Blues Quotes

But that miracle would eventually arrive, as it always had, and the landscape would turn from brown to green within hours under the kiss of the rain. And there were other colours that would follow the green; yellows, blues, reds would appear in patches across the veld as if great cakes of dye had been crumbled and scattered by an unseen hand. ~ Alexander McCall Smith

I can still write blues songs because I remember everything. ~ Eddie Vedder

Do anything you wanna do - but from [the heart]. Music is a thing from the heart, from the soul, just like anything else you do, man. And you can be the best, you can be what you wanna be. That's right! You can do what you wanna do. I believe - I'm a blues player. I never been a millionaire, but let me tell you something - I think I am. Cause I got this. I've got what it take. And I don't care if you don't believe me, man, but I know you do. Because this is what it's all about. Anything you do, if you wanna do it and you love it, you rich. You a millionaire, man. ~ Hubert Sumlin

You have to understand – there is a romance to Africa. You can see a sunset and believe you have witnessed the hand of God. You watch the slow lope of a lioness and forget to breathe. You marvel at the tripod of a giraffe bent to water. In Africa, there are iridescent blues on the wings of birds that you do not see anywhere else in nature. In Africa, in the midday heat, you can see blisters in the atmosphere. When you are in Africa, you feel primordial, rocked in the cradle of the world. ~ Jodi Picoult

To me it comes naturally, the peaks and valleys, sadness with happiness. I've definitely had periods, maybe, where I haven't been happy. Whether it's from a breakup or the good, old-fashioned blues - but I wouldn't say clinically depressed. ~ Luke Wilson

At this, Gansey rolled over onto his back and folded his hands on his chest. He wore a salmon polo shirt, which, in Blue's opinion, was far more hellish than anything they'd discussed to this point. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

In 1908 Handy didn't know anything about the blues and he doesn't know anything about jazz and stomps to this day. I myself figured out the peculiar form of mathematics and harmonies that was strange to all the world but me. ~ Jelly Roll Morton

Put tattoos all up and down our thighs, do anything our parents would despise. Take uppers, downers, blues, and reds and yellows, our brains are turning into jello. ~ Joan Baez

I've got the blues in my heart, and the devil in my fingers. ~ Angus Young

I come from a democratic world. My world is moderate Democrats, Reagan-type Democrats if you want, the blues or whatever you call them, the Blue Dogs. That's been my world, historically. ~ Carl Paladino

'Tailgate Blues' is kind of a lyrical masterpiece of a country song. ~ Luke Bryan

I realized I was tired of singing about trees and flowers. I wanted to sing about real life. From then on, nobody could tell me anything was better than blues. ~ Robert Cray

I thought I heard
Gansey broke off. His eyes dropped to where Adam held Blue's hand. Again his face was somewhat puzzled by the fact of their hand-holding. Adam's grip tightened, although she didn't think he meant for it to. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

Rhythm and blues started even before phonograph records were being produced because black people entertained themselves. It wasn't done for money. It was done for entertainment. Most white people didn't know anything about this because prejudice kept them from ever seeing what was going on. ~ Jesse Stone

You know, the BBC had not been particularly generous in its deliverance of blues and esoteric kinds of music. ~ Keith Richards

You know those days when you get the mean reds?"
"Same as the blues?"
"No," she said slowly. "No, the blues are because you're getting fat or maybe it's been raining too long. You're sad, that's all. But the mean reds are horrible. You're afraid and you sweat like hell, but you don't know what you're afraid of ... ~ Truman Capote

The Gray soldiers prowl the cities ensuring order, ensuring obedience to the hierarchy. The Whites arbitrate their justice and push their philosophy. Pinks pleasure and serve in highColor homes. Silvers count and manipulate currency and logistics. Yellows study the medicines and sciences. Greens develop technology. Blues navigate the stars. Coppers run the beauracracy. Every Color has a purpose. Every Color props up the Golds. The ~ Pierce Brown

Lorne finally said, Do the Blues Brothers thing. The response was amazing. People went nuts. ~ Steve Cropper

