Top 100 The Lyrics Quotes
#1. You would find in a lot of Zep stuff that the riff was the juggernaut that careered through and I worked the lyrics around this.
Robert Plant
#2. This was where she belonged with Nur, right here, here in his songs. Here within the lyrics they were intimate, caught in the rythm of his words, proppelled by the substance of his dreams.
These songs would be their story and these lyrics their home.
Leila Aboulela
#3. Even at the time, I realised this couldn't be right, that this interpretation didn't fit with the rest of the lyrics. But that wasn't an issue with me. The song was about what I said, and I used to listen to it again and again, on my own, whenever I got the chance.
Kazuo Ishiguro
#4. When someone asks you to listen to a song, it's because the lyrics mean everything they're trying to say
Unknown
#5. What's interesting about songs where the writer is genuinely in love with words is that it's easy to read the lyrics like a poem.
Ann Reed
#6. I don't really know what inspires me to write the music I do, but usually, the music will set the tone for the lyrics.
Eddie Van Halen
#7. Each song had a different way of coming about. In some, the music was written first while others it was the lyrics. We didn't want to overthink anything too much - we just wanted to, writing-wise, chuck out as many ideas as possible.
Elena Tonra
#8. When I'm writing songs, I write visually. When I'm writing the words down and I listen to the melody and the lyrics, I start seeing the video form. And if I can get through a song and from the beginning to the end have the whole video in my mind, I think that's a great song.
Christian Kane
#9. I just go into the studio, look at the lyrics for the first time when I put them on the piano, and go. If I haven't got it within 40 minutes, I give up. It's never changed, the thrill has never gone, because I don't know what I'm going to get next.
Elton John
#10. In a novel, the biggest symbiosis exists between plot and character. In a song, it would be the lyrics and the melody.
Jesse Michaels
#11. Usually [the lyrics] go from one word to the next word - there's no finish line. The music was that way, too.
Stephen Malkmus
#12. There's a certain power in vague language, but I started to get more into the idea of really trying to have a discrete thought in the lyrics and to have songs that were about stuff - to try to make things more coherent.
David Longstreth
#13. At times, it could be a bit difficult to understand everything that's being said when just listening, but I wanted the lyrics to be the first impression.
Frank Iero
#14. Tonight the song you always despised strides from the jukebox full-bodied and you hear the lyrics for the first time, understand the lyrics for the first time after all these years. This new you with an older soul. Now it's your favorite. All this time singing the wrong words.
Colson Whitehead
#15. I could crawl inside the lyrics and know each note intimately. They would claw at my soul, until I could no longer fight the emotions that took me to a place I couldn't experience. But, it was the possibility that made every verse a heart filled prediction and every beat a direction to follow.
Shannon L. Alder
#16. Music should come crashing out of your speakers and grab you, and the lyrics should challenge whatever preconceived notions that listener has.
Lou Reed
#17. I think the melody is the first time I hear in a song and if I like the melody, then I'll pay closer attention to the lyrics.
George Strait
#18. 'In My Hands,' the title track, is my very first vocal attempt, and I'm not a singer as such. But I've always wanted to express myself vocally on my albums, and I don't really have much of a capability for singing. The strength is in, I think, the lyrics and just speaking. It just comes from inside.
Natalie MacMaster
#19. I'm not that conscious of my writing, so pacing the lyrics doesn't really enter the picture.
Dan Bejar
#20. The Smiths hasn't been equaled. That goes for the composition of the songs, the lyrics, and the performance.
Jeff Buckley
#21. If rock-and-roll is well done, there's nothing so terribly wrong with that kind of music. But the lyrics are another story.
Kate Smith
#22. When you look at the lyrics of 'Sometimes When We Touch,' it's really very much an adolescent song.
Dan Hill
#23. A lot of people heard 'Murda Business' and thought it was about killing people, trying to be tough and hardcore. If you actually listen to the lyrics, it's kind of silly and playful.
Iggy Azalea
#24. When I sing a tune, the lyrics are important to me. Most of the standard lyrics I know well. And as soon as I hear an arrangement, I get ideas, kind of like blowing a horn. I guess I never sing a tune the same way twice.
