Billy Joel Quotes About Songs

Quotes about: Songs

• In an age of incompetence, I've been able to last in this crazy business. I actually know how to play my ax and write a song. That's my job.

  Billy Joel

  Birthday, Song, Jobs

  FaceBook post by Billy Joel from May 31, 2012

• I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints - the sinners are much more fun.

  Billy Joel

  Song, Fun, Laughing

  Song: Only The Good Die Young, Album: The Stranger, 1977

• You can speak your mind But not on my time.

  Billy Joel

  Song, Speak Your Mind, My Time

  Song: This Is My Life, Album: 52nd Street, 1978

• I consider myself to be an inept pianist, a bad singer, and a merely competent songwriter. ... I'm probably writing music now for the same reason as I started writing songs when I was 14-to meet women. ... If you make music for the human needs you have within yourself, then you do it for all humans who need the same things. You enrich humanity with the profound expression of these feelings. ... My songs are like my kids.

  Billy Joel

  Song, Kids, Writing

• Sing us a song you're the piano man.
  Sing us a song tonight.
  Cause we're all in the mood for a melody,
  And you've got us feeling all right.

  Billy Joel

  Song, Men, Piano

  "The Piano Man" (song) (1973)

• Don't go changing, to try and please me
  You never let me down before.

  Billy Joel

  Friendship, Song, Please Me

  Song: Just the Way You Are, Album: The Stranger, 1977

• She's got a way about her,
  And everywhere she goes,
  a million dreams of love surround her,
  everywhere.

  Billy Joel

  Dream, Song, Way

• I did write a letter to the archdiocese who'd banned the song, Only the Good Die Young, asking them to ban my next record.

  Billy Joel

  Song, Writing, Asking

• I never stopped writing music, I just stopped writing songs. I've been writing music continually ever since the last album of original tunes, "River Of Dreams" in '93.

  Billy Joel

  Dream, Song, Writing

  "Backstage With Billy Joel: The Billboard Cover Story Interview (Exclusive)". Interview with Ray Waddell, www.billboard.com. January 31, 2014.

• Here I am starting a franchise and I'm gonna be 65 years old. I should've started this in 1978... I wrote like 300 songs and I'm gonna have to re-learn some of them!

  Billy Joel

  Song, Years, Here I Am

• My songs are like my kids.

  Billy Joel

  Song, Kids

• I would say the songs that have different lyrics. I always write the music first, and there's a couple of songs on this box set that have different lyrics from what ended up on the final recording.

  Billy Joel

  Song, Couple, Writing

  "No 'Pressure' for Billy Joel as he begins tour". Interview with Matt Lauer, www.today.com. December 16, 2005.

• I am the entertainer, I've come to do my show You've heard my latest record, it's been on the radio It took me years to write it, they were the best years of my life It was a beautiful song but it ran too long If you're gonna have a hit you gotta make it fit So they cut it down to 3:05.

  Billy Joel

  Beautiful, Song, Writing

• I actually wrote the song first as "well, it's 9 o'clock on a Saturday." That bit. Then I said, You know what? It needs some kind of an introduction to kind of set the mood and set the flavor. So I just played this kind of cocktail lounge thing, the hustle and bustle of waitresses going by - that kind of thing.

  Billy Joel

  Song, Hustle And Bustle, Needs

  "No 'Pressure' for Billy Joel as he begins tour". Interview with Matt Lauer, www.today.com. December 16, 2005.

• They say that no one's gonna play this on the radio. They said the melancholy blues were dead and gone. But only songs like these played in minor keys, keep those memories holding on.

  Billy Joel

  Song, Memories, Keys

  Song: Baby Grand, Album: The Bridge, 1986

• I was thinking of the Four Seasons, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and when I was thinking "Uptown Girl!" I was trying to sing like Frankie Valli. They had a song called "Ragdoll," which was about a poor girl and a rich guy. So I just flipped it around and made it about a rich girl and a poor guy.

  Billy Joel

  Girl, Song, Thinking

  "No 'Pressure' for Billy Joel as he begins tour". Interview with Matt Lauer, www.today.com. December 16, 2005.

• I'm probably writing music now for the same reason as I started writing songs when I was 14 - to meet women.

  Billy Joel

  Song, Writing, Reason

• I look at some of the songs I wrote years ago and I can't believe I wrote such crap.

  Billy Joel

  Song, Believe, Years

  "Q&A WITH BILLY JOEL : 'They See Me as One of Them' : Washed Up? Not to Fans of the Singer's New Album and World Tour". Interview with Dennis Hunt, articles.latimes.com. December 11, 1993.

• I had a melody and a rhythm and chords, but nothing to talk about. I remember reading about how the decline of the steel industry had been affecting the Lehigh Valley, and I decided that's what I was going to write the song about.

  Billy Joel

  Song, Reading, Writing

• I started just concentrating on songwriting when I was abut 20; I'd been in rock bands six or seven years, kinda got that out of my system, I said, "ok, you ain't gonna be a rock star, you don't look like a rock star, it probably ain't gonna happen. So what you should do is write songs and maybe other people will do your songs."

  Billy Joel

  Song, Stars, Writing

  "Backstage With Billy Joel: The Billboard Cover Story Interview (Exclusive)". Interview with Ray Waddell, www.billboard.com. January 31, 2014.

• Usually when I'm writing, I try to write fairly quickly. If a song sits around too long, it starts to take on a stink. Most of my songs are written in one sitting, two sittings maybe. Those are the ones I like the best, anyway.

  Billy Joel

  Song, Writing, Long

• I always thought of myself as the piano player in the band. That, I suppose, I'm confident about, and I guess my songwriting developed as I went along and I got a certain amount of confidence in that. The songs are like my kids, I'm proud of all of them for one reason or another.

  Billy Joel

  Song, Kids, Player

  "Backstage With Billy Joel: The Billboard Cover Story Interview (Exclusive)". Interview with Ray Waddell, www.billboard.com. January 31, 2014.

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