Jeff Beck Quotes & Sayings

If you don't have an album or you don't have any tune, you can't start. — Jeff Beck

I do hear snippets on the radio. I do hear a little bit of me, sometimes great chunks of me. But I have to take that as a compliment; there's no way you can get sour grapes about that. But if somebody starts taking your whole new thing lock, stock, and barrel, and do their own version of it before you do it, that's not on. — Jeff Beck

Sometimes when I do an overdub solo, they'll keep four or five of my attempts and then mix the bits that they like to make a solo up out of them. It's not against the rules, really - I can learn my own solos, then. But that's the whole beauty of multi-track recording, isn't it? — Jeff Beck

I don't care about the rules. In fact, if I don't break the rules at least 10 times in every song then I'm not doing my job properly. — Jeff Beck

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

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

I play the way I do because it allows me to come up with the sickest sounds possible. That's the point now isn't it? — Jeff Beck

I never really felt at home with that - the headbands, the roses, the feet, the peace sign, all that bollocks. That wasn't me at all; I felt like a fish totally out of water during the mid-'60s thing. — Jeff Beck

I wanted to be in Rolling Stone number two with a tomorrow feel to it, like an experimental Rolling Stones with Jagger singing. — Jeff Beck

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

London is a dead duck, as far as innovative new music is concerned, unless you want to have your head blown off with some outrageous, rubbish, pounding dance music. — Jeff Beck

After I saw Jimmy [Hendrix] play, I just went home and wondered what the f*** I was going to do with my life. — Jeff Beck

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

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

I've never stuck around long enough to know if anyone would miss me. That's rock 'n' roll, though. Here today, gone tomorrow. — Jeff Beck

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

At the end of the day, there are a hell of a lot of notes being played out there and I defy the average middle-American or the average punter to differentiate between them. — Jeff Beck

Things turn out better by accident sometimes. But you can't organize accidents. — Jeff Beck

I was really small when jazz broke through in England and I can still remember sneaking off to the living room to listen to it on the radio - much to my parent's disapproval. — Jeff Beck

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

I cherish my privacy, and woe betide anyone who tries to interfere with that. — Jeff Beck

As long as there's something original going on, that's all that matters. — Jeff Beck

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

If you were to plot my success or failure, it goes, it very seldom stays on a high plateau. — Jeff Beck

Nowadays music is as disposable as a McDonald's wrapper. — Jeff Beck

By far the most astonishing guitar player ever has got to be Django Reinhardt ... Django was quite superhuman, There's nothing normal about him as a person or a player. — Jeff Beck

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

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

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

If I'm on form and I'm not being bothered too much by mental problems or whatever, I can whip out something good. That's why I've done quite a few overdubs for Tina Turner and things like that, because even before she made this comeback I said yes to her, just because I love Tina Turner. — Jeff Beck

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

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

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

A lot of solos I hear sound so incredible, but they sound like somebody practicing. They sound a bit soulless - fiery, but at the same time, lacking in spirit and soul. — Jeff Beck

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