Guitarists from Scotland

"I love the music from Nat King Cole, BB King, Albert King... When I think of it, I wouldn't mind being renamed Angus King."

"If it was happening, I'd call it Heavenly Beast. If it wasn't happening, I usually call it Arsehole."

"I don't like to play above or below people's heads. Basically, I just like to get up in front of a crowd and rip it up."

"We want to appeal to everyone and get rich quick. We want to be millionaires. I've got this plan to buy Tasmania you see..."

"It's just rock and roll. A lot of times we get criticized for it. A lot of music papers come out with: 'When are they going to stop playing these three chords?' If you believe you shouldn't play just three chords it's pretty silly on their part. To us, the simpler a song is, the better, 'cause it's more in line with what the person on the street is."

"We're a rock group. We're noisy, rowdy, sensational and weird."

"You should hear me on my own. It’s horrendous. I saw Deep Purple live once and I paid money for it and I thought, Geez, this is ridiculous.’"

"I'm sick and tired of people saying that we put out 11 albums that sound exactly the same. In fact, we've put out 12 albums that sound exactly the same."

"The best AC/DC cover I've heard? There was an all-girl cover band in America, the Hell's Belles."

"Angus Young's frantic over-the-top soloing has sparked many of AC/DC's biggest tunes. But beneath the reckless theatrics and naughty schoolboy images lurks a skilled guitarist."

"The original Jethro Tull was a 19th century English agriculturist who invented a seed drill you see... the first automatic process where by small holes were made in Mother Earth and even smaller seeds were deposited one at a time and neetly covered over as a cat does after having been naughty."

"I don't think it's very easy to make friends with musicians. We're all a bit paranoid. It soon becomes very heavy."

"Oh father high in heaven — smile down upon your sonWho's busy with his money games — his women and his gun."

"In the beginning Man created God; and in the image of Man created he him."

":2 And Man gave unto God a multitude of names, that he might be Lord over all the earth when it was suited to Man."

":3 And on the seven millionth day Man rested and did lean heavily on his God and saw that it was good."

":4 And Man formed Aqualung of the dust of the ground, and a host of others likened unto his kind."

":5 And these lesser men Man did cast into the void. And some were burned; and some were put apart from their kind."

":6 And Man became the God that he had created and with his miracles did rule over all the earth."

":7 But as all these things did come to pass, the Spirit that did cause man to create his God lived on within all men: even within Aqualung."

":8 And man saw it not."

":9 But for Christ's sake he'd better start looking."

"I may make you feel but I can't make you thinkYour sperm's in the gutter, your love's in the sink."

"The softer you sing, the louder you're heard."

"The magic that you hear in tales and things was all based around the Celtic mythology of England, which is Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings. I just drain from that source. I just drain everything. So the magic is there."

"We are magic. It is magic that we're walking around. It's fantastic magic. Some people would call it miracles; I like to call it magic. … Yes, I'm very aware of this. Yes, the more aware I get, the more I can understand how big it is, how big it will get. It'll be harder to comprehend; that's why I have to go along with it, 'cause its so vast. To say to somebody that God is everything that lives and ever has lived and ever will live, and you're never going to touch and see, smell and be everything that is God. Magic is very hard to comprehend."

"It seemed — in 1968 — the possibilities of peace and brotherhood could be realised that very year. We're still working on it."

"In the chilly hours and minutes Of uncertainty I want to be In the warm hold of your lovin' mind. To feel you all around me And to take your hand Along the sand, Ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind."

"For me to love you now Would be the sweetest thing, 'Twould make me sing, Ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind."

"When rain has hung the leaves with tears I want you near to kill my fears, To help me to leave all my blues behind. For standin' in your heart Is where I want to be And long to be, Ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind."

"Sunshine came softly through my a-window today Could've tripped out easy a-but I've a-changed my ways It'll take time, I know it but in a while You're gonna be mine, I know it, we'll do it in style 'Cause I made my mind up you're going to be mine."

"I'll tell you right now Any trick in the book now, baby, all that I can find..."

"I'll pick up your hand and slowly blow your little mind 'Cause I made my mind up you're going to be mine."

"When I look out my window, Many sights to see. And when I look in my window, So many different people to be..."

"You've got to pick up every stitch. Mmm... must be the season of the witch, Must be the season of the witch."

"I'm just mad about Saffron Saffron's mad about me I'm just mad about Saffron She's just mad about me."

"They call me mellow yellow (Quite rightly) They call me mellow yellow..."

"I'm just mad about Fourteen Fourteen's mad about me"

"Electrical banana Is gonna be a sudden craze Electrical banana Is bound to be the very next phase..."

