What is the point of singing wonderful lyrics if the audience can't understand what is being said or heard?
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of clarity in communication, especially in artistic expressions like music.
Frank Sinatra highlights that the beauty of lyrics is diminished if the audience cannot comprehend their meaning. This statement underscores the essential relationship between the artist and the audience, suggesting that communication should be clear to have a meaningful impact.
In practice
This quote could be used by a music teacher discussing the importance of lyrical clarity in songwriting.
With few exceptions, every major pop singer in the US during her generation has been touched in some way by her genius. It is Billie Holiday who was, and still remains, the greatest single musical influence on me. Lady Day is unquestionably the most important influence on American popular singing in the last twenty years.
When lip service to some mysterious deity permits bestiality on Wednesday and absolution on Sunday, cash me out.
There have been many accolades uttered about Elvis' talent and performances through the years, all of which I agree with wholeheartedly. I shall miss him dearly as a friend. He was a warm, considerate and generous man.
Dare to wear the foolish clown face.
I want to wake up in a city that never sleeps
I think my greatest ambition in life is to pass on to others what I know.
The pleasure of writing fiction is that you are always spotting some new approach, an alternative way of telling a story and manipulating characters; the novel is such a wonderfully flexible form.
Many claim I am a photographer of tragedy. In the greater sense I am not, for though I often photograph where the tragic emotion is present, the result is almost invariably affirmative.
Creativity is the residue of time wasted.
I have no sense of a model or predecessor when I write a memoir: For me, the form exists as a method of processing material that retains too many connections to life to be approached strictly and aesthetically. A memoir is a risk, a one-off, a bastard child.
Let my soul, a shining tree, Silver branches lift towards thee, Where on a hallowed winter's night The clear-eyed angels may alight.
Even if a story has nothing to do with my life, if I can recognise something of myself in the character and think, 'Oh yeah, that's what I'd do...' Yeah, that's what I look for.
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