Your favourite music-related quotations

Subject: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: Marion
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 08:48 PM

Hello all. I'm reorganizing and decorating the room where I practice, and I'm looking for some good material to put up on my walls. What are your favourite quotes about music?

They don't have to be inspirational - humourous and cynical are also welcome.

Related question: can anyone correct/identify this quote?: "People may say that I didn't sing well, but nobody can say that that I didn't sing."

Thanks, Marion

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: Hobie
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 09:04 PM

the one that sticks out in my mind is one my mando player came up with,"I think we just uninvented music" Hobie

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: kendall
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 09:04 PM

The man that hath no music in him
And is not moved by sweet concord of sound
Is fit for treasons, strategems and spoils
The motions of his spirit are as dull as Arebus
Let no such man be trusted. Wm. Shakespere

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: catspaw49
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 09:20 PM

Maybe its not what you want, but its fitting for a practice room. A college friend was trying to work out a new riff of some sort or another and he'd try to do it, change it, try it again.....but it was never quite right. Finally, he swung the instrument around and took a real serious look at the fretboard and finally said,

"Well, its on there somewhere.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: Matt_R
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 09:32 PM

Better not listen to that, you may end up liking it.

--Stavinsky

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: Sarah2
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 09:46 PM

(The credit for this really ought to go to "guinnessgirl," who includes it on all her e-mails to me...)

"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

Sarah

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: Midchuck
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 09:52 PM

I have seen the David,
Seen the Mona Lisa, too.
I have heard Doc Watson
Play "Columbus Stockade Blues"

- Guy Clark, Dublin Blues

Peter.

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: Pelrad
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 11:37 PM

My personal favorite is probably too cynical or depressing for your wall:

Sometimes even music cannot substitute for tears.

- Paul Simon, (aka "The Great Depression"), from Rhythm of the Saints. I always liked it because it reminded me of all the times music could and did lift my spirits.

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: Amergin
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 11:55 PM

Then an angel touched the land
A golden harp held in his hand
I felt the love he was strumming
I felt the joy he was humming

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 12:42 AM

One in the hand is worth two of George Bush.

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: Ebbie
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 02:27 AM

A Sydney Smith said: "All musical people seem to be happy. it is to them the engrossing pursuit; almost the only innocent and unpunished passion."

Singing alone on a hillside, or in an empty apartment picking up an instrument to play has prolonged many a life. (If no one said it before, they should have.)

Ebbie

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: Night Owl
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 02:39 AM

Dave(tam) posted this a while ago...having had some hard times recently..it stuck with me. "Life is like a shipwreck. Don't forget to SING in the lifeboats." (think I got it right.....Dave???)

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 07:25 AM

"Music is a higher revelation than philosophy." -- Ludwig van Beethoven

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: Long Firm Freddie (at work)
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 08:01 AM

Haven't got my blue clicky crib sheet wtih me, but this site's got some amusing stuff:

http://www.c4vct.com/kym/humor/musical.htm

LFF

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: GUEST,Bill in Alabama
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 09:18 AM

I know only two tunes; one of them is Yankee Doodle, and the other one isn't

U.S. Grant

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: John Hardly
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 09:23 AM

"...he never knew how good he sang, It just made him whole"--Chapin

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: okthen
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 09:55 AM

On attending a Stockhausen concert, one of the great British conductors (probably Beacham) said "I believe I stepped in some once"

cheers

bill

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: winniemih
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 10:27 AM

From a James Taylor song, "The secret of life is enjoying the passing of time".

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: LR Mole
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 11:19 AM

"Magic is from the Magi and therefore needs some wise men. Music is from the Muses and only needs a wise guy." I either forgot where I heard that or I just made it up. Probably both.

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: Stewart
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 11:35 AM

"Stop your feudin' and fightin',
Kick those no-good wars,
Beat your swords into ploughshares
And your guns into steel guitars."
Malvina Reynolds (Singin' Jesus)

Cheers, S. in Seattle

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: Trapper
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 11:36 AM

"If you can't sing both loud and well, sing LOUD!"

