Latest Miles Davis Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• In other words, an instrument should be an extension of you; it's supposed to sound like you - the way you walk, the way you dress, you know.

  Miles Davis

  Dresses, Way, Sound

  Source: hepcat1950.com

• I did Bronislaw Kaper's tune. He wrote "On Green Dolphin Street." I mean, I did all those ballads, all them ballads from South America. All those tunes - the guitar concerto on Sketches Of Spain. All those are Spanish melodies. Some of them we made up ourselves.

  Miles Davis

  Mean, Guitar, America

  Source: hepcat1950.com

• Japanese people they hear my warmin' up and they start screamin'. They can tell it's me.It's my tone on the trumpet, it sounds like I'm speakin'.

  Miles Davis

  People, Tone, Sound

  Source: hepcat1950.com

• I said to [Lionel] Richie, "Man, my wife says you must really respect women because you write such beautiful love songs."

  Miles Davis

  Beautiful, Song, Writing

  Source: hepcat1950.com

• Catch Harry Belafonte. He's got a helluva rhythm section.And so have the Pointer Sisters. And that little guy with Sammy Clayton. He plays the whole show with 40 members.

  Miles Davis

  Play, Guy, Littles

  Source: hepcat1950.com

• Lionel [Richie] said, "Yeah, I learned chords and stuff playin' against your albums."

  Miles Davis

  Stuff, Albums, Chords

  Source: hepcat1950.com

• I gave the album [You're Under Arrest] to Quincy Jones and he loved "D Train". We couldn't call it "D Train"; it's called "MDI/Something's On Your Mind/MD2". That's on the album.

  Miles Davis

  Mind, Albums, Train

  Source: hepcat1950.com

• With "We Are The World," I can't even eat when I watch that on television. If I'm eatin' some food, I have to put it down. I feel very strongly about that.

  Miles Davis

  World, Watches, Television

  Source: hepcat1950.com

• They [police] do me like that all the time! "What you work for?".

  Miles Davis

  Police

  Source: hepcat1950.com

• If you have a tone like mine that is recognizable. No matter what I play, when you hear my tone you can tell it's me.

  Miles Davis

  Play, Matter, Tone

  Source: hepcat1950.com

• If I hear a song like "Time After Time." I'm sittin' there lookin' at video and Cindy Lauper comes on singin' this song. I said, "God damnnnnn!"

  Miles Davis

  Song, Video, Said

  Source: hepcat1950.com

• I couldn't do "What's Love Got To Do With It", Tina Turner because it wasn't the right tempo; so I scratched it from the record. I wanted to do it about a year ago, but something happened.

  Miles Davis

  Years, Records, Wanted

  Source: hepcat1950.com

• I put all those synthesizer sounds behind "Decoy" and "Code M.D." A lot of things we write together. A lot of things are his, but they don't have that thing I want on the bottom. I often tell him, I say, "Bobby [Irving], if there's a melody, there's another one somewhere that goes with it."

  Miles Davis

  Writing, Together, Want

  Source: hepcat1950.com

• If I have a dynamite bass player - I have Darryl Jones - it's so easy to write for him because he's such a funky kid and he's gifted. He's like a little genius.

  Miles Davis

  Kids, Writing, Player

  Source: hepcat1950.com

• I usually write from the rhythm section...If a drummer got a funky beat on some things - like a half-shuffle or a shuffle or a backbeat that's even - I can write something.

  Miles Davis

  Writing, Half, Drummer

  Source: hepcat1950.com

• If you make a suggestion and [musicians] don't know what you mean, you have to be able to do it yourself. I often sit down on drums and show 'em just exactly what I want. And I do it and then say, "How do you do that?" It's because I know how it looks, I know what I want to hear, and I don't drop or rush any tempo. It ain't in my body, it ain't in my nephew's body.

  Miles Davis

  Mean, Nephew, Musician

  Source: hepcat1950.com

• I can hear what I want [people] to play. If you don't hear what you want someone to play, then you can't tell 'em.

  Miles Davis

  Play, People, Ems

  Source: hepcat1950.com

• I can't write anything for myself. I can write when I hear like [John] Coltrane play something; I used to write chords and stuff for him to play in one bar. I can write for other people, but I don't never write for myself.

  Miles Davis

  Writing, Play, People

  Source: hepcat1950.com

• I've gotten hernias from drummers when they drop tempo.

  Miles Davis

  Drummer, Hernias, Tempo

  Source: hepcat1950.com

• Maybe you play a melody twice. You play it once like you like it, and some parts that you don't like you can just switch. An eight-bar motive - you can just take it and put it in the front or back or something like that. It can save you 50 or 60 or 70,000 dollars, a drum machine. That's why everybody uses it.

  Miles Davis

  Eight, Play, Dollars

  Source: hepcat1950.com

• Some musicians play with their heart, you know what I mean? I don't know what to tell a person that can't - if you can't tell a person what you're talkin' about when they're rushin' or droppin' the tempo, you get somebody else.

  Miles Davis

  Heart, Mean, Play

  Source: hepcat1950.com

• When we edit the music, I always remember, "It's my band. Save me a place to play."

  Miles Davis

  Play, Band, Remember

  Source: hepcat1950.com

• I've used [drum machine] because I have to have the perfect tempo.

  Miles Davis

  Perfect, Machines, Used

  Source: hepcat1950.com

• I keep telling Ron Lorman and them in the control room, "It's my band! The reason I have a band is because I can't stand for somebody to tell me what to do."

  Miles Davis

  Band, Rooms, Reason

  Source: hepcat1950.com

• The only way a drum machine will get out of beat is for you not to pay your electric bill.

  Miles Davis

  Machines, Pay, Bills

  Source: hepcat1950.com