Selected music quotes

1. Before Elvis there was nothing.

2. For those of us who have been thrown into hell, mysterious melodies and the torturing images of a vanished beauty will always bring us, in the midst of crime and folly, the echo of that harmonious insurrection which bears witness, throughout the centuries, to the greatness of humanity.

3. The hippies wanted peace and love. We wanted Ferraris, blondes and switchblades.

4. You know why Guns n' Roses aren't a good band? Because no black people listen to them.

5. I am attracted only to music which I consider to be better than it can be performed. Therefore I feel (rightly or wrongly) that unless a piece of music presents a problem to me, a never-ending problem, it doesn't interest me too much.

6. If you must keep groaning, please try to do it in a rhythm I can dance to.

7. Faust, the Ninth Symphony, and the will of Adolf Hitler are eternal youth and know neither time nor transience.

8. Rap is poetry set to music. But to me it's like a jackhammer.

9. I think the original, 'They're the next Jane's Addiction' things that people said about us in the beginning have been pretty much wiped out.

10. The closer I get back to being who I really am, the stronger the music gets.

11. The Smashing Pumpkins was never meant to be a small band. It was going to either be a big band, or a no band.

12. We have a problem with any labels that people try to hang on us, because all it does is drag you down.

13. People act like Nirvana invented grunge; they just took it and personified it.

14. About six months ago, I listened to Siamese Dream. That was the first time I'd ever really heard my own album, because I had separated from the experience of making the record. And it really moved me. It made me cry, it's so beautiful.

15. Music is 99% of my life. But I know I need a break. Besides, if you give people too much, they start to not want it. We need to restrain ourselves.

16. The Pumpkins love rock-and-roll, we absolutely love it, but we also think it's a flatulent, ego-serving kiddie playground. You can have your cake and eat it too.

17. For a 6-foot-3 guy with no hair and a whiny voice, I've done all right.

18. Great music completely obliterates any conceptions of genre.

19. I love the development of our music, that's what I really dig about the whole thing. How we've tried to develop, y'know? It grows. That's why every day people come forward with new songs. Music goes on forever.

20. My music fights against the system that teaches to live and die.

21. My music will go on forever. Maybe it's a fool say that, but when me know facts me can say facts. My music will go on forever.

22. One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.

23. The piano is always true to me. In times of despair, happiness, and joy, its mood is always my own.

24. I am a composer first and foremost, and have always believed that being able to write memorable melodies is what sets musicians apart. My songs bring images to the listener's mind. The object is to transport my listeners to another place, some place sacred and spiritual that will make them glad they took the ride.

25. All the information you need is available to you to have a successful career in music, if you're paying attention, and not closed off to anything. Remember, Perseverance is King.

26. A lot of musicians don't learn the business. You just have to be well-rounded in both areas. You have to understand publishing. You have to understand how you make money, what's in demand, what helps you make the most out of your talent.

27. This music is forever for me. It's the stage thing, that rush moment that you live for. It never lasts, but that's what you live for.

28. Music was my way of keeping people from looking through and around me. I wanted the heavies to know I was around.

29. We're here to re-dedicate you to The Power, The Passion, The Mystery, and The Ministry of Rock and Roll.

30. The street's alive as secret debts are paid, Contacts made, they vanished unseen. Kids flash guitars just like switch-blades Hustling for the record machine. The hungry and the hunted explode into rock'n'roll bands That face off against each other out in the street, down in Jungleland.

31. The first day I can remember looking into a mirror and being able to stand what I saw was the day I had a guitar in my hand.

32. Saying you have a political solution is like saying you can write a pop song that's going to stay at the top of the list forever. I don't have many illusions about this, but I'm not cynical about it.

33. I always wanted to be a rock star. That was my childhood dream. That's what I told everybody I was going to be when I grew up.

34. Remember when we was young, everybody used to have these arguments about who's better, Michael Jackson or Prince? Prince won!

35. As you get older you will gain a bit more control over everything. Don't let anyone, even your parents, break you. Find good people who care about you and surround yourself with just them. If you can't find them at first, find good music and fall into it, let it hold you until they come. I truly hope you enjoy the new record.

36. We're pretty! We are though, we're a good-looking band.

37. When superstition is allowed to perform the task of old age in dulling the human temperament, we can say goodbye to all excellence in poetry, in painting, and in music.

