Song Quotes
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I'm not the kind of guy who walks around with a notebook writing lyrics. For me, melody and song structure come first and foremost. Unless the melody gets stuck in my head, I'll move on. Once I have the musical idea pretty firm, I just try to write words that are incredibly honest and relate to my life on that given night. I'll sit with the music on my headphones and pen and paper all night long until it's done.
Cary Brothers
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Hit songs did not come out of musicals. Pop-rock was creating the hits. There were very few songs that made the charts out of any Broadway musical.
Stephen Sondheim
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I've copyrighted 3,000 songs.
Dolly Parton
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Every band wants to be have a song that is that big, that will pretty much live on forever. I don't know too many new bands that will have a 'Free Bird' that will be around 30 years later. It's become a national anthem of sorts.
Rickey Medlocke Lynyrd Skynyrd
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I could write a joke song really easily, but I think something that might be true for my generation is that there's a certain irony or detachedness expected of us, even though we really feel sincere. So the only way to sincerity is through a joke.
Ezra Furman
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He wanted the songs, the stories, to save everybody.
Sherman Alexie
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I think there's a weird self-affirmation thing that happens in popular music in general. It seems like every song I hear on the radio is like, "Listen to me roar!" or "This is my fight song!"
Conor Oberst Bright Eyes
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I came in with a completely new perspective. I would write songs and they would pick tunes they felt were in the Purple vein.
Tommy Bolin
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I don't know where my songs come from... If I knew, I'd know too much, more than we are allowed on this plane.
Judy Collins
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Yeah, I think the arts and literature have always been irrevocably connected. Because if you think about it, every film script, every play, every song starts as words on the page before it is ever performed or filmed or sung.
Emma Walton Hamilton
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I felt like there was a void in the marketplace in girl groups. Musically, there is something truly exciting about harmonies in one song. A group has more to offer.
Kelly Rowland Destiny's Child
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The banjo is such a happy instrument--you can't play a sad song on the banjo - it always comes out so cheerful.
Steve Martin
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I hate it when people say that they don't like 'MMMBop.' Everyone likes 'MMMBop.' Whether they like it or not, the song rocks.
Steven Tyler Aerosmith
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With Rock Band, you can play along to Black Sabbath or Nirvana and possibly find new ways of appreciating their artistry by being allowed to perform parallel to it. Rock Band puts you inside the guts of a song.
Carrie Brownstein
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Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Merle Haggard, Hank Williams. All of them are different styles, but those are the songs that make the times. They're the songs that last through time.
Dolly Parton
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I write a little something every day, even though I don't write a song [every day]. Everything inspires me. I'll come up with a line, or somebody will say something that will trigger something.
Dolly Parton
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I love writing every song I can like a little mini movie. I like to have a character, or some characters, and really paint a picture with the song.
Dolly Parton
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A song is such a short form ... that 'the slightest flaw seems like a mountain.' And so every song needs to be revised 'til it's close to perfection... But achieving perfection takes a lot of energy.
Stephen Sondheim
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If anything, my problem is, I'm not a genius, it's just that I can write songs very quick. I have a lot of ideas, let's put it that way - I have too many ideas. And my problem is, I stockpile ideas and I get lazy and I don't finish them, and next thing I know, I'm looking around and I've got a hundred song ideas, but are any of them any good? I don't know.
Gary Louris
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My brother & I have always said that to write a song, it takes all the experiences of your life, plus the time it takes to write it! To be specific, yes, sometimes a song takes place in one session - together in one day.
Richard Sherman
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When you construct a mix tape, the first song you come out with has to be a barnburner.
Sherman Alexie
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Life's a song,sing it
Mother Teresa
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I went mainstream in a major way with the song "Let's Dance." And what I found I had done was put a box around myself. It was very hard for people to see me as anything other than the person in the suit who did "Let's Dance," and it was driving me mad - because it took all my passion for experimenting away.
David Bowie
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Short swallow-flights of song, that dip Their wings in tears, and skim away.
Alfred Lord Tennyson