Ritchie Blackmore Where Does He Rate?

He played a lot of blues as others have mentioned. And he was quite good at it.
But he didn't want to play the soul/funk that Hughes and Coverdale wanted to play.
I think Hughes was trying to impress Stevie Wonder...by mimicking him.

And I agree...comment was racist. It sure as hell wouldn't fly today if a musician said that.

 

Wow. Good one.

 

Among British Rock guitarists who 'went pro' in the 60's, he's #6:
1) Jimmy Page (for sheer success/creativity/productivity)
2) Jeff Beck (my personal favourite)
3) Richard Thompson
4) Peter Green
5) Eric Clapton
6) Ritchie Blackmore
7) Mick Ralphs
8) Tony Iommi
9) Eddie Phillips/Peter Townsend
10) Dave Davies

 

Nice list. Good to see Richard Thompson getting recognition.

I'd have to have Steve Howe on mine. Not sure where though.

 

Ritchie is my favorite Stratocaster player and has my favorite strat rock tone. I love how he would attack every note. Even when he was playing soft, there was a little bit of "pop" to it that sounds unique to Ritchie.

 

I pinched this link from another thread. Interesting interview with Ritchie from 1978. Odd to hear him talk highly of Jimmy Page and the influence that Zep had on Purple. And his mind was already on his minstrel music in 78!

http://www.theguardian.com/music/20...kmore-i-have-a-bad-reputation-but-i-dont-mind

 

Hello folks,

Historically speaking, we can't change the fact that Mr.Blackmore was around & doing his thing with Deep Purple at similar times as Jimmy Page with Led Zeppelin, & Tony Iommi with Black Sabbath, so that alone makes him a part of the "Holy Trinity" of the British Hard-Rock legacy that was in the early 1970's.

I'm surprised to notice ( unless I've missed it sorry ) that no-ones mentioned how unique, distinct & beatiful his guitar tone was from everybody else, particularly when playing his Stratocaster in the early days of Deep Purple. This I thought he lost by the mid-1970's, but we all hear things differently. ( eg, I though his playing got better & better as the years rolled on, yet his recorded live tone got worse & worse, especially in the mid-80's).

His impact & influence is undeniable, though in all honesty, for me, I enjoyed his music / playing the most when he was very much part-of-the-band Deep Purple with equal weight to the other members, than when life turned him into the "Spotlight Kid" with Rainbow.

Let's also not forget the vast amount of musical careers he's actually helped to start by hiring & firing different band-members as the years went by. And all at the expense of looking bad & hostile in the public eye, yet all he was doing was trying to keep his vitality up, open doors & creating opportunities for other musicians. There's always two-sides to the coin !

Cheers,

Gregster

 

I agree about his guitar tone. It was beautiful in the early 70's. It had a warm, full and round tone to it (although still heavy when it needed to be). It turned to a much harsher and edgy sound. Ok for the epic metal that was early Rainbow...but not nearly as good IMO. I liked his playing better on those early albums as well. I'm going to attribute that to the fact that he had a great band mate in Jon Lord.

 

About the most tasteful player with any arguably metal band. But I prefer folks in other genres like Clarence White, Jerry Garcia, Steve Howe, Bucky Pizzarelli, Trey Anastasio, Frank Zappa, Blackbyrd McKnight.

 

Check out those shiny boots!

 