38. Good music is very close to primitive language.

39. If they cut off both hands, I will compose music anyway holding the pen in my teeth.

40. Real music is always revolutionary, for it cements the ranks of the people; it arouses them and leads them onward.

41. 'Not a bad singer, but a beginner' (When he was interviewed)

42. 'I go to U.C. Berkeley and I'm studying engineering, which is totally not related to music, but I really like music. I want to make music my living.'

43. 'She bangs, she bangs...' (Singing Ricky Martin's, She Bangs)

44. 'They call me Hong Kong Ricky Martin, which is funny because I'm from Hong Kong, and I sing Ricky Martin song.'

45. Music isn't enough. Performers aren't enough. There must be someone that loves music as much as life. For you, and remember this always, those of us with something urgent to say, we give everything.

46. He sang of love, with quiet blending, Slow to begin, and never ending; Of serious faith, and inward glee; That was the song,- the song for me!

47. I can't listen to that much Wagner. I start getting the urge to conquer Poland.

48. If my music can change someone's mood for the better even a little bit, that's amazing.

49. 'You can't ignore what some bands have done. I know that from my own experience, from the way my life was changed by 'Fuck Armageddon, This Is Hell' by Bad Religion. I know our record will be in a bin next to Lionel Richie--but so are John Coltrane, KRS-1 and Boogie Down Productions, and Public Enemy.'

50. 'Lies, sanctions, and cruise missiles have never created a free and just society. Only everyday people can do that, which is why I'm joining the millions worldwide who have stood up to oppose the Bush administration's attempt to expand the US empire at the expense of human rights at home and abroad. In this spirit, I'm releasing this song for anyone who is willing to listen. I hope it not only makes us think, but also inspires us to act and raise our voices.'

51. 'They say that as soon as the wall in Germany fell that the US government was busy building another one at the border between the US and Mexico. Since 1986 as a result of a lot of the hate talk and histeriam that the government of the United States has been speaking, 1500 bodies have been found on the border. We wrote this song in response to it. It's called Without a Face.'

52. I guess I just get to the heart of people's feelings, that's all.

53. I took a chance on 'Nature Boy', though I think 'Lost April' is a much better song. The public liked 'Nature Boy' because it was something different.

54. I think what makes him so compelling as an artist, is that there is a tragic beauty in him. The sadness comes through in his singing.

55. For as long as there is some way for people to be able to hear that voice, there will be those who will be influenced by his voice.

56. If champagne ever wanted cheering up, it would drink Tony Banks.

57. Q: What were your initial thoughts of NIN prior to joining the band? Aaron: I thought I'd hafta shave my eyebrows, wear dog collars, mesh tank tops, and black bicycle shorts on stage. I was actually kinda bummed when I showed up for practice the first day dressed like that, and everybody was looking at me weird.

58. I think punk rock is dead, and has been for a long time. Any time people can start using a word to describe how people dress as opposed to what music is like stylistically or idealistically, it's a dead term as far as 'rock terms' go.

59. I've never considered playing music to have anything to do with being 'professional'.

60. One day I said to myself that it would be better to get rid of all that--melody, rhythm, harmony, etc. This was not a negative thought and did not mean that it was necessary to avoid them, but rather that, while doing something else, they would appear spontaneously. We had to liberate ourselves from the direct and peremptory consequence of intention and effect, because the intention would always be our own and would be circumscribed, when so many other forces are evidently in action in the final effect.

61. This is a James Taylor moment and we are stuck with a piano player who wants to sound like Enya and a southern funk band that, somewhere along the line, fell into thinking Alabama is a sweet place to call home.

62. Mark: Hayley I know that during this last week there's been a little, um, sort of non-verbal tension between us and it's never really been about you as a person. It's definitely not because you as a person, there's so much to admire. There really is. Your heart and your will is just enormous and there are so many people who have had hits without having classically great recording voices and they've done it on the strength of their spirit and the strength of their heart and you've got all of that and heaps.

63. Mark: I constantly admire your strength but I don't know - I heard pitching problems.

64. Marcia: I love you, they love you, always sing from your heart.

65. Mark: I have to acknowledge the fact that the Australian Public loves you, they admire your tenacity and they know that you're a great girl. I'm not going to say what I think... What I am going to say is that it's been 3 weeks since we had our producer meeting where you said that you didn't know what type of cd that you wanted to perform.... What kind of record are you going to make?