After 'The Blues Brothers,' I wanted to do a good musical number with real dancers and shoot it correctly. ~ John Landis

'Blues Clues' has been incredibly good to me, and I've been working so hard on it for so long that I take it very personally. I wouldn't want to do anything to jeopardize what so many kids love. So there's a lot of responsibility there. ~ Steve Burns

Sometimes I feel like nothin,' somethin' throwed away,
Somethin' throwed away.
And then I get my guitar, play the blues all day. ~ William Christopher Handy

All you need is the blues. To me, the blues is the book, it's the bible, it's everything. ~ August Wilson

A small crowd had gathered to gaze at the astonishing display of color: vivid blues; regal purples; soft, candy-floss pinks; strawberry reds; vibrant lime greens; sun-bright, buttercup yellows; rich oranges; and creamy, vanilla whites. Tilly's eyes were unable to take it all in, her mouth unable to suppress a smile of sheer delight. It was as if someone had poured a box of paints onto this one street, leaving nothing with which to brighten up the drab gray of the rest of the city she had just passed. ~ Hazel Gaynor

My father's nephew was the blues musician, Lowell Fulson. Every time he came around, he had a pretty car, a beautiful woman and a slick sharkskin suit. Believe it or not, that's how I decided I wanted to get into music. ~ Charlie Wilson

Blues is like American Express. I don't leave home without it. ~ Buddy Guy

The blues tells a story. Every line of the blues has a meaning. ~ John Lee Hooker

I mean something dirty, sweaty," Luiz corrected idly, leaning closer. He stroked the back of his knuckles down Michael's cheek. "What I like best. Rock, blues, with an edge of metal. Something dangerous. Real. The audience driven to ... well, in the old days it would have been bloodlust. But these are more temperate times. So lust will have to do. ~ Jae T. Jaggart

Let me sing you a waltz / Out of nowhere, out of my thoughts / Let me sing you a waltz / About this one night stand / You were, for me, that night / Everything I always dreamt of in life / But now you're gone / You are far gone / All the way to your island of rain / It was for you just a one night thing / But you were much more to me, just so you know / I don't care what they say / I know what you meant for me that day / I just want another try, I just want another night / Even if it doesn't seem quite right / You meant for me much more than anyone I've met before / One single night with you, little Jesse, is worth a thousand with anybody / I have no bitterness, my sweet / I'll never forget this one night thing / Even tomorrow in other arms, my heart will stay yours until I die / Let me sing you a waltz / Out of nowhere, out of my blues / Let me sing you a waltz / About this lovely one night stand ~ Julie Delpy

We're not like a nostalgia act, or the normal classic rock act - we're a really good musical organization, ... You're going to hear some blues, some jazz, a little of everything. The guys in the band are great musicians. When we play, we're there for real. It's not about posing, strutting in tights, that kind of stuff. It's all about music, and I've always respected my audience that way. ~ Steve Miller

She sat on the end of Blue's bed, looking as soft as a poem in the dim light. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

When I went to Memphis and Mississippi and Nashville, I learnt the blues is a whole way of life. I don't really have the blues, but I can appreciate the honesty and the simplicity of it. ~ Gin Wigmore

I think every once in a while country has lost its way, but found its way back. It's always going to drift away from the traditional side, but then find a way to return. There's room for all kinds of influences be it pop, blues, gospel or whatever. But I will always say that I think we need more traditional country music coming down the pike. ~ Randy Travis

A jazz tune, melody, or composition is usually based on either a traditional twelve-bar, eight-bar, or four-bar blues chorus or on the thirty-two-bar chorus of the American popular song. ~ Albert Murray

