Quotes by George Benson - Page 1

There is no finer guitarist than Kenny Burrell
George Benson / Musician
Music
Guitarist
Kenny
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The greatest teacher is just going out and playing.
George Benson / Musician
Funny
Inspiring
Teacher
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Never give up on a good thing, never give up, never give up!
George Benson / Musician
Giving
Giving Up
Never Giving Up
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No matter what they take from me, they can't take away my dignity.
George Benson / Musician
Inspirational
Dignity
Matter
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I've had the pleasure of playing with the baddest Jazz cats on the planet.
George Benson / Musician
Music
Cat
Jazz
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I moved to Hawaii from Inglewood, New Jersey. I had planned on retiring there.
George Benson / Musician
Hawaii
Jersey
Moved
New Jersey
Retiring
New New Jersey Jersey
Planned
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Love songs are one of the great essences of life, the only thing thats lasting.
George Benson / Musician
Essence
Essence Of Life
Song
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Love songs are one of the great essences of life, the only thing that's lasting.
George Benson / Musician
Lasting
Life Love Great
Love Songs
The Only Thing
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I've always hated rejection; I only want to go out there when I know I've got it right.
George Benson / Musician
Rejection
Always Know Right
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I don't particularly fall in love with my own compositions, but some of them are decent.
George Benson / Musician
Decent
Fall
Love Own My Own
Particularly
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I like Simon Cowell - look at how many great artists have come out of the U.K. because of him.
George Benson / Musician
Artist
Great Art
Looks
Simon
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The greatest guitar player in the world today for me is Paco de Lucia, who is actually Spanish.
George Benson / Musician
Guitar
Guitar Player
Player
World
Today World Me
Spanish
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I have been doing music all my life so everyday when I get up I expect music will be part of it.
George Benson / Musician
Music
Everyday
Jazz
All My Life
Expect
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The less one remembers about the day before, the more the new day will be unfettered by triviality.
George Benson / Musician
Memories
New Day
Remember
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I think I'm more entertainer than musician. I like to get with the crowd, make this night special for them.
George Benson / Musician
Musician
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My whole life, I've never worried about being No. 1, because that's the guy they've got to get out of there.
George Benson / Musician
Worried
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I spent a lot of time teaching myself theory and harmony so I could be free to express myself on the instrument.
George Benson / Musician
Harmony
Teaching
Theory
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The first time I tried to sing along with my guitar, everybody in the studio booed. They all said it wouldn't work.
George Benson / Musician
Firsts
Guitar
Said
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Life isn't all me. I have a family to support. I can't rob them of a good life simply because I want to play something.
George Benson / Musician
Good Life
Support
Life Family Good
Simply
Rob
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Lenny Breau dazzled me with his extraordinary guitar playing... I wish the world had the opportunity to experience his artistry.
George Benson / Musician
Music
Opportunity
Guitar
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I actually got discovered in my hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by a man who worked at a place that sold barbecue sandwiches!
George Benson / Musician
Barbecue
Hometown
Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh
Sandwiches
Sold
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My biggest song in the world is 'Nothing's Gonna Change My Love for You.' All over the world, it's number one on the whole planet.
George Benson / Musician
Song
Whole
Nothing
Love Change World
Biggest
Number
Gonna
Over
Planet
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I haven't done anything with Chick Corea. He had a group called Return to Forever, and everyone in the group became a superstar. I would really like to work with him.
George Benson / Musician
Work
Done
Forever
Return
Superstar
Had
Everyone
Work Done Anything
Became
He
Chick
Group
Him
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The melody is the most important thing that must stay in the minds of the people who listen to you. No matter how many notes you play, you can't let them forget what the song is.
George Benson / Musician
People
Play
Song
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As my career has progressed, I've had the pleasure of playing with the baddest jazz cats on the planet. But that doesn't change my desire to entertain folks. That's really who I am.
George Benson / Musician
Change
Cat
Desire
Folks
Jazz
Pleasure
Who I Am
Cats
Entertain
Planet
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My whole career from the early 70s on has been mind-blowing. I didn't imagine in my life that I would ever be considered a guitar player first of all because I started off as a singer.
George Benson / Musician
Careers
Guitar
Guitar Player
Imagine
Mind Blowing
Player
Life Guitar My Life
Considered
First Of All
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Guitar gigs were everywhere in the '50s, and I started diddling around so I could keep working. Playing honky-tonk, simple stuff. I took a few gigs with an organ band that put me out front.
George Benson / Musician
Band
Gigs
Guitar
Simple
Everywhere
Organ
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People who love jazz musicians love us when we play what we want to play and we're starving. But as soon as you commercialize your sound like Wes Montgomery did, the jazz fans and the critics are down on you!
George Benson / Musician
Music
People
Play
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My stepfather met my mother when I was seven years old, and he was a guitar player. So he caught me messing with his guitar, his electric guitar, and he tried to show me some chords, but my hands were too small.
George Benson / Musician
Caught
Chords
Electric
Electric Guitar
Guitar Player
Seven
Messing
Stepfather
Tried
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The jazz rhythm won't be understood by the bulk of my audience. That's the problem. We can get away with maybe one tune a night. It depends on where we place it. A song like 'Beyond the Sea,' the fans love that. It's fresh.
George Benson / Musician
Depends
Jazz
Rhythm
Sea
Understood
Bulk
Tune
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I study the Bible constantly. I teach the Bible. You know, I'm a Bible conductor, and I have a lot of people studies. But also, I see how small things really help people to get over humps in their life. Gives them direction.