"Wear your love like heaven."

"Lord, kiss me once more, fill me with song Allah, kiss me once more that I may, that I may Wear my love like heaven Wear my love like Wear my love like heaven."

"Thrown like a star in my vast sleep I open my eyes to take a peep To find that I was by the sea Gazing with tranquillity. 'Twas then when the Hurdy Gurdy Man Came singing songs of love..."

"Histories of ages past Unenlightened shadows cast. Down through all eternity The crying of humanity. 'Tis then when the Hurdy Gurdy Man Comes singing songs of love..."

"The great Egyptian age is but a remnant of The Atlantian culture. The antediluvian kings colonised the world All the gods who play in the mythological dramas In all legends from all lands were from fair Atlantis. Knowing her fate, Atlantis sent out ships to all corners of the Earth. On board were the Twelve: The Poet, the Physician, the Farmer, the Scientist, The Magician and the other so-called Gods of our legends. Though gods they were —"

"Let us rejoice and let us sing and dance and ring in the new: Hail Atlantis!"

"Way down below the ocean where I wanna be she may be."

"The most important of my achievements, if you want to call them that, was that I successfully introduced mystical ideas into pop culture, which was my obsession and my compulsion when I was 16 years old. So, behind all of this fame and fortune, there was a seeker, on a spiritual path — a young man who wanted to discover and share with others an alternative way of looking at the world. I wanted to save our culture from the stupidity and the bigotry and the ignorance that threatened it. And there was the Buddhist way, and the Celtic way."

"I found myself at the top of the the ladder, with everything, but with one thing missing: that one thing was a companion. Because, it's cliché to say, but nothing really means anything in the end unless you're really doing what you want to do, and... I walked off a huge world tour, with a yacht and television specials, and record deals, and film deals. I walked away and my whole thing collapsed. I shocked my business world and walked back to my cottage, which I had been renting to two American girls. One of them was Cynthia, and I stayed with her for two days, then her friend Lori came back from Clapton's house, where there had been a party going on for almost a week. Lori came in with another friend, and it was Linda, my Sunshine Supergirl from 1965 whom I'd written all my songs for. We hadn't married then, because she had a child with Brian Jones and wasn't ready for another relationship. And it was good that we didn't marry back then, because my four years of '60's fame would have wrecked the marriage. But we met again, and I went away from fame and into the arms of my muse, my lover, and then my wife, and then the mother of my children."

"I still carry with me the same themes as always — I'm still compelled to present mystic ideas..."

"Up to '67, the drugs were, uh, soft. Marijuana, and even LSD, I considered soft drugs then. But, then, after '67, needle drugs and the strong amphetamines came in, and that's when the Beatles and Donovan stood up and said, 'Try meditation instead.' And I still stick by that, of course. You've got to be very, very careful. I'm talking about naive days, before the drug barons and the dealers took over. It was once a small, bohemian event. But it was when millions started wanting to get high that it got bad. And when Haight-Asbury turned into Skid Row, the Beatles and me stood up and said, 'Give it a rest.' The answer is that each individual must face the problem by himself. And meditation is an alternative. Meditation is a lot better for you, and it's great to be straight."

"When I was 14 or 15 I wanted to be a protest singer like Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. My father was a socialist and worked with the unions. I thought change was to change the government and to change from one system, capitalism, to socialism and to make the poor of the world happy. But when I opened the book The Way of Zen by Alan Watts and I opened up the Diamond Sutra, and Lao Tsu’s Tao Te Ching, I realized that the problem of suffering was much deeper than governments and social problems. The problems were very deep. They were nothing short of changing the way we look at reality. Therefore I became a teacher, or a reflection of the teachings. Phil Ochs, the great protest singer, said I had given up protest, and Joan Baez said to Bob Dylan, “He’s given up protest.” But what I had given up was looking for the answer in social change. The change was to be a spiritual change. The suffering was coming from an erroneous view of reality..."

"We are one, we are all brothers and sisters, but the people of the world do not know this. So this was the teaching, but how do you teach it? As young people, John Lennon, George Harrison, myself, Carlos Santana and other spiritual seekers in pop music, we wanted to know the answer but we found a question: How do you convince the rest of the western world that they are ill, they are mentally ill, that they have a sickness and that they have lost the way? How do you teach that? You cannot teach that in the normal sense. You have to encourage a spiritual call, so we devoted ourselves to making songs which would have a spiritual call inside of them, hoping to awaken an awareness with this music. And other people in the arts felt the same..."