- Al Boyce (my own quotation)

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: mousethief
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 11:48 AM

Musica donum Dei optimi.
---Martin Luther

Joe, can you translate? I think it means "Music is God's greatest gift [to man]" but my Latin is very rusty.

Alex

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: GUEST,colwyn dane
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 12:15 PM

Hi,

"I hate music, especially when it's played."

---Jimmy Durante---

Colwyn.

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: Musicman
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 12:16 PM

"Music speaks what cannot be expressed,
soothes the mind and gives it rest
Heals the heart and makes it whole,
Flows from Heaven to the Soul."

...and...

"Practicing is an act of Faith, The Practicing you do now
is your downpayment for next year,
and years to come."

John Derry, Prof. of Music, USCLA

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: Bill D
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 12:20 PM

here is mine ...it is taped to the wall above my record collection.

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: Musicman
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 12:21 PM

Oh yeah, and check out this and this

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: Audi
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 12:22 PM

"Ah, music....a magic beyond all we do here!"---Albus Dumbledore

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: Musicman
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 12:31 PM

trying again........

this and this

hope this one works...........

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: SINSULL
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 02:10 PM

"It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings..."

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: kendall
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 02:27 PM

My favorite has always been: Music hath charm to sooth the savage BREAST.

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: pattyClink
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 02:37 PM

the German song: Himmel und Erde mussen vergehen, aber die Musica, aber die Musica, aber die Musica, bleibet verstehen.

(german scholars please correct above or below)

Heaven and earth will pass away, but the music, but the music, but the music, shall always be.

VERY LOOSELY, your verbiage may vary.

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: pattyClink
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 02:39 PM

and we didn't yet get to Yeats'

We are the music-makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams..

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: fat B****rd
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 02:40 PM

Interviewer : Mr. Armstrong, would you say that Jazz was Folk Music ? Louis : Well, I never heard horses play it.

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: Luke
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 02:55 PM

All things shall parish from under the sky, music alone shall live never to die.

Viva la musica

I'm not sure how it goes exactly but, Pete Seeger had a response when asked if his music was folk music that went something like " I ain't heard no horses playing it". Or was it Big Bill, Hmmmm?

"If you keep picking it it will never heal"

"Oppernockitty tunes but once"

"You can tell the stage is level because the (insert favorite instrument player here) drools out of both sides of his/her mouth"

Luke

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: Cap't Bob
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 03:00 PM

Can you play "Over the Hill and Far Away"?

Cap't Bob

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: Bernard
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 03:30 PM

Sir John Barbirolli to a female cellist who was giving less than her best:

Madam, between your legs is something intended to give pleasure - please don't scratch it in public!

(I can't remember the exact wording, but that is the sense of it!)

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: Pelrad
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 05:12 PM

Somewhere, in a burst of glory,
Sound becomes song.
I'm bound to tell a story
That's where I belong.

- Paul Simon, "Where I Belong," You're The One

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: Matt_R
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 05:38 PM

California sunlight
Sweet Calcutta rain
Honolulu starbright--
the song remains the same

--Led Zeppelin

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: JenEllen
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 05:42 PM

There ain't no shame in being beaten by a master, so rack'em up

--Johnny Lang

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: Burke
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 06:39 PM

Marion also asked:
>Related question: can anyone correct/identify this quote?: "People may say that I didn't sing well, but nobody can say that that I didn't sing."

I can't find the name, but it was said by a woman who is supposed to have had a terrible voice but lots of money. She would rent Carnegie Hall, annually maybe, and put on a recital. It was apparently quite the thing to attend.

Another list I'm on had a bit of discussion about her, but I deleted the messages so can't look up any of the detials.

Luke, "All things shall parish from under the sky"
LOL! Does this mean we all end up in church after all?

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: GUEST,Mark. West Sussex. UK
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 06:53 PM

"There are songs I want to sing, songs I want to listen to, and crap". - The late John Fitzgerald.

