Get QuoteDark Inspirational Quotes App

" Beautiful tunes are all very good and fine, and great musicians are always great, but that alone isn't enough. Most folks, when they see movies or hear records, need something that they find pulls them in, draws them in, and appeals to them beyond just the notes. "

Related Quotes:

" I always have felt that most people don't have the first idea about what musicians, in the traditional sense - I don't mean in the modern media fake way, but traditionally - what they went through, what their lives were like. "

Ry Cooder

People

Media

Fake

" The blues is so expressive - nostalgic but not sentimental, mournful but not pathetic, so humble and close to the earth. It's a nuance-filled thing. "

Ry Cooder

Blues

Earth

" When the real world intrudes on your musical fantasies, I get put out. "

" People respond to any good you can do in music. "

" The Woody Guthrie 'Dust Bowl' tunes were really fascinating. "

" Travelling is hard. I'm no traveller. I hate flying, and I hate hotels. "

" Being the front guy is a hard job. "

" Uncle Dave Macon was a great balladeer and banjo player from the early part of the 19th century... He would take a social problem or something that he was looking at and make up a clever little song about it, you know, in a language everyone understood, a man of the people. "

" I've been wanting an ice cream truck forever. "

" If it hadn't been for record people like Ralph Peer, the Chess brothers, and Alan Lomax, then life would've been unbelievably dull, and I would've been sacking groceries somewhere and probably, at this point, running a little 7-Eleven down by the airport. "

" 'Geronimo' was a huge amount of work. That involved 80-piece orchestras and Indians and Tuvans and all kinds of crazy people on that thing. That's a real circus, that score. "

" I can't help what people write or think. If somebody thinks I'm a serious archivist, they're wrong. That's been a problem. It's a shame people take that attitude, because it affects how they listen to the music. It's a big mistake to treat any pop music that way. "

" Promoters don't book you 'cause they like you; they do it 'cause there's good business to be done. "

Ry Cooder

Business

You

" You can play as good as you want, but you have to sing from a place of living. "

" I love listening to gospel records. "

" Back in the early '70s, when Susie and I were first married, we had a little house that we rented, and we used to have parties. People would come, and they wouldn't leave. I used to get so tired. I'd put on the Stanley Brothers, 'Songs for the Good People,' and the house would clear in five minutes. It was not liked; it was alien. It was weird. "

" People who love the applause should have it, but I don't care for it. "

" It's tremendously expensive to make a record on the basis of writing checks. "

" I had a lot of luck in meeting great musicians who were kind enough to show me things. "

Ry Cooder

Great

Who

" To me, the Internet is a big scam. "

Ry Cooder

Scam

Big

" I think I'm more relaxed; I think I'm more philosophical. I don't get worried as much as I used to about things. "

" People have all sorts of expectations which you can't meet. Me, I'm so reclusive I stay away from such things as much as I can. I never go anywhere. "

" Music is all starting to sound alike in the modern era. Afro-pop sounds exactly like L.A. pop - there's no difference, no ambience, no real resonance. "

" To me, the essence of the music is the most important thing. "

Ry Cooder

The Most Important

Music

" People who aren't as interested in recorded music as they used to be will say, 'Oh, 'Buena Vista?' Loved it.' And I'll say, 'Well, how about any of my other recent records. I've been doing some pretty good ones. You like those?' And they go, 'Huh?' "

" Music is a treasure hunt. You dig and dig, and sometimes you find something. "

" I like classical music. I especially like the French composers: Ravel in particular. Debussy. That's so soothing in a nervous world. "

Ry Cooder

Soothing

World

" How many BMWs do you need? How many Rolex watches you gonna wear in your lifetime, for crying out loud? What is it about that kind of desire? I don't understand it. "

" Music creates complicity, and then you feel less isolated. "

" I hate films. Films make me sick now, and if something makes me sick, I always back off. "