Lee Ranaldo Quotes

United States, Musician
February 3, 1956

Lee Mark Ranaldo is an American musician, singer-songwriter, guitarist, writer, visual artist and record producer, best known as a co-founder of the alternative rock band Sonic Youth. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Ranaldo at number 33 on its "Greatest Guitarists of All Time" list. In May 2012, Spin published a staff selected top 100 guitarist list, ranking Ranaldo and his Sonic Youth bandmate Thurston Moore together at number 1.

Also known as Singer-Songwriter, Guitarist, Writer, Visual Artist, Record Producer

I felt like the last thing we did, 'The Eternal,' and the touring we did behind it was some of the strongest stuff we'd ever done, and the band was very much a vital entity.

Lee Ranaldo Sonic Youth
- Band
- Feel
- Stuff
When I was in grade school and high school, I did a lot of chorale singing. And the chorus would be tenor, bass, and alto and soprano.

Lee Ranaldo Sonic Youth
- School
- Singing
- Lot

To some degree, I consider myself a writer, and so I have a strong relationship with literature.

Lee Ranaldo Sonic Youth
Obviously, Sonic Youth has been a huge part of my life for many, many years, and I love all those guys dearly.

Lee Ranaldo Sonic Youth
- Life
- Love
- Guys
I really liked the Jean-Luc Godard movie, 'Film Socialisme.'

Lee Ranaldo Sonic Youth
Listening to the Beatles' music figures into pretty much all of my childhood memories.

Lee Ranaldo Sonic Youth
Our audience seems to be able to handle whatever kind of weird opening acts we turn them on to. I mean, sometimes it happens to be something like a band like Nirvana or Mudhoney, and other times, its just weird noise crews that we dig up.

Lee Ranaldo Sonic Youth
- Weird
- Audience
- Able
I guess I see 'Goo' half as a really New York record because I think there are a lot of really particular New York references on it, but I also see it, for us, as the first of our records that really opened up to the larger world around us.

Lee Ranaldo Sonic Youth
- First
- New York
- Record

'Europe '72' was a super influential record full of fantastic songs and amazing experimental musicianship. I always valued both of those aspects in what Sonic Youth has done through the years - being able to get very abstract and very concrete within the same song.

Lee Ranaldo Sonic Youth
- Song
- Record
- Abstract
I have nothing against change or evolution, and I'm not one of those people who wants the city to be what it was 40 years ago or whatever, because that's not what New York is, really.

Lee Ranaldo Sonic Youth
- Change
- Nothing
- Evolution
You don't work in isolation anymore. Anybody can write a song and put it up on the Internet the next day.

Lee Ranaldo Sonic Youth
- Work
- Song
- Internet