Sarah Vaughan
#25. I realized that, for me, great records always moved me with the lyrics and the melodies. And so I said, 'I think I can do it now,' 'cause I found a team of people who understand I didn't want a record that was 'drop it, pop it, shake it' just 'cause I can dance.
Laurieann Gibson
#26. I used to know all the lyrics to all the songs from 'The Phantom of the Opera.'
Mallory Jansen
#27. Probably some of the songs I never even really listened to the lyrics. Half of them I'd hear off the radio and was probably singing the wrong words and didn't even know it.
Alan Jackson
#28. A lot of people don't listen to the lyrics, really.
Lenny Kravitz
#29. I'm quite certain that the audience that I've got for my stuff don't listen to the lyrics.
David Bowie
#30. I like songs that have like a little bit of quirkiness to them. What I like to do with songs, is kind of throw a little curveball in the lyrics or in the arrangement, to kind of give it a little twist to it.
John Legend
#31. I really like worship music. It settles my soul. Gets me back on track. The lyrics are almost like a prayer, so it's my go-to.
Jodi Benson
#32. The elevator turned out to be slower than the damned train at Disney World. And it played "The Girl from Ipanema" in Muzak. I looked at Paris and saw that he was mouthing the lyrics. That was it. I'd have to plan an intervention for him once we got home.
Leslie Langtry
#33. I write the music because I can't really write lyrics. But I can write chords like Robin's never heard of. So I provide the music for them to add the lyrics to.
Maurice Gibb
#34. My problem with country music is that I try to avoid the very situations the lyrics lament.
Sue Grafton
#35. Sometimes my boyfriend would write the lyrics and I would write the melody, and other times I would start from scratch. Or sometimes I would take a local poem and put that to music.
Carly Simon
#36. The lyrics, in English, were meaningless to him, the bass line irresistible.
Katherine Boo
#37. If a psychiatrist would analyze [the lyrics], I'm sure they'd come up with something interesting. I really don't try to twist them. I don't want to slash things.
Victoria Legrand
#38. If it's the beginning of something - like an album, I'm working on the lyrics and I take a walkman and headset.
Phil Collins
#39. When you're happy,you enjoy the music.But,when you're sad,you understand the lyrics.
Eljumar Alesna
#40. If conversation was the lyrics, laughter was the music, making time spent together a melody that could be replayed over and over without getting stale.
Nicholas Sparks
#41. When you listen to the music in this film [Despicable Me], it's working on the level of melody, but the other key element is lyrics. There are a number of songs in the film where the lyrics themselves are very much speaking to the essence of what Ted Geisel was setting out to do.
Christopher Meledandri
#42. You can get into a comfort zone writing lyrics, like wearing a mask. But I wanted to feel uncomfortable when I was listening back to [the lyrics]; I wanted to squirm.
Yannis Philippakis
#43. If you can say the lyrics almost like a poem and they stand up, that's a great thing. Some songs have great lyrics and I don't like the melodies, and vice versa.
Harry Connick Jr.
#44. The lyrics are what I work on the hardest, but I'm not trying to make a perfectly clear message or anything like that. In fact, I'm usually trying to avoid saying something too directly, because usually that rings false anyway.
Matt Berninger
#45. The one album I can't live without is called 'Cumbolo' by a band called Culture. Every song on their album is deep, but there's one in particular called 'This Train.' I have a tattoo of the lyrics on my left arm.
Idris Elba
#46. I try to focus on the melodies and try to make everything else minimal. The melody and the lyrics are most important to me.
Sharon Van Etten
#47. Read the lyrics to N. Young's Harvest Moon and you'll know.
N. Young
#48. The younger people get into the lyrics in a different way; there's much more of a tactile understanding, which is the way I prefer it.
David Bowie
#49. She stood in front of the speakers instead and closed her eyes, not really dancing, just bouncing and whispering the lyrics. After the first verse, she was dancing.
Rainbow Rowell
#50. If you actually dissect the lyrics in 'Motley Crue', you'll notice that there's a lot going on beneath the surface.
Nikki Sixx
#51. My second record I used a producer, which was frustrating in a way, because I think a lot of the punky spirit and provocative nature of the lyrics didn't come across - the music was pretty.
