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I Consider Myself To Be An Inept Pianist, A Bad Singer, And A Merely Competent Songwriter. ... I'm Probably Writing Music Now For The Same Reason As I Started Writing Songs When I Was 14-to Meet Women. ... If You Make Music For The Human Needs You Have Within Yourself, Then You Do It For All Humans Who Need The Same Things. You Enrich Humanity With The Profound Expression Of These Feelings. ... My Songs Are Like My Kids.

-Billy Joel

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I Consider Myself To

Billy Joel

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I Consider Myself To Be An Inept Pianist, A Bad Singer, And A Merely Competent Songwriter. ... I'm Probably Writing Music Now For The Same Reason As I Started Writing Songs When I Was 14-to Meet Women. ... If You Make Music For The Human Needs You Have Within Yourself, Then You Do It For All Humans Who Need The Same Things. You Enrich Humanity With The Profound Expression Of These Feelings. ... My Songs Are Like My Kids.

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Life Is A Series Of Hellos And Goodbyes; I'm Afraid It's Time For Goodbye Again

Artist - Musicians, Painters, Writers, Poets, Always Seem To Have Had The Most Accurate Perception Of What Is Really Going On Around Them, Not The Official Version Or The Popular Perception Of Contemporary Life.

Someday We'll All Be Gone, But Lullabies Go On And On / They Never Die, That's How You And I Will Be

Have You Listened To The Radio Lately? Have You Heard The Canned, Frozen And Processed Product Being Dished Up To The World As American Popular Music Today?

If I Need A Cause For Celebration, Or A Comfort I Can Use To Ease My Mind, I Rely On My Imagination, And I Dream Of An Imaginary Time.

Don't Wait For Answers, Just Take Your Chances. Don't Ask Me Why.

Honesty Is Such A Lonely Word. Everyone Is So Untrue.

Musicians Want To Be The Loud Voice For So Many Quiet Hearts.

Yes, They're Sharing A Drink They Call Loneliness But It's Better Than Drinkin' Alone.

Musicians Now Find Themselves In The Unlikely Position Of Being Legitimate. At Least The Irs Thinks So.

So Before We End And Then Begin We'll Drink A Toast To How It's Been A Few More Hours To Be Complete A Few More Nights On Satin Sheets A Few More Times That I Can Say, I've Loved These Days.

Davey Crocket, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland.

If You're A Very Unfulfilled Person You Might Have A Tendency To Turn To Crime.

Most People You'd Tell "i'm Gonna Be A Musician," They'd Say, "you're Crazy, You're Gonna Starve, You're Gonna Be Poor, A Drug Addict, Go To Jail, You'll Never Make It, There's Too Much Competition, It's A Terrible Business," Etc. But My Chorus Teacher In High School Said, "you've Got What It Takes To Be A Really Good Professional Musician, You Should Consider It." That Was An Epiphany For Me. So I Thought, Well, Maybe I Can Help Somebody, Too.

Videos Destroyed The Vitality Of Rock And Roll. Before That, Music Said, "listen To Me." Now It Says, "look At Me."

I Watched The Mighty Skyline Fall

I'm Kind Of Putting My Toe Back In The Water And Seeing How It Feels. We're Going To Be Doing Stuff We Haven't Done For Years And Years And Years. So I'm Looking Forward To Seeing How This Stuff Flies.

Honesty Is The Best Part Of Any Art Form. If You Don't Have That, You're Kidding Yourself And Your Listener.

I'm A Piano Player. I Never Thought Of Myself As A Singer, At All. I Was Always Trying To Sound Like Somebody Else. I Don't Like My Own Voice, I Like Ray Charles, Robert Plant, I Like Joe Cocker, Rod Stewart, People That Have An Edge In Their Voice.

Don't Go Changing To Try And Please Me You Never Let Me Down Before Don't Imagine You're Too Familiar And I Don't See You Anymore I Would Not Leave You In Times Of Trouble We Never Could Have Come This Far I Took The Good Times, I'll Take The Bad Times I'll Take You Just The Way You Are Don't Go Trying Some New Fashion Don't Change The Color Of Your Hair. [...] I Could Not Love You Any Better I Love You Just The Way You Are.

They Say That These Are Not The Best Of Times, But They're The Only Times I've Ever Known.

