Sometimes with artists, I want to hear a few things before I buy the whole album.
Not to be mean about it, but some great rock and rollers, like Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry, are pretty one-dimensional.
What about Tom Jones? He's made a million and he's a bloody awful singer.
Mr. Presley has no discernible singing ability . . . For the ear he is an unutterable bore, not nearly so talented as Frank Sinatra back in the latter's rather hysterical days at the Paramount Theater.
The way to judge a new artist is by listening to their albums and gauging the progress that they make from the first record to the next one.
He [William Merritt Chase] is, I suspect, getting a very truthful likeness. I would like it better if [it] was not so gray, so cramped about the eyes, and not quite so corpulent. But is this not quarreling with nature?
Do not categorize about music. You take each musician at the time and open yourself to that musician.
What kind of morons do you have working at newspapers in Austin that would base an entire review of an artist's performance on whether or not they had a good seat?
The test of the artist does not lie in the will with which he goes to work, but in the excellence of the work he produces.
You're only as good as your last album.
Let's look at people as artists and try to support them; just because Picasso painted a couple of bad paintings, that's no reason to say he's a lousy painter.
John Cougar Mellencamp - I didn't like him in the beginning. I liked some of the stuff around the 'Scarecrow' period. I go back and forth on him all the time, but I think he's a good artist. I don't know if he's a great artist or not, but he rose above his original level of achievement.
I can remember - barely - when Elton John was still a good songwriter, or at least capable of writing good songs.
Just because someone has great content doesn't mean you like them as a rapper.
There's never been a Van Morrison album that I haven't immediately listened to, whether with delight or crushing disappointment.
I don't think Neil Young has a beautiful voice, but it's something that grabs you, and the songs are so good.
Jay Z wasn't great when 2pac and Biggie was alive.
