Almost everything The Beatles did was great, and it's hard to improve on. They were our Bach. The way to get around it may be to keep it as simple as possible. Joseph Henry T Bone Burnett Around • Bach • Beatles • Everything • Great • Hard • May • Possible • Simple • Way
You know, the thing that struck me about Civil War music was how bloody it was; it was full of hatred. There was incredible vitriol in it. Joseph Henry T Bone Burnett Bloody • Civil War • Civil War Music • Full • Hatred • Me • Music • Thing • Vitriol • War • You
I love loud music. I listen loud, and that's part of how I've learned how to do this. Record softly and play back loud and a whole other thing happens. Joseph Henry T Bone Burnett Back • Listen • Loud • Loud Music • Love • Music • Part • Play • Record • Thing
Still, records are documents of a period of time. Most records are documents of two or three years, and I just approached it as a record I was doing over a 20-year period of time. Joseph Henry T Bone Burnett Documents • Doing • Over • Period • Record • Records • Three • Three Years • Time • Two • Years
I naturally wanted to be saved, so when I came home I told my mom I wanted to be confirmed. That's the way I related to it, being raised an Episcopalian. I went to Dallas and got confirmed. Joseph Henry T Bone Burnett Being • Dallas • Episcopalian • Got • Home • Mom • Way
If it is true that we have a personal relationship with God, then that's enough for me. Joseph Henry T Bone Burnett Enough • God • Me • Personal Relationship • Relationship • True
I'm not going to get in to an argument with anyone about the relative merits of Judaism and Christianity, and what it means for a Jewish kid to be a Christian – I'm just not interested in that argument. Joseph Henry T Bone Burnett Anyone • Argument • Christian • Christianity • Jewish • Judaism • Just • Kid • Relative Merits
I think we in the Alpha Band, which was a strange group anyway, weren't dealing with any of these issues. They sneaked up on us and took us over, before we know what was going on. Joseph Henry T Bone Burnett Alpha Band • Band • Group • Know • Over • Strange • Strange Group • Think • Us
Everything around a writer, or musician in the record business, probably everything in all the United States or in all of western civilization, is about competition. Joseph Henry T Bone Burnett Business • Civilization • Competition • Everything • Record Business Probably • United States • Writer
The record business is dangerous to the health of bands and individuals, which is something I'm just now learning. But it's not dangerous in any of the ways people think; it's not that they try to make you compromise your art. That's not the problem. Joseph Henry T Bone Burnett Art • Bands • Business • Dangerous • Health • Learning • People • Problem • Record Business • Something • Ways People
I made a few records here and there by default, but I wasn't ever comfortable in that role. I wasn't comfortable on stage. We'll see how it goes this time. Joseph Henry T Bone Burnett Comfortable • Default • Few • Records • Role • See • Stage • Time
My original idea was to produce and not make records myself. Joseph Henry T Bone Burnett Idea • Make • Myself • Original • Original Idea • Produce • Records
I figured out early on what I wanted to do. Joseph Henry T Bone Burnett Early • Figured • Out • Wanted
I want to write songs and play them for people – live. Joseph Henry T Bone Burnett Live • People • Play • Songs • Want • Write
But my point is these Civil War songs were gruesome. The hatred that's so bad in this country today, and for the past 10 or 15 years, bad as it is, is nothing compared to the kind of things people would write down and sing back in the Civil War. Joseph Henry T Bone Burnett Bad • Civil War Songs • Country Today • Down • Gruesome • Hatred • Past • People • Point • Today • War • Years
It's also ironic that in the old days of tape and tape hiss and vinyl records and surface noise, we were always trying to get records louder and louder to overcome that. Joseph Henry T Bone Burnett Ironic • Noise • Old • Old Days • Overcome • Surface • Trying • Vinyl
In other words, I'd say the whole story of Bob Dylan is one man's search for God. The turns and the steps he takes to find God are his business. I think he went to a study group at the Vineyard, and it created a lot of excitement. Joseph Henry T Bone Burnett Bob Dylan • Business • Excitement • God • Lot • Man • One Man • Search • Story • Study Group • Turns • Vineyard • Whole Story • Words
I got out of high school, bought a recording studio and started operating it as an engineer and a producer. Joseph Henry T Bone Burnett Engineer • High • High School • Out • Producer • Recording Studio • School
At different times in my life I met God from a different point of view. Joseph Henry T Bone Burnett Different Times • God • Life • My Life • Point • Point Of View • View
You have to know the forces that are against you and that are trying to break you down. We talk about the problems facing the black community: the decimation of the black family; the mass incarceration of the black man; we're talking about the brutality against black people from the police. The educational system. D'Angelo Black • Community • Decimation • Facing • Family • Forces • Incarceration • Man • Mass • People • Police • Problems