The Righteous Brothers were purely rhythm and blues, black music. ~ Bill Medley

Suddenly William loomed over him, scowling, snarling and bloody, his suit dirt-stained and ripped. "Do you know. How many strands. Of hair I lost. On my way down?"
Whatever. "Math was never my thing, but I'm gonna say you lost…a lot."
Electric-blues glittered with menace. "You are a cruel, sadistic bastard. My hair needs TLC and you…you… Damn you! I've gutted men for less."
"I know. I've watched you." Paris lumbered to his feet and scanned the rocky bank they stood upon, the crimson ocean lapping and bubbling in every direction. The drawbridge was only a fifty-yard dash away. "Don't kill the messenger, but I'm thinking you should change your dating profile to balding."
Masculine cheeks went scarlet as the big bad warrior struggled for a comeback.
…
"One of these days you're going to wake up," William finally said, "and I will have shaved you. Everywhere."
"Won't make a difference. Women will still want me. But you know what else? What I did to you wasn't cruel, Willy." He offered the warrior a white-flag grin. A trick. A lie. "This, however, is."
He grabbed William by the wrist, swung the man around and around before at last releasing him and hurling his body directly onto the bridge. ~ Gena Showalter

These characters were like twelve-bar blues or other chord progressions. Given the basic parameters of Batman, different creators could play very different music. ~ Grant Morrison

I've always been serious that way, trying to evolve to a more conscious state. Funny thing about that,though. You tweak yourself,looking for more love, less lust, more compassion, less jealousy. You keep tweaking, keep adjusting those knobs until you can no longer find the original settings. In some sense,the original settings are exactly what I'm looking for-a return to the easygoing guy i was before my world got complicated, the nice guy who took things as they came and laughed so hard the blues would blow away in the summer wind. ~ Bill Withers

And as I started reaching deeper I realized that most of the blues of that day was done by men. Women just didn't have the nerve. ~ Etta James

I call myself a blues singer, but you ain't never heard me call myself a blues guitar man. ~ B.B. King

Hard rock, heavy metal, stoner rock, doom metal-it all dragged itself up out of the swamp called the blues. ~ Grady Hendrix

I grew up in the funk, rock and roll, blues and r&b tradition, and I came to this thing we call jazz later. And I came to improvise music from the standpoint of jazz; I was improvising, but within these other genres of music. ~ Hamid Drake

For me, the ultimate form of expression is blues, where jazz appeals to me on an intellectual level. ~ Scott Henderson

Eve looked away for a moment, then locked her ridiculous baby blues on him. She whipped a knife out of God knows where and held it in front of her face.

Oh, crap. She's gonna try to kill Cole's girl. ~ Debra Anastasia

I think that as you get older, you mellow out a lot more. Having been through the ups and downs in life, I feel more qualified to play the blues. ~ Mick Ralphs

So much for the recreational side of night life in the upper-bracket-income hotels of Manhattan. And in its root-origins the very word itself is implicit with implication: re-create. Analyze it and you'll see it also means to reproduce. But clever, ingenious Man has managed to sidetrack it into making life more livable.
("New York Blues") ~ Cornell Woolrich

Driving me nuts, bolts, screws
I got the blues from paying dues
For programmed news of honeycoated lies
Your eyes can't believe
That weave the Devil's magic with the latest gadget
From the Mean Machine
A'running the Same Game with Another Name
Down in your brain, blowing your mind
Stealing your time, smooth and slick
With the latest trick to get rich quick
From nonsense at your mind's expense
As your mind digs the scene
From the Mean Machine
Designed to drive your brain insane

From "Mean Machine" by the Last Poets ~ Jalal Mansur Nuriddin

I don't think of myself as a folk singer per se, but I really like blues and string-band music. When I started listening to records when I was a teenager, the folk boom was going on. ~ Loudon Wainwright III

I like "God Give Me the Strength" very much. It's not really a blues and to call it a ballad is absurd. I don't know, its mid-tempo. Mark (St. John) actually wrote it and I think its very telling of our lives in the 60s. Its just a good song, ya know ... ~ Dick Taylor

Comedy is a funny thing, and it's really not like any other art form in that it's very specialized and varied in it's content, but generic in it's title. You would never go to a club just to see "Live music," you would go to a jazz club to see jazz, a blues club to see blues, etc. But when you go to see "standup comedy," if you don't know the performers material, you really don't have any idea what you're gonna get. ~ Joe Rogan