"Today I can’t comment on what the problem is in China, Russia, or Africa without realizing again and again the Diamond Sutra, which says that we look at the world and see it as separate but in fact, this is an illusion, but the reality is that we are one shining being. Until this can be understood, I can’t see any change. But I see some change now. There is a world consciousness. In the "old" New Age, they talked about the Age of Aquarius being an age of enlightenment. And now when a man goes to the moon he sees the earth. Before when someone did meditation he or she could meditate on the earth and the moon but now a man and a woman can see that we are on one planet and that the water is polluted and that the air is dirty. So these are changes that are important. But when we spoke about these things in the 60s people said we were dreamers."

""Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" is inspired by old blues, Nashville psycho hillbillies & hazy memories. It tells the story of finding yourself lost on your path, and a choice has to be made. It's about gambling, fate, listening to your heart, and having the strength to fight the darkness that's always willing to carry you off."

"I went down to London with the idea that I was going to do vocals over this crazy, crazy trip-hop digital beat. Within two or three months, I heard Hunky Dory by David Bowie and that changed me in one way, and I realized what I actually wanted was to have an E Street Band — individuals, not session musicians."

"Growing up in such a stunning landscape is inevitably going to have an effect on you, whether you rebel or whether you embrace, because it's so striking. I lived on this rugged, rugged coastline with the North Sea hammering at the cliffs, and the weather changes literally every half hour. My parents met as rock climbers, so they're absolute outdoors fiends, and we were constantly up hills and under canvas and camping and tramping around. They're very fond memories and something I still love to do."

"I was traveling in Greece as a teenager, and for those who haven't been to Greece, it's absolutely covered in olive groves — stunted, gnarly little bonsai-type trees. And I was driving on a moped and a huge black stallion had pulled away from its stake and was just going nuts in this tiny, tiny, hobbit-like forest. It was just such a powerful image, this enormous beast let loose and going wild in a fairy-tale wood of tiny trees... The song itself is really about going through the process of making the first album. It was a very strange experience and a very steep learning curve. For the previous 10 or 15 years, I'd been completely my own boss — when you play a gig, you just play your new song, the new song is always your favorite. And here I was having to make an album of stuff that's never gonna go away. I was being asked to make these huge decisions, so really the song is just about learning to listen to your guts again. There's actually very few times in our lives now when we have to do that."

"It's lovely to get to say hello to people you've always admired from afar, but the fun really starts out front with people going commando whilst wearing daring mud suits."

"I had that Paul McKenna come up to me once and he said, 'I love that song of yours about bicycles.' So I said to McKenna, 'And I loved the stunt you did in that glass box above the Thames.'"

"Many good things come from the left! [at the House of Blues on August 12th, 2008, while instructing the crowd to do a 'side-wave.']"

"Over the sea and far away She's waiting like an iceberg Waiting to change But she's cold inside She wants to be like the water. All the muscles tighten in her face Buries her soul in one embrace They're one and the same Just like water. Then the fire fades away And most of everyday Is full of tired excuses But it's too hard to say I wish it were simple But we give up easily You're close enough to see that You're the other side of the world to me."

"Can you help me Can you let me go And can you still love me When you can't see me anymore? The fire fades away."

"Well my heart knows me better than i know myself So I'm gonna let it do all the talking."

"I can feel everything you do Hear everything you say Even when you're miles away Coz I am me, the universe and you."

"When you're on your own I'll send you a sign Just so you know I am me, the universe and you."

"Her face is a map of the world Is a map of the world You can see she's a beautiful girl She's a beautiful girl. And everything around her is a silver pool of light The people who surround her feel the benefit of it — It makes you calm She holds you captivated in her palm."

"Suddenly I see (Suddenly I see) This is what I wanna be Suddenly I see (Suddenly I see) Why the hell it means so much to me."

"I grew up knowing I could have had a million different lives. It makes your life mysterious and your imagination go wild."

"My songs examine and explore little specific emotions or situations or stories... They're kitchen table songs, like a conversation between me and one other person. It's almost like an alien has been sent to get emotional samples from human beings and put it all together on a record."

"I was really into sci-fi books as a kid. My dad is a physicist and he used to take my brothers and I into his lab when we were little. We played games with liquid nitrogen and Van de Graaff generators. He had the keys to the observatory at St Andrew's University and he'd get us up in the middle of the night to show us Halley's Comet. That's partly why the album is called Eye To The Telescope."

"I managed to win Battle Of The Bands with one mandolin player! It was me and eleven goth bands and I won."

"On the whole, I'm a positive, skippity-la-la person but I love the dark side of music and I will always want to explore that. It's a positive-sounding album but there's stuff underneath for sure."

