Music Producers From The United States

"People say I'm the life of the party 'Cause I tell a joke or two. Although I might be laughing loud and hearty, Deep inside I'm blue.So take a good look at my face. You know my smile looks out of place. If you look closer, it's easy to trace The tracks of my tears."

"Ooo la la la la I did you wrong; my heart went out to play. But in the game I lost you. What a price to pay, hey I'm crying.Ooo baby baby. Ooo baby baby."

"No don't you know my daddy told me, Told me right from the start About youth. He said no matter how old a man is, He's partly a boy in his heart. Yeah, and that's the truth."

"…I still have a bunch of childlike [energy] in me. I still feel young and vibrant. I don’t ever want to lose that. I still feel that way. I’m 80, but I feel like I’m 30. I really do, physically and emotionally. I was a kid, and I was getting a chance to embark upon a life that I had thought was my impossible dream. Where I grew up, I didn’t think it was going to be possible for me to actually be in show business, to write songs and sing and make records, and all that. But that was my dream. It was what I wanted to do with my life, if possible. And I didn’t think it would be, so no, I wasn’t tripping like that."

"You better beware, my friends all told me When they saw that I was falling for you. You better beware they told me that girl ain't gonna be true. She'll have you walking with your head in the air, Have you thinking that she really, really care. Then-a, then she'll let you down, she'll really let you down. She's a girl with no understanding. And when she's getting tired of you hanging around, She'll let you drop and say... have a happy landing (happy landing)."

"I don't like you But I love you. See that I'm always Thinking of you. Oh, oh, oh, You treat me badly; I love you madly. You've really got a hold on me. You've really got a hold on me, baby."

"I will build you a castle with a tower so high It reaches the moon. I'll gather melodies from birdies that fly And compose you a tune. Give you lovin' warm as Mama's oven. And if that don't do, Then I'll try something new."

"What's so good about goodbye? All it does is make you cry. Well, if leaving causes grieving, And depart can break you heart,Tell me (what's so good about it) I could have done without it. What's so good about goodbye?"

"…“Who’s Loving You” is about a person who had somebody they really loved but did that person wrong and took them for granted, so that person left. And they’re sitting around later, grieving, thinking about the wrong that they did to this person, and who’s loving that person now. There’s no way an 11-year-old child could know that. But this dude sang that song like he had written it, like he knew all about it. It became his song. If I sing it somewhere now, if I even sing a part of it, young people in the audience come to me and say, “Why are you singing a Michael Jackson song?”…"

"…As far as I’m concerned, Motown was a once-in-a-lifetime musical event. Nothing like that happened before. I seriously doubt anything like that will ever happen again..."

"I don't care what they think of me, And I don't care what they say. I don't care what they think if you're leavin'. I'm gonna beg you to stay. I don't care if they start to avoid me. I don't care what they do. I don't care about anything else But bein' with you, Bein' with you."

"Baby, let's cruise away from here. Don't be confused, the way is clear. And if you want it, you got it forever. This is not a one night stand, babe, yeah. So let the music take your mind, whoa. Just release and you will findYou're gonna fly away, glad you're going my way. I love it when we're cruisin' together. The music is playing for love. Cruisin' is made for love. I love it when we're cruisin' together."

"Now if there's a smile on my face, It's only there tryin' to fool the public, But when it comes down to foolin' you; Now honey, that's quite a different subject. But don't let my glad expression Give you the wrong impression. Really I'm sad. I'm sadder than sad. You're gone and I'm hurtin' so bad. Like a clown I pretend to be glad."

"Maybe you want to give me kisses sweet, But only for one night with no repeat. Maybe you'd go away and never call, And a taste of honey is worse than none at all (oh little girl) Oh little girl, in that case I don't want no part. (I do believe that) That would only break my heart. Oh, but if you feel like loving me, If you got the notion, I second that emotion."

