Mahalia Jackson Quotes

10 Sourced Quotes

It's easy to be independent when you've got money. But to be independent when you haven't got a thing—that's the Lord's test.

Mahalia Jackson
The person who sings only the blues is like someone in a deep pit yelling for help.

Mahalia Jackson
Gospel music in those days of the early 1930s was really taking wing. It was the kind of music colored people had left behind them down South and they liked it because it was just like a letter from home.

Mahalia Jackson
This musical thing has been here since America been here. This is trial and tribulation music.

Mahalia Jackson
Time is important to me because I want to sing long enough to leave a message. I'm used to singing in churches where nobody would dare stop me until the Lord arrives!

Mahalia Jackson
I'll never give up my gospel songs for the blues. Blues are the songs of despair, but gospel songs are the songs of hope. When you sing them you are delivered of your burden. You have a feeling that there is a cure for what's wrong.

Mahalia Jackson
A great influence in my life was the sanctified or Holiness churches...Everybody in there sang and they clapped and stomped heir feet and sang with their whole body... Their music was so strong and expressive, it used to bring tears to my eyes.

Mahalia Jackson
Tell them about your dream, Martin! Tell them about the dream

Mahalia Jackson
I believe the blues and jazz and even the rock and roll stuff got their beat from the Sanctified Church.

Mahalia Jackson
I say this out of my heart—a song must do something for me as well as for the people that hear it. I can't sing a song that doesn't have a message. If it doesn't have the strength it can't lift you.

Mahalia Jackson