, Prince would change his clothes.
Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.
The act of song writing and recording became one and the same to me; because I essentially recorded everything I did from the day I began trying to write songs. I’ve always had a lot to say. I’d always written poems.
I remember, when I was a kid, listening to the radio and hearing ‘Big Bad John’ by Jimmy Dean – and it just blew me away. I used to sit there and call the radio stations and request that song. And then the Beatles were obviously out already, but I really didn’t know about the Beatles.
‘Sweet Summer Day’ was inspired by wanting to write the perfect summer song! Both Chaeyoung and myself had ideas for lyrics, and the song formed naturally!
Alan Cumming was such a fun guy to watch. I remember he has a song in the first ‘Spy Kids’ movie, and when Danny Elfman came to set, they were working on the song.
What song have you played 10,000 times? It’s probably not something basic. It’s probably a song that validates your experience on Earth.
Music’s staying power is a function of how timeless the lyrics, song and production are.
The fundamental human truth underpinning ‘Ox Mountain Death Song’ is that men so very often turn into their fathers. The way that everything gets passed down.
My favorite Bob Dylan record is the very first one where he sings one Bob Dylan song and the rest of them are his interpretations of the Dust Bowl-era folk songs, or even going back as far as the mass influx of people coming into the U.S. during the gold rush. His interpretations of those songs are incredible.
Milionaria’ is the first song I’ve composed and I published in Catalan, it’s also the first song I do inspired by Catalan rumba. I started it in Seville while I was waiting at the airport and I finished it in Barcelona.
I love words. They’re fun. I don’t think any word can just be filler. There’s no room for it. It’s like a puzzle. Every song can be written a million times. How can you say it differently?
I have this lust for the so-called South Seas. I would like to explore every corner of the Pacific. You know the song: ‘To everything turn, turn, turn, there is a season.’ It’s just time.
I never had huge amounts of money when I was young. I had huge amounts of fame, and I always had the sense of labor and recompense. I always said I don’t want to work for pay, but I want to get paid for my song.
When I was four, I wrote a song about falling into a black hole.
Every time I hear that Champions League song, it reminds me of hearing it for the first time in the old Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam.
As a musician and a guitar player, I can noodle as well as anybody. But from my background as a session musician, I always try to play what is called for by the lyric and listening to the song. As a writer, that’s what I do, too.
When I was four, I wrote a song about falling into a black hole.
Me and Thugger could make nine songs in a day and then choose which songs we like the most and think is gonna do something. With other people, it’s like, we pick one song, and we hope it’s the one.
‘Tis easy enough to be pleasant, When life flows along like a song; But the man worth while is the one who will smile when everything goes dead wrong.
Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words.
‘Watchmen’ is like the music you feel is written just for you. ‘That’s my song, no one else gets that but me.’ That’s why the fan base is so rabid, because they feel personal about it.
I have a passion for music, and I enjoy the process of expressing myself within the parameters of a pop song, and I don’t do it to seek anybody’s approval, necessarily. Obviously, you go on stage, and you enjoy it when people respond to a particular song, but the overall concept of playing music I do for myself.
I’ve been told that ‘Midnight at the Oasis’ has been responsible for the conception of more children than any other song of the ’70s.
Everybody has their favorite sad songs. That’s part of what I love so much about country music. Country music is never afraid to go with a sad song.
The big problem with songwriting for me is starting a new song. It’s the thing where all the anguish exists, not in the writing of the song, but the starting of the new song. What do I write about? I never know.
At the beginning of a new project, often before I do any actual writing, I collect photos, quotes, song lyrics, and even objects that relate to the characters or the world I’m creating.
Nature is the one song of praise that never stops singing.
I’d been playing Ted in the show for about a year as well as playing in the group in my spare time. Then, at the ‘Scrubs’ Christmas party, I offered to bring along the band to sing a song. The producers thought we were terrible – but perfect for the show.
I see friends who are in different genres of music, and they say they’re so burnt playing the same stuff every night. That’s why you see a country act wanting to go out and play an old classic rock song. But what cracks me up is that they all want to be Jimmy Buffett. I can’t figure that out.
Thou hast no sorrow in thy song, no winter in thy year.
At 13 years old, I realized I could start my own band. I could write my own song, I could record my own record. I could start my own label. I could release my own record. I could book my own shows. I could write and publish my own fanzine. I could silk-screen my own T-shirt. I could do this all myself.
The thing is, my life is a country song. I don’t need to be manufactured, and I don’t need anyone to tell me what to say or what to sing.
When I’m singing a song, I’m in that song, and I’m thinking about what emotions I should bring to the song. Voicing a character was very similar. It was high energy, and I had to really think about the emotion of what was going on in the scene.
I don’t know why we sold a lot of records or why so many people came to see us. Like ‘Sabotage’ – would you put that song on, like, ‘I’m gonna listen to that right now?’ It’s a weird choice.
Language’ is, I think, my favorite song that I’ve ever written.
I’ve always listened to music while I write, but none of my work has been so directly impacted by a song as my new novel, ‘So Cold the River,’ for which the brilliant strings piece ‘Short Trip Home,’ composed by Edgar Meyer and featuring the incredible Joshua Bell on violin, inspired much of the story.
