Benedetta LoBalbo - The Musician Says: Quotes, Quips, and Words of Wisdom

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O ne of my earliest memories of music is of listening to a yellow 45 rpm record with a version of the Walt Whippo and Bernard Zaritzky song The Little White Duck. It is a sweet song about a little white duck sittin in the water, then a little green frog swimmin in the water, then a little black bug floatin on the water. All is well. Everyone is doin what [they] oughter and happy to be who and what they are. The verses for the duck, the frog, and the little black bug are in a nice, light, bouncy major key. But when the little red snake is about to appear, the music turns to a minor key. At two years old, I didnt have words to explain it, but I remember that the change from major to minor frightened me. I knew something was going south at the pond. That half-step increment had the power to send my little legs running from the room. Just a chord change from major to minor was all it took.

Laura Nyro called music a link with the divine. It is also a link with our humanity. Music can uplift us into laughter, or it can pull tears from us that we have long suppressed. The rising diminished chords in a suspenseful movie can set our hair on end. An unexpected or out-of-place note can make us laugh as hard as any play on words. And when the combined forces of music and lyrics touch us, they can be transcendent.

Researching this book has been an extensive, exciting romp through the world of musicians: singers, songwriters, instrumentalists, composers, film scorersanyone who has a relationship with the Muse and has experienced the sacrifices, joys, and frustrations it brings. As a singer/songwriter, I understand the dance with the Muse that can leave one exhilarated in one moment and downtrodden in the next. If you are a musician, I hope you will experience a sense of belonging and gratitude for the privilege of being one who has the gift of expressing thoughts and feelings that lie beyond everyday language.

In this collection, youll hear from an eclectic group of much-loved musicians, spanning the globe and the centuries. Brian Eno and Leonard Bernstein reflect on their earliest musical influences; Vladimir Horowitz and Billy Joel reveal those final moments before they walk out on stage; John Lennon and Beethoven talk about how inspiration visited them unannounced in the middle of the night; Bjrk and Neko Case emphasize the experience and excitement of live shows; and Mozart and Tommy Ramone discuss the fine art of keeping time. With one quote per page, each spread becomes its own exchange between two talents creating their own riffs about the blessings and curses of being a musician.

The process of compiling and editing their thoughts was much like scoring a piece of music. There were recurring themes that I wanted to carry through. They needed to segue into the next topic, or perhaps the timing called for a complete departuretime to introduce a new motif. There were the legato passagesthe long quotesand the staccato exchangesthe short, punchy one-sentence messages. The themes that carried through needed to crescendo at the right moment. A quote that relayed the same message as another was chosen because of wording that was much funnier or more poignant, or because it provided a counterpoint to a different quote. Sometimes pure inspiration would illuminate a pairing that I hadnt considered. And through this all, my editor played the role of producer, choosing the best vehicle and the optimal moment, seeing the big picture and total arrangement.

As I worked on this book, I was introduced to artists I hadnt known before. I loved the opportunity to discover their work and listen to their music for the first time. I hope these pages offer you the same adventure.

PS: The little red snake ate the little black bug. No ducks or frogs were harmed in the making of the record.

Music is indeed the most beautiful of all Heavens gifts to humanity wandering in the darkness. Alone it calms, enlightens, and stills our souls.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (184093)

THERE IS OLD ENERGY THAT COMES FROM SOMEWHERE AND PASSES THROUGH US. CREATING MUSIC IS USING THIS ENERGY TO COMMUNICATE WITH AN AUDIENCE, LIKE BEING A MESSENGER.

Kitaro (1953 )

Music circulates because of the vibration, and so you have to be very careful what you put out.

Yoko Ono ( 1933 )

I cant think of anything else thats as close to magic. Im totally useless in the real world.... My whole life takes place in some sort of imaginary place, and I worked bloody hard to never have to grow up.

Hans Zimmer (1957 )

When I was a child, I told my parents that I wanted to be a musician when I grew up, and they told me I had to pick one or the other.

Ledward Kaapana (1948 )

The first song I wrote was a song to Brigitte Bardot.

Bob Dylan (1941 )

One of my earliest musical memories is a song called Boa Constrictor sung by Johnny Cash and written by the brilliant Shel Silverstein. The recording ends with the boa constrictor belchingwhich to a five-year-old is, of course, the pinnacle of cerebral humor.

Weird Al Yankovic (1959 )

I think the first time I knew what I wanted to do with my life was when I was about four years old. I was listening to an old Victrola, playing a railroad song. The song was called Hobo Bills Last Ride. And I thought that was the most wonderful, amazing thing that Id ever seen. That you could take this piece of wax, and music would come out of that box. From that day on, I wanted to sing on the radio.

Johnny Cash (19322003)

The Grand Ole Opry used to come on, and I used to watch that. They used to have some pretty heavy cats , heavy guitar players.

Jimi Hendrix (194270)

I can remember at an early point in my life hearing doo-wop for the first time.... It could have been from another galaxy , for all I knew. I was absolutely entranced by it, from the age of seven or eight.... I had never heard music like this, and one of the reasons it was beautiful was because it came without a context.... Now, in later life, I realized that this removal of context was an important point in the magic of music.

Brian Eno (1948 )

When I was ten, an aunt of mine in Boston decided to move to New York. She dumped some of her heavier furniture at our house, and in the load was a piano.... And that was it. That was my contract with life, with God. From then on, thats what I knew I had to do. I had found my universe, my place where I felt safe.

Leonard Bernstein (191890)

I played all classical music when I was in the orphanage. That instills the soul in you. You know? Liszt, Bach, Rachmaninoff, Gustav Mahler, and Haydn.

Louis Armstrong (190171)

The tree grows up and branches out, but it is the roots that give it substance. So roots is very important to keep in music. If you lose the root, the tree dies.

Ziggy Marley (1968 )

I TAUGHT MYSELF FROM ABOUT THE AGE OF FIFTEEN. I LEARNED A FEW CHORDS WHEN I WAS YOUNGER AND JUST LISTENED TO MUSIC AND TRIED TO REPLICATE IT, BLUES FIRST AND THEN A LONG CLUMSY PROCESS OF JUST LEARNING SONGS I LOVED.

Hozier (1990 )

I never took lessons. I once thought I was losing my voice years ago, and I hired a teacher.... He said, Well you know, I teach the Streisand method. I said, What IS the Streisand method? I had no idea what he was talking about.