Quotes About Music

My introduction to Motown was through The Jackson Five and Michael Jackson. Michael's been my greatest creative inspiration, so that's how I really became familiar with Motown as a whole, and as I got older, I learned far more about the other groups.

I grew up in a jazz household. They made me listen to jazz before I could hear my Motown.

My folks had a lot of Motown records, so that was a kind of an early inspiration. I grew up on the radio really.

'Let's Get It On' is a classic Motown single, endlessly repeatable and always enjoyable.

I want to bring that old soul back, the meaningful lyrics and all of that. And I can't think of a better way to do that than through Motown.

I'm obsessed with the sound of today, but I was raised on the Motown sound.

There were a lot of great acts at Motown, and some of them were hard to get along with.

We are all big Motown fans.

I think that there is such power with the live performance of it - so much of what 'Motown' is about is the live performance aspect, really. The power of our production is really the music and the performances.

Style and image - it's what Motown is about. They had a charm school led by Maxine Powell. There was literally an artists' development department.

I grew up in one of those households where, growing up in Detroit, you gravitate towards music and cars because we were the capital for a long time. Especially during my childhood. We were the Motown sound. We were the Motor City.

The first writers I knew about were Motown's Holland-Dozier-Holland.

The same reason why we're doing music is the same reason why Motown did: to make the world a better place and to make people happy. The main message is, just have a good time.

My mum used to listen to Motown. Diana Ross was my first singing teacher, really. I'd just sing along all the time.

One of my idols is my dad. All his work in Motown, and just the way he conducted himself as a human being was always interesting to me, and it seemed like the successful way, and it is a successful way, and I always wanted to do that. He's funny, and all that stuff.

I grew up listening to a lot of classic jazz, and stuff like The Beatles, and old Motown stuff, and a lot of classical music. I just loved all of that.

he plundered the living treasure of those shelves. There was Burton's marvelous Anatomy, his staggering erudition never smelling of the dust or of the lamp...There was the dark tremendous music of Sir Thomas Browne, and Hooker's sounding and tremendous passion made great by genius and made true by faith.

Also, he always stopped before the music and piano store. It was a splendid store. And in the window was a small white dog upon his haunches, with head cocked gravely to one side, a small white dog that never moved, that never barked, that listened attentively at the flaring funnel of a horn to hear His Master's Voice -a horn forever silent, and a voice that never spoke.

Tell me what you listen to, and I'll tell you who you are.

It sounds silly, I know. But for me, the power of music rests in its ability to reach inside and touch the places where the deepest cuts lie. Like a benevolent god, a good song will never let you down. And sometimes, when you're trying to find your way, one of those gods actually shows up and gives you directions.

I've got my girl and my guitar, and for me that's enough.

See that? Paul said. Ten goddamn seconds. I don't get it. You didn't even have to hear the whole song, just a few lines, and you got the chills and that swirly, happy-sad feeling in your gut, didn't you? ... That's the difference between the real stuff and the crap. I know which one you are and you know which one I am.

His answer was to read to me—in a deep, richly cadenced voice that gave me my first glimmering that words could be as eloquent as music—but it was all poetry of loss and mourning: "The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam," A Shropshire Lad, and T. S. Eliot. One line from "East Coker" was especially worrisome:

Most of the music teachers were less pleased, as I regularly corrected their factual errors while still managing to flunk their general exams.