"…The concept of the United States of America is the greatest concept in the world. It’s beautiful. It’s a wonderful concept. There’s no place like America. So, for people to come in and try to fuck that up is ridiculous. I’m a Black man, and I’m telling you this: I’ve been all over the world. The only places I haven’t been are Africa, China, and Russia. Here, people say “African American.” Don’t call me no African American. I’m a Black American. [You’re not] going to label me to try to say that I don’t belong in this country when my people have fought and died to establish this country. Black soldiers have fought and died for this country. They were doing it for Mississippi and Georgia and Alabama. I’m a Black American."

"…it’s disappointing for the people who are still of that frame of mind to be in that place where they think that people are different. The only difference between people is the texture and the color of our skin. If you skinned everybody alive, you wouldn’t know who anyone was. All our hearts are in the same place, our organs, our everything is in the same place. We all have red blood. We’re all human beings. It’s almost 2021. It’s a damn shame that all this time’s gone in life, and people still don’t get that. I’ve wished many times that we would get attacked by some outer-space planet or something like that so we can all come together as earthlings and help each other. See, there’s evil, and there’s good, and people who adopt evil, that’s who they are. It ain’t got shit to do with the color of their skin or where they live. And young people are seeing through that shit…"

"…If you had a good song, and you were a producer or writer at Motown, you had access to all the artists. It didn’t matter who had the last hit record. If they liked you at all, you had the opportunity. I wanted to write something sweet for David Ruffin to sing, which became “My Girl.” And he sang the shit out of it, so it was contagious. I don’t regret that whatsoever."

"If ever I have a son in life, I'll call him in one day Sit him down upon my knee and here is what I'll say.You might lose your lover, people do sometime. Oh, but it won't make sense for you to sit around cryin'. Son, don't you know that when you fall in love, Sometimes, you're gonna have the blues. Well it may take years, but you're gonna shed some tears. 'Cause everybody's got to pay some dues, now, now. Everybody's got to pay some dues."

"Just because you've become a young man now, There's still some things that you don't understand now. Before you ask some girl for her hand now, Keep your freedom for as long as you can now.My mama told me...'you better shop around' (Shop, shop around) a-whoa-yeah You better (uh-huh) shop around."

"Ah, they tell me that the river's too deep And it's much too wide for you can't get across to the other side. But they don't know I've got to get there and hold her in my arms Just a one more time like I did before when she was mine all mine. Cause I can hear her saying (come to me baby) I'm going away. I'm going to stay. I'm gonna get to you, no matter what I have to do."

"She's not a bad girl because She made me see, hmmm... How love could be. But she's a bad girl because (bad girl because) She wants to be free, hmmmm... (bad girl because) She wants to be free (bad girl)"

"…I don’t think I started [show business], and I know that I’m not going to finish it. I have my place in it, and I’m going to cherish that place. It’s a gift. I’m not going to squander it."

"Sample and stole is two different things. Stole is like I walked in your house, watched you make it, stole your Pro Tools ... Sample is like you heard it somewhere, and you just sampled. Maybe you didn't know who it was by because it don't have the credits listed."

"It's from a video game, idiot! (or possibly "It's from a video game idiot!")"

"It makes me laugh. The part I don't understand, the dude is trying to act like I went to his house and took it from his computer. I don't know him from a can of paint. I'm 15 years deep. That's how you attack a king? You attack moi? Come on, man. You got to come correct. You the laughing stock. People are like, "You can't be serious.""

"Life's not a bitch, life is a beautiful woman, You only call her a bitch 'cause she won't let you get that pussy, Maybe she didn't feel y'all shared any similar interests, Or maybe you're just an asshole who couldn't sweet-talk the princess,"

"If I had a hammer, I'd build a city on stilts so my feet would stay dry when God's wine glass tilts. If I had a shovel, I'd dig a hole in the dirt and I'll be hiding when his drunken stupor lands upon earth"

"I think we're all a bunch of weirdos on a quest to belong. The songs are echolocation up in impregnable fog. That's why it's odd to see a pile of imperfections and flaws ascend a pedestal to patronize the rest of the cogs."

