What is the most irriating quote from a musician you have ever heard or read?

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"I had to unlearn the guitar"

-- Blur's Graham Coxon

don't you just want to slap him?

― Derek Dalek (Derek Dalek), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 17:34 (twenty-three years ago)

he'd obviously just watched 'Empire Strikes Back'

― blueski, Wednesday, 18 September 2002 17:37 (twenty-three years ago)

"House is just disco remixed"

DJ Marky

― vic (vicc13), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 17:45 (twenty-three years ago)

When asked what his most valuable possession was, Reni (Stone Roses) replied "The purity of my soul."

― Ernest P., Wednesday, 18 September 2002 17:56 (twenty-three years ago)

oh brett anderson going on about cricket and rugby not being sports cos they aren't played by working class people. *yawn* (I don't have a direct quote, but he just annoyed me)

― jel -- (jel), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 17:58 (twenty-three years ago)

Anytime Ry Cooder opens his mouth in Buena Vista Social Club

― Chris Barrus (xibalba), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 18:37 (twenty-three years ago)

''"I had to unlearn the guitar"''

sounds like he's been listening to capt beefheart recs. good for him!

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 18:51 (twenty-three years ago)

Hello Julio,
If you've heard anything from Graham Coxon's solo albums, I'm sure you'd see that while Mr. Coxon may have successfully "unlearned the guitar" he still needs some time to "learn how to write a decent song".

― Derek Dalek (Derek Dalek), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 18:55 (twenty-three years ago)

"I got the part [in this movie] because they wanted the character to be smart and debonair...just like me." - Sting, on how he got his part in Quadrophenia.

"AIDS is Gods will of punishing gays." - Donna Summer

― Lord Custos Alpha (Lord Custos Alpha), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 18:56 (twenty-three years ago)

"It's like I'm the new nigger."-- Ron Asheton, on how he is being discovered by a new generation of guitar players. This asshole figured his situation was comparable to how old blues musicians were ripped off by other guys and never given any credit until way after the fact.

I found this piece of genius over at UBL.com. Believe it or not, he actually had MORE comments similar to that one, but I think the statement above gets the point across. If any of you out there happen to bump into Ron Asheton on the street, please kick his fuckin' ass. Thanks!

― Brenya, Wednesday, 18 September 2002 19:20 (twenty-three years ago)

"AIDS is Gods will of punishing gays." - Donna Summer

I've heard somewhere that she never actually said this.

― Chriddof (Chriddof), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 19:26 (twenty-three years ago)

That Donna Summer comment. Wow, that's pretty intense stuff. It DID strike me as out of character for Ms. Summer, who seemed affable and centered when she was featured on "Behind The Music", which as we all know, is the programme of record for all things related to musicians, their songs and the stories behind them.

"...and then, for MC Hammer, it all came crashing down"

― Derek Dalek (Derek Dalek), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 19:31 (twenty-three years ago)

"I reached into the homes of middle America because white kids, not to say they should, or shouldn't have, looked up to me and connected with me because they looked like me"

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 19:53 (twenty-three years ago)

"I think our fans will be impressed with our new social conscience" - Eternal, upon the release of the skingerly vile 'Don't You Love Me?' -"Why does Granny have to walk the streets, just to find a crust of bread to eat?"

And pretty much every word that comes out of Avril Lavigne's mouth. And Kelly Jones'.

Not forgetting James Walsh's classic "They say our music's boring, but look at The Buzzcocks, they're playing working men's clubs nowadays." When you write anything even approaching the quality of Ever Fallen In Love, do please let me know...

― Mr Swygart (mrswygart), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 20:19 (twenty-three years ago)

''If you've heard anything from Graham Coxon's solo albums, I'm sure you'd see that while Mr. Coxon may have successfully "unlearned the guitar" he still needs some time to "learn how to write a decent song".''

derek- I've heard a couple of tracks on the radio a long while ago. you made me remember them so yeah, you're right.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 20:30 (twenty-three years ago)

I read a 1997 interview (I think in the St. Paul Pioneer Press) with Art Alexassface or whatever his name is from Everclear, sneering at the Chemical Brothers for being "just another couple of white guys trying to sound like Public Enemy". Lame in itself, but it went from lame to laughably pathetic when Everclear released Songs From An American Movie Vol 1 and crammed it full of terrible rapping and secondhand breakbeats.