I'm always writing and learning. It's about growth. So I'm growing as a musician, as a guitarist. D'Angelo Growing • Growth • Guitarist • Learning • Musician • Writing
I learned at an early age that what we were doing in the choir was just as important as the preacher. It was a ministry in itself. We could stir the pot, you know? D'Angelo Age • Choir • Doing • Early • Early Age • Important • Itself • Know • Ministry • You
The thing with me is, about that – about rock and all that – years and years of crate-digging, listening to old music, you kind of start to connect the dots. And I was seeing the thread that was connecting everything together, which is pretty much the blues. And everything soul or funk kind of starts with that. D'Angelo Blues • Connection • Cratedigging Listening • Everything • Funk • Kind • Me • Much • Music • Old • Old music • Pretty • Rock • Rock Music • Soul • Start • Thing • Thread • Years
The music business is a crazy game, especially for somebody like me who is really a purist about the art. Trying to balance the pressures of commercialism, it's a tightrope. It's a fine line between sticking to your guns and insanity. D'Angelo Art • Balance • Between • Business • Commercialism • Crazy • Fine • Game • Guns • Line • Me • Music • Pressures • Purist • Somebody • Tightrope
I grew up teaching parts to choirs, and I love a whole group of voices singing as one. D'Angelo Choirs • Group • Love • One • Parts • Singing • Up • Voices • Whole
Aretha Franklin was as important to the civil-rights movement as Malcolm X and Medgar Evers. Artists can choose to take on the tremendous amount of responsibility we have, or choose to ignore it. D'Angelo Aretha • Artists • Civilrights • Franklin • Ignore • Important • Malcolm • Movement • Responsibility • Take • Tremendous Amount
I think it just takes one little snowflake to start a snowball to go down the hill. My contribution and, say, Kendrick Lamar's and some chosen others' start the snowball. That's all I can hope for. I don't know if I'm comfortable being quote-unquote a leader. D'Angelo Comfortable • Contribution • Down • Hope • Kendrick Lamar • Know • Leader • Little • One • Others • Snowball • Snowflake • Start • Think
When I was young, I had an 'aha' moment in church. There was a thing called testimony service, and somebody would sing a song, and everyone else would join in, finding a note where they fit. During one of those, a light went on in my head. In that moment, I heard everything – Parliament, the Staple Singers, Curtis Mayfield, Prince – in there. D'Angelo Aha • Called • Church • Curtis • Everyone • Everything • Finding • Head • Light • Moment • Prince • Service • Singers • Song • Staple • Testimony • Thing • Young
The stage is our pulpit, and you can use all of that energy and that music and the lights and the colors and the sound. But you know, you've got to be careful. D'Angelo Careful • Colors • Energy • Know • Lights • Music • Pulpit • Stage • You
I've always kind of tried to do something that was a little different than just simple 'I love you, baby'-type songs. D'Angelo Different • I Love You • Kind • Little • Love • Simple • Something • You
Coming up, the music of my era was very conscious. I grew up on Public Enemy, and it was popular culture to be aware. People were wearing Malcolm X T-shirts and Malcolm X hats. It was a very cool thing to know who Malcolm X was. It was all in the lyrics. It was trendy to be conscious and aware. D'Angelo Aware • Conscious • Cool • Cool Thing • Culture • Hats • Know • Lyrics • Malcolm • Music • People • Popular • Public • Trendy • Tshirts
I played a lot of keyboards, but I really wanted to produce the sound that was in my head that I was trying to emulate on the keys. I wanted to do it for real. And it makes me look at the keys in a different way. So it's like I'm looking at the guitar and bass more like meat and potatoes and keys like coloring over top of it, you know. D'Angelo Different Way • Guitar • Head • Keyboards • Keys • Look • Looking • Lot • Me • Real • Sound • Trying • You
Just about the entirety of the first album, 'Brown Sugar,' I wrote it, the majority of that record in my bedroom in Richmond. And all of the demos for it were done on a four-track in my bedroom. I think EMI was a little leery of me being in the studio producing it on my own, which is what I was fighting for. D'Angelo Album • Bedroom • Brown • Demos • Done • EMI • Entirety • Fighting • First • Fourtrack • Leery • Little • Majority • Me • My Own • Record • Studio Producing • Sugar • Think
I'm kinda a first take dude. The first time, cut that mic on, and the spirit is there, and what comes on the mic – I mean, even if I'm mumbling, I like to keep a lot of that initial thing that comes out. Cause that's the spirit. D'Angelo Dude • First • First Time • Mean • Mic • Spirit • Time
I love – you know, I'm a big fan of Prince and Curtis Mayfield and Smoky Robinson. It's something to be said about a man who can be very masculine but still display that sensitive side, and that falsetto does it perfectly. D'Angelo Big • Big Fan • Display • Know • Love • Man • Masculine • Prince • Said • Sensitive • Side • Something • You
