Freedom from Alaska!

Category: Music

Shawn Phillips: Why I Write Late at Night

“I’ve had a lot of people come up to me…and they want to know: ‘how do you write and when do you write?‘”

Everything that you’ve ever heard that I’ve ever written is written between the hours of 12 o’clock midnight and 6 o’clock in the morning. I have a reason for doing that because in those hours what’s happening is that you’re not so involved in the collective consciousness around you. Because we’re always being constantly bombarded by other minds and energy persona around us. And during those hours, 90% of the world around you is asleep. So you don’t have quite the same pressure going on.”

The trick is once you begin a song, once you begin the first line, don’t leave the room until you’ve written the last line. And it’s the same with anything. When you’re painting or writing a book, finish the paragraph or finish the chapter. If you’re painting, finish that section. But the whole trick is perseverance.”

Transcribed by Jeff Fenske from:
Shawn Phillips- Through my camera lensX3
An Evening with Shawn Phillips, Backstage Pass, 1989:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsygJ1ZCafc]

Joe Sample’s Decision: “I’m NOT GOING TO HATE the white man. I’m going to the piano & CREATE THE LIFE that I want TO LIVE!”

The piano, to me, was that escape
from the boredom,
the segregation,
the racism

that existed in the deep south.

I had to fight this constant proclamation
that I was inherently born inferior.

So at 22-years old, I made a decision;
and I told all my friends:

I’ve got enough of civil rights;
I’m not going to hate the white man.
I’m going to the piano,
and I’m gonna create the life that I want to live!

And yes,
music can transform our lives.”

Transcribed by Jeff Fenske from:
“Live from Abbey Road,” the Sundance Channel

Gregg Allman: What Music Is

 

It is not necessarily the notes you’re playing.
It’s not necessarily where you went to school,
how much you studied, who your teachers were.

It’s what you can take from your heart
and convey it to the other person
.

– Gregg Allman

 

Transcribed by Jeff Fenske from:
Tom Dowd and the Language of Music, video documentary

 

Carlos Santana: “If you fight with joy, you’re the solution”

Transcribed by Jeff Fenske from: Herbie Hancock: Possibilities, The Movie Channel, 2006

“This is the thing, man. We don’t have to worry about anybody else’s doing. All you need to do is that:

Everyday it’s a battlefield. But if you fight with anger, you’re the problem. If you fight with joy, you’re the solution.”

Conviction is from your soul. You have to go out there with conviction and say, ‘you can’t stop me. You cannot break my spirit.’ Before I go [strongly exhales] and I’m done with this body there will be some hearts that will be touched by my spirit.”

– Carlos Santana

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