Songwriting Quotes - Page 5

• Songwriting is the cheapest psychiatrist I know.

  Billy Joe Shaver

  Psychiatrist, Knows

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• I had this talent for these stupid little teenage songs. I just couldn't get anyone to sing my songs, so I had to sing my own tunes.

  Paul Anka

  Song, Teenage, Stupid

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• I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm damn well gonna do it!

  Geri Halliwell

  Umpires, Damn, Wells

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• Sometimes it takes a good fall to really know where you stand.

  Hayley Williams

  Success, Fall, I Hate You

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• That's another way of writing a song, of course. Just talking to somebody that ain't there. That's the best way. That's the truest way. Then it just becomes a question of how heroic your speech is. To me, it's something to strive after.

  Bob Dylan

  Song, Writing, Talking

  Interview with Paul Zollo, americansongwriter.com. January 9, 2012.

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• My songwriting is like extending a hand to the listener.

  Dave Grohl

  Hands, Listeners, Extending

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• Songwriting is a very frustrating art form. You have to get on tape exactly what's playing inside your head

  Michael Jackson

  Art, Tape, Form

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• I write a song because I want to. I think the moment you start writing it to make money, you're starting to kill yourself artistically.

  Pete Seeger

  Song, Writing, Thinking

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• Music has a power of forming the character, and should therefore be introduced into the education of the young.

  Aristotle

  Character, Should, Young

  Aristotle (2016). “Politics”, p.273, Aristotle

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• I think that talent, good songwriting and passion, will always outlast hype.

  Beau Bokan

  Passion, Thinking, Hype

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• Music is spiritual. The music business is not.

  Van Morrison

  Funny, Music, Spiritual

  "The Times" [London], July 6, 1990.

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• Besides my fast and slooow songs, I further divide my work into three main song types: the ballad or story song, the variation on a theme (saying the same thing over and over and over again) song, and the weird song. It's important to have weird songs, but I find that a little weirdness goes a long way.

  David Massengill

  Song, Writing, Long

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• Glen Campbell told me, 'Stay out of the way of a good song.' I think it's true. If a song's good, don't overdo it.

  Chris Isaak

  Song, Writing, Thinking

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• I think it was Tommy who told me, 'When your song is called 'XYZ' or whatever, every line has got to make sense against your title.' He showed me little methods of proving to yourself whether the line belongs, and ways of finding out whether you were able to get more out of a line if you tried.

  Merle Haggard

  Song, Thinking, Littles

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• What comes first? The melody, always. It's all about singing the melodies live in my head. They go in circles. I guess I'm quite conservative and romantic about the power of melodies. I try not to record them on my Dictaphone when I first hear them. If I forget all about it and it pops up later on, then I know it's good enough. I let my subconscious do the editing for me.

  Bjork

  Editing, Circles, Singing

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• Characters last. Beautiful writing lasts. A compelling narrative lasts. Art survives long after ideas go extinct.

  Joel Achenbach

  Beautiful, Art, Writing

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• I edit as I go. Especially when I go to commit it to paper. I prefer a typewriter even to a computer. I don't like it. There's no noise on the computer. I like a typewriter because I am such a slow typist. I edit as I am committing it to paper. I like to see the words before me and I go, "Yeah, that's it." They appear before me and they fit. I don't usually take large parts out. If I get stuck early in a song, I take it as a sign that I might be writing the chorus and don't know it. Sometimes,you gotta step back a little bit and take a look at what you're doing.

  John Prine

  Song, Writing, Typewriters

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• I could never be a country person, sitting around trees trying to write a song. I would rather be in the middle of society, whether it's growing or crumbling.

  Ric Ocasek

  Country, Song, Writing

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• My vocation is more in composition really than anything else - building up harmonies using the guitar, orchestrating the guitar like an army, a guitar army.

  Jimmy Page

  Army, Guitar, Building Up

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• I was sleeping in the woods one night after a gig we'd played somewhere, when I saw this girl appear before me. That girl was Emily. (on how he wrote "See Emily Play") "Chapter 24"-that was from the "I Ching", there was someone around who was very into that, most of the words came straight off that. "Lucifer Sam" was another one-it didn't mean much to me at the time, but then three or four months later it came to mean a lot.

  Syd Barrett

  Girl, Mean, Sleep

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• I've just really been into melody and lyrics and songwriting. Writing a rap, to me, is easy. I could write a rap like that. But writing songs and melodies and s**t that's hopefully going to stick around for 30, 40 years is f**king hard...If you have good songs and you're talented, people will eventually come to your shows, people will buy your music.

  Kid Rock

  Song, Kings, Rap

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• I don't enjoy songwriting.

  Rod Stewart

  Music, Enjoy

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• The Bee Gees were always heavily influenced by black music. As a songwriter, it's never been difficult to pick up on the changing styles of music out there, and soul has always been my favourite genre.

  Robin Gibb

  Soul, Black, Style

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• I have never acknowledged the difference between serious music and light music. There is only good music and bad music.

  Kurt Weill

  Music, Light, Differences

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• I've written so many songs about Englishmen, I have to go elsewhere.

  Ray Davies

  Song, Elsewhere, Englishmen

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