Lyrics Quotes
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I approach song writing three different ways. One way is where I write the initial melody and lyrics first and then take it in to the producer to collaborate. Another way is where the producer sends me his initial musical track ideas and then I write the lyrics and melody over his track. The third way is where we just jam out in the studio and see what we come up with.
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Critics always get the lyrics wrong in reviews, which is amusing - especially when they use them against you.
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One of the first albums I can remember hearing was a Supertramp best of, with mostly 'Breakfast in America' songs on it. It's kind of the same thing as the Flaming Lips, where there are these really melancholy lyrics and melodies, yet it's extremely uplifting. They're like a nonfuturistic version of the Flaming Lips.
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There were times in my career I went a little further than I wanted because of expectations. Doing certain things onstage when children were in the audience, wearing certain clothes, singing certain lyrics.
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As a songwriter you have an umbilical cord to the song and it's hard to expand on your understanding of the lyrics. Whereas when you cover a song you can create your own reason why you're attached to it.
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If I look at my old lyrics, they seem to be full of rage, but empty. There was an emptiness in my life.
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I find most modern country virtually unlistenable. I can't relate to the music or the lyrics.
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We human beings are tuned such that we crave great melody and great lyrics. And if somebody writes a great song, it's timeless that we as humans are going to feel something for that and there's going to be a real appreciation.
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I write most of my own lyrics for my album and I am helping to produce some of the songs as well.
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I struggled for many, many years following 'Music and Lyrics' - I mean really struggled.
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I didn't really start writing music or lyrics or turning them into songs until I went to San Francisco.
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I think people just want to be popular. So they're going to write lyrics that are going to get your attention. You know, sometimes, they're a little graphic, and I don't think that's so necessary.
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I was pretty strict in high school about who I would listen to. Musicians like Neil Young, Cat Stevens, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell... who were, in my opinion, great writers. The music mattered, but it held hands with the lyrics, and the personality was, overall, unsullied.
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I've been singing about love a long time now, because my kind of love carries a different flavor. My lyrics are not so outrageous as some. You have to think about a lot of different things. You get more mature with what you do - more experience, more capable, you know, the older you get.
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I think the simple message of that song is what attracted me to 'Every Day.' It's one of those simple yet profound lyrics.
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For me the music is a vehicle for my lyrics. It's a chance to get some really good words across.
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I write for myself; I'm trying to keep myself interested in the music. But at the same time, I want to make the songs relatable in a way; I want to keep melodies pretty simple and the lyrics open-ended so that people could maybe relate them to their own life in different ways. Something for everybody to have a piece of.
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Music's staying power is a function of how timeless the lyrics, song and production are.
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My stuff was more of a folk coffeehouse thing, with more acoustic guitar, just me doing a single, and then adding on instruments and voices, with emphasis on lyrics and singing and light kind of acoustic jazz.
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Sometimes I do a Dylan song and it seems to fit me so right that I figure maybe I wrote it. Dylan didn’t always do it for me as a singer, not in the early days, but then I started listening to the lyrics. That sold me.
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I stand behind all the lyrics I've ever written; I don't have a problem with that.
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Lyrics can be important, but ultimately, what pulls people in on a song is melody and the tracks and the way music feels.
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I never wrote music or arranged songs or lyrics when I was under the influence of anything but coffee. That's not gone away.
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I filled the margins of my schoolbooks with lyrics.
