Quotes About Music

If you call 'Rapper's Delight' an old-school record, I agree with you. If you call Sugar Hill Gang old school, I agree with you. Not because they came out in '79 or '80, but because in 2002, that's still the way Hank and Mike rhyme.

If I could perform on stage with any musical act or performer, it would be Sugar Ray, just to fulfill my childhood dream of singing with Mark McGrath.

Never in my life have I met bigger rockstars than Sugar Ray.

The film, 'Searching For Sugar Man,' has excited my music career.

I sang a song called 'Sugar Time.' That was it. I had the bug.

Obviously everybody knows that I'm an original songwriter and I got my band. And the guys in 'Sugar Money,' no matter what, are part of my family and they always got something to do with me, and I don't care if they just hang out with me.

Gene Krupa was my big hero, and I used to play on my mother's flour cans and sugar cans with the kitchen knives, listening to the big bands on my dad's records. Gene Krupa and Harry James.

For three months, we kept going into these writing sessions going, 'Man, I just heard this song on the radio, and it told me to slide my sugar shaker over.' If any guy spoke to us the way those country songs spoke to women, it would not be good for that guy. I would probably punch him in the face.

When I was 12, I introduced my mom to Def Leppard's 'Pour Some Sugar on Me.' I told her it was an amazing song, and I remember her not really agreeing with me.

There are limits to how much sound a cello can make. That's part of the framing of acoustical instruments. Finding what those limits might be, and then trying to suggest perhaps even the illusion of going beyond is part of that kind of effort.

It is a very serious consideration for a lyricist to step in there and suggest the meaning to a song. The music is speaking for itself.

The way streaming is going, this movement in the market of music would suggest that doing a long-form project, especially for a new artist like me - someone who relies on a lot of digital following - it would make more sense for me to release the songs individually.

The whole point is, give me a break with the standards. You go to the average jazz label and suggest a record and they want to know which standards you're going to play. I'm saying let's break the formula.

The only thing I don't write is the guitar solos, but even then I might suggest one or two things.

My engineer on the 'Life is Too $hort' album was Al Eaton. Al Eaton had a studio called One Little Indian Studios, and he was a pretty good guitar player. He would suggest certain songs. Al was the force behind 'Life is Too $hort' and definitely the force behind songs like 'The Ghetto.'

My father was in a dance band, and I wanted to do what he did, play the saxophone, but I couldn't blow a note, so he suggested the guitar. Chromatic harmonica was actually my first instrument, and I got very good at it - not quite Stevie Wonder, but very good.

My favorite moment of the whole thing was when John Belushi suggested that I get a hold of all the blues records I could so I could research the music.

Ustad Ghulam Ali has been a huge influence and has guided me constantly. In fact, it was he who suggested I change my stage name to Javed Ali from Javed Hussain.

I got this book called 'How to Write the Popular Song.' I read that and went through all the things they suggested, and I learned how to do it.

When I wanted to audition for a dinner-theater junior troupe in my hometown, I needed to have a piece of musical theater music to sing. I wasn't sure what I wanted to use. My mom and dad suggested that I sing 'Edelweiss' because I knew it from the music box.

Music was something I chose that I came to as a kid, and acting was something that was suggested to me.

In the mid-1970s, I even decided to make my own country album. I put the idea to my record company, thinking we'd just go into the studio in the U.K. and make a novelty album. But instead, they suggested I go to Nashville. I was flabbergasted. I hadn't expected that at all.

I mean, come on, Beyonce's the queen of pop music. She's the queen. If you could run for queen... I would put her name in the suggestion box. She's incredible.

When the suggestion was made that I might consider doing music of Joni Mitchell, I thought it was a fantastic idea. Joni, I admire not only for her music but for her person, because she's a person that really stands out for what she believes in.