20th-century Songwriter Quotes

My band is the best band in the world, period. So, I insist on every song being better then it is on the record. So by the end of the tour, we have to be playing the song better then how it's recorded.

Southern trees bear a strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black body swinging in the Southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Navy housing is like tract homes. … All the houses look the same. Everybody's pop was the same rank. There's a lot of negative to the military — like, most of it. But one good thing was I lived with all kinds of people, as far as ethnic background or whatever. Because the navy was integrated. That was kind of neat. And with everybody's pop being chiefs, you could see that no one was above or below anyone else. You know how neighborhoods get all caught up in different things? Well, in the military you're not like that. You're all together. So I will say that was one positive thing that came out of it.

I didn't like the music business and I didn't like me. There's an element of falseness about the whole thing. Even things like doing an interview. It's not as though we just met in the pub and are having a chat — it's part of a process. If you do it all day, every day for years, you end up thinking: 'Who the hell am I?' I was lucky enough to make some money, enough to let me kick back. It was a great experience and it was nice to have a couple of No.1s but the best thing about it was that the money I made allowed me to have freedom and choice in my life.

If we only have love
We will never bow down
We'll be tall as the pines
Neither heroes nor clowns.
If we only have love
Then we'll only be men
And we'll drink from the Grail
To be born once again;
Then with nothing at all
But the little we are
We'll have conquered all time
All space, the sun, and the stars!

I saw the 'Popstars' programme and to me it looked more like 'Opportunity Knocks' than the kind of cutting-edge postmoderism that The Guardian would like to have us believe it was. I think what it's more about is the public and the music industry's bloodlust. It's just like someone itching to say 'Oh, confound it all, let's bring back hanging, that was good entertainment'.

Sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.
Say brother, don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store.

She's not a saint, and she's not what you think She's an actress, whoa She's better known for the things that she does on the mattress

I could not believe it. The first person who told me was John Mayer. 'He said, You're never gonna believe this, but I just heard that Dylan has your name in his song.' What? I was totally not expecting it, but then I couldn't wait to hear it.

No matter what they say the time has come
I'm ready now to start a new beginning
With all our hopes and all our dreams
And I know the stars will shine for you and for me
From the moment you believe.

I don't understand people who believe that if you ignore something, it'll go away. That's completely wrong - if it's ignored it gathers strength. Europe ignored Hitler for twenty years. As a result he slaughtered a quarter of the world!

Are you lonesome tonight,
Do you miss me tonight?
Are you sorry we drifted apart?
Does your memory stray to a brighter sunny day
When I kissed you and called you sweetheart?

Wait for it, wait for it! Anticipation is half the fun. So I've been told...

Surely if God had meant us to do yoga, he would have put our heads behind our knees.

Paranoia strikes deep,
Into your life it will creep.
It starts when you're always afraid.
Step out of line, the men come and take you away.

You see a long time ago life had begun
Everyone went to the sun

You can't break my spirit, it's my dreams you take.

Oh, yeah, life goes on,
Long after the thrill of livin' is gone.

John Mellencamp

It is dangerous to exist in the world. To exist is to be threatened. We must live with threats.

Dem a loot, dem a shoot, dem a wail A Shanty Town Dem rude boys out on probation A Shanty Town Dem a rude when dem come up to town A Shanty Town

You're falling all over me I'm losing myself in your mystery
I'm afraid of loving you, I'm afraid of losing me
I'm over my head and I'm seeing red
But I'm waiting right here for you in my bed

Michelle Lambert

I'm usually barefoot. That's how I'm most comfortable. I like my feet to be on the ground. I like to jump around, I like to fly across the stage.

Perez Hilton: Are you drunk right now?
Grohl: No, I gotta play.
Hilton: Britney Spears has been getting wasted all the time, hasn't stopped her.
Hilton: Yeah, but she doesn't have to sing live.

I saw Amadeus when I was nine years old and fell in love with Mozart. The part of Mozart's Requiem called "Lacrymosa" is my favorite piece of music ever. I always wished we could cover it, but with programming and guitars and make it cool. It's our moment to try all the things I wanted to and couldn't, so I started messing with it in Protools. Terry wrote some riffs and turned it into this awesome metal epic.

I had been taking Prevacid for about four years and my body built up a resistance to it, to the point where it wasn't doing anything anymore... I had a night of drinking in London followed by a full day and night of drinking on a day off in Dublin, because what else is there to do in Ireland but drink? That, coupled with a show where I had monitor problems, and I pretty much trashed my voice.