If I Traveled All My Life And I Never Get To Stop And Settle Down Long As I Have You By My Side There's A Roof Above And Good Walls All Around You're My Castle, You're My Cabin And My Instant Pleasure Dome I Need You In My House 'cause You're My Home.

The Biggest Regret? This May Be One Of Those Years I Have No Regrets.

I Started Just Concentrating On Songwriting When I Was Abut 20; I'd Been In Rock Bands Six Or Seven Years, Kinda Got That Out Of My System, I Said, "ok, You Ain't Gonna Be A Rock Star, You Don't Look Like A Rock Star, It Probably Ain't Gonna Happen. So What You Should Do Is Write Songs And Maybe Other People Will Do Your Songs."

So I Would Choose To Be With You, That's If The Choice Were Mine To Make, But You Can Make Decisions Too, And You Can Have This Heart To Break

The Graduations Hang On The Wall, But They Never Really Helped Us At All.

I've Always Said About 50% Of What Happens At A Concert Has To Do With The Audience. If You Play For A Dead Audience You're Gonna Stink. If We Play For A Great Crowd We're Much Better. You Want 'em To Make Noise. It's Kinda Like Sex, If They Don't Make Noise, You Ain't Doin' It Right.

I Always Hated My Hair, So Now It's Going Away.

Give A Moment Or Two To The Angry Young Man With His Foot In His Mouth And His Heart In His Hand.

She'll Carelessly Cut You And Laugh While You're Bleeding.

From A Town Known As Wheeling, West Virginia Rode A Boy With A Six-gun In His Hand And His Daring Life Of Crime Made Him A Legend In His Time East And West Of The Rio Grande. Well, He Started With A Bank In Colorado In The Pocket Of His Vest A Colt He Hid. And His Age And His Size Took The Teller By Surprise, And The Word Spread Of Billy The Kid.

I've Crashed My Car Three Times.

In A Way, We Are Magicians. We Are Alchemists, Sorcerers And Wizards. We Are A Very Strange Bunch. But There Is Great Fun In Being A Wizard.

People Always Think I Was Just Playing In A Piano Bar, But I Only Did That For About Six Months. The Rest Of The Time I Was Playing In Bands.

Say Goodbye To The Oldies, But Goodies, Because The Good Old Days Weren't Always Good And Tomorrow Ain't As Bad As It Seems

Sweetness Flows From Your Appearance And Your Beauty Makes Me Fall More In Love With You. Anytime I Feel Low, I Think About The Good Times You Have Given Me And Everything Seems Good Again.

I Am No Longer Afraid Of Becoming Lost, Because The Journey Back Always Reveals Something New, And That Is Ultimately Good For The Artist.

She's Got A Smile That Heals Me.

I Started Taking Piano Lessons When I Was About Four Years Old. My Parents Were Both Musicians. So I Took Piano Lessons. I Didn't Like The Lessons Very Much, But I Was Enchanted By Music. Music Always Transported Me Somewhere. Singing Made Feel Good And Being Able To Play The Piano Made Me Feel Good.

We Might Be Laughing A Bit Too Loud, But That Never Hurt No One

My Daughter Sent Me On A Mission To Get As Many Autographs As Possible.

So Many Faces In And Out Of My Life Some Will Last Some Will Be Just Now And Then. Life Is A Series Of Hellos And Goodbyes I'm Afraid It's Time For Goodbye Again. Say Goodbye To Hollywood Say Goodbye My Baby Say Goodbye To Hollywood Say Goodbye My Baby.

I Tell The Audience Every Night, "i Hope You Didn't Pay More Than Face Value On That Ticket, Because We Ain't Worth More Than That, And You Ain't Gonna Get Any More Than That."

In Every Heart There Is A Room, A Sanctuary Safe And Strong, To Heal The Wounds From Lovers Past, Until A New One Comes Along... So I Would Choose To Be With You. That's If The Choice Were Mine To Make. But You Can Make Decisions Too. And You Can Have This Heart To Break. And So It Goes, And So It Goes. And You're The Only One Who Knows.

I Am, As I've Said, Merely Competent. But In An Age Of Incompetence, That Makes Me Extraordinary.

You've Got To Be Hard, Like The Rock In That Old Rock & Roll.

I Look At Some Of The Songs I Wrote Years Ago And I Can't Believe I Wrote Such Crap.

