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Music Quotes about & from Musicians & Composers - Page 4
Commentary © 2007  Richard J. Chandler & Bonnett Chandler

 

Sting

Three quotes by Rock star and yoga practitioner, Sting, an English musician best known for playing bass, singing and writing the songs for the continually evolving ensembles which he leads and as the songwriter and lead singer for his most famous rock band, The Police. Along with his extraordinarily successful career, which now includes CD & DVD recordings of the compositions of renaissance-era singer and lute player, John Dowland, Sting supports environmental and humanitarian causes including ‘Amnesty International’. Along with his wife, Trudie Styler, he founded the ‘Rainforest Foundation’ to help save our rainforests throughout the world.

“I think love has something to do with allowing a person you claim to love to enter a larger arena than the one you create for them.”

“In fact, I don’t spend a lot of intellectual energy thinking about yoga, or trying to articulate the process it awakens, because, for one, I don’t have to teach it, and, two, it’s become an intrinsic part of my whole life, permeating it to such an extent that I don’t really know where it begins or ends.”

“I’ve also come to believe the highest form of prayer is to pray and yet ask for nothing…”

- Sting  (1951- )

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Maya Angelou is an American poet, actress, playwright and civil rights activist. She is known for autobiographical novels such as ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’, which was a critical and commercial success.  Here is an interesting quote from Angelou.

“Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.”

- Maya Angelou  (1928- )

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Bill Cosby is an American actor, comedian, educator and activist.  His greatest television success came with the debut of ‘The Cosby Show’ in 1984, which was unprecedented in its portrayal of a wealthy, educated African-American family.

“Nothing separates the generations more than music. By the time a child is eight or nine, he has developed a passion for his own music that is even stronger than his passions for procrastination and weird clothes.”

- Bill Cosby  (1937- )

In the early 1990’s, Danny Bennett, Tony Bennett’s eldest son and manager revitalized his father’s career by having him perform to much younger audiences including ‘Late Night with David Letterman on NBC’. The younger Bennett said:

“It wasn’t like everybody did that show.”  “He asked me, ‘Would Frank do this?’  Nope, and that’s the point.”

-   Danny Bennett

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Immediately after a concert of duets in honor of Tony Bennett’s 80th birthday, the young pop singer Christina Aguilera commented on the experience to a reporter and then to Bennett:

“I mean, there are no words. I’m just ecstatic to be here on the stage with him.”

“I can only hope to follow in your footsteps.”

- Christina Aguilera  (1980- )

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Many consider Sir James Paul McCartney to be the most financially successful musician and composer of all time. With over 100 million singles, 60 gold discs and a great many other compositions, he also holds the record, according to Guinness, of having the most covered (performed by other musicians) song of all time. ‘Yesterday’ holds the distinction of being heard on radio and television more than 7 million times. 

“On meeting Tony, I was reminded that most of the great people are nice to be with, because they don’t have anything to prove.”

- Paul McCartney (1942- )

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His mentors and friends including Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Frank Sinatra influenced Tony Bennett’s incredibly long and successful musical career. Of his favorite song, ‘I Left My Heart In San Francisco’, Tony Bennett has said:

“You think of the boys in Iraq. When I sing it, it’s like my own personal prayer on stage. Privately I wish - I wish it – I wish that everybody would get sensible enough to get the boys back home as soon as possible.”

“More than anybody else I’d like to thank Count Basie for teaching me how to perform.”

- Tony Bennett (1926- )

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Heine was a German Romantic poet whose lyric poetry was often set to music by such composers as Schumann, Schubert, Strauss, and Wagner.

“I fell asleep reading a dull book and dreamed I kept on reading, so I awoke from sheer boredom.”

- Heinrich Heine  (1777-1856)

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Igor Stravinsky was financially successful as a composer, conductor and performer of his music. He was named by Time magazine as one of the most influential people of the twentieth century. Even so, Igor and his wife, Vera Stravinsky, often had money woes, partially due to providing substantial unending financial support to his adult children.

“Money may kindle, but it cannot by itself, and for very long, burn.”

- Igor Stravinsky  (1882-1971)

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Two quotations from musician, peace activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Bono. He is the lead singer and principle lyricist of the Irish rock band U2. His music has social, political and religious themes and he champions world peace.

“The music that really turns me on is either running toward God or away from God. Both recognize the pivot, that God is at the center of the jaunt.”

“At a certain point, I felt that God is not looking for alms; God is looking for action.”

- Bono  (1960- )

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Originally from the Iron Range near Lake Superior, MN, Bob Dylan began as a Minnesota folk music artist and expanded his café and concert performances to many other cities, including New York City, where he became nationally known. His ability to continue to write and perform music for over five decades is an inspiration to us. This quotation is from Dylan’s memoir, ‘Chronicles Volume I’.

“Folk songs were the way I explored the universe, they were pictures and the pictures were worth more than anything I could say.   …Most of the other performers tried to put themselves across, rather than the song, but I didn’t care about doing that. With me, it was about putting the song across.”

- Bob Dylan (1941- )

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