66. Hayley: I know what kind of music that I like, I love to sing. Bands like George and Missy Higgins are the guys that I like and that's the kind of music that I'd like to make.

67. Dicko: The mountain was too high, the river too deep. Cabaret.

68. I was thinking Bob Marley! Yeah!

69. Someone told me I shot the tambourine man.

70. I didn't know a cat sang it.

71. I just found out 'ma belle' was French. I thought it was English. My bell.

72. Playing shows every night....DUHHHH!

73. 'See that shit, I play the flute too, in more ways than one too.' (from Signin')

74. Apparently everyone thinks there's a bunch of people in an uproar over J.C. Chasez' new album title, 'Schizophrenic.' In actuality it's just four people with hundreds of personalities.

75. Verse sweetens toil, however rude the sound; She feels no biting pang the while she sings; Nor, as she turns the giddy wheel around, Revolves the sad vicissitudes of things.

76. Now it is all over - let the piper play Ha til mi tulidh [We return no more].

77. On what she would probably do if she weren't performing.

78. On becoming her own person as a professional musician.

79. On her gratitude of support from the natives of Kentwood, Louisiana, Horn's hometown.

80. Heavy Organ (introduction to the Bach Toccata and Fugue in Dm, BWV 565)

81. Same thing happened in the Punk Movement in the late 70's. It's like, major labels were signing punk bands right after the band's first gig, y'know, a punk band would start, play one gig, and get signed to a major label right away, 'cause it's a trend. That just shows there are a lot of old school dinosaurs in the record industry who need to be weeded out.

82. Music comes first. Lyrics are secondary... Most of my lyrics are contradictions. I'll write a few sincere lines and then I'll have to make fun of it. I don't like to make it too obvious because if it is too obvious it gets really stale. You shouldn't be in people's faces 100% all the time. We don't mean to be really cryptic or mysterious but I just think that lyrics that are different and weird and spacey paint a nice picture. It's just the way I like art.

83. He's the one Who likes all the pretty songs And he likes to sing along And he likes to shoot his gun But he knows not what it means.

84. Give me a Leonard Cohen afterworld So I can sigh eternally.

85. And the flowers sing in B minor And the birds fly happily.

86. We sound like the Bay City Rollers after an assault by Black Sabbath. And, we vomit onstage better than anyone. (1992)

87. Guns N' Roses are a shitty band that makes shitty music. (1992)

88. Jocks have completely taken over music... And just to get back at them, I'm going to start playing basketball. (1993)

89. I can't play [guitar] like Segovia. The flip side of that is that Segovia could probably never have played like me. (1994)

90. I just think there's a breed of people who honestly like music. And there aren't very many of 'em, really. Those are the people who usually become musicians. It doesn't really matter what environment you grow up in. It's just some environments are more restrictive than others. (1994)

91. What's the matter with all you people at the back, did you come here to see Gloria Estefan? (11/27/93 at AT&T Bayfront Park Amphitheater, Miami, Florida)

92. OK, you trained monkeys, everybody jump up and down. Let's bring back the good old pogo! (12/31/93 at Oakland Coliseum Arena, Oakland, California)

93. In his way, he was the closest equivalent this decade and this generation of rock fans had to a John Lennon, and I don't make that comparison easily or impulsively.

94. I think one of the reasons so many people connected to him is they could tell his music was really pure and instinctual.

95. He had an amazing ear for melody.

96. I remember watching Kurt come through and thinking, 'God, this music is nuclear', This is really splitting the atom. They raised the temperature for everybody. Manufactured pop never looked so cold as when that heat was around. Nirvana made everything else look silly.

97. I remember the first time I saw him. I was 14 years old. I saw the 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' video and instantly fell in love with him, even though I couldn't see his face. I just wanted to see his face so much. After weeks of finding out anything I could about Nirvana, I saw his face - and he had a face like an angel. I loved him. He was my platonic love.

98. He had a touch most guitarists would kill for.

99. I only met Kurt once...I was touched by him. He seemed a little shell shocked as though he felt yet another show might drop at any time.

100. You know, I always thought I'd go first. I don't know why I thought that, it just seemed like I would. I mean, I didn't know him on a daily basis - far from it. But, in a way, I don't even feel right being here without him. It's so difficult to really believe he's gone. I still talk about him like he's still here, you know. I can't figure it out. It doesn't make any sense.