Forced To Recognize Our Inhumanity, Our Reason Coexists With Our Insanity. And Though We Choose Between Reality And Madness, It's Either Sadness Or Euphoria.

I've Lived Long Enough To Have Learned, The Closer You Get To The Fire, The More You Get Burned.

It's Ok If You Mess Up. You Should Give Yourself A Break.

Loving Yourself

I'm Probably Writing Music Now For The Same Reason As I Started Writing Songs When I Was 14 - To Meet Women.

Rock And Roll Just Used To Be For Kicks, Now A Days It's Politics.

You'll Learn More From Your Accidents Than Anything That You Could Ever Learn At School.

There Are People Who Have Lost Every Trace Of Human Kindness.

When I First Started I Didn't Know A Lot About The Job, So I Kinda Had To Figure It Out By Wire, Ya Know? It Was Hit And Miss, I Made Mistakes, And Fortunately I Was Able To Recover From Most Of 'em. But I Promised Myself If I Ever Get To A Point Where I Can Help Somebody That's Trying To Learn How To Do This, That I Would Try To Do That.

It's Alright, You Can Afford To Lose A Day Or Two

Well I Never Had A Place That I Could Call My Very Own/that's All Right, My Love, 'cause You're My Home.

You Look So Polished From Your Hair Down To Your Toes, But Still Your Finger's Gonna Pick Your Nose.

It's Really Hard To Make A Living As A Musician. It's Almost Impossible.

Well We're Waiting Here In Allentown For The Pennsylvania We Never Found For The Promises Our Teachers Gave If We Worked Hard If We Behaved So The Graduations Hang On The Wall But They Never Really Helped Us At All No They Never Taught Us What Was Real

You May Be Right, I May Be Crazy, But It Just Might Be A Lunatic You're Looking For

People In Music Lie, But They Don't Expect You To Believe Them. People In Television Actually Expect You To Believe The Lies.

The Joy Of Life Is Made Up Of Obscure And Seemingly Mundane Victories That Give Us Our Own Small Satisfactions.

Call Me A Joker, Call Me A Fool, Right At This Moment I'm Totally Cool.

You Can Walk Away From Your Mistakes You Can Turn Your Back On What You Do Just A Little Smile Is All It Takes And You Can Have Your Cake And Eat It Too. Loneliness Will Get To You Somehow But Ev'rybody Loves You Now.

We All Have A Face That We Hide Away Forever, And We Take Them Out And Show Ourselves When Everyone Has Gone.

You Can Speak Your Mind But Not On My Time.

Speak Your Mind

I Have A Theory That The Only Original Things We Ever Do Are Mistakes.

We All End In The Ocean. We All Start In The Streams. We're All Carried Along, By The River Of Dreams.

She Can Kill With A Smile. She Can Wound With Her Eyes. She Can Ruin Your Faith With Her Casual Lies. And She Only Reveals What She Wants You To See. She Hides Like A Child, But She's Always A Woman To Me.

My Friends And I Are Crazy. That's The Only Thing That Keeps Us Sane!

I'm Single But Interviewing.

Move To California - My First Impression Of The Wild West.

First Impression

There's Nothing Better Than Good Sex. But Bad Sex? A Peanut Butter And Jelly Sandwich Is Better Than Bad Sex.

I Could Walk Away From Anyone I Ever Knew, But I Can't Walk Away From You.

It Feels Great To Have A #1 Album.

When I Look At Great Works Of Art Or Listen To Inspired Music, I Sense Intimate Portraits Of The Specific Times In Which They Were Created.

You Can’t Go The Distance With Too Much Resistance

You May Be Wrong, But You May Be Right.

We Didn't Start The Fire It Was Always Burning Since The World's Been Turning We Didn't Start The Fire No We Didn't Light It But We Tried To Fight It

I'm Writing For The Sake Of Writing Music. Whether It Gets Heard Or Not Isn't An Issue For Me. It Keeps My Own Juices Going And My Mind Active.

Every Time I've Held A Rose, It Seems I Only Felt The Thorns

I'm Carrying The Weight Of All The Useless Junk And Modern Man Accumulates.

In An Age Of Incompetence, I've Been Able To Last In This Crazy Business. I Actually Know How To Play My Ax And Write A Song. That's My Job.

