A Quote by Stephin Merritt

My mother was into folk-rock when I was little, so I think of folk-rock as the norm from which everything else deviates. Of course, that's completely preposterous, but that's how I grew up. What is the norm by which to judge wordiness? I think I'm less wordy than Madonna.

Stephin Merritt

Quote Topics

Course Else Everything Everything Else Folk Grew Grew Up How Judge Less Little Madonna Mother Norm Rock Than Think Up Which Wordy

Quote Author

Stephin Merritt
American - Singer
Born: 1965

It's like a little folk song. I think it might've been Harry Belafonte or someone like that who did it. And "Merry Christmas, Everybody" by Slade, which is a rock group - a rock-pop group who are very big over there.

Nick Lowe

I grew up listening to everything. You know, from Argentinean folk music, tango, jazz, rock, just everything.

Gustavo Santaolalla

It's impossible to tell how you're perceived. I think it's important not to think about it too much, because it really means nothing. Some people think we're a rock band, and that's ridiculous, and the idea of us being a folk band - you sit in a pub in Ireland and hear those guys play, and you're like, 'Yeah, we're definitely not a folk band.'

Ted Dwane

Let me say one thing to clarify my position. I think we can take distance from norm but I think we are also mired in norm, "empêtrés", I think you say in French. And I think the choices we can make are only in a certain struggle with the norms out of which we're constituted.

Judith Butler

I remember the first time I was booked into a jazz club. I was scared to death. I'm not a jazz artist. So I got to the club and spotted this big poster saying, 'Richie Havens, folk jazz artist.' Then I'd go to a rock club and I'm billed as a 'folk rock performer' and in the blues clubs I'd be a 'folk blues entertainer.'

Richie Havens

Bruce Springsteen's a rock star. Elton John is a rock star. I'm a folk musician. Honestly, I think that's true.

James Taylor

I'm a rock 'n' roll baby. I was one of the last actually born into rock, in the middle of it. My mother was a promoter, so I grew up with rock stars. When I was little, people like Jimi Hendrix were walking around in the living room.

Ari Up

Folk rock was my real roots. I did a few gigs as a folk artist, in the style of Fairport Convention.

Alan Parsons

Folk musicians have a lot of the same self-importance, but they're way more cruel and jealous than rock musicians - I know this for a fact because I used to be a folk musician.

Christopher Guest

Rock 'n' roll is meant to entertain. Hippie folk singers are supposed to be singing about leftist views, but I don't think rock 'n' roll was ever that way. I don't remember the early rock 'n' rollers ever expressing any political views.

Johnny Ramone

I think what makes the Byrds stand up all these years is the basis in folk music. Folk music, being a timeless art form, is the foundation of the Byrds. We were all from a folk background. We considered ourselves folk singers even when we strapped on electric instruments and dabbled in different things.

Roger McGuinn

I grew up partially with classical music but listened to a lot of rock when I was young - I like acoustic, and folk from Mali and Armenia and Turkey.

Ludovico Einaudi

I never started out as an R&B singer. I grew up on all types of music - jazz, rock, pop, country, folk - and I wanted to bring that to my stage.

Fantasia Barrino

I'm a folk preacher. A folk therapist. A folk musician. I come from authentically that which is of my experience. Therefore, the music is strictly from the soul, strictly improvisational.