Song Quotes
-
I think the process of 'I Love It' becoming such a big song opened my eyes to sides of the industry that I'd never been aware of, which I wasn't so into.
-
Things are very simple to be honest: when we arrive at the studio for a session, we just get going and let it go naturally and improvise as we go along, this is why it is always so magical when we go into a studio. It is just so natural for us to put a song together.
-
In itself, I spent a year writing, you know all these different songs and when it came to recording the record, I just pulled out all the tracks I liked the most.
-
I've always wanted to release a song that could actually touch someone and help them through a tough time.
-
'Life, Love & Hope' is... I'm thinking 'larger picture.' I'm not trying to preach to anyone. We all get lost and caught up in our everyday problems. Your cellphone doesn't work or you got a parking ticket, you had a bad day at work. You can lose sight of the really important things in life; that's what the song is about.
-
You try to make a film, and you have to come up with the money. You need a big crew; you need to ask people for favors and get permission. If you have an idea for a song, you can pretty much go into your basement with your band mates and do it.
-
I still don't know if I can write songs. I don't think anyone ever knows if they can write songs.
-
Our songs did not transcend being R&B hits. They were R&B hits that white kids were attracted to. And if people bought it, it became rock & roll. That's marketing. Why couldn't it still be R&B? The bass pattern didn't change. The song didn't change. It was still 'Yakety Yak' and 'Searchin'.'
-
I was just in the middle of singing a song about how broke we were and now my cell phone rings.
-
One of the nice things about being in a band is that you depend on each other for ideas, so it's not all up to me to do everything myself. There's always that fear that you'll run out of stuff. The most difficult part for me is writing lyrics, and that starts to get difficult after you've written, like, 120 songs.
-
If the spirit comes through in a Madame George type of song, that's what the spirit says. You have very little to do with it. You're like an instrument for what's coming through.
-
All my music is autobiographical, and that's the reason why people like my music. They know when I'm saying something on a song, I mean it. It comes from a real place and captures the realness in my life.
-
Pete Ham in the group was a very good writer. He wrote the Nilsson song "Without You", which is a seriously good song. But the poor fellow topped himself. He was a lovely bloke, I can still see him now. It was a terrible loss.
-
I know there is an eye that watches all of us. There is a judgment that weighs everything we do. And before this great force, which is greater than any government I stand in awe and I kneel in respect and it is to this great judgment that I dedicate this next song, 'Hallelujah'.
-
If you can take a piece of life and put it in a song, it's going to be a good song - especially if it's from the heart.
-
If you feel like you're getting into a rut with a song, a night off usually fixes it.
-
The first thing that inspires any song is a chord progression. When I have one I really like, I get into the lyrics even more.
-
At the time I just was like, I can't believe I am on the show, and the first thing I have to do is an entire song and dance routine for the whole cast of 'Mad Men.'
-
When I was asked to do a song from 'In the Heights' at the White House in 2009, I chose instead to do 'Alexander Hamilton' because I felt like I was meeting a moment.
-
Right around my first year of college - I remember "Song of Solomon," by Toni Morrison, just moved me tremendously. The power of language and how it can peel back truths, bring things to the surface. So I learned a lot from fiction.
-
I've never written a song that I thought was a hit.
-
I never was a liner note junkie. I didn't know who produced records or there was such a thing as a straight songwriter. I always assumed that everybody that was singing a song wrote it or made it up.
-
If I ever hear "Power to the people" again, I'llà I just found out that John Lennon wrote that song, "All we are saying is give peace a chance." I couldn't believe it. I thought it was terrible; I hated that song. They used to bring out the Pete Seeger wind-up toy to sing it. Tiresome.
-
I will say it is funny that writing a song about not wanting to entertain people is what got me a career in entertainment.