My Songs Are Like My Kids.

I Would Not Leave You In Your Times Of Trouble. We Never Could Have Come This Far. I Took The Good Times, I'll Take The Bad Times, I'll Take You Just The Way You Are.

'our Parents' Generation Had It A Lot Tougher Than We Did. They Had To Live Through The Depression, World War Ii, And Then They Had To, You Know, Try To Pick Up The Pieces Of Their Lives And Bring Up Their Children. And, It Was A Great Example For Us. I Guess We Grew Up With A Certain Amount Of The Ethics Our Parents Had, Which Is, You Know: Work Hard, Make Your Own Way, Be Independent.

I Didn't Graduate High School, So I Never Got A Teacher's Education, I'm Mostly Self-read, Self-taught. I Always Loved Music, So I Would Probably Either Be In A Band With Another Group Of People, Or An Arranger, A Producer, A Musicologist, A Music History Guy, Something To Do With Music. Either That, Or I Would Probably Be In Jail. Or Dead.

I Had A Melody And A Rhythm And Chords, But Nothing To Talk About. I Remember Reading About How The Decline Of The Steel Industry Had Been Affecting The Lehigh Valley, And I Decided That's What I Was Going To Write The Song About.

I Don't Belong In Limos Or Private Jets Or On Stage With People Cheering Me But That's What's Kept Me Grounded Because I Know It's Not Right.

In Every Heart There Is A Room, A Sanctuary Safe And Strong, To Heal The Wounds From Lovers Past, Until A New One Comes Along

I Have To Thank My Mother For Paying For The Piano Lessons For All Those Years.

You Get Paid Like A Really Good Call Girl. Walking Offstage Is Like The Walk Of Shame.

Sing Us A Song You're The Piano Man. Sing Us A Song Tonight. Cause We're All In The Mood For A Melody, And You've Got Us Feeling All Right.

Don't Be Afraid To Try Again Everyone Goes South Every Now And Then.

I Compare Songwriting To Childbirth. How Many Kids Can You Have Before Your Uterus Explodes?

She Can Kill With Her Smile, She Can Wound With Her Eyes.

I Never Said I Wasn't Going To Play Any More. I Don't Know Where That Came From.

We're On The Verge Of All Things New.

This Is Our Moment, Here At The Cross-roads Of Time. Time Is Relentless And As The Past Dissappears, We're On The Verge Of All Things New.

I Believe That All Important Matters Have To Be Settled Here, Not In The Clouds Somewhere After We Kick Off.

Maybe This Won't Last Very Long But You Feel So Right And I Could Be Wrong. Maybe I've Been Hoping Too Hard. I've Gone This Far And It's More Than I Hope For.

Oh, She Takes Care Of Herself. She Can Wait If She Wants. She's Ahead Of Her Time. Oh, And She Never Gives Out. And She Never Gives In. She Just Changes Her Mind.

You Just Sit Home And Masturbate. The Phone Is Going To Ring Soon, But You Just Can't Wait.

I Don't Know Why I Go To Extremes.

Even Though I'm In Love, Sometimes I Get So Afraid.

I Don't Care What Consequence It Brings, I Have Been A Fool For Lesser Things.

Lawrence Of Arabia, British Beatlemania.

Lawrence Of Arabia

She's Got A Way About Her, And Everywhere She Goes, A Million Dreams Of Love Surround Her, Everywhere.

Here I Am Starting A Franchise And I'm Gonna Be 65 Years Old. I Should've Started This In 1978... I Wrote Like 300 Songs And I'm Gonna Have To Re-learn Some Of Them!

I Sold My House To Jerry Seinfeld.

Why Do Musicians Give So Much Time To Charitable Causes? The Most Humanitarian Cause That We Can Give Our Time To Is The Creation And Performance Of Music Itself.

Let Me Go On Sleeping And I Will Lose Myself In Palaces Of Sand, And All The Fantasies That I've Been Keeping Will Make The Empty Hours Easier To Stand.

There's A Deep-seated Paranoia That Americans Have About Not Being Americans Or Something.

Give Us This Day Our Daily Discount Outlet Merchandise...

Out Of Respect For The Things That I Was Never Destined To Do, I Have Learned That My Strengths Are A Result Of My Weaknesses, My Success Is Due To My Failures, And My Style Is Directly Related To My Limitations.