― Nate Patrin, Wednesday, 18 September 2002 20:45 (twenty-three years ago)

DJ Shadow: "I wouldn't be caught dead playing a track off a Mastercuts/reissue compilation" or something to that effect. also see the liner notes to the Barely Breaking Even split comp with Keb Darge (Funk Spectrum?). crate-digging snobbery... another Hip Hop funkiller

― Paul (scifisoul), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 21:03 (twenty-three years ago)

There's one by Jack White about hip-hop, but I can't remember it fully. Does anyone have it to hand? Something like "People are getting tired about songs just about cars and money, they need proper music as well".

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 21:06 (twenty-three years ago)

"...and then, for MC Hammer, it all came crashing down"
I've always wondered if the scripts for Behind the Music are just Mad-libs style mass-produced forms for the writers to fill out.
My fave is when they do a Behind the Music for some hair-metal band; And in the last 5 minutes theres always a quick shot of one of the hair-metal guys says "Yeah...Nirvana pretty much ended our careers."

― Lord Custos Alpha (Lord Custos Alpha), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 21:08 (twenty-three years ago)

Re: Donna Summer/AIDS

http://www.donnasummer.it/peopletalk.html

(scroll down halfway)

― Joe (Joe), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 21:37 (twenty-three years ago)

There's always Sting (a veritable treasure chest of musician-inanities)'s liner notes for "Nothing Like the Sun", where he documents his erudite calming of a drunkard with Shakespeare. Erm...what about just telling him to piss off, Gordon?

― Joe (Joe), Wednesday, 18 September 2002 21:40 (twenty-three years ago)

"i am not a work of art; i am an artist." - pete townshend

it didn't get profoundly annoying until i heard it 60 or 70 times in a commercial for VH1.

― your null fame, Thursday, 19 September 2002 00:55 (twenty-three years ago)

Elvis Costello to thread!

Ron Asheton's ass is so wide, it would be hard to miss if one were to kick it.

― hstencil, Thursday, 19 September 2002 01:08 (twenty-three years ago)

"We're a meat and potatoes kinda band" - Kelly Jones

Irritating to meat and potatoes, I'd wager.

― Charlie (Charlie), Thursday, 19 September 2002 01:17 (twenty-three years ago)

i bet joni mitchell says some dumb shit

― ron (ron), Thursday, 19 September 2002 02:19 (twenty-three years ago)

Much as I love the Moz, the Warlock Pinchers knew what they were doing when they sampled him at the start of "Morrissey Rides a Cockhorse."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 19 September 2002 05:18 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm a homosexual who hasn't had a Homosexual experience. No, not me silly...that would be Brett Anderson.

― kinski (kinski), Thursday, 19 September 2002 06:44 (twenty-three years ago)

i can't remember it but it would have been by damon albarn, i'm certain.

or any "real music on real instruments" bore who starts anything with "people are getting tired of (insert fresh, exciting, innovative new style made/played by young people here).

― michael wells (michael w.), Thursday, 19 September 2002 07:43 (twenty-three years ago)

Richard Ashcroft on the front of Mojo a few yrs ago "I had to get out: mental illness is contagious" - er, no it's not, Richard.

― bham, Thursday, 19 September 2002 08:18 (twenty-three years ago)

"WHEN YER PRIESTS ABANDON YOU.....!"

"YOU HURT ME! YOU HURT ME IN MY HEART!"

― donut bitch (donut), Thursday, 19 September 2002 08:39 (twenty-three years ago)

'A lot of people lead really flat lives. They need some sort of peak in them. I like to be that peak.' - Michael Hutchence. Throw in all that Sigur Ros talk about how they were going to change music forever, and how they are not a band, they are music.

― Damian (Damian), Thursday, 19 September 2002 09:16 (twenty-three years ago)

kinski it's "im a bisexual who's never had a homosexual experience". its not actually ridiculous per se but you can just imagine the smug look on Brett's face as he gives the interviewer the 'killer soundbite'.

u&k - has he had one yet?

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 19 September 2002 10:04 (twenty-three years ago)

Billy Corgan responding to Pavement's Range Life by saying that back at school Pavement would've been the "football team" bullying all the little senstive outsiders (Corgan and friends).

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 19 September 2002 10:35 (twenty-three years ago)

That Juliana Hatfield quote about women not having the proper equipment/hormones to play guitar properly.