Benny [Carter] opened the eyes of a lot of producers and studios, so that they could understand that you could go to blacks for other things outside of blues and barbecue. He's a total musician. He was the pioneer, he was the foundation. He made it possible for that doubt to be taken away. ~ Quincy Jones

What makes my approach special is that I do different things. I do jazz, blues, country music and so forth. I do them all, like a good utility man. ~ Ray Charles

I don't wanta do any Blues or any sad songs. ~ Bob Livingston

I stream this radio station, Radio Nova, that's based in Paris. They curate a beautiful set that's really all over the place - they'll play blues or some West African music, then A Tribe Called Quest, then funk from Ethiopia, then James Brown, and then the Beatles. It's an amazing mix. ~ Zoe Kravitz

It started so early, it all runs together. But what made a huge impact on me was when I went to Europe at 15 or 16 years old. All I knew before that was music on the radio and TV. When I went over there I realized there are all different levels of music. There are people who do blues, jazz, classical, working in film, TV and all kinds of places. You might not see them on MTV but there are lots of needs and uses and opportunities for all kinds of music. ~ Chris Thomas King

I want to make a picture that could stand on its own, regardless of what it was a picture of. I've never been a bit interested in the fact that this was a picture of a blues musician or a street corner or something. ~ William Eggleston

I started to like blues, I guess, when I was about 6 or 7 years old. There was something about it, because nobody else played that kind of music. ~ B.B. King

It was the early days of Rock 'n' Roll in this country. We were all struggling to learn music, it might be Country, Jazz, Classical, Blues or even Rock 'n' Roll. ~ Jim Sullivan

I'm John Lee Hooker in the sense that he was a blues man and he played blues his whole life. I'm a rock guy and I'm going to play rock music my whole life. ~ Sammy Hagar

She gasps at the sight that greets her.

The florists have gone to town. There are wild meadow flowers everywhere, in pinks and whites and blues, all lit by tiny fairy lights and soft pink lanterns.

Yes. This will do.

Ana is stunned. She whips around and gapes at me.

"You wanted hearts and flowers."

She stares at me in disbelief.

"You have my heart." And I wave at the room.

"And here are the flowers," she murmurs. "Christian, it's lovely." Her voice is hoarse and I know she's close to tears.

Plucking up my courage, I lead her farther into the room. In the center of the arbor, I sink onto one knee. Ana catches her breath, and her hands fly to her mouth. From my inside jacket pocket, I pull out the ring and hold it up for her.

"Anastasia Steele. I love you. I want to love, cherish, and protect you for the rest of my life. Be mine. Always. Share my life with me. Marry me."

She is the love of my life.

It will only ever be Ana.

Her tears start to fall in earnest but her smile eclipses the moon, the stars, the sun, and all the flowers in the boathouse. ~ E.L. James

I came from a family where my people didn't like rhythm and blues. Bing Crosby - "Pennies from Heaven" - Ella Fitzgerald, was all I heard. ~ Little Richard

I had hooked up my iPod to the speakers. The air was filled with the raw, sexy purr of Etta James. "The thing that's great about the blues," I told Luke, pausing to sip from my glass of wine, "is that it's about feeling, loving, wanting without the brakes on. No one's brave enough to live that way. Except maybe musicians. ~ Lisa Kleypas

I lifted my eyes and got that wave of emotion again as his blues found me. I loved him so much I knew the fear. I'd heard others speak about it. I'd read about it in books. Now I understood. The fear that you have when you finally give your heart away to another person. It makes you very vulnerable to loss. If you never love anyone, then you'll never be hurt when they don't love you back or when they leave you. I finally had the practical experience of understanding. It sucked. ~ Raine Miller

