Phil Ochs Quotes
Quotes to Explore
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The white man made the mistake of letting me read his history books. He made the mistake of teaching me that Patrick Henry was a patriot and George Washington – wasn't nothing non-violent about old Pat or George Washington.
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I used to watch 'Top of the Pops' when I was a kid and say 'Yeah!' or 'Boo!' at every single song. So there was nothing in the middle. You brutally put it on one side or another.
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There's something about live players that you cannot get with machines: With live musicians, you can strike a groove, you can feed off each other... And, even though somebody might make a slight mistake, it's all real!
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As a songwriter I hate this whole, 'If it's a sad song, it has to sound like a sad song thing.' And that goes all the way back to my days with the Format. I'm an insane narcissist, so if I have to get something off my chest, I'll get something off my chest.
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'Make You Miss Me' is an important song to me. Having it go No. 1 as the fifth single off of my first record is the cherry on top of a chapter in my life I'll never forget.
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To me, there is nothing more soothing than the song of a mosquito that can't get through the mesh to bite you.
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I fantasise about what the future could be in terms of aesthetic and psychology. It's the most difficult thing to do because you have to start from the past - your favourite architect, your favourite song - you take it all with you.
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Very often, writing a song is a process that happens to me rather than one that I instigate. I feel a song coming on and, like a sneeze; I wait for it until it comes.
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The first album I ever bought with my own money was 'Ten.' Every single song reminds me of my childhood.
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It is such a gift to be able to write songs in general, but when you can share it with somebody, it is just such a pleasure. It is such a happy moment when you finish a song, and you are just like, 'Wow - that was great.'
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I like finding that common point between another song and my music. It's like between people; you can be of religion or another, from this country or from another country, but we're all basically the same. It's just the same with songs.
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Music's always been really cathartic. It's the best drug for me to get away from the everyday pressures just for a second via a good song.
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At first, I did have that thought, like, 'Oh crap, what are we going to do after?' Then I realized 'Girl in a Country Song' was an honest, truthful song, and we were telling our truth, and that's all we have to do - write songs that are true and tell our stories.
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When I was a little girl, my dream was just to hear my song on the radio. It was very fascinating to me, and I was like, 'How do I do that?' Now it's like, 'Oh my God, my song is on the radio!'
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If someone had told me when I was a kid I'd get an ovation from Frank Sinatra! One time, I did a song called 'I Am A Singer', but I rewrote the words for Frank. I was in tears and, when he got up, so was he.
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It usually takes me 20 to 90 minutes to write a song because once I start, I don't stop. If I start writing a song, and you try to have a conversation with me, you're a bad person.
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Sometimes videos make a bad song very tight.
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I'm ambitious. But if I weren't as talented as I am ambitious, I would be a gross monstrosity.
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I don't like giving names to generations. It's like trying to read the song title on a record that's spinning.
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We like the ambiance and atmosphere, and we felt really early that... I mean, of course, Air is an electronic band, but we are doing so many real recordings and the studio is so important for the sound. The acoustics create atmosphere and emotion. Also we want to be independent, we don't want to be obliged to go into a commercial studio and only stay one week because it's really expensive. We want to be able to give a chance to a song, and to spend a lot of time in the studio.
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After the Rodgers and Hammerstein revolution, songs became part of the story, as opposed to just entertainments in between comedy scenes.
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God's love is so great that He loves even the proud, the selfish, the arrogant, and the wicked.
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I felt there was a need for us to build a new programming language. I also had come to see that Microsoft functions best when it controls its own destiny.
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A protest song is a song that's so specific that you cannot mistake it for bullshit.
