Singing The Blues Quotes

• Anybody singing the blues is in a deep pit yelling for help.

  Mahalia Jackson

  Music, Sight, Yelling

  7 Copy quote

• See, that's nothing but blues, that's all I'm singing about. It's today's blues.

  Jimi Hendrix

  Singing, Today

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• White folks hear the blues come out, but they don't know how it got there.

  Son House

  White, Folks, Blues Music

  26 Copy quote

• Nobody leaves this place without singing the blues.

  Albert Collins

  Singing, Babysitting

  "Character: Albert Collins". "Adventures in Babysitting", www.imdb.com. 1987.

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• When I'm singing the blues, I'm singing life.

  Etta James

  Singing

  21 Copy quote

• Blues is easy to play, but hard to feel.

  Jimi Hendrix

  Play, Easy, Feels

  "Crosstown Traffic". Book by Charles Shaar Murray, 1989.

  91 Copy quote

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• Audiences like their blues singers to be miserable.

  Janis Joplin

  Music, Sadness, Singers

  16 Copy quote

• A lot of people think the blues is depressing but that's not the blues I'm singing. When I'm singing blues, I singing life. People can't stand to listen to the blues, they've got to be phonies.

  Etta James

  Depressing, Thinking, People

  FaceBook post by Etta James from Sep 21, 2013

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• The harmonica is the most voice-like instrument, you can make it wail, feel happy, or cry. It's like singing the blues without words.

  Charlie Musselwhite

  Voice, Singing, Cry

  34 Copy quote

• If you look at the other singers of Billie Holiday's time, they were really trying to entertain. They were trying to make people feel good. They were singing fast - and she was singing the blues.

  Jose James

  Holiday, People, Feel Good

  Source: revive-music.com

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• I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person. Not once. Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with them. I'm with the blacks, because we're white trash. We're going across the field.... They're singing and happy. I never heard one of them, one black person, say, I tell you what: These doggone white people - not a word!... Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.

  Phil Robertson

  Eye, Godly, White

  "What the Duck?". Interview with Drew Magary, www.gq.com. December 17, 2013.

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• God, I'm just a fat bald guy, 60 years old, singing the blues, you know?

  Joe Cocker

  Years, Guy, Singing

  "Interview: Joe Cocker lyric". AskMen Interview, www.askmen.com.

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• Jazz took too much discipline. You have to come in at the right place, which is different than me singing the blues, where I can sing, 'Oh, baby,' if there's a pause in the melody. With jazz, you better leave that space open, or put in something real cool.

  Etta James

  Baby, Real, Space

  8 Copy quote

• My uncle was 16, in junior high, and he heard me singing and snatched me off the stage. I thought he was happy and was going to pat me on the head and say I was good. But he took me home and told my grandmother this youngin' was at school singing the blues.

  Mavis Staples

  Uncles, School, Home

  Source: pitchfork.com

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