Song Quotes - Page 11

• You can't plan to write a great song. It just happens to you. It drops in your lap. It's the same thing with a woman.

  Neil Diamond

  Writing, Lap, Plans

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• I didn't really have an act per se - a theatrical performance, as opposed to just: here I am, folks, and you're all supposed to be dead quiet while I sing eight or nine songs, then get off the stage.

  Mel Torme

  Eight, Here I Am, Nine

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• It is always the latest song that an audience applauds the most.

  Homer

  Novelty, Audience

  Homer (1991). “The Odyssey”, Penguin Classics

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• Obviously I got known for some other songs early on, and some of those were rock'n'roll songs. Some of them were melodic pop songs. And I've done lots of different things, as you know, but every so often I get drawn back.

  Elvis Costello

  Rocks, Different, Done

  "Interview about The Delivery Man". Interview with Brian Wise, www.elviscostello.info. April 10, 2004.

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• Dust into Dust, and under Dust to lie, Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and-sans End!

  Omar Khayyam

  Death, Lying, Wine

  Omar Khayyam (1868). “Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, rendered into Engl. verse [by E. Fitzgerald. 2nd version].”, p.6

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• Like an opera singer, I am able to sing out my song in paint.

  Tony Curtis

  Opera, Singers, Able

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• I was in Jacques Brel Off-Broadway for many years, so I've always been a singing actress, but the songwriting was a complete surprise. I had never written a song in my life. We were on the road with Jacques Brel doing the national tour, and I picked up a guitar one day and I wrote a song.

  Amanda McBroom

  Guitar, Years, Singing

  "DIVA TALK: Chatting with Woman of Will's Amanda McBroom, Returning to Piazza and a Wicked Thought". Interview with Andrew Gans, www.playbill.com. August 19, 2005.

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• Sid Vicious began the age of participation in which everyone could be the artist. Sid proved that you don't have to play well to be the star. You can play badly, or not even at all. I endorsed that attitude. If you can't write songs, no problem - simply steal one and change it to your taste.

  Malcolm Mclaren

  Stars, Attitude, Writing

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• I learned that if you bring black people together, you bring them together with a song. To this day, I don't understand how people think they can bring anybody together without a song.

  Bernice Johnson Reagon

  Thinking, People, Black

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• The nice thing about a protest song is that it takes the complaint, the fussing, the finger-pointing, and gives it an added component of sociable harmony.

  Nicholson Baker

  Nice, Giving, Harmony

  "Four Protest Songs". www.newyorker.com. October 8, 2012.

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• One day I'll wake up and I'll have 10 or 12 songs and think, 'Oh that sounds like it could be a record.

  Bryan Adams

  Thinking, One Day, Sound

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• I learned when I started to study piano that I could play by ear. I could hear a song on the radio a couple of times and hear the song and the lyrics and sing it for you after a couple of plays.

  Ronnie Milsap

  Couple, Play, Piano

  "Ronnie Milsap's Gospel Music". Interview with Scott Ross, www.cbn.com.

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• So I didn't have anything to do with picking the songs, but I got to musically take them in places I thought might be interesting, so it was a real neat collaboration among the three of us.

  Vince Gill

  Real, Interesting, Collaboration

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• The funny thing is, people's perceptions of what a song is about is usually wrong a majority of the time. But they're still going to read what they want to into it.

  Vince Gill

  Funny Things, People, Perception

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• The Men at Work thing is always there, it's always going to be there. It's not something I consciously think that much about anymore. The thing that stays with you is the songs, which is a good thing for me, because the songs are the things that stand the test of time.

  Colin Hay

  Men, Thinking, Tests

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• To me, the musical is best when it's a musical comedy. So if you have a very, very funny show, and very good, funny songs, that's what the musical does best.

  Eric Idle

  Musical, Doe, Comedy

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• I think that you get the mood of a song stronger if you get it right that way. On the other hand, you put some songs out live and they don't catch flight. They just flop. It is hard to tell until they are out there.

  Peter Gabriel

  Thinking, Hands, Stronger

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• Language is like songs, like food, like dance-it is the expression of what we think.

  Holly Near

  Thinking, Expression, Language

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• I love pop music. It's not easy to write a good pop song. It may be easier to put out a fake jazz album, as Sting does from time to time.

  John Lydon

  Writing, Fake, Doe

  Interview with Jason Heller, music.avclub.com. April 6, 2010.

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• To sing a song is quite different than to write a poem. I'm not and never will be a novelist, but to write a novel is not the same thing as writing a play. There is a difference in form, but essentially what you're after is the same thing.

  Sam Shepard

  Writing, Play, Differences

  "Sam Shepard plays with the Butch Cassidy myth" by Mark Olsen, www.latimes.com. October 09, 2011.

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• I think one of the things about writing in the studio is that the song hasn't matured, if you like, so quite often the vocals are early attempts. Whereas once you've taken it out on the road a bit, you learn more about a song.

  Peter Gabriel

  Taken, Writing, Thinking

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• Interestingly, songs used to be short, then they became longer, and now they're getting shorter.

  Casey Kasem

  Used, Used To Be

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• I'm recording freely, and if I make a song, I release it immediately, so I'm more likely to believe in one song at a time as opposed to albums.

  Chuck D

  Believe, Albums, Release

  Interview with Nathan Rabin, www.avclub.com. June 13, 2001.

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• I could play it safe by recording songs that are familiar, but am I expanding myself as an artist by doing covers? It's a catch-22. It's called show business: The word 'business' is in it, and you've got to be a businessman. But then again, you have to be true to yourself as an artist.

  Donny Osmond

  Artist, Play, Safe

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• The goal is to try and make the perfect song. Which of course will never happen.

  Chris Martin

  Perfect, Goal, Trying

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