In a low voice, Blue asked meaningfully, "Seen enough?" "Of - oh, Orla?" "Yeah." The question annoyed him. It judged him, and in this case, he didn't feel he'd done anything to deserve it. He was not Blue's business, not in that way. "What care is it of yours," he asked, "what I think of Orla?" This felt dangerous, for some reason. He possibly shouldn't have asked it. In retrospect, it wasn't the question itself at fault. It was the way that he'd asked it. His thoughts had been far away, and he hadn't been minding how he looked on the outside, and now, too late, he heard the dip of his own words. How the inflection seemed to contain a dare. Come on, Gansey, he thought. Don't ruin things. Blue held his gaze, unflinching. Crisp, she replied, "None at all." And it was a lie. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

I met a girl who sang the blues
and I asked her for some happy news,
but she just smiled and turned away.
And the three men I admire most,
The Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost,
They caught the last train to the coast
The day the music died. ~ Don McLean

Well I'm a-gonna raise a fuss, I'm gonna raise a holler
About workin' all summer just to try an' earn a dollar
Everytime I call my baby, to try to get a date
My boss says, no dice, son, you gotta work late
Sometimes I wonder what I'm gonna do
'cause there ain't no cure for the summertime blues. ~ Eddie Cochran

My guitar heroes are Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck and people like that - so I've tried to make an album of Robert Johnson covers that, well, while not totally faithful for blues purists, is faithful for people like me that grew up with the '60s and the electric blues-rock versions of Johnson's songs. ~ Todd Rundgren

I've been singing my whole life, since I was a kid; but never formally as a career. I did it in plays when I was younger, and I sang all styles of music: everything from Italian opera to blues. ~ Brittany Murphy

From folk to tribal to Cab Calloway, Cole Porter, Gershwin to the Rolling Stones, whose first record was all covers, to country-western, bebop, blues, and even the referencing in classic hip hop to cliched love ballads of the '80s or whatever - that is kinda gone, and that's just terrifying to me. ~ Cat Power

The sound of the blues, rhythm and blues, country music, is what we lived for, black and white alike. It gave you strength to sit on one of those throbbing Allis-Chalmers tractors all day if you knew you were gonna hear something on the radio or maybe see a show that evening. ~ Levon Helm

The blues is a low down achin' chill, ~ Robert Johnson

I've known people that was a part of a family and always feel that the family liked everyone else but them. That hurts, and that's as deep a hurt as you can possibly get. I've known people that would have problems with their love life. This is kind of how blues began - out of feeling misused, mistreated. Feeling like they had nobody to turn to. Blues don't necessarily have to be sung by a person that came from Mississippi as I did, because there are people having problems all over the world. ~ B.B. King

I've had the blues for twenty-four years. ~ Gillian Flynn

in blue wihout when blues dream bears
the only living girls are gold
quickly the living boys will bring them stars
and stars will sing them bells

in bells without when bells dream blooms
the only living boys are brave
quickly the living girls will bring them dooms
and dooms will praise their love ~ Jose Garcia Villa

Anytime a person can play the blues, he has a soul and he has a 'lift' to play anything else he wants to play. It's sort of like the foundation to a building. ~ Jimmy Rushing

My favorite moment of the whole thing was when John Belushi suggested that I get a hold of all the blues records I could so I could research the music. ~ Steve Cropper

The blues is a mighty long road. Or it could be a river, one that twists and turns and flows into a sea of limitless musical potential. ~ Billy Gibbons

I would sing the blues if I had the blues. ~ Chuck Berry

Them pains, when blues pains grab you, you'll sing the blues right. ~ Otis Rush

Want and need were words that got eaten smaller and smaller: Freedom, autonomy, a perennial bank balance, a stainless-steel condo in a dustless city, a silky black car, to make out with Blue, eight hours of sleep, a cell phone, a bed, to kiss Blue just once, a blister-less heel, bacon for breakfast, to hold Blue's hand, one hour of sleep, toilet paper, deodorant, a soda, a minute to close his eyes.
What do you want, Adam?
To feel awake when my eyes are open. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

If we're all aggressive, obedient solders [sic], who's going to write the poems and play the blues and go on anti-war protest marches? ~ Ken Follett