"It was blazing sunshine and I went on in a turquoise neck muff, glamorous dress and muddy boots and just had the best gig, really emotional. I've had emails from people saying that they cried. They promised it wasn't the drugs."

"I'm not exactly sure what has driven me so hard... I've never questioned it. I've never had a back-up plan. I was never going to do anything else."

"A metaphor for seeing God's signature in the world."

"I recorded "…Moon" on my own with a drum machine, then brought musicians in as they were needed. It's about a person who has a spectacular, meteor-like rise, but burns out or dies young. Though the song ain't about him, the nearest equivalent would be Hendrix. Adding a list of all the things the hero/heroine saw raised the emotional temperature. The final chorus now had an extra fatefulness. To express this I inserted "you came like a comet, blazing your trail", then a "comet", a firework sample from a BBC sound effects record. That sweetly collided with Anthony's sax solo, so that it sounds as if the sax erupts from the comet itself. Magic like that just happens. … The Beatles' "Penny Lane" influenced the trumpet break — the sudden injection of super-fresh, bright and clear horns, a sound of optimism and clarity. Bowie's "Fame" inspired the final descending vocal, thought up and sung by Karl. I wanted the whole thing to sound like a carnival."

"She is everywhere and noplace Like a breath or like a wind she moves among men They would seek to hold her as a prize But she is in the shadows, the ocean and the sand She is everywhere and noplace, Her church not made with handsUncontained by man."

"I have heard the big music and I'll never be the same something so pure just called my name."

"I have drowned in the big sea now I find I'm still alive And I'm coming up forever shadows all behind me ecstacy to come"

"Come with me on a journey beneath the skin We will look together for the Pan within."

"The stars are alive and nights like these were born to be sanctified by you and me."

"Once you were tethered now you are free That was the river this is the sea."

"You're trying to make sense of something that you just don't see You're trying to make sense now and you know you once held the key But that was the river this is the sea."

"I pictured a rainbow you held it in your hands I had flashes but you saw the plan I wandered out in the world for years you just stayed in your room I saw the crescent You saw the whole of the moon."

"I was grounded while you filled the skies I was dumbfounded by truth you cut through lies I saw the lone empty valley you saw Brigadoon I saw the crescent You saw the whole of the moon"

"I spoke about wings you just flew I wondered I guessed and I tried you just knew I sighed but you swooned I saw the crescent You saw the whole of the moon"

"Flags, rags, ferryboats, scimitars and scarves every precious dream and vision underneath the stars You climbed on the ladder with the wind in your sails you came like a comet blazing your trail too high, too far, too soon You saw the whole of the moon!"

"How long will I love you? As long as stars are above you And longer if I can"

"How long will I want you? As long as you want me to And longer by far"

"He's like a man you'd meet any place until you recognize that ancient Face The Great God Pan is alive!"

"At sea on a ship in a thunderstorm on the very night the Christ was born a sailor heard from overhead a mighty voice cry "Pan is Dead!" So follow Christ as best you can Pan is dead — Long live Pan!"

"Some say the Gods are just a myth but guess Who I've been dancing with... The Great God Pan is alive!"

"I dreamed about Jimi Hendrix he came back for one day was born weepin' out of an egg the mid-wife said and straight away began to pray with lifted head"

"He was young and black and beautiful big eyed, perfect skin an' he played my guitar like a lightning storm like twirlin' feathers in the wind he could make it sound like the end of the world a fire, the flick of a knife he could squeeze it slow and masterful like the hand that brought the world to life"

"He made all Manhattan shake and every street and sidewalk quake his stratocaster caused the mighty Empire State to vibrate"

"/p>He did a forty-two minute cosmic rise in future shocks Star Spangled Banner in the back of CBGB's He stopped every clock in New York state and every heart that heard him and time itself was beaten and confused and fell lamb-like under the spell of his fabulous flashing fingers He played an encore at the Bitter End a heartburst Little Wing even the waiters cried and then we fell outside and in the dusty dawn of Bleeker street a sweet rain fell and Jimi died."

"This light is for the world. Send out from this wooden frame a beacon made of holy flame like a bridge across the morning sky from candle to the hills of high this light is for the world."

"This light is for the world send it out with sword of fire, with cymbal, drum and angel choir, music in the heart of it proclaiming that the lamp is lit this light is for the world."

"I'm gonna look twice at you until I see the Christ in youwhen I'm lookin through the eyes of love.."

"every breath is yours, beloved every breath is yours"

"Ain't no words for the things I'm feeling ain't no tongue can tell no name for the song my soul's revealing and all is very well…"

"Seek the light find the light feel the light be the light."