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: GUEST,colwyn dane
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 07:38 PM

Hi,

"Classic music is th'kind that we keep thinkin'll turn into a tune."

---Fred McKinney Hubbard---

"Please do not shoot the pianist. He is doing his best."
---Anon.---

Colwyn.

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: Burke
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 08:23 PM

The source of the quote is, Florence Foster Jenkins. She did have recitals & concerts, but only one at Carnegie Hall. She was 76 & the concert was a sell-out. A great entertainer, even if she couldn't sing, by this account.

And here you can get an example of her singing on The Glory of the Human Voice. I guess you can buy it from your favorite record retailer. Give her Queen of the Night aria a listen, even if you don't like opera.

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: GUEST,Sorcha
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 09:24 PM

The machine ate my cookie, and I can't reset it with shorty down!

(Your favorite musician here) is wandering around, on foot, hopelessly lost. Asks a person on the street:
"Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to Carnagie Hall?"
""Practice, my son, practice."

(I should rememeber who said this, but I can't!)

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: catspaw49
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 11:51 PM

I'm not the world's biggest Dylan fan, but sometimes a song just hits you with something special. The imagery in Lay Down Your Weary Tune hits me with that special feeling. I once considered having it painted on the floor of our living/music room.

Lay Down Your Weary Tune........Bob Dylan, 1964

Lay down your weary tune, lay down,
Lay down the song you strum,
And rest yourself 'neath the strength of strings
No voice can hope to hum.

Struck by the sounds before the sun,
I knew the night had gone.
The morning breeze like a bugle blew
Against the drums of dawn.
Lay down your weary tune, lay down,
Lay down the song you strum,
And rest yourself 'neath the strength of strings
No voice can hope to hum.

The ocean wild like an organ played,
The seaweed's wove its strands.
The crashin' waves like cymbals clashed
Against the rocks and sands.
Lay down your weary tune, lay down,
Lay down the song you strum,
And rest yourself 'neath the strength of strings
No voice can hope to hum.

I stood unwound beneath the skies
And clouds unbound by laws.
The cryin' rain like a trumpet sang
And asked for no applause.
Lay down your weary tune, lay down,
Lay down the song you strum,
And rest yourself 'neath the strength of strings
No voice can hope to hum.

The last of leaves fell from the trees
And clung to a new love's breast.
The branches bare like a banjo played
To the winds that listened best.

I gazed down in the river's mirror
And watched its winding strum.
The water smooth ran like a hymn
And like a harp did hum.
Lay down your weary tune, lay down,
Lay down the song you strum,
And rest yourself 'neath the strength of strings
No voice can hope to hum.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: Sorcha
Date: 09 Jan 01 - 01:31 AM

oh geeze.......I couldn't live with that painted on my living room floor.....not even. It's a great thing, but not for depressives.......have you thought about marquetry, spaw?

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: Musicman
Date: 09 Jan 01 - 03:27 AM

From Bill Staines' first song book "If I were a Word,then I'd be a Song"

Morning Song

I passed by your room this morning
and heard you singing.
Some old hymn I think it was.
If I were a song
I would like to be sung like that.

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: GUEST,Les B
Date: 09 Jan 01 - 05:19 PM

"Play something sexy, like The Old Rugged Cross" a request from a middle-aged honeymooner.

"Keep that fucking banjo out of my kitchen" a request from an irate relative.

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: Peter T.
Date: 09 Jan 01 - 06:38 PM

"There are five reasons to suspect that there is more to this world than we know: our impulse to do good though no one may ever know of it; the sense of rightness when a job is well done; the feeling one has when one stands before a great painting; music; and the memory of my late wife's beloved face."

I don't know who said this. I copied from a novel many years ago, and lost the reference. (Actually, anyone who knows where this came from would have my deepest thanks).

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Your favourite music-related quotations
From: rube1
Date: 09 Jan 01 - 07:31 PM

"when I was playin with my brother happy was I" -Stephen Foster