Song Quotes

I did write a letter to the archdiocese who'd banned the song, Only the Good Die Young, asking them to ban my next record.

If Mozart were around now he would write a killer rock song.

I don't like lyrics that are just thrown together, that were obviously written as you went along, or the song was already written and the guy made up the lyrics in five minutes.

We played a gig and we had a song that was offensive to people of the Jewish persuasion, and we led off with it, and they were offended by it, and that was that.

Unless I really loved it and felt really passionate about it, I would just kind of abort the song and start a new one.

We wanted to write a whole song about partying and then taking Yellow Cabs home. That's the weirdest topic we've ever thought of centering a song around.

I just wrote one song at a time. Kinda like an alcoholic. One day at a time.

Somehow you can tell the difference when a song is written just to get on the radio and when what someone does is their whole life. That comes through in Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson. There is no separating their life from their music.

I don't want to scream 'Immigrant Song' every night for the rest of my life, and I'm not sure I could.

Tori Amos had a major influence on how I craft words in a song. Until I heard 'Little Earthquakes' all my lyrics used really obvious analogies like rain for tears.

I try to keep my ear to the streets without sacrificing who I am as an artist. If a song needs a drum machine I'll use a drum machine. If it needs a drummer, I'll use a real drummer.

I would rather be remembered by a song than by a victory.

I think the melody is the first time I hear in a song and if I like the melody, then I'll pay closer attention to the lyrics.

I would have to work on the song and figure out how they wanted the song done, because they're such high-intensity songs. We figure that out first, then I go back and listen to it and go over and rehearse stuff with it and try to get a feel for the words.

When I sit down to write a song, I really want the message of healing to thrive and transcend all ages.

I write a lot, and very often I write a couple of lines that are particularly revealing in some kind of way. And then as a few more lines get added and a piece gets added, eventually the song pretty much takes over and you can't really find a way to change those things.

I make the songs and part of making them is singing them. But what you hear is not me. It's the song. It's through me.

I write a song to be recorded. And to some extent to be performed, but definitely more to be recorded than performed, because the recording will last longer than a performance.

The first song that I ever recorded was written by my mother.

You have to have that organizational principle behind the song.

If my life were a song the title would be 'The Comeback Kid.'

We can't forget what happened on May 4th, 1970, when four students gave up their lives because they had the American constitutional right of peaceful protest. They gave up their lives. And to sing that song in that spot on that anniversary was very emotional for us.

A kid now can practically record a song or edit a short film on his way to school. I think that will produce, perhaps, more less-interesting things - or you'll have to search more to find the interesting things. But I also think it's exciting.

I can't see myself singing the same song twice in a row. That's terrible.

I can't say that I'm always writing in my head but I do spend a lot of time in my head writing or coming up with ideas. And what I do usually is write the music and melody and then, you know, maybe the basic idea. But when I feel that I don't have a song or just say, God, please give me another song. And I just am quiet and it happens.

If you have a song that you think sounds like another song you should contact the publishing company and say I have a song here, let's cut a deal that lets everyone walk away feeling good.

Tori Amos had a major influence on how I craft words in a song.

It can even be a single note which defines the entire song.

Unless I am both capable of and willing to reopen the wound every time I write a song, if I choose to not look inside myself to write music, I'm really not worth being called an artist at all.

It's very hard to teach someone how to write a song if to begin with there's no creative crop to harvest.