"I've lived here before in days of old I recognise these buildings in my soul I know each winding road and every rise is friendly and familiar to my eyes"

"I can feel it in my blood that I belong to this strange and stony rock I stand upon yet I cannot put a name upon it I cannot place the time nor see the land as it once was nor tell which house was mine no I cannot put a name upon it which was where and when yet here I am a perfect stranger home again."

"There's confusion in my head as I depart but a singing, ringing, soaring in my heart for beyond all time and space and doubt I know I've lived here before long ago."

"I feel you move me in such sweet silence always dancing, always dancing never ever getting tired"

"You are an eternal being of love you are the light of the world."

"I sacrifice my power on the altar of your love that it may be born again on another world. Come friend, let us climb the winding flights of stairs through the narrow door into the chamber bare a single candle burns as we seat ourselves words take form in our minds and repeat themselves : "My beloved and I are one…""

"If high stream of dreams and truth be told and our intentions be entwined then from these high flung tower walls let healing grace and blessings fall over all this cracked and broken land from northern crag to southern down from Universal Hall to Camden town from city square to village green from parliament to housing scheme from Iona to the the Hill of Dreams I sacrifice my power on the altar of your love that it may be born again on another world."

"There’s a day to ride thumb on a thunderhead There’s a day to make fantasy real There’s a day to deny and a day to decry and a day for the man with the wind at his heels!"

"I like communicating. I think it’s as simple as that. I get really lonely and dark if I can’t communicate with people."

"I have done. Well, I've shared a moving vehicle with 18 naked men — not many women do that... fantastic, never felt better."

"I'm a sucker for tragedy - I love the death scenes."

"Until we command the exact same salary as every male counterpart, I feel a political desire to stand by other women. If we don’t stand together, that equality will never be fully realized, and that bothers me. I see very little in our culture, actually, of women necessarily standing up for one another. I think there’s still an underlying fear if one woman has the light shone upon her, it takes away from your light, which of course is not the case at all. But I think when you’re young, you maybe fear that."

"Well I don't know why I came here tonight. I got the feeling that something ain't right. I'm so scared in case I fall off my chair, And I'm wondering how I'll get down the stairs. Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right, here I am, Stuck in the middle with you."

"Windin' your way down on Baker Street, Light in your head and dead on your feet. Well another crazy day, You'll drink the night away And forget about everything. This city desert makes you feel so cold. It's got so many people, but it's got no soul. And it's taking you so long To find out you were wrong, When you thought it had everything."

"But you know he'll always keep movin'; You know he's never gonna stop movin. Cus he's rollin', He's the rollin' stone.And when you wake up it's a new mornin'. The sun is shinin' it's a new morning. You're goin', You're goin' home."

"You know I need your love, you got that hold over me. As long as I got your love, you know that I'll never leave. When I wanted you to share my life, I had no doubt in my mind. And it's been you, woman, right down the line."

"You still got that light in your eye, And our day is comin’ by and by. I’m travellin’ this long road here with you; We still gotta long way, we still gotta long way to go."

"Night comes down and finds you alone In a space and time of your own, Lost in dreams in a world full of shadows.Down the street the neon light shines, Offering refuge and hope to the blind, Who stumble in with no thought of tomorrow.Yes I get lonely when the sun gets low, And I end up looking for some winner goal. Yes I should know better but I can't say no."

"Out on the street I was talkin' to a man. He said "there's so much of this life of mine that I don't understand." You shouldn't worry I said, that ain't no crime. 'Cause if you get it wrong you'll get it right next time, next time."

"The original acoustic guitar hero, Bert Jansch was a player’s player, and you need only look at the list of people that count him as an influence to see that. Everybody from Jimmy Page and Neil Young to Pete Doherty and beyond cite Jansch’s distinctive and wide-ranging style as an essential ingredient in their playing. One of the true pathfinders of the ‘60s folk music, Jansch’s complex fingerpicking and dark, brooding songwriting established his reputation, and whether solo or with Pentangle he proved his boundless ability with an acoustic time and time again."

"It's safe to say that Bruce is the least prominent member of the legendary power trio Cream. That said, Bruce was more than capable of holding his own with bandmates Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker within the confines of the band that gave us iconic rock tracks such as "White Room" and "Sunshine of Your Love." Trained in classical music and proficient in jazz, Bruce also spent time playing the blues rock associated with Cream. His ability to adapt and excel in several genres of music was a massive part of his greatness. That versatility remains one of the defining characteristics of his professional legacy."