Music Liberation Quotes

When you stick a song on a tape, you set it free.

Stone walls confine a tinker; cold iron binds a witch; but a musician's music can never be fettered, for it lives first in her heart and mind.

I want to make hand-held music, undiminished by the need to make everybody in the world listen at once. The goal is to ride into the sunset, stereo blasting, and all of what's got you worried will disappear in the rear view mirror!

Pop music allows you to be who you are without having to wear a social uniform or to conform, which some people find impossible to do.

In theater and dance, I was trying to win someone's approval, trying to get in, trying to be good. It felt out of my control, whereas music suddenly felt like this free expression. It was fun.

I always imagined music trapped inside my clarinet, not trapped inside of me. But what if music is what escapes when a heart breaks?

For me music is totally freeing, and it's its' own language too. You follow it, in a way.

The imminent demise of the large record companies as gatekeepers of the world's popular music is a good thing, for the most part.

I heard a political message in rock music. A liberation message. A message of freedom. I heard it in Elvis' voice.

Monk encouraged me to emancipate the drums from their subservient role as timekeepers.

Christian bookstores have banned our records, but we don't need them.

I play until my fingers are blue and stiff from the cold, and then I keep on playing. Until I'm lost in the music. Until I am the music--notes and chords, the melody and harmony. It hurts, but it's okay because when I'm the music, I'm not me. Not sad. Not afraid. Not desperate. Not guilty.