Music Quotes
"It's very easy in this business to find people who are willing to put their arm around you and tell you how great you are. Unfortunately their other hand is in your pocket."--Paul Stanley of KISS
I would advise you to keep your overhead down; avoid a major drug habit; play everyday, and take it in front of other people. They need to hear it, and you need them to hear it.
--James Taylor
It's hard to be in a band, and be a musician. It's basically taking a vow of poverty these days.
-- Billy Bush, Engineer/producer & husband of Shirley Manson.
Interview in Tape Op magazine issue No. 115 Sept/Oct 2016, p48
"I've made hundreds of legendary records that people talk about that didn't sell."
--Jerry Wexler
"Without freedom of expression, good taste means nothing."
--Neil Young
"Without music, the greatest marketing plans in the whole world don't mean shit."
--Eddie Rosenblatt, Geffen Records
"Without marketing plans, the greatest music in the whole world don't mean shit."
--Christopher Knab, FourFront Media and Marketing
"Who could have dreamed in 1965 that the alternative society would eventually multiply to such extraordinary proportions that it becomes our mainstream."
--Bill Graham
"So many record companies turned me down, they said I sounded like a Chipmunk."
--Brandy
"We hit everyone in town - All the labels were in L.A. - and got rejected by everyone. Capital, RCA, Liberty, Dunhill, Decca, Reprise. They all said no."
--Ray Manzarek of The Doors (from Manzarek's book, Light My Fire)
"When my record company rejected Full Moon Fever, I was hurt so bad... And then I waited awhile, until the top regime at the record company changed. And I came back and I played them the same record, and they were overjoyed. It turned out to be a huge hit."
--Tom Petty (Esquire interview by Mike Sager)
"The only way artists can do things is to do it for themselves. Trying to second guess what the public wants or likes is kind of a fool's game."
-- David Gilmour of Pink Floyd
"For their [Blue Oyster Cult] next performance (at The Electric Circus in New York City), [Eric] Bloom had a guitar, however it was not plugged in at the time. Elektra executives were at the performance, and later remarked that they felt that Bloom's rhythm guitar added greatly to the band's sound."
-- Albert Bouchard (from Blue Oyster Cult's FAQ)
"Nashville went through this period where everybody had to have Monster Cable. It was this gigantic, thick fucking cable, and it was a nightmare. A couple of engineers in town got endorsements, so I would have to rewire the whole fucking studio with it. I got so tired of doing that shit that I would just throw the cable on the ground and make it look like I had rewired it. They would see the Monster Cable and go, 'Oh boy, listen to that sound. Man, that Monster Cable is really kicking hard.' And I would just have it lying there looking like it was patched in, watching them make idiots of themselves."
-- Mark Nevers, Interview in Tape Op magazine #21 Jan/Feb 2001
"I once read an interview with Keith Richards in which he said the Rolling Stones were always just imitating Muddy Waters as best they could, but they weren’t good enough at it so it came out sounding different, i.e. as themselves. If they had been really good musicians they might have ended up playing in Holiday Inn lounges. Ray Charles started out by imitating Nat King Cole. Elvis Presley wanted to be like Dean Martin. Paul McCartney does a great Little Richard. You might define a whole new genre by not being good enough to imitate your hero."
-- Michael Anderson (http://michaelanderson.com/)
"We send them [the label] the rough mix and they fucking hate it and they hate the way it's mixed."... At a later date the rough mix was played for Adele's producer. ..."and he said 'This is amazing - I wouldn't do anything to change this.' And here's the kicker: Then all of a sudden the label guy said, 'Well, yeah, I think it's great, too.'"
-- Lana Del Ray interview in Rolling Stone issue 1214, July 31, 2014 p46
"Servant and master am I: servant of those dead, and master of those living. Through my spirit immortals speak the message that makes the world weep and laugh, and wonder and love, and worship. I am Music."
-- Anonymous
"A painter paints pictures on canvas, but a musician paints pictures on silence."
-- Leopold Stokowski
"People are flowers. Music is water. Musicians are the hose."
-- Carlos Santana
"Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not truth. Truth is not beauty. Beauty is not love. Love is not music. Music is THE BEST..."
-- Frank Zappa
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side."
-- Hunter S. Thompson
"Who would want to break into it? It's like a bank that's already been robbed."
-- Randy Newman, backstage at the oscars, responding to a college reporter's question about breaking into the music business.
"...remember forever that it is only those who have given up on their own dreams who will try to discourage you from yours. Avoid these people like the plague."
-- Tina Weymouth
"The most miraculous process is watching a song go from a tiny idea in the middle of the night to something that 55,000 people are singing back to you."
-- Taylor Swift, Rolling Stone magazine, issue 1189, p.52
"You know, once you've had that guitar up so loud on the stage, where you can lean back and volume will stop you from falling backward, that's a hard drug to kick."
-- David Gilmour of Pink Floyd
--Victor Hugo