― Mike Appelstein (mike a), Thursday, 19 September 2002 14:15 (twenty-three years ago)

Radiohead in general seem to be a lot of unsufferable twits. I read an interview where one of them said that Johnathan Culler's "Structuralist Poetics" was his favourite book. I don't care if you are trying to fly in the face of academia or whatever by giving the name of a piece of literary criticism, but that was one of the most pretentious things I've ever heard. In fact, it turned me off the band entierly. I left grad school for a reason--folks like that!

― cybele, Thursday, 19 September 2002 19:41 (twenty-three years ago)

But... what if it WAS his favourite book? Genuinely? You have altered the course of your life for NOTHING!

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 19 September 2002 19:58 (twenty-three years ago)

it's not even the best book about structuralist poetics!!

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 19 September 2002 21:32 (twenty-three years ago)

Tom, I was once a bisexual who had never had a homosexual experience. I think a key and possibly urgent difference was that I didn't describe myself that way, which smacks of "I am an open-minded, liberal, daring person, but please don't imagine I have ever touched another man's bottom".

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 19 September 2002 21:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Pavement would've been the "football team" bullying all the little senstive outsiders

There's gotta be worse quotes by El Pumpkin. That one in particular isn't too far off the mark. For a person who cares about such things (and I'll admit I do from time to time), Malkmus generally could seem to be a snobbish preppy type, even if he's brainier by miles than the stereotypical football goon. Substitute Scrabble or something.

― wl (wl), Thursday, 19 September 2002 22:19 (twenty-three years ago)

what a tw-t dj shadow is. that comment is exactly the reason
that creamfields tents where he's playing + the like are just full of chinstroking miserable f*ckers, instead of music lovers dancing.
it's music you stupid f-cker, it's not a bloody funeral.

― piscesboy, Friday, 20 September 2002 10:01 (twenty-three years ago)

ARRRGGGHH!!! Yes, I remember that Juliana Hatfield quote. Both me and my best friend wanted to tie her down and play freejazz totalnoise guitar solos at her for hours at a time as punnishment.

― kate, Friday, 20 September 2002 11:09 (twenty-three years ago)

The one that gets me every time no matter how often I see it is from hugely successful pop stars (Elton John, Sting, George Michael) who tell me that they "deserved their success" because they "worked hard". Like the appropriate reward for a moderate musical flair + reasonable industry is mega-millions and world-wide fame.

(Doesn't only apply to musicians of course).

― ArfArf, Friday, 20 September 2002 11:11 (twenty-three years ago)

Thanks marc s.

Oh, and if that indeed is radiohead boy's favourite book, that doesn't make it any better. Couldn't he at least of said S/Z by Barthes? (Look at me equaling his pretention--bad me!)

― cybele, Friday, 20 September 2002 11:24 (twenty-three years ago)

The Jack White (if it is indeed him) reminds me of another one - "Rap has great lyrics but not that great music to go with it", which is a bit risible coming from Flea from RHCP

― dave q, Friday, 20 September 2002 12:30 (twenty-three years ago)

Speaking of STUPID Thom Yorke quotes, what about the one about him never having met an attractive woman that he liked?

Implying that they all must be shallow, and only unattractive people (like say one with one wonky eye) are deep, etc...

― Nicole (Nicole), Friday, 20 September 2002 13:30 (twenty-three years ago)

jesus holy jesus, can i just re-re-correct that
brett quote. it runs
'i *consider myself* a bisexual man
who's never had a homosexual experience'

in actual fact it led to simon gilbert's
coming out, first to the band, then to his mum, then
to the nme. i thought it was a brill quote.
still do.

― piscesboy, Friday, 20 September 2002 14:12 (twenty-three years ago)

There's gotta be worse quotes by El Pumpkin. That one in particular isn't too far off the mark.
"I chose the members of my band for maximum visual impact." - Billy 'Bald Boob' Corgan.

― Lord Custos Alpha (Lord Custos Alpha), Friday, 20 September 2002 20:04 (twenty-three years ago)

I actually liked that quote, it was a classic example of Louis Pearlman in a different context.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 20 September 2002 20:09 (twenty-three years ago)

"The world is ready for a true fairy, and I'm it." - Jobriath
Oh, wait a minute; that's brilliant.

― Sean (Sean), Friday, 20 September 2002 20:16 (twenty-three years ago)

malkmus and spiral stairs worrying about releasing "crooked rain" 'cause "we thought it might speed up the apocalypse".

helmet pratting that they were "a rhythm continuum with guitars".
they were right on though about doing material that could be "performed by a string quartet".