George Benson / Musician
Bible
Conductor
Small Things
Teach
Constantly
Direction
Gives
Help People
Studies
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I like to sing because my mother was a singer. She sang to me all the time, so I learned to love singing. I did have a career as little 10-year-old George Benson. I made my first record as a vocalist, but I've been playing guitar since I was 9.
George Benson / Musician
Vocalist
George
Sang
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I never gave up on that idea, you know, that jazz musicians have the same opportunity as everybody else and that it's what you put on that record that makes the difference whether you sell it or not or are able to get it into people's households.
George Benson / Musician
Jazz
Difference
Sell
Everybody Else
Gave
Households
Record
Jazz Musicians
Musicians
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My stepfather had an electric guitar. He went to his pawn store one day to get a guitar and an amp, and I couldn't understand what I was hearing. All afternoon, I just sat against the amp and let it reverberate through me. Something must have stuck.
George Benson / Musician
Afternoon
Electric
Electric Guitar
Hearing
One Day
Sat
Stuck
Understand
Guitar Me Day
Amp
Pawn
Stepfather
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One of the first things electric I ever saw was a guitar. I was living in a house with no electricity until, at 7, we moved to a house that had it. It had electric lights, but the previous owners had even taken the light bulbs with them when they moved.
George Benson / Musician
Electric
Moved
Owners
First Things
Lights
Previous
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I listen to other guitar players, yeah. It gives me new concepts and shows me where the instrument is going for the future and it is going some places. There are some musicians who are really putting out a good vibe with new theories. I try and keep up.
George Benson / Musician
Concepts
Giving
Guitar
Player
Yeah
Guitar Players
Instrument
Musicians
Putting
Theories
Vibe
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I've done two albums for Concord Records; one was with Al Jarreau and it did very well for us. The second album was called 'Songs And Stories,' and it had good songs and good performances, but I promised them I would do an album that was more jazz-oriented.
George Benson / Musician
Records
Stories
Al
Album
Concord
Performance
Promised
Second
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I keep my ears open. The world can change overnight; that's what happens in this world. You never know. You have to keep your eyes and ears open. If you can't keep up, you ain't gonna catch up. I've been making records since 1953, and you just have to keep up.
George Benson / Musician
Ears
Records
Since
Open
Catch
Eyes
Making
Overnight
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If you play music for the right reasons, the rest of the things will come. The right reason to play music is that you love it. That's why I play music. I never imagined that I was going to be doing this, especially because I never thought of myself as an instrumentalist.
George Benson / Musician
Love Music Myself
Imagined
Play Music
Right Reason
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You might not feel like playing pretty all the time. Instead, you might want to play something nasty....you might want to play something out of context with the tune. It might be a note that creates so much tension it becomes unpleasant, but you want it to sound that way.
George Benson / Musician
Play
Sound
Tunes
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One thing all the way through the show to me is boring. I don't care how great the artist is. I find that if my audience is very young, and they want to hear very young songs, my show will be dominated by that. But there'll be some ballads here and there and some swing tunes.
George Benson / Musician
Artist
Audience
Ballads
One Thing
Tunes
Great Me Will
Dominated
Hear
Swing
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'I Want To Hold Your Hand' is a great classic by Paul McCartney and John Lennon, I sure love that song. I did like the classic version, a rock-oriented song, then someone heard me do it with the Grant Green approach - Grant Green and Larry Young did it, with a bossa nova beat on the funky side.
George Benson / Musician
Approach
Classic
Funky
Green
Heard
Larry
Lennon
Song
Young
Love Great Me
Sure
Did
Version
Beat
Side
Grant
Hold
Hand
John
Mccartney
Nova
Paul
Paul Mccartney
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We don't live in a jazz world, unfortunately. I think if I had lived in a jazz world, I would have done OK. I'm not sure I would have done great. I'm a lover of jazz music, so I would have been happy, don't get me wrong. I go to jazz concerts like the biggest jazz fan in world. The drag is that I don't play jazz for a living.
George Benson / Musician
Concerts
Drag
Jazz
Jazz Music
Lover
Music Great Done
Music Great World
Unfortunately
Ok
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Andres Segovia, the great name for guitar, he put classical guitar on the map. He was the proponent of it, the best in the world. So I was listening to a record that he had made, and a little bauble happened in the middle of the record. A finger slipped, and I said, 'Wait a minute. He's not allowed to make mistakes,' - my mind.
George Benson / Musician
Classical Guitar
Allowed
Mistakes
Classical
Finger
Wait
Map
Minute
Proponent
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Of course we've lost so many superstars who've made jazz what it is. We've lost so many musicians who created new things and changed the way we think about music and who took jazz to a new level. So jazz is suffering from that. But we still have a lot of incredible people playing jazz in the world. We have a lot of people leading the way.
George Benson / Musician
Change
Music
Smile
Creating
Thinking
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When I was 15 years old, my cousin and I formed a singing group called The Altaires. And, because we became the most popular singing group in the Tri-State area, the rest of the group convinced me I should play the guitar - even though I didn't own one! So what happened was, my stepfather actually made my first electric guitar for me for $23!
George Benson / Musician
Convinced
Cousin
Electric
Electric Guitar
Singing
Guitar Me Singing
Area
Guitar Me Rest
Became
Rest
Formed
Group
Popular
Stepfather
Though
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Larry Carlton is an incredibly versatile guitarist who has been a major force for guitar for many years. He is easily recognizable - all you have to do is hear him once and from that point on you'll be a fan, just like me. It gives me great pleasure to extend congratulations to Larry on his 2011 George Benson Lifetime Achievement Award. Congratulations !
George Benson / Musician
Awards
Congratulations
Years
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George Benson Quotes - Page 1

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