In the '60s, when I was growing up, one of the great elements of American culture was the protest song. There were songs about the civil rights movement, the women's rights movement, the antiwar movement. It wasn't just Bob Dylan, it was everybody at the time.
To me, the lyrics of the song define the kind of style it is.
I have come up with very creative ideas that really didn't work with the song I was currently composing.
When you construct a mix tape, the first song you come out with has to be a barnburner.
Whenever I heard the song of a bird and the answering call of its mate, I could visualize the notes in scale, all built up within my consciousness as a natural symphony.
I make up cassettes all the time - to take on the road with me - a song from this album, a song from that album. That's the way I listen to music; it's like one of those K Tel things: it's from all over. I listen to Fred Astaire, I listen to African folk music, I listen to Talking Heads.
Any song I have to work on longer than a day, I just leave it. It's not gonna work. Everything that's good is really instant.
I like kind of varied songs, not just the same song all the time. And I thought things like 'Too Sentimental' is a different thing for us, but it works and we love the way they all came out. There's definitely varied songs on there.
I've never really had anybody close to me die. I think the song is about a feeling that I have that, it still applies. It's a feeling of longing, once again.
When I was very young, there was a lot of music at home, mostly jazz. I was walking around singing and pretending I was in bands from a very young age. But the first song that was really personal to me was 'Blue Suede Shoes'.
A friend of mine called and said they're interested in having you do a song for the new Pokemon. All my kids are grown up, so I'd heard of it, but I didn't really know what it was.
I want to make an album my grandma and my fans are going to like. I want to make my grandma understand a drop and make club fans understand a song.
I think everybody can agree that you can hear a certain song and it will put you in a certain mood, and that's just the beauty of music and I am so inspired by that.
The second song is called 'Easy As Life,' which really describes the complete conflict of the whole story, her struggle of being in love with the enemy and also being in love with her people.
I am moved more by melodies, song structure, and evocative textures.
That is what intrigues me; songwriting and song structure and expression.
I write when I have to; I write when the song is done and I deal with the idea and I just go with it and I'll become what that song is all about until I have finished it. And when you do that, it makes the song more visual, it makes it more personal.
I always try to write a song, I never just want to write a record.
It is my fondest wish that the gift of song that God has given me will flow from my soul to yours and help ease any burden that might weigh upon you.
Song Joong-ki is known for his sincerity and manners. He is younger than me, but I thought I learned many things from him.
There aren't reasons why you like this song or this piece of music, or don't like it. It's just, it's either right or wrong, you know?
Storytelling is a very old human skill that gives us an evolutionary advantage. If you can tell young people how you kill an emu, acted out in song or dance, or that Uncle George was eaten by a croc over there, don't go there to swim, then those young people don't have to find out by trial and error.
Every song is personal, but 'Ohio,' on my first EP, was on another level. I really opened up about the lack of relationship I had with my father. We stopped talking about four years ago, and I haven't had a father figure in my life since.
On occasion, I hear a rearrangement of a song that really makes me reevaluate it in a way.
Donny Hathaway's 'For All We Know' is the song that I've sung the longest. It is a beautiful song about living in the moment and appreciating this very second. That is the song I did for my 'Rent' audition.
Singing connected with movements and action is a much more ancient, and, at the same time, more complex phenomenon than is a simple song.
All music is folk music. I ain't never heard a horse sing a song.
But in the finished art of the song the use of words has no connection with the use of words in poetry.
I like to interpret 'Call me a River', as if I'm saying, 'Now you're telling me you love me after all that, and I'm telling you to shove off.' That's my interpretation. But I would never 'say' that because somebody else might interpret the song in another way.
He's written some great songs. I thought that 'Blues Man' was a perfect song for me to do as a tribute.
If there's a song where there's a possibility of guitar stuff that would be fun to listen to, go for it. Don't worry about what anybody thinks.
When I come up with an idea about the way I feel, I can really state it strongly in a song.
When my song came on the radio for the first time, that was one of the heaviest things I remember.
I love building a song up from nothing and jumping from one instrument to another.
When you use a sample in a big way, when you loop something in the way I did with 'Runaround Sue,' it's like you have your chords and your melody and the quality of the song right there before you add your own production. It's like the song is already made, in a sense.
I think a lot of people saw 'Fight Club' and thought, 'Right, here's our next Che Guevara, here's our next Fidel Castro, here's someone who's going to wave the flag.' And I was like, 'No, it's just a book. And if I beat that drum, if I play that song one more time, I won't have a career.'
