Quotes About Music

It's about the stories. If I write 14 stories that I love, then the next step is to get the environment of music around it to best envelop the story, and all kinds of sonic goodness - sonic goodies.

If you listen to me, it's real stories. It's catchy and something you can relate to.

Roger Miller opened a lot of people's eyes to the possibilities of country music, and it's making more impact now because it's earthy material: stories and things that happen to everyday people. I call it 'people music.'

Plantation gospel music was the stuff I fell in love with when I was a kid - these beautiful melodies and these hard, hard stories.

When I started listening to rap music, I loved the fact that there were stories being told in 16 bars.

Country music has the great stories.

Mick Jagger has produced some great films and brought us stories about the music industry that have changed the way we think about how music is made. I never thought I would actually call him my boss, let alone meet Mick Jagger or have any reason to say my name in the same sentence as his.

I'm grateful for being able to explore different avenues of my writing, whether it be music or stories, and it have an audience.

I'm always storing away phrases and ideas and things that I think might turn into songs.

Live shows are pretty much like the center of the storm... where the power comes from, the most raw experience. That's the juice. That's where we hit the hardest.

I was in about in the 8th grade when I started recording R&B, so much of what was on was the Motown sound, and The Beatles had pretty much come over and taken America by storm.

Music in New Orleans has always been the heartbeat that drives the city. It was that even before Katrina, and that's what we had to rely on after the storm.

I'd go to meetings with record companies - CBS, Decca, EMI. They'd tell me to wear a pair of jeans and grow my hair and look normal. And I'd say, 'Sod that,' and storm out. And I do think that belligerence is important when you're young.

You know, another jazz drummer, Ed Thigpen, who played with Oscar Peterson way back - it was the first time I ever heard rivets in a cymbal. And then I heard that Chico Hamilton had them too, and I went, 'Oh, that's it. I'm taking that for my sound.' And it worked well on 'Riders On The Storm,' so that's one thing.

Usually, when I'm rappin', I'm creating a big story or a concept song that sounds like a movie to me.

'Can You See' is a beautiful song that follows a story of the star. It's a very inspirational song.

I started dancing first, but felt I could also tell my story through my music.

That's one of the things I like best about folk music is the beautiful melodies - and the harmonies - that exist in it. And of course, some of the stories, the story songs.

I find that albums generally tell a story. Because it's music, it doesn't have to be in chronological order.

You can get people to follow very intricate pathways of musical information, but it feels like a nursery rhyme or a children's story.

If you're a film composer, you have the music tell the story of the character.

The most powerful, most insightful, and most important part of my music is honesty and inclusiveness with my fans - giving them as deep a story as I can give them.

I don't care how good a song is - if it holds back the storyline, stalls the plot, your audience will reject it.

'Lost,' at its core, is a science-fiction show. Live music helps lend an air of legitimacy to this otherwise crazy storyline. It makes a big difference.