If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
Neil PeartRead
We don't want to be Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones. That type of thing wasn't what we were after. It was most important for each of us to be equal in input and output - each of us has to pull the same amount, musically, in composition and in every sense of being in the band.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of equality and collaboration within a group, rather than striving for individual fame.
Neil Peart expresses the value of equality and collective effort in a band setting. He reflects on how the success of a musical group should not hinge on the stardom of individuals, such as Mick Jagger, but rather that every member should contribute equally in terms of creativity and effort. This perspective fosters a balanced team dynamic where all voices are heard and valued.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about teamwork during a company retreat.
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
The real test of a musician is live performance. It's one thing to spend a long time learning how to play well in the studio, but to do it in front of people is what keeps me coming back to touring.
Performing live in front of an audience is such a matter of will - all of those things you can do just fine in your basement, suddenly you have to do them in front of hundreds or thousands of people, and it becomes a different matter entirely.
It seems to me that's the only way you can have a truly creative aggregate of people is if they're all contributing in different ways.
What I've learned over the years is that the craft of songwriting is trying to take the personal and make it universal - or in the case of telling a story, taking the universal and making it personal.
I've heard the stories. Like, Eric Clapton said he wanted to burn his guitar when he heard Jimi Hendrix play. I never understood that because, when I went and saw a great drummer or heard one, all I wanted to do was practice.
With the Beatles, we'd been very spoiled because we had George Martin who worked for the record label we were going to be signed to. That was very fortunate, because we grew together.
The great moments of rock 'n' roll were never off in some corner of the music world, in a self-constructed ghetto.
Too many jazz pianists limit themselves to a personal style, a trademark, so to speak. They confine themselves to one type of playing.
The colored folks been singing it and playing it just like I'm doin' now, man, for more years than I know. I got it from them.
I started imagining this whole different world. It was a society of musicians, a family I hoped I could belong to one day.
That one record changed everything for me. After Sgt. Pepper, it's the most influential record in the history of rock and roll. It affected Pink Floyd deeply, deeply, deeply. Philosophically, other albums may have been more important, like Lennon's first solo album. But sonically, the way the record's constructed, I think Music from Big Pink is fundamental to everything that happened after it.
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