Following A Code Of Silence, You're Never Gonna Lose The Anger.

Streetlife Serenaders Have No Obligations Hold No Grand Illusions Need No Stimulation.

No Matter What Culture You're From, Everyone Loves Music.

I May Be An Antique Like The Stones, But Antiques Are Valuable.

In Hell There's A Big Hotel Where The Bar Just Closed And The Windows Never Opened. No Phone So You Can't Call Home, And The Tv Works, But The Clicker Is Broken.

I See The Children With Their Boredom And Their Vacant Stares.

You're Not The Only One Who's Made Mistakes, But They're The Only Things That You Can Truly Call Your Own.

Streetlife Serenader Never Sang On Stages, Needs No Orchestration, Melody Comes Easy, Need No Vast Arrangement To Do Their Harmonizing.

Though You Can See When You're Wrong, You Know You Can't Always See When You're Right.

I Believe I've Passed The Age Of Consciousness And Righteous Rage. I've Found That Just Surviving Is A Noble Fight. I Once Believed In Causes Too; I Had My Pointless Points Of View. And Life Went On No Matter Who As Wrong Or Right.

...and You're The Only One Who Knows.

Morning Inspirational

My Love For You

I Consider Myself To Be An Inept Pianist, A Bad Singer, And A Merely Competent Songwriter. What I Do, In My Opinion, Is By No Means Extraordinary.

When I Was 19, I Made My First Good Week's Pay As A Club Musician. It Was Enough Money For Me To Quit My Job At The Factory And Still Pay The Rent And Buy Some Food. I Freaked.

I Always Thought Of Myself As The Piano Player In The Band. That, I Suppose, I'm Confident About, And I Guess My Songwriting Developed As I Went Along And I Got A Certain Amount Of Confidence In That. The Songs Are Like My Kids, I'm Proud Of All Of Them For One Reason Or Another.

I Run Into People From The Lehigh Valley And Allentown All Over The World, And They're Obviously Doing Pretty Well. They Say, "oh, It's Pretty Nice There Now And There's A Lot Of New Businesses That Have Come Into The Area." Nobody's Telling Me, "yeah, I Left." Everybody Says, "you Know, I'm There. It's Great. It's Really Nice There, And You Made Our Town Famous."

Some Of The Stuff I'm Writing Is Almost Like Hymns, Some Of My First Singing And Choral Experiences Were In Church, The Church Of Christ In Hicksville.

Don't Make Music For Some Vast, Unseen Audience Or Market Or Ratings Share Or Even For Something As Tangible As Money. Though It's Crucial To Make A Living, That Shouldn't Be Your Inspiration. Do It For Yourself.

We Are Living In A Time When American Popular Music Is Finally Being Recognized As One Of Our Most Successful Exports. The Demand Is Huge.

Hope You Don't Think This Is Billy Joel Unplugged. I'm A Piano Player. I'm Already Unplugged.

I'd Rather Laugh With The Sinners Than Cry With The Saints - The Sinners Are Much More Fun.

I've Passed The Age Of Consciousness And Righteous Rage. I Found That Just Surviving Was A Noble Fight.

The Piano Sounds Like A Carnival And The Microphone Smells Like A Beer. And They Sit At The Bar And Put Bread In My Jar And Say, Man, What Are You Doing Here?

No End To Sorrow, Caused By The Same Endless Fears. Why Can't We Learn From All We've Been Through After Two Thousand Years?

I Guess Some People In Classical Music Can Keep Going Until They Kick (die) And The (rolling) Stones Are Definitely Pushing The Envelope But I Wonder If Here's A Time When You Have To Face Whether You Are As Good As You Used To Be.

Dream On, But Don't Imagine They'll All Come True. When Will You Realize... Vienna Waits For You.

You've Got Yoga, I've Got Beer. You Got Overpriced, I Got Weird.

I'm Not Sure About Life After This; God Knows I'm Not A Spiritual Man.

I'm Not The Kind Of Guy Who Wants To Be On A Pedestal.

If I Ever Reach Heaven I Expect To Find Three Wonders There: First, To Meet Some I Had Not Thought To See There; Second, To Miss Some I Had Expected To See There; And Third, The Greatest Wonder Of All, To Find Myself There.

