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Song Quotes

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Song Quotes

“There is an old song which asserts 'the best things in life are free.' Not true! Utterly false! This was the tragic fallacy which brought on the decadence and collapse of the democracies of the twentieth century; those noble experiments failed because the people had been led to believe that they could simply vote for whatever they wanted...and get it without toil, without sweat, without tears. Nothing of value is free. Even the breath of life is purchased at birth only through gasping effort and pain.”

Source: Starship Troopers

“Without a song, each day would be a century.”

Would Be Song Music Century Each Day

Author:Mahalia Jackson

“Gershwin's melodic gift was phenomenal. His songs contain the essence of New York in the 1920s and have deservedly become classics of their kind, part of the 20th-century folk-song tradition in the sense that they are popular music which has been spread by oral tradition (for many must have sung a Gershwin song without having any idea who wrote it).”

Kind Has Beens Ideas Song Century New York Tradition Essence Folks Spread 20th Century Phenomenal Popular Music Gershwin Folk Songs Oral Tradition

Author:George Gershwin

“For centuries poets, some poets, have tried to give a voice to the animals, and readers, some readers, have felt empathy and sorrow. If animals did have voices, and they could speak with the tongues of angels-at the very least with the tongues of angels-they would be unable to save themselves from us. What good would language do? Their mysterious otherness has not saved them, nor have their beautiful songs and coats and skins and shells and eyes.”

Source: Ill Nature: Rants and Reflections on Humanity and Other Animals

“I dream of songs. I dream they fall down through the centuries, from my distant ancestors, and come to me. I dream of lullabies and sea shanties and keening cries and rhythms and stories and backbeats.”

Stories Dream Song Fall Music Sea Century Cry Singing Rhythm Ancestor Falling Down Lullaby

Book:Composed: A Memoir

Source: Composed: A Memoir

“My father urged Alan [Lomax] not to repeat the mistakes of the European folklorists who, a century ago, had collected these peasant songs and then arranged them for part choir and accompanied them on piano, and then told the young people of their country, "Don't change a note, this is our sacred heritage." Father said, whether it's a fiddle tune or a gospel song, learn it right off the record from the people who grew up with it. Don't just learn it from a piece of paper.”

People Said Country Young Song Father Mistake Records Pieces Century Grew Paper Grew Up Sacred Notes Piano Repeats Tunes Heritage Peasants Don't Change Choir Fiddle Gospel Songs

Author:Pete Seeger

“I still prefer to hear [Bob] Dylan acoustic, some of his electric songs are absolutely great. Electric music is the vernacular of the second half of the twentieth century, to use my father's old term.”

Stills Use Song Father Term Half Century Music Is Bob Electric Dylan Twentieth Century Acoustics Vernacular

Author:Pete Seeger

“For centuries before Google, MIT, and IDEO, modern hotbeds of innovation, we struggled to explain any kind of creation, from the universe itself to the multitudes of ideas around us. While we can make atomic bombs, and dry-clean silk ties, we still don't have satisfying answers for simple questions like: Where do songs come from? Are there an infinite variety of possible kinds of cheese? How did Shakespeare and Stephen King invent so much, while we're satisfied watching sitcom reruns? Our popular answers have been unconvincing, enabling misleading, fantasy-laden myths to grow strong.”

“The centuries will burn rich loads With which we groaned, Whose warmth shall lull their dreaming lids, While songs are crooned: But they will not dream of us poor lads, Left in the ground.”

Dream Time Song Left Poor Rich Century Warmth Load Lad Lulls

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Wilfred Owen (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Wilfred Owen (Illustrated)