Jewel
#52. 'Built This Pool' was an idea that I had for a song starting several years ago, and as we were in between takes of recording something, I was actually holding a guitar at the time, and I played this silly thing, and sang the lyrics to 'Built This Pool' kinda in the background.
Mark Hoppus
#53. Ragtime plinking, glasses clinking, choruses getting sung with only half the lyrics right, giggles bubbling over like a tower of champagne.
It's a party, shaking down the dawn.
Catherynne M Valente
#54. The lyrics are different from Nick Cave songs and lyrics. His songs are very narrative.
Stephen Malkmus
#55. I'm not really good at writing sad sappy ballads. In terms of the lyrics not matching the vibe of the music, that's kind of the way my career has gone; everyone is a little confused about it all the time.
Mac DeMarco
#56. I was looking at the setlist backstage and I just said, 'Oh my God, the first six songs nobody's gonna know.' But they all knew the lyrics. It just blew me away.
Meredith Brooks
#57. If Words are the Lyrics, and Laughter the Melody, then a Relationship becomes a Symphony.
Nicholas Sparks
#58. We may be lost stars in an ocean of constellations on a dark night but do remember we both belong to the same sky. I breathe the same air that you breathe, we both look at the same luminosity above us. You are the music and I am the lyrics.
Elizabeth E. Castillo
#59. I love the Ronettes, the 'do-run-run-run' pop stuff. I love the lyrics, having 'blue, blue blue' being repetitive.
Ville Valo
#60. I make up new lyrics to well-known lullabies. Mostly because I don't actually know a lot of the lyrics.
Alanis Morissette
#61. My songs are all about celebrating poignant music. While some of them focus on fun and revelry, they are fortunately backed by powerful lyrics. Put together, the lyrics, tune and my voice strive to take the songs to the next level.
Kailash Kher
#63. Since I didn't spend a great amount of time on writing the lyrics, some people would argue that they're too vague or simplistic, but I think it's kind of good. I wouldn't say they're all stream of consciousness, but they're not necessarily overwrought.
Jack Tatum
#64. I'm very honest in my music and I'm often asked to explain the lyrics; as an introvert, I find that quite hard. And I always wear high heels on stage, which can be painful.
Natasha Bedingfield
#65. When I write songs, I like to write lyrics first, and I think that's different from a lot of singer-songwriters. But I heard Sammy Cahn was asked what comes first, the lyrics or the music, and he said, 'The paycheck.'
Jill Sobule
#66. I'm not crazy about country-western music. But the lyrics are good.
Alice Cooper
#67. If you listen to most of my songs, the lyrics are pretty kind of dark, but I like to put it behind happy music because then it evens it out ... I'm really happy, actually. Obviously I have my bad moments, but I always challenge myself to not put negativity out there because there's already enough.
Shamir
#68. Whether someone wants to learn the words to a new Lady Gaga song they heard on the radio or to verify the lyrics to 'Blinded by the Light', the LyricWiki community delivers.
Gil Penchina
#69. In the confusion of your first close encounter, you forget the lyrics to "Voodoo Child.
W.H. Mumfrey
#70. It's so crazy to see people singing along to songs that aren't even released yet. I'm like, 'How do you even know the lyrics? Have you been watching YouTube?'
Seinabo Sey
#71. To do a musical takes a tremendous amount of energy because you have to act and sing at the same time. And everything has to be precise. Because you can't forget the lyrics because the band keeps playing, you know, and you're under a certain amount of pressure.
Alan Alda
#72. A lot of times, I'll have a goal, I'll start writing, and I'll end up in some far off place, which is good. It's nice to have a focus, but letting the lyrics write themselves where they need to go is important.
James Hetfield
#73. People ask me if I left the lyrics open to ambiguity. Of course I did. I wanted to make a whole series of complex statements. The lyrics had to do with the state of society at the time.
Don McLean
#74. I changed the lyrics of 'All I Need Is the Girl' to 'All I Need Is the Job' for an audition years ago. It's a great ice-breaker - people want to laugh.
Bryan Batt
#75. A great song for me is when I hear it and it's contagious. The lyrics and the melody, if grows on you once and you want to hear it over and over again.
Easton Corbin
#76. Maybe the key to finding the perfect song is simply rewriting the lyrics.
