American Songwriter Quotes

Don't count, feel! The only count I know, is Count Basie!

I'm against the idea that rock stars have to live a life that's completely understandable or predictable to their audience....Maybe I'll just be the mysterious figure that'll never be able to truly be defined. Maybe that's what my thing is.

Here I am, on the road again. There I am, up on the stage. Here I go, playing star again. There I go, turn the page.

First they hurt me then desert me,
I'm left alone, all alone
There's no house that I can call my home.

Cigarette holder,
which wigs me,
over her shoulder
she digs me:
Out cattin'
that Satin Doll.

This kind of day
Has no night
Ain't got much on my mind
Ain't got much on my mind 'Cause I know
Something good this way comes.

I can feel a something pounding in my brain
Just any time that someone speaks your name
Trumpets sound and I hear thunder boom
Every time that you walk in the room.

Jackie DeShannon

If you consider the definition of authenticity, it's saying something and actually doing it. I write my own songs. I made my own videos. I pick my producers. Nothing goes out without my permission. It's all authentic.

newspapers ask intimate questions
want confessions
they reach into my head
to steal the glory of my story

Natalie Merchant

In our advanced technological age, most people deny the possibility of miracles.... Miracles don't happen, we are told, because they contravene the laws of nature and worse, they sound religious! Yet we live and move in a sea of miracle.

I couldn't think or eat nothin' unless it was Hank Williams, and I couldn't wait for his next record to come out. He had to be, really, the greatest.

A child has this relationship to a creative force, you know? Yeah, your parents gradually, you know, they gradually shove your face in the concrete, and so do your teachers and school system and…everything's working against you, but…but…but the force of creativity nature is not working against you - it's right there for you, at any time! You just…you know, you just have to be ready not to judge yourself and to be open to whatever's gonna come through you and to-to be ready to not…to not…eeeh to not judge what comes through, but be alright with it, whatever it is, cause it's just the universe of expressing yourself.

John Frusciante

I always went in for that Wagnerian approach to rock and roll.

And after it rains
There's a rainbow
And all of the colors are black
Its not that the colors aren't there
It's just imagination they lack.

Simon & Garfunkel

Stop the violence, drop the guns, and increase the peace.

You say we'll soar like two birds through the clouds, but soon you'll cage me on your shelf. I'll never learn to be just me, first by myself.

My personal taste in music runs toward alternative rock. It's not my genre to parody. Rap songs make great parodies because there are lots of words to play with. There's no part of pop culture that doesn't deserve to be taken down a couple of pegs.

"Weird Al" Yankovic

A smart man isn't necessarily one who knows all the answers, but knows where to find them.

I'd like to know that your love
Is love I can be sure of,
So tell me now and I won't ask again,
Will you still love me tomorrow?

If I had a box just for wishes and dreams that had never come true, the box would be empty, except for the memory of how they were answered by you.

The things that matter the most in this world, they can never be held in our hand.

Eight miles high,
And when you touch down
You'll find that
It's stranger than known.

This Is Your Time, This Is Your Dance. Live Every Moment, Leave Nothing To Chance. Swim In The Sea. Drink Of The Deep, Embrace The Mystery Of All You Could Be. What if Tomorrow? And What If Today? Faced With The Question, Oh What Would You Say?

Michael W. Smith

So study your rock history, son. That be the Bible of the Blues.

To live on the land we must learn from the ocean, to be true as the tide and free as the wind swell.