Folk Singers

"When you're absolute beginners, It's a panoramic view, From Her Majesty, Mt. Zion, And the Kingdom is for you."

"I had the naive, simplistic idea that producers and writers and artists of the time helped in a minuscule way to change the mind-set of America."

"In sorrow there is no rhyme. Dream the kind of a life that you will find The kind of love that lasts forever. Dream the kind of a life that you will find The kind of love that lasts forever. In heaven there is no time."

"I'll never stop a bullet but a bullet might stop me. I'll never drink the ocean but the ocean might drink me. And I'll never raise a portrait to a gentle man in blue And I'll never sing a love song for a love that isn't true.I love how the garden grows And I love the garden rose."

"Picture Lucille Ball and Tinkerbell engaged in a duet and you have an apt metaphor for the neo-folk singer Becky Stark, who suggests an impish fairy from a faraway land. Her eyes are wide, and her madcap stories full of exclamation points. She seems perpetually atwitter, at once ditzy and all knowing. She’s the voice and the creative force behind the Los Angeles-based band Lavender Diamond, which just released its quixotic debut album, “Imagine Our Love.”"

"Well then you thought that the end was in sight And then you thought there was nothing to fight But you had opened your heart with your mind Oooh here comes one."

"Open your heart. Tear it apart."

"On a winter's day we were children all the while ringing one by one All though the day All through the night time And we fell so hard, looking out of the window And we fell so far, into the night When you wake for certain Will you still be hurting?"

"We're at that kind of moment where we really have to understand that everyone is totally connected and everyone is important."

"Comedy doesn't really have any meaning without sadness … The most meaningful comedy comes from some really serious pathos."

"The whole world was gathered At the shore of the earth Holding hands and celebrating The little girl’s birth."

"Emptiness is a conductor A conductor of heat A conductor of Anything."

"Why do I hear what I can't see? Why do I fear what I can be? I feel the field of battle within my life!I hear the calvalry of light! I see the sound of endless sight! I feel the field of battle within my life!It was a life that had no end A time of love with you, my friend Begin the age of love you know about!"

"Ronnie is like the King of Ireland, and we are his subjects."

"A song is communicating with people. Entertainment is a different area."

"I've always considered myself a failure: I feel I've never done anything wholly right. [...] Everybody will tell you, "Oh no, how can you say that, because ten thousand people clap you on a night?" But part of that is reflex action and part of it is because you're reasonably good. But if you're great, that's a different thing."

"I wouldn't call myself an actor or a singer for that matter, just a journeyman. [...] I feel I must have a talent somewhere for doing something but I'm still not terribly sure what it is. I suppose it's a talent for being myself."

"Don't look back, over your shoulder! Keep your eye on freedom shore! Because you know the brave man with you, also pays for the wages of war."

"When I'm not drinkin' baby, you are on my mind. When I'm not sleeping baby, when I'm not sleeping mama, when I'm not sleeping, you know you'll find me cryin'"

"Well there are walls, that make a prison, many names that can bring hate. You tear 'em down and ride 'em over."

"I want to be alone. I need to touch each stone, face the grave that I have grown. I want to be alone."

"Catch a boat to England baby, maybe to Spain. Wherever I have gone, wherever I've been and gone, wherever I have gone... The blues are all the same."

"Records have images. There are wet records and dry records. And big records."

"We human beings are tuned such that we crave great melody and great lyrics. And if somebody writes a great song, it's timeless that we as humans are going to feel something for that and there's going to be a real appreciation."

"Then I would sing a little in the synagogue. See, if you're a singer, you love to turn your own ears on. You look for those rooms where the reverb is great. I remember the synagogue had a lot of wood and it was a great room. And it was a captive audience and you could sing these minor key songs and make them cry, and that was a thrill."

"I constantly get people telling me I should be selling as much as Katie Melua... but there's a reason she sells that many and I don't - she makes music that's easy on the ear and even easier on the brain. She's the perfect good girl in the middle of the road. I'm not keen to make things too easy for anyone. I like to provoke a response, whether that's someone telling me they love what I do or throwing a bottle at me. The trouble is that the bottle-throwing faction won't buy the album. You've immediately limited your audience."

"As you can imagine, over the years I have been asked many times to discuss and explain my song "American Pie" I have never discussed the lyrics, but have admitted to the Holly reference in the opening stanzas. You will find many interpretations of my lyrics but none of them by me. … Sorry to leave you all on your own like this but long ago I realized that songwriters should make their statements and move on, maintaining a dignified silence."

"In light of the recent events in Texas, I have decided it would be disrespectful and hurtful for me to perform for the NRA at their convention in Houston this week. I’m sure all the folks planning to attend this event are shocked and sickened by these events as well. After all, we are all Americans. I share the sorrow for this terrible, cruel loss with the rest of the nation."

"And if she asks you why, You can tell her that I told you That I'm tired of castles in the air. I've got a dream I want the world to share, And castle walls just lead me to despair.Hills of forest green where the mountains touch the sky, A dream come true, I'll live there till I die. I'm asking you to say my last goodbye. The love we knew ain't worth another try."

"Every thread of creation is held in position By still other strands of things living. In an earthly tapestry hung from the skyline Of smouldering cities so gray and so vulgar, As not to be satisfied with their own negativity But needing to touch all the living as well."

"And I love you so The people ask me how How I've lived till now I tell them I don't know.I guess they understand How lonely life has been But life began again The day you took my hand."

"A long long time ago I can still remember how that music used to make me smile And I knew if I had my chance That I could make those people dance And maybe they'd be happy for a while. But February made me shiver With every paper I'd deliver Bad news on the doorstep I couldn't take one more step I can't remember if I cried When I read about his widowed bride But something touched me deep inside The Day the Music Died."

"Wonderful baby, nothin' to fear. Love whom you will, but doubt what you hear. They'll whisper sweet things to make untrue. So be good to yourself, that's all you can do.You're a wonderful baby livin' on love The sandman says maybe he'll take you above, Up where the girls fly on ribbons and bows, Where babies float by, just counting their toes."

"Now I think I know what you tried to say to me How you suffered for your sanity How you tried to set them free They would not listen They're not listening still... Perhaps they never will..."

"Weathered faces lined in pain Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand. For they could not love you, But still your love was true And when no hope was left in sight, on that starry starry night You took your life as lovers often do, But I could have told you, Vincent, This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you."

"I feel like a spinning top or a Dreidel The spinning don't stop when you leave the cradle You just slow down Round and around this world you go Spinning through the lives of the people you know We all slow down."

"Starry starry night, Paint your palette blue and grey Look out on a summer's day with eyes that know the darkness in my soul…"

"I met a girl who sang the blues And I asked her for some happy news But she just smiled and turned away I went down to the sacred store Where I'd heard the music years before But the man there said the music woudn't play And in the streets the children screamed The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed But not a word was spoken The church bells all were broken And the three men I admire most The Father, Son and the Holy Ghost They caught the last train for the coast The day the music died."

"Now I understand what you tried to say to me How you suffered for your sanity How you tried to set them free They would not listen — They did not know how, Perhaps they'll listen now."

"No days you can borrow, no time you can buy. No trust in tomorrow. It's a lie."

"Do you recall what was revealed The day the music died?"

"Faces come and faces go in circular rotation. But something yearns within to grow beyond infatuation."

"So come on, Jack be nimble, Jack be quick Jack Flash sat on a candlestick 'Cause fire is the Devil's only friend Oh, and as I watched him on the stage My hands were clenched in fists of rage No angel born in hell Could break that Satan's spell And as the flames climbed high into the night To light the sacrificial rite I saw Satan laughing with delight The day the music died."

"We will miss her energy and her respectful concern for the world's most vulnerable."

"Her voice and her battles influenced the process of liberation and democratic rebirth in South Africa."

"It's because they want to sound like Americans. I'd like to see them develop our music and sing it their way, but they think sounding American is going to take them higher, but it is not. They have beautiful voices, but they want to sound like Whitney Houston. You can't beat people like that at their own game. And they can't beat me at mine, either!"

"[W]hen the President's visitors came to Guinea, we were all called on to go and entertain them. I've never seen a country that did what Sékou Touré did for artists. Even in South Africa today we are not nurtured like that."

"Girls are the future mothers of the , it is important we focus on their wellbeing."

"[Belafonte]'d take me to perform for Martin Luther King's cause. But when they were marching I did not take part, because I was not a citizen"

"Belafonte sent his people to pick me up and I went back and shook his hand, then went back to my little flat. I was very happy to have met a president of the United States - little me!"