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“I look for some chords I like. I try to put them in some kind of rational order. Then I stick notes on those chords and then I find some lyrics that fit on those notes, and...

“It had quite a soulful groove, but it had the character of what The Zombies were, and just how the musicians played. It was something that I enjoyed very much. I remember...

“It’s sort of reached the point where I try and deliberately outsmart myself because it makes the song more interesting. Because the harder it is to resolve it, the more...

“If you enjoy escaping, so to speak, that’s really what it is to me. It’s kind of like an escape into creativity, and thank God, I don’t know what I would do without that.”...

“I like to keep each song that I write special. I don’t just reel them off and they become a formula. I could knock off a million songs a week if I felt that way, but I...

“So, I started with the Huey ‘Piano’ Smith trying to imitate that piano on a guitar, and by the time I was uptown, I had the three verses written on the back of a Camel...

"Music is the power to speak directly to the heart and to go around the mind. And because of that, people's defenses are down. They're not scrutinizing the message of music...

“The thing about music is the communication, and I hope that my music and the Moody Blues music communicates to people. And hopefully—even just a little bit—if it makes...

“A great lyric is a marriage between the lyric and the melody. And that’s always stayed with me. I learned that the very first time I sat down with the music publisher.”...

"There are some people who may only know Billy Joel from hearing hit records on the AM or the Top 40 Stations who decided that they don't like Billy Joel based on the hit...

"I know what came out of mouth was ‘American Woman, stay away from me.’ But really and truly I didn't sit down and concoct some political, anti-war message. That was never,...

“That song does what it’s supposed to do. There was no video with that song Dan so it’s up to the listener to run the video in their head, and the imagination of the...

"I wrote that song hearing Aretha Franklin sing it more along the lines of "Chain of Fools," or some of her earlier works where she played piano and just sang. It was...

“There are a lot of literary themes in that song that I learned in college: dark and light, good and evil. There are all these rumors about it being satanic, which only...

“Listen to the Music” Music and Lyrics: Tom Johnston Producer: Ted Templeman Recorded on their second album, “Toulouse Street,” this song peaked at #11 on the Billboard Hot...

“I’m so lucky to have the gift of being able to express what I feel musically. Music is an international language. It is enjoyable and relatable to all ages, by all ages, by...

“Songwriting is the process of self-revelation. You’re trying to reveal something to yourself that you only feel or sense, or maybe you’re trying to explain how you feel,...

"All of the arrangements on Boston albums are basically me alone in the studio at three a.m. using as much imagination with my eyes half-opened. I never know when I'm...