Music Producers From The United States

"She said, 'Don't I know you from the cinematographer's party?' I said, 'Who am I to blow against the wind?'"

"And she said 'Losing love is like a window in your heart, Everybody sees you're blown apart, Everybody feels the wind blow.'"

"I'm going to Graceland, Graceland, Memphis, Tennessee, Well, I'm going to Graceland. Poor boys and pilgrims with families And we are going to Graceland, And my travelling companion is nine years old, He is the child of my first marriage, But I've reason to believe We both will be received in Graceland."

"The Mississippi Delta was shining like a National guitar, I am following the river down the highway Through the cradle of the Civil War."

"It's a turn-around jump-shot, It's everybody jump-start, it's, Every generation throws a hero up the pop-charts, Medicine is magical and magical is art, Think of the boy in the bubble and the baby with the baboon heart..."

"These are the days of miracle and wonder, This is the long distance call, The way the camera follows us in slo-mo, The way we look to us all, The way we look to a distant constellation That's dying in a corner of the sky, These are the days of miracle and wonder And don't cry, baby, don't cry, don't cry."

"And what is the point of this story? What information pertains? The thought that life could be better Is woven indelibly into our hearts and our brains."

"Two disappointed believers Two people playing the game Negotiations and love songs Are often mistaken for one and the same."

"Everybody loves the sound of a train in the distance Everybody thinks its true."

"Mountain passes slipping into stones, Hearts and bones."

"One and one half wandering Jews, Free to wander wherever they choose, Are travelling together in the Sangre de Christo, The blood of Christ mountains of New Mexico, On the last leg of a journey they started a long time ago, The arc of a love affair, Rainbows in the high desert air."

"First thing I remember when you came into my life I said I wanna get that girl, no matter what I do Well I guess I've been in love before and once or twice have been on the floor But I've never loved no-one the way that I love you."

"Then I learned to play some lead guitar, I was underage in this funky bar And I stepped outside to smoke myself a j When I came back to the room, everybody just seemed to move And I turned my amp up loud and I began to play."

"She said, why don't we both just sleep on it tonight And I believe, in the morning you'll begin to see the light And then she kissed me and I realized she probably was right There must be fifty ways to leave your lover, fifty ways to leave your lover"

"Just slip out the back, Jack, make a new plan, Stan Don't need to be coy, Roy, just listen to me Hop on the bus, Gus, don't need to discuss much Just drop off the key, Lee, and get yourself free."

"The problem is all inside your head, she said to me The answer is easy if you take it logically I'd like to help you in your struggle to be free There must be fifty ways to leave your lover."

"In my little town I grew up believing God keeps his eye on us all."

"Now I sit by my window and I watch the cars I fear I’ll do some damage One fine day But I would not be convicted By a jury of my peers Still crazy Still crazy Still crazy after all these years."

"I met my old lover on the street last night, She seemed so glad to see me, I just smiled, And we talked about some old times, and we drank ourselves some beers, Still crazy after all these years, Oh, still crazy after all these years."

"Hang on to your hopes, my friend. That's an easy thing to say, But if your hopes should pass away Simply pretend that you can build them again."

"Time, time, time, see what's become of me, While I looked around for my possibilities, I was so hard to please, But look around, the leaves are brown, And the sky is a hazy shade of winter."

"Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? A nation turns it's lonely eyes to you Ooo ooo ooo. What's that you say, Mrs. Robinson? "Joltin' Joe has left and gone away." Hey hey hey, hey hey hey."

"And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson, Jesus loves you more than you will know. Whoa, whoa, whoa God bless you, please, Mrs. Robinson, Heaven holds a place for those who pray. Hey hey hey, hey hey hey."

"Preserve your memories, they're all that's left you."

"Laughing on the bus, playing games with the faces, She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy, I said, 'Be careful, his bowtie is really a camera.'"

"Let us be lovers we'll marry our fortunes together. I've got some real estate here in my bag. So we bought a pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner's pies, And we walked off to look for America"

"Slow down, you move too fast. You got to make the morning last. Just kicking down the cobblestones. Looking for fun and Feelin' Groovy."

"Tonight I'll sing my songs again, I'll play the game and pretend. But all my words come back to me in shades of mediocrity Like emptiness in harmony I need someone to comfort me."

"Home where my thought's escaping, Home where my music's playing, Home where my love lies waiting Silently for me."

"I'm sitting in the railway station. Got a ticket to my destination. On a tour of one-night stands my suitcase and guitar in hand. And ev'ry stop is neatly planned for a poet and a one-man band."

