If you want to be a good blues singer, people are going to be down on you, so dress like you're going to the bank to borrow money.
B. B. KingRead
My ex-wife was trying to be nice once, so she took me to a concert in Los Angeles. I went with her to Symphony Hall, and the orchestra was playing. When the show started, the spotlight was sharp on this one man (Andres Segovia) and he had sombrero on and his guitar propped up like this and, oh man ... he was a master ! - I really heard it. That one guitar sounded like a whole orchestra to me.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the profound impact of music and artistry in evoking deep feelings and connections.
In this quote, B. B. King shares a personal experience of attending a concert where he was moved by the performance of guitarist Andres Segovia. The vivid imagery he uses illustrates how Segovia's mastery transformed a single guitar into a symphony, highlighting the emotional power of music to resonate with the listener, even amidst personal complexities in relationships.
Themes
MusicArtistryEmotionMasteryPerformance
In practice
Example use cases
Use this quote during a speech about the transformative power of art in our lives.
More from B. B. King
All quotes →The way I feel today, as long as my health is good and I can handle myself well and people still come to my concerts, still buy my CDs, I'll keep playing until I feel like I can't.
B. B. KingRead
Everything I record, I just try to sound like me and come up with songs that suit what I do and then just go for it. I never know what the public's going to like, anyway.
B. B. KingRead
A guitar is like an old friend that is there with me.
B. B. KingRead
I have not been a good father, but no father has loved his children more. Like my father, I decided the best thing I could do for my kids was work and provide. Fortunately, I've been able to do that. Unfortunately, my work was on the road, and that's meant a life of one-nighters.
B. B. KingRead
People all over the world have problems. And as long as people have problems, the blues can never die.
B. B. KingRead
Similar quotes
I don't want to be owned by a corporation and obliged to make a certain type of album. I want to be free.
Annie LennoxRead
First of all there is always that artistic challenge of creating something. Or the particular experience to take slum life in that period and make something out of it in the form of a book. And then I felt some kind of responsibility to my family.
Frank MccourtRead
To see something spectacular and recognise it as a photographic possibility is not making a very big leap. But to see something ordinary, something you’d see every day, and recognize it as a photographic possibility - that is what I am interested in.
Stephen ShoreRead
Poems mesmerized me, and I felt better when I was writing them, or trying to - more in touch with something deep and dark within myself.
Edward HirschRead
What you have in your head, put down on paper. The head is a fragile vessel.
Dmitri ShostakovichRead
Then what shall I write? I can't just write that this happened then this happened then this happened to boring infinitum. I'll let my journal grow just like the mind does, just like a tree or beast does, just like life does. Why should a book tell a tale in a dull straight line? Words should wander and meander. They should fly like owls and flicker like bats and slip like cats. They should murmur and scream and dance and sing.
David AlmondRead