I think shortly after I got signed, it just started to dawn on me that I had something to say and that Yahweh put something in my heart to share with the world. D'Angelo Dawn • Heart • Me • Say • Something • Think • World
Prince, you never knew what to expect from him from one album to the next. Miles Davis was like that. You know, once you get used to one style, boom, he switched it and, you know, switched gears on you. So those artists are very exciting to me, very exciting to follow their path, you know, and their journey. D'Angelo Album • Artists • Boom • Exciting • Expect • Gears • Journey • Know • Me • Miles • Next • Once • One • Path • Prince • Style • You
It's about people rising up in Ferguson and in Egypt and in Occupy Wall Street and in every place where a community has had enough and decides to make change happen. It's not about praising one charismatic leader but celebrating thousands of them… 'Black Messiah' is not one man. It's a feeling that, collectively, we are all that leader. D'Angelo Black Messiah • Change • Collectively • Community • Egypt • Every Place • Feeling • Leader • Man • Occupy Wall • One Charismatic Leader • People • Thousands
‘Black Messiah’ is a hell of a name for an album. It can easily be misunderstood. Many will think it’s about religion. Some will jump to the conclusion that I’m calling myself a Black Messiah. For me, the title is about all of us. It’s about the world. It’s about an idea we can all aspire to. We should all aspire to be a Black Messiah. D'Angelo Album • Aspire • Black Messiah • Conclusion • Hell • Idea • Many • Misunderstood • Name • Religion • Title • Us • World
Back when we was in school in Mississippi, we had Little Black Sambo. That's what you learned: Anytime something was not good, or anytime something was bad in some kinda way, it had to be called black. Like, you had Black Monday, Black Friday, black sheep… Of course, everything else, all the good stuff, is white. White Christmas and such. B. B King Anytime Something • Bad • Black • Black Monday • Christmas • Course Everything • Friday • Good • Good Stuff • Kinda Way • Little Black Sambo • Mississippi • Monday • School • Sheep • White
What don't I want to learn? I have how-to books, history, nature. Ain't nobody here saying, 'You'd better learn this.' But I still think I've got a head on my shoulders, and it pleases me. B. B King Books History • Head • History • Howto • Me • Nature • Nobody • Saying • Think • You
Even now, at 82 years old, if I don't learn something every day, you know what I think? It's a day lost. Now, I don't practice every day. I just take the guitar, swear at it. But I should be swearing at myself. But I fool with music. I'm doing something musically all the time. And my ears are wide open for anything I can hear. B. B King Anything • Day • Ears • Every • Fool • Guitar • Music • Myself • Old • Open • Practice • Something • Swear • Time • Years
The minute I stop singing orally, I start to sing by playing Lucille. B. B King Minute • Orally • Playing • Singing • Start • Stop
I've put up with more humiliation than I care to remember. B. B King Care • Humiliation • More • Remember • Up
I tried to connect my singing voice to my guitar an' my guitar to my singing voice. Like the two was talking to one another. B. B King Another • Guitar • Singing • Singing Voice • Talking • Two • Voice
I would sit on the street corners in my hometown of Indianola, Mississippi, and I would play. And, generally, I would start playing gospel songs. People would come by on the street – you live in Time Square, you know how they do it – they would bunch up. And they would always compliment me on gospel tunes, but they would tip me when I played blues. B. B King Blues • Hometown • Indianola Mississippi • Live • Me • People • Songs • Start • Street Corners • Time • Time Square • Tunes • You
I was born on a plantation, and things weren't so good. We didn't have any money. I never thought of the word 'poor' 'til I got to be a man, but when you live in a house that you can always peek out of and see what kind of day it is, you're not doing so well. And your rest room is not inside the house. B. B King Born • Day • Doing • Good • House • Live • Man • Money • Plantation • Things • Til • Word
Whenever I'm in Kansas City, I think back to all the jazz-blues greats who played the blues here – like Count Basie, Charlie Parker and Jay McShann. I watched those guys jam in different places and heard a lot of things – but I couldn't do what they did. They were too good. B. B King Back • Blues • City • Different Places • Good • Greats • Guys • Jam • Jazzblues • Kansas • Lot • Places • Things • Think • Whenever
Growing up, I was taught that a man has to defend his family. When the wolf is trying to get in, you gotta stand in the doorway. B. B King Doorway • Family • Gotta • Growing • Growing Up • Man • Taught • Trying • Wolf
Cotton was a force of nature. There's a poetry to it, hoeing and growing cotton. B. B King Cotton • Force • Growing • Nature • Poetry
Joseph Henry T Bone Burnett
D'Angelo
B. B King