All She Wanted Was Sax.

I Said I Love You And That's Forever And This I Promise From The Heart I Could Not Love You Any Better I Love You Just The Way You Are.

You've Got Your Passion. You've Got Your Pride. But Don't You Know That Only Fools Are Satisfied? Dream On, But Don't Imagine They'll All Come True.

Sergeant O'leary Is Walking The Beat, At Night He Becomes A Bar Tender.

This Is The Time To Remember Cause It Will Not Last Forever. These Are The Days To Hold Onto Cause We Won't Although We'll Want To.

If You Could Only Hear What I Dream.

I Consider Myself To Be An Inept Pianist, A Bad Singer, And A Merely Competent Songwriter. ... I'm Probably Writing Music Now For The Same Reason As I Started Writing Songs When I Was 14-to Meet Women. ... If You Make Music For The Human Needs You Have Within Yourself, Then You Do It For All Humans Who Need The Same Things. You Enrich Humanity With The Profound Expression Of These Feelings. ... My Songs Are Like My Kids.

What Will It Take For You To Believe In Me, The Way That I Believe In You?

I Work With Musicians Whose Opinions I Respect And If They Don't Like Something They Don't Hold Back. They'll Say, 'that Really Sucks' And 'you've Lost It' And 'you're No Good Anymore.' And I Crawl Away With My Tail Between My Legs And I Fear That Kind Of Ridicule, But I Want Them To Like The Music I'm Bringing To Them.

I Am The Entertainer And I Know Just Where I Stand Another Serenader And Another Long Haired Band Today I Am Your Champion, I May Have Won Your Hearts, But I Know The Game, You'll Forget My Name, And I Won't Be Here In Another Year If I Don't Stay On The Charts.

We're Only Human, We're Supposed To Make Mistakes.

Making Mistakes

And So My Child And I Came To This Place To Meet Him Eye To Eye And Face To Face. He Made My Daughter Laugh, Then We Embraced. We Never Knew What Friends We Had, Until We Came To Leningrad.

I Have Been Both Praised And Criticized. The Criticism Stung, But The Praise Sometimes Bothered Me Even More. To Have Received Such Praise And Honors Has Always Been Puzzling To Me.

The Whole World Loves American Movies, Blue Jeans, Jazz And Rock And Roll. It Is Probably A Better Way To Get To Know Our Country Than By What Politicians Or Airline Commercials Represent.

If You Tell Kids They Can't Have Something, That's What They Want.

Ain't No Rainbows Shining On Me, Shades Of Gray Are The Colors I See.

Some People Find It's Easier To Hate.

Take Risks. Take Chances. Don't Be Afraid. You Gotta Go Into Life Brave.

Know What You Love And Do What You Love. If You Don't Do What You Love, You're Just Wasting Your Time.

Wasting Your Time

If You Search For Truthfulness, You Might As Well Be Blind.

As Long As There Are Memories, Yesterday Remains. As Long As There Is Hope, Tomorrow Awaits. As Long As There Is Friendship, Today Is Beautiful.

I've Played All Kinds Of Places, Laid All Kinds Of Girls.

And The Only People I Fear Are Those Who Never Have Doubts... Save Us All From Arrogant Men, And All The Causes They're For.

There Will Be Other Words Some Other Day; That Is The Story Of My Life.

Story Of My Life

Some Love Is Just A Lie Of The Heart, The Cold Remains Of What Began With A Passionate Heart.

Rock And Roll Cola Wars, I Can't Take It Any More.

Everybody Is Different. Some Writers Can Write Reams Of Great Books And Then J. D. Salinger Wrote Just A Few. Beethoven Wrote Nine Symphonies. They Were All Phenomenal. Mozart Wrote Some 40 Symphonies, And They Were All Phenomenal. That Doesn't Mean Beethoven Was A Lesser Writer, It's Just Some Guys Are Capable Of More Productivity, Some Guys Take More Time.

What If She Figures Out You're Not Very Smart?

Unanswered Questions

You Only Beat Me If You Get Me To Hate.

I Can't Remember Faces, Don't Remember Names, But After Awhile And A Thousand Miles It All Becomes The Same.

I Definitely Prefer Being A Lover Than A Fighter.

Hot Funk, Cold Punk, Even If It's Old Junk, It's Still Rock And Roll To Me.

