No one has any respect for someone who can play a million notes per minute but can't put together a decent tune that someone can sing to or feel some sort of emotion from.
Interpretation
Technical skill in music is less important than the ability to create something emotionally resonant.
Johnny Marr emphasizes that the ability to play music technically well does not equate to the ability to create music that connects with people on an emotional level. While skill and speed are impressive, they are inadequate if the music lacks melody and emotional expression. This highlights the importance of substance and feeling in artistic creation over mere technical proficiency.
In practice
Using this quote in a music workshop to emphasize the importance of emotional connection in songwriting.
Whenever I'm in Kansas City, I think back to all the jazz-blues greats who played the blues here - like Count Basie, Charlie Parker and Jay McShann. I watched those guys jam in different places and heard a lot of things - but I couldn't do what they did. They were too good.
I don't make records for pleasure. I did when I was a younger artist, but I don't today. I record so that I can feed people what they need, what they feel. Hopefully, I record so that I can help someone overcome a bad time
In a sense, 'American Pie' was a very despairing song but it can also be seen as very hopeful.
As a child I always wanted to be a singer. The music my mother played in the house moved me - Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Mahalia Jackson. It was truly spiritual. It made you understand what God was. We are all spirits. We get depressed. But music makes you want to live. I know my music has saved my life.
I spent one year being very poor at home with my piano, and nobody was calling me, but I had space to think about things on my own and find out exactly what I wanted to do.
I'll always love rap, no matter what's going on.
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