― mike (ro)bott, Friday, 20 September 2002 20:32 (twenty-three years ago)

"The world is ready for a true fairy, and I'm it." - Jobriath
Hmmm, You'd expect Tori Amos to say something like that...after draining a snifter full of absinthe.

― Lord Custos Alpha (Lord Custos Alpha), Friday, 20 September 2002 20:36 (twenty-three years ago)

or tori on her spirit guides, taste for women...revisionist theology, and hopes that women will start menstruating in crowds because of the exploration of space. or something...

― mike (ro)bott, Friday, 20 September 2002 20:41 (twenty-three years ago)

"Most women find Christ sexy" Tori Amos.

Not so much irritating as... blindly and violently wrong.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Friday, 20 September 2002 20:44 (twenty-three years ago)

Didn't Jack White once say something about wishing he could've been a black man in 1920s America, because "at least their lives meant something"? If he did actually say that, it has to be among the most punchinthefaceable things a pop star has ever said.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 20 September 2002 21:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"I chose the members of my band for maximum visual impact." - Billy 'Bald Boob' Corgan.

That makes a lot of sense, actually. I don't know the names of the bassists in half of my favourite bands, but I know all of The Pumpkin's names, even tho I have no interest in their music whatsoever, just 'cos they look so wacky! They're the Scooby Gang (crappy 70's cartoon, I mean, not the Buffy kids, they're cool) of music...

― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 20 September 2002 21:04 (twenty-three years ago)

Lou Reed: "My week beats your year."

Nope, actually, that's the best...

― Mary (Mary), Saturday, 21 September 2002 00:22 (twenty-three years ago)

MTV used to have a clip on heavy rotation of Thom Yorke saying something about how merely registering to vote means your details end up on about 3 million databases (like, technofear, man) - thus encouraging lots of young people not to vote.
A quote taken out of context. When he registered to vote, a fan was able to look up his address on the web. She moved across the street from him and took pictures of him and his girlfriend morning, noon, and night. They eventually had to move.

― Melissa W (Melissa W), Saturday, 21 September 2002 01:42 (twenty-three years ago)

Wow, lots of "remembered" "I think it was" Jack White quotes. I have the feeling he's going to wind up the rock equivalent of Tommy Hilfiger.

― Nate Patrin, Saturday, 21 September 2002 01:45 (twenty-three years ago)

"ugh" or "huh ?" or "uh, it's like sixty seconds on acid"

david byrne interviews circa "stop making sense"

― george gosset (gegoss), Saturday, 21 September 2002 03:57 (twenty-three years ago)

"We're the best fucking band in the World!" - Perry Farrell onstage with Porno for Pyros. A woeful distortion of the truth, I feel.

"Girls invented Punk Rock" - Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth (as printed on a homemade t-shirt worn onstage).

Steve Albini was once fond of saying some remarkably disquieting stuff like "you'd make a nice lampshade," etc.

And absolutely every syllable ever uttered by Courtney Love.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 21 September 2002 05:12 (twenty-three years ago)

Wait, didn't one of the bozos in Korn say something recently about Hitler being in heaven, because he was doing what he felt was right in his heart? Lordy.

Chrispian Mills said he'd love to have huge flaming swastikas onstage as Kula Shaker played (later backpeddling furiously by claiming they were originally Indian symbols signifying 'love').

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 21 September 2002 05:17 (twenty-three years ago)

From the latest Hip Hop Connection:

"I'm only 20 but... I talk to someone my age and they can't relate to what I'm saying 'cos I'm too deep for them. That's just so much knowledge". The man behind this humbleness? Neutrino (is he the peanut headded one or the potato headed one?).

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 13:11 (twenty-three years ago)

"I absolutely categorically and definitely believe that it's not going to be one hit. We will take over the music world."

- Jas Mann, Babylon Zoo 1996

― Alfie (Alfie), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 13:36 (twenty-three years ago)

OMG! I just saw a Sting quote even worse than the one I posted earlier:

"Well, right now I'm very interested in Rai music..." (turns to camera with his eyebrow raised rather cockily "Thats R-A-I music, not W-R-Y musie."
Hoho, he made a wry joke out the word 'wry', how droll.
(SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK SMACK!)

― Lord Custos Alpha (Lord Custos Alpha), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 13:42 (twenty-three years ago)

Hahahahahahhahah Babylon Zoo, that was hillarious.

― Andrew (enneff), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 13:52 (twenty-three years ago)

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