J. H. Oldham Quotes
I don't like the idea of being surrounded by hidden things; people you can't see in buildings and cars.
I think that what trips up a lot of great musicians is that they become involved with too many things that aren't where their strengths lie.
As it turns out, as an adult I can have a very unpleasant, fierce and unforgiving temper at times. But I don't think I had that when I was a kid.
I need to go someplace faraway that doesn't have telephones and doesn't have a record player and doesn't have movie theaters and people walking down the street in order to not do anything.
The Beatles looked like they were in show business, and that was the important thing. And the important thing for the Rolling Stones was to look as if they were not.
It's nice to be able to backtrack and not be embarrassed by the music you used to listen to.
I'd like my records to reach as many people as possible, but I'm also thinking in terms of how I can keep from getting jaded or unhappy with the process.
I don't usually read reviews. I usually read the interviews, just because I figure it's a good way to try to do them better if I ever have to do them again.
The great artists represent you. The great products represent you. They don't tell you who you are. But with them, you require less verbiage.
There's very little admirable about being a pirate. There's very little functional about a pirate. There's very little real about a pirate.
Frank Sinatra's never been handsome, but he's one of my favorite singers. Who needs looks when you have a voice and power?
I figure it's okay to make certain rules, whether or not people despise you for it at the time.
I think everybody works from a defensive position, for the most part, in the film industry.
I think most great actors have their own life trajectory, the character motion doesn't have anything to do with their life motion.
I don't like going to cities. I don't mind maybe being in a city sometimes for a few hours, but I pretty much don't like cities. I don't even like passing through them.
Whenever I see something that looks like it could be good - whether it's on vinyl, CD or cassette - if it's not too expensive, I'll take a chance.
I think that America in general is piratical. Every time we accept a paycheck for doing almost nothing, allowing us to live above the poverty line, we're engaging in piracy.
It's definitely important to be open enough to seize an opportunity when the opportunity is there.
I feel much more physically connected to my voice, and I like the physicality of the voice, and how the voice can physically occupy a song.
Sometimes it will be for more money than I've ever been offered before. I mean, am I an idiot again for not doing that?
You're making something that won't be what it is until some unknown date in the future. All aspects of the personal disappear.
It's good when someone says, "Would you write a song for this purpose," or "would you record a song for this purpose," or "would you help me realize this song," again, for this purpose.
What is normally called religion is what I would tend to call music - participating in music, listening to music, making records and singing.
Sometimes we need to tell ourselves that we're not going to do certain things, just in order to stay sane.
I make the songs and part of making them is singing them. But what you hear is not me. It's the song. It's through me.
One thing that the Internet has created is the sense that information is at your fingertips, when it's really only a very, very limited, specific, and slanted kind of information.
I write a song to be recorded. And to some extent to be performed, but definitely more to be recorded than performed, because the recording will last longer than a performance.
I don't think that word - the word pirate - has any real meaning. Or it's something that's had meaning imposed on it.
To me, recordings are little fourth-dimension artifacts, because they already are representatives of past, present, and future, just inherently in their existence.
Sometimes the ensemble 'Eighth Blackbird' will have performances and invite me to be a featured soloist. I think that is what they call it in that world-"featured soloist."
Too much emphasis is put on American roots music when people try and place me. You know, I grew up listening to punk.