"I am shielded in my armor Hiding in my room safe within my womb I touch no one and no one touches me. I am a rock. I am an island. And a rock feels no pain. And an island never cries."

"I’ve built walls, A fortress deep and mighty, That none may penetrate. I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain. It’s laughter and it’s loving I disdain."

"A winter's day In a deep and dark December; I am alone, Gazing from my window to the streets below On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow. I am a rock, I am an island."

"And the people bowed and prayed To the neon god they made And the sign flashed out its warning In the words that it was forming And the sign said "The words of the prophets Are written on the subway walls And tenement halls And whispered in the sound of silence""

""Fools," said I, "you do not know Silence like a cancer grows Hear my words that I might teach you Take my arms that I might reach you" But my words like silent raindrops fell And echoed in the wells of silence."

"And in the naked light I saw Ten thousand people maybe more People talking without speaking People hearing without listening People writing songs that voices never shared No one dared Disturb the sound of silence."

"Hello darkness, my old friend I've come to talk with you again Because a vision softly creeping Left its seeds while I was sleeping And the vision that was planted in my brain Still remains Within the sound of silence."

"God only knows God makes his plan The information's unavailable To the mortal man. We work our jobs Collect our pay Believe we're gliding down the highway When in fact we're slip slidin' away."

"Slip slidin' away Slip slidin' away. You know the nearer your destination The more you're slip slidin' away."

"This is near enough true bliss."

"[Rock 'n' roll] really is not given to thinking — and resents thinking. Which I believe is the big error of rock 'n' roll. It's always aspired to be the music of the working class. And it's never been looked upon as a vocabulary for art and artistic thinking... We have to be able to expand the vocabulary to express more complex thoughts."

"I write from instinct, from inexplicable sparkle. I don't know why I'm writing what I'm writing. Usually, I sit and I let my hands wander on my guitar. And I sing anything. I play anything. And I wait till I come across a pleasing accident. Then I start to develop it. Once you take a piece of musical information, there are certain implications that it automatically contains — the implication of that phrase elongated, contracted, or inverted or in another time signature. So you start with an impulse and go to what your ear likes."

"I have gone through different phases in my music writing. There was a time when I used a little exercise — incorporating all of the twelve notes in the chromatic scale — to get me going. I used this technique for a while, but I don't any longer because I am going back to simpler melodies. Originally I moved away from the simple songs because I thought they were too simple."

"I am editing myself as we go along"

"Well its great to do a neighborhood concert. I hope everyone can hear us. I hope that the sound is good. I hope we are blasting Central Park West and Fifth avenue pretty much away. I just want to thank the police department and the fire department and the parks commissioner, and Ed Koch [Audience boos] — and particularly, you know, people that never get recognized for doing good things for the city, a group of people that have donated half of the proceeds that they're making tonight — the guys who are selling loose joints are giving the city half of their income tonight."

"I didn't want to repeat the same notes in the second verse that I used in the first, so I wrote out all the notes of the song and all the notes that were missing in the scale, given that there are twelve notes from octave to octave. All those notes that weren't in the scale were the ones I wanted in for the next verse. The listener isn't aware that they are new notes, but the sound is pleasing to the ear. I change the key, and somehow it's fresh because you haven't heard those notes before."

"Instead of thinking in terms of chords, I think of voice-leading; that is, melody line and bass line, and where the bass line goes. If you do that, you'll have the right chord. [These voices] will give you some alternatives, and you can play those different alternatives to hear which one suits your ear... Keep the bass line moving so you don't stay in one spot: if you have an interesting bass line and you roll it against the melody, the chords are going to come out right."

"There was always some kind of strain, but it was workable. The bigger you get, the more of a strain it is, because in your everyday life, you're less used to compromising. As you get bigger, you have your own way. But in a partnership you always have to compromise. … When you get into a partnership, you're not the boss. There's no boss. That makes it hard."

"I wanted to sing other types of songs that Simon and Garfunkel wouldn't do. "Mother and Child Reunion" for example, is not a song that you would have normally thought that Simon and Garfunkel would have done. It's possible that they might have. But it wouldn't have been the same, and I don't know if I would have been so inclined in that direction. So for me it was a chance to break out and gamble a little bit … The breakup had to do with a natural drifting apart as we got older and the separate lives that were more individual. We weren't so consumed with recording and performing. We had other activities … there was no great pressure to stay together other than money, which exerted very little influence upon us. … We didn't need the money."

"I like them all. … They're all pictures of me when I wrote them. … I have no favorite songs."