When the uncreative tell the creative what to do, it stops being art.
Tony BennettRead
For many years, I've always been attached to what they call the Great American Songbook, and Kern was a great leader of that because he had the classical training of Europe. He impressed all the greatest composers, like Cole Porter and Gershwin. They couldn't believe he was writing the songs he was writing.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Tony Bennett reflects on the influence of the Great American Songbook and the exceptional talent of composer Jerome Kern.
In this quote, Tony Bennett emphasizes the importance of the Great American Songbook and highlights Jerome Kern's significant role as a composer within that tradition. Kern's classical training from Europe allowed him to create music that astonished his contemporaries, including great composers like Cole Porter and George Gershwin, showcasing the integration of diverse musical influences in American songwriting.
Themes
MusicSongwritingInfluenceGreat American SongbookCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote during a lecture on American music history.
More from Tony Bennett
All quotes →Someday, when I'm awfully low, and the world is cold, I will feel a glow just thinking of you, and the way you look tonight.
Tony BennettRead
I lived for 15 years in Los Angeles, and I still can't believe that the handsomest man in the world, Cary Grant, and the greatest performer in the world, Fred Astaire, and Johnny Carson, one after another - they were all in my home at different times. I celebrated my 50th birthday with them. Unforgettable.
Tony BennettRead
My goal as a creative person is to express truth and beauty in whatever I do
Tony BennettRead
If you follow your passion, you'll never work a day in your life.
Tony BennettRead
To me, life is a gift, and it's a blessing to just be alive. And each person should learn what a gift it is to be alive no matter how tough things get.
Tony BennettRead
Similar quotes
I have seen, and heard, much of Cockney impudence before now; but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public's face.
John RuskinRead
One of the great functions of art is to help us imagine what it is like to be not ourselves, what it is like to be someone or something else, what it is like to live in another skin, what it is like to live in another body, and in that sense to surpass ourselves, to go out beyond ourselves.
Adrienne RichRead
When I'm making stuff, the thing that excites me most is not the result, but the process and trying to do something I've never done before.
Spike JonzeRead
And thus it came to pass that the Silmarils found their long homes: one in the airs of heaven, and one in the fires of the heart of the world, and one in the deep waters.
J. R. R. TolkienRead
And the nice thing about writing a novel is you take your time, you sit with the character sometimes nine years, you look very deeply at a situation, unlike in real life when we just kind of snap something out.
Sandra CisnerosRead
Photography is a very lonely medium. There’s a kind of beautiful loneliness in voyeurism. And that’s why I’m a photographer.
Alec SothRead