You oil field workers, come and listen to me I'm goin' to tell you a story about old John D. That company union made a fool out of me. That company union don't charge no dues It leaves you a-singing them Rockefeller blues. That company union made a fool out of me. Takes that good ole C.I.O., boys To keep that oil a-rollin', rollin' over the sea. Takes that good ole C.I.O., boys To keep that oil a-rollin' over the sea. ~ Woody Guthrie

I guess we often get the deep blues, both of us, and wonder what it all means- the people, the buildings, the day by day things, the waste of time, of ourselves. ~ Charles Bukowski

I spent a few years here in Memphis, in the late '70s and early '80s, where I was studying a lot of country blues players and their styles. So it seems like every record I'll do, I will appropriate these blues styles that I remember. ~ Alex Chilton

It is commercial pop that the majority of people understand. A working man's daughter would not understand blues. ~ Barry Gibb

Lucky Charms?" I asked.
"Magically delicious," he explained. "Requisite for any sort of building project."
I shook my head, still amazed at how he had managed to weasel his way over here. "This isn't a date."
He cut me a scandalized look. "Obviously. I'd bring Count Chocula for that. ~ Richelle Mead

I'm always on duty, so I tend to wear suits. I've got double-breasted and single-breasted, mostly dark blues and grays. I'm obsessed with them, and I always have been. ~ Charlie Siem

There was a time when I had the blues - I mean I really had it bad. I couldn't pay my light bill and I couldn't pay my rent and I really had the blues. But today I can pay my rent and I can pay the light bill and I still got the blues. So I must been born with 'em ... That's my religion - the blues is my religion. ~ Muddy Waters

They say the blues is sad, but when B.B. sings 'I got a sweet little angel, I love the way she spreads her wings,' that don't sound too sad to me! ~ Buddy Guy

I kind of got really, really into 'Hill Street Blues' when it came out. I used to leave a class early just to make sure I could watch the episode of 'Hill Street Blues' that day. ~ Mark Pellegrino

Singers come and go; the music business waxes and wanes. The blues are popular and unpopular, often at the same time. ~ Linda Barnes

Sometimes you wake up from a dream.
Sometimes you wake up from a dream.
Sometimes you wake up from a dream.
And sometimes, if you are very lucky, you wake up and it's real ... ~ Jose N Harris

And there's blues in my bed, 'cause l'm sleepin' by myself. ~ Julio Cortazar

I'm not good enough to be playin' much acoustic guitar onstage. Man, you gotta get so right; I mean, the tones, the feel, the sound. Plus, acoustic blues guitar is just that much harder on the fingers. ~ Johnny Winter

Blues is a natural fact, is something that a fellow lives. If you don't live it you don't have it. Young people have forgotten to cry the blues. Now they talk and get lawyers and things. ~ Big Bill Broonzy

Everything comes from one thing, everything comes from the Spirit. Jazz would not exist had it not been for gospel music, the blues would not exist had it not been for spiritual blues, which goes back to slave songs our fore fathers were singing while they were out in the field. So it's all one continuous growth from one group of people. Of course jazz now is played by various cultures and colors around the world. But the stimulus is One Voice. ~ Ramsey Lewis

You reached into my chest with your words. When you spoke, my heart danced. Love muddled thoughts based in reason. Interest withered like a flower in dry heat then your words wrapped themselves around my heart and yanked it from my body. Now I stand bewildered by the sight of my heart beating on the cold concrete floor. ~ Sonya Watson

I grew up in the South with my father; blues and country, that's always been my core. But I had it in me not to do what was expected. I wanted to find my own footing. ~ Lisa Marie Presley

I hope it might help players have confidence in our own ways, and not to be afraid of them, as Bernstein showed - things like hoe-downs, fiddle songs, and the art of improvisation, and the New Orleans funeral tradition, and call-and-response church singing, and the fact that the blues run through everything. And in our relationship to European music, in that we don't have to imitate it, it's a part of us, inseparable. ~ Wynton Marsalis

I have a lot of friends who are involved in everything from Americana to blues to R&B to pop to country. ~ John Oates

Maybe someday you can accuse somebody of being a poseur by selling out and playing blues music, but that's just not going to happen in my lifetime. ~ John Mayer