Jeff Beck famous quotes

04-17-2025

I don't understand why some people will only accept a guitar if it has an instantly recognizable guitar sound. Finding ways to use the same guitar people have been using for 50 years to make sounds that no one has heard before is truly what gets me off.
-- Jeff Beck

#Guitar #Years #People
After I saw Jimmy [Hendrix] play, I just went home and wondered what the ***** I was going to do with my life.
-- Jeff Beck

#Home #Play #Saws
That old funny-shaped bit of wood is still staring me in the face every day saying 'come on, you haven't started yet!' It's infinite.
-- Jeff Beck

#Music #Guitar #Woods
It's a diabolical business. I can't imagine how hellish it must be to be hounded like Amy Winehouse and people like that. I have a little peripheral place on the outskirts of celebrity, when I go to premieres and that sort of stuff, which is as close as I want to get.
-- Jeff Beck

#People #Amy #Want
I cherish my privacy, and woe betide anyone who tries to interfere with that.
-- Jeff Beck

#Trying #Woe #Privacy
Things turn out better by accident sometimes. But you can't organize accidents.
-- Jeff Beck

#Sometimes #Organize #Turns
My first wife said, 'It's either that guitar or me,' you know -- and I give you three guesses which one went.
-- Jeff Beck

#Guitar #Giving #Wife
Some are skeptical. My mom thought the guitar was going to fizzle out in two weeks, that it was just a fad-and that was in 1958.
-- Jeff Beck

#Mom #Guitar #Two
I donâ€™t care about the rules. In fact, if I donâ€™t break the rules at least ten times in every song, then Iâ€™m not doing my job properly. Emotion is much more important than making mistakes, so be prepared to look like a chump. If you become too guarded and too processed, the music loses its spontaneity and gut feeling
-- Jeff Beck

#Song #Jobs #Mistake
I play the way I do cause it allows me to come up w/ the sickest sounds possible. That's the point now isn't it?
-- Jeff Beck

#Music #Play #Sound
There was mass hysteria in the Chess Recording Studio when I did the "Shapes of Things" solo ... they weren't expecting it, and it was just some weird mist coming from the East out of an amp.
-- Jeff Beck

#Music #Hysteria #East
The Strat covers the complete spectrum of human emotion .. the tremolo enables you to do anything - you can hit any note known to mankind
-- Jeff Beck

#Music #Emotion #Notes
Yes, it's in my left ear. It's excruciating... I mean, it's the worst thing 'cause it's not... It never... It does go away - it's not true to say that it doesn't but, uhh... It doesn't... The doctors say it won't... It isn't actually going away - you've just gotta suppress... They try to come to terms with what it actually... Why some people fear it - that's the psychology behind it. They know it's there but why is it such a horrible sound? Well, you can say why is a guy scratching at a window with his nails such a horrible sound - I couldn't put up with that! This is worse!
-- Jeff Beck

#Mean #Doctors #People
I was interested in the electric guitar even before I knew the difference between electric and acoustic. The electric guitar seemed to be a totally fascinating plank of wood with knobs and switches on it. I just had to have one.
-- Jeff Beck

#Guitar #Differences #Woods
I try to become a singer. The guitar has always been abused with distortion units and funny sorts of effects, but when you don't do that and just let the genuine sound come through, there's a whole magic there.
-- Jeff Beck

#Guitar #Magic #Trying
When Jazz broke through in England, I remember sneaking to listen on the radio much to my parent's disapproval.
-- Jeff Beck

#Music #Parent #England
If you were to plot my success or failure, it goes, it very seldom stays on a high plateau.
-- Jeff Beck

#Plot #Success Or Failure
I like an element of chaos in music. That feeling is the best thing ever, as long as you don't have too much of it.
-- Jeff Beck

#Long #Feelings #Elements
I play purely from the heart, y'know, and so if it doesn't work the first couple of hours, forget it.
-- Jeff Beck

#Couple #Heart #Play
I'm a very emotional person. If I've got something on my mind, that would stop me from giving my best.
-- Jeff Beck

#Emotional #Giving #Mind
Can't stand it. Too many amps, too much volume, it's just flat-out ear assault. Speedy guitars leave me not feeling detached but physically upset. When you think of all the subtleties that were built into the guitar and amps for you to discover they completely cover the whole lot with a rack of effects. The guitar doesn't need that.
-- Jeff Beck

#Thinking #Guitar #Feelings
I don't care about the rules, if I don't break the rules at least 10x every song then I'm not doing my job.
-- Jeff Beck

#Music #Song #Jobs

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