I Was Thinking Of The Four Seasons, Frankie Valli And The Four Seasons, And When I Was Thinking "uptown Girl!" I Was Trying To Sing Like Frankie Valli. They Had A Song Called "ragdoll," Which Was About A Poor Girl And A Rich Guy. So I Just Flipped It Around And Made It About A Rich Girl And A Poor Guy.

Every Child Had A Pretty Good Shot, To Get At Least As Far As Their Old Man Got. But Something Happened On The Way To That Place. They Threw An American Flag In Our Face.

There's An Old Man Sitting Next To Me, Making Love To His Tonic And Gin.

I Don't Want Clever Conversation, I Never Want To Work That Hard, I Just Want Someone I Can Talk To, I Want You Just The Way You Are.

As An Atheist You Have To Rationalize Things... Then You Have To Try And Make Some Sort Of Sense Out Of Your Problems. And If You Try And Find You Can't, You Have No Choice But To Be Good And Scared -- But That's Okay!

I'm Sure You Have Some Cosmic Rationale, But Here You Are With Your Faith And Your Peter Pan Advice.

If You Said Good-bye To Me Tonight, There Would Still Be Music Left To Write.

You Want To Give People A Reason To Hate My Guts More? I'm Making More Money.

They Say That These Are Not The Best Of Times, But They're The Only Times I've Ever Known. And I Believe There Is A Time For Meditation In Cathedrals Of Our Own. Now I Have Seen That Sad Surrender In My Lovers Eyes...and I Can Only Stand Apart And Sympathize...for We Are Only What Our Situations Hand Us...it's Either Sadness Or Euphoria.

You May Never Understand How The Stranger Is Inspired For He Is Not Always Evil, And He Is Not Always Wrong.

So You Play Your Albums And You Smoke Your Pot And You Meet Your Girlfriend In The Parking Lot Oh, But Still You're Aching For The Things You Haven't Got, What Went Wrong? And If You Can't Understand Why Your World Is So Dead And Why You've Got To Keep In Style And Feed Your Head Well, You're Twenty One And Still You Mother Makes Your Bed And That's Too Long.

I Believe There Is A Time For Meditation In Cathedrals Of Our Own.

Where Have You Been Hanging Out Lately Honey? You Can't Dress Trashy 'til You Spend A Lot Of Money.

Twyla Tharp Put It Together From The Material I Wrote And Recorded Over My Whole Career. I Thought It Was Pretty Good, But How Objective Could I Be?

Historically, Musicians Know What It Is Like To Be Outside The Norm - Walking The High Wire Without A Safety Net. Our Experience Is Not So Different From Those Who March To The Beat Of Different Drummers.

It's Nine O'clock On A Saturday, The Regular Crowd Shuffles In / There's An Old Man Sitting Next To Me Making Love To His Tonic And Gin / He Says, 'son, Can You Play Me A Memory?/ I'm Not Really Sure How It Goes / But It's Sad And It's Sweet, And I Knew It Complete When I Wore A Younger Man's Clothes.'

There Will Be Miracles After The Last War Is Won Science And Poetry Rule In The New World To Come Prophets And Angels Gave Us The Power To See What An Amazing Future There Will Be

Working Too Hard Can Give You A Heart-attack.

The Happiest Times In My Life Were When My Relationships Were Going Well - When I Was In Love With Someone, And Someone Was Loving Me. But In My Whole Life, I Haven't Met The Person I Can Sustain A Relationship With Yet. So I'm Discontented About That. I'm Angry With Myself. I Have Regrets.

I Would Say The Songs That Have Different Lyrics. I Always Write The Music First, And There's A Couple Of Songs On This Box Set That Have Different Lyrics From What Ended Up On The Final Recording.

If It Seems Like I've Been Lost In 'lets Remember', If It Seems I'm Gettin' Older And Missin' My Younger Days, Well You Shoulda Known Me Much Better, Cause The Past Is Something That Never Got In My Way.

I Always Wanted To Try To Be A Teacher Even Before I Was In The Music Business. I Liked History, And Good Teachers Made An Impact On Me.

I Was Listening To Stuff And I Realized That I've Had A Lot Of Different Lives. You Know The Theory [that Says] Every Seven Years, You Have A Different Life? I Think That's True.

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