Roxy Music Quotes
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In fact, quite a lot of what I do has to do with sound texture, and, you can't notate that. You can't notate the sound of "St. Elmo's Fire." There's no way of writing that down. That's because musical notation arose at a time when sound textures were limited. If you said violins and woodwind that defined the sound texture; if I say synthesizer and guitar it means nothing - you're talking about 28,000 variables.
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People who are very confident in themselves aren't hurt by criticism. They make use of it.
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Some people say Bowie is all surface style and second-hand ideas, but that sounds like a definition of pop to me.
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I tour a lot, sometimes like a hundred shows a year.
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I have lived in countries that were coming out of conflict: Ireland, South Africa, the Czech republic. People there are overflowing with energy.
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Well, I am a dilettante. It's only in England that dilettantism is considered a bad thing. In other countries it's called interdisciplinary research.
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The philosophical idea that there are no more distances, that we are all just one world, that we are all brothers, is such a drag! I like differences.
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I, I wish you could swim Like the dolphins Like dolphins can swim Though nothing, nothing will keep us together We can beat them, forever and ever Oh, we can be heroes just for one day.
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I'm always interested in something when it isn't familiar to me.
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I'm actually an evangelical atheist, but there is something I recognise about religion: that it gives people a chance to surrender.
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All the best lyrics are written in ten minutes.
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I still do mostly listen to CDs. I think that every format really is a different way of listening. If you take a different sort of psychological stance to it - like, I think the transition from vinyl to CD definitely marked a difference in the way people treated music. The vinyl commands a certain kind of reverence because it's a big object and quite fragile so you handle it rather carefully, and it's expensive so you pay attention to how it's looked after.
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But I do like to have peace and quiet for a good hour.
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And Mary J. Blige, she's got all these fur coats and hats and stuff. She's good; I like her.
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Ideas reflect the moment, and so you have to use them. If you store ideas, they wither.
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Listening to something is an act of surrender.
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I occasionally meet people and they say, 'Oh, I was born to Discreet Music'... They always have very weird eyes, those people.
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It's easy to forget that your best work is done when your attention is fully engaged.
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Composition is a way of living out your philosophy and calling it art.
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I was perfectly happy about being in a pop group. Roxy Music was the perfect vehicle, and enabled me to continue with this parallel musical career, which had nothing to do with what the group were doing. It was more to do with the extension of British psychedelia.
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In New York, you couldn't wish for a nicer audience, or in L.A., Chicago, Boston. But when you get into secondary markets, they don't have a clue.
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Given the chance, i'll die like a baby, on some faraway beach, when the season's over.
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I became a musician to be free, and freedom means pursuing your musical interests. So if you were tied to be in a band only, that probably would be too restrictive.
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It must be quite difficult if you have a father who's sort of known. On the other hand, you can get a job in his band.