Kandi Steiner
#77. To me, the lyrics mean more then the music, and that's the way it should always be.
Roger Miret
#78. My father used to tape 'Top of the Pops' for me every Sunday, and I would sit in my bedroom, write down the lyrics of all of my favourite songs, and sing along. I was always singing in my bedroom with a hairbrush.
Bonnie Tyler
#79. Why in the hell do journalists insist on coming up with a second rate Freudian evaluation on my lyrics when 90 percent of the time they've transcribed the lyrics incorrectly?
Kurt Cobain
#80. I hate to say this, but I always listen to the music and the instrumentation first, and then grab on to the lyrics later.
Elton John
#81. Music's staying power is a function of how timeless the lyrics, song and production are.
Gary Wright
#82. For the record, I am not an admitted homosexual, nor am I a homosexual, though I do know the lyrics to every show tune ever written, which might perhaps account for the confusion.
John Podhoretz
#83. I let the music set the tone of the lyrics.I allowed myself to write more about relationships and emotions, in a girly way almost.
Jose Gonzalez
#84. I was babysitting the night High School Musical premiered last year. I watched with the kids and we sang along to the lyrics. I was making $12 an hour.
Monique Coleman
#85. A good song has to have a great melody, and the lyrics have to touch my heart. Now, if it's just a little toe-tapper, got to make me feel good somehow or another, or when I sing it I can't make you feel good.
Reba McEntire
#86. I am delighted at Des's support in these elections. And thank him for his rewrite of the lyrics of Send in the Clowns which we are planning to sing at our South East conference.
Nigel Farage
#87. Jobs was a strong-willed, elitist artist who didn't want his creations mutated inauspiciously by unworthy programmers. To him it would be as if someone off the street added some brush strokes to a Picasso painting or changed the lyrics to a Dylan song.
Walter Isaacson
#88. With Prisoner of Conscience, the focus was - I've worked with Madlib, High Tech, Kanye West, J Dilla. I feel like I've worked with some of the greatest of all time. That's been overlooked. That's been overshadowed by the weight of the lyrics.
Talib Kweli
#89. The music starts as being way separate from the lyrics, and I write - I have notebooks that I fill with drawings and just words, and stuff that I've written.
Zachary Cole Smith
#90. Everyone's got crazy fans! But honestly, the crazy fans are where it's at, because they know all the lyrics to the songs that you're singing, and they're dancing and having a great time. You can really enjoy performing for them, even more than you can enjoy performing for someone that's not crazy.
Ross Lynch
#91. Our music may sound big emotionally, but that's more to do with the playing, the level of musicianship and the full-on energy. Often, the lyrics are often quite small and focused.
Win Butler
#92. Rap music is amazing, it's beautiful. But the problem is the lyrics. The person who writes the lyrics - that's the problem.
Emmanuel Jal
#93. When I was younger, I was terrified to express anger because it would often kick-start a horrible reaction in the men in my life. So I bit my tongue. I was left to painstakingly deal with the aftermath of my avoidance later in life, in therapy or through the lyrics of my songs.
Alanis Morissette
#94. I look at the lyrics, and if that's something honest for me at the moment, I'll sing it.
Ysabella Brave
#95. The thing about Sondheim is that it does get very cerebral. You do need a faculty with words and a love for the lyrics to not just pull it off, but to have an appreciation for it.
Lea Salonga
#96. I've always felt like my music would stand for itself and I would stand for myself. So I've kept my music a little bit esoteric, and I've kept the lyrics a little aloof. I try to say something important, but I don't necessarily preach.
Kenna
#97. I can't speak for everybody, I think, for me, I will not be defined by the lyrics of my song. I am a man who does music. It's like clothes don't make the man, the man makes the clothes. It's, it's like that song don't make me, I make the song.
Teddy Pendergrass
#98. You're like the lyrics to my favorite song. You stick with me all day long. And when I reach the end I wanna hear it again.
TobyMac
#99. In both pop and disco, the meaning of the lyrics is not too important. I have nothing I feel I particularly want to say.
Giorgio Moroder
#100. running the lyrics over and over in my head: "I wanna take you for granted. Well I will.
K. Bromberg
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