"Let us remember that this scene [the Nativity] represents so much more than just a touching story or a nostalgic holiday fairytale. It is, in fact, a reminder of the most amazing reality: That God came, and God spoke. Peace on earth, God is with us. And the God who spoke still speaks. And the God who came still comes. This is the true Miracle of Christmas – that as we stand here tonight in our real world with our real lives full of problems and questions, past hurts and future hopes, God is with us."

"As soon as you're willing to humble yourself and say, God, please help — then you can find out that His strength really is perfect, that He really does care for you, that He does really want to meet your need."

"Everything we're singing about is true, and even when you take away all the glitz, it's still true in the darkest, ugliest and most hopeless places."

"Wherever we are, God's in that moment, God's speaking to us, and if we've just got our ears open and our antennas up, there's no lack of inspiration. He's not silent. We just have to be listening."

"There’s obviously always danger in making music or art for art’s sake. Even as Christians we can be guilty of that, being more about the art than the Artist who gave us this gift."

"Mama, come here quick, Bring me that lickin' stick. Mama, come here quick, Bring me that lickin' stick. People standin', Standin' in a trance. Sister out in the backyard Doin' the outside dance."

"Our love is kind of stalled, baby. But it ain't about the sex. I'd trade the roses and the negligees If we could just connect. I go deeper when you look into my eyes. There's a place where neither one of us can hide. And it's up to us to reinvent the game. Love it when you call my name."

"When you kiss me, And ya miss me. You hold me tight, Make everything all right. I break out - in a cold sweat heh!"

"This is a mans world. This is a mans world. But it would be nothing, nothing Without a women or a girl."

"When I hold you in my arms, I know that I can't do no wrong. And when I hold you in my arms, My love can't do me no harm.And I feel nice, like sugar and spice I feel nice, like sugar and spice. So nice, so nice, well I got you."

"Come here sister... Papa's in the swing. He ain't too hip... about that new breed babe. He ain't no drag, Papa's got a brand new bag."

"Try me. Try me. And your love will always be true. Oh I need you (I need you). Hold me. Hold me. I want you right here by my side. Hold me. Hold me. And your love we won't hide."

"I'm going away tonight."

"I'm the most sampled and stolen. What's mine is mine, and what's yours is mine, too … I got a song about that … But I'm never gonna release it. Don't want a war with the rappers. If it wasn't good, they wouldn't steal it."

"This is an issue couples have to be straight on and agree on before they walk down that aisle; otherwise there is no way their marriage will survive."

"I would warn against anyone marrying a person with more than a ten-year age difference. It almost never works. It is difficult to find things to talk about, to use similar reference points, and to operate at the same speed of life. Another problem is that both sides usually don't want the same things at the same time."

"To make it in life, you and your wife need to be in the same business. That has been my problem all along. My wives didn't know what I was doing. I would come back home from the road to a stranger. That's no good."

"When I'm on stage, I'm trying to do one thing: bring people joy. Just like church does. People don't go to church to find trouble, they go there to lose it."

"Sometimes you struggle so hard to feed your family one way, you forget to feed them the other way, with spiritual nourishment. Everybody needs that."

"It doesn't matter how you travel it, it's the same road. It doesn't get any easier when you get bigger, it gets harder. And it will kill you if you let it.""

"Hair is the first thing. And teeth the second. Hair and teeth. A man got those two things he's got it all."

"A colored is a very frightened-to-death Afro-American. A Negro is one that makes it in the system, and he wants to be white. A nigger, he's loud and boisterous, wants to be seen. Nobody likes a nigger. A black man has pride. He wants to build, he wants to make his race mean something. Wants to have a culture and art forms. And he's not prejudiced. I am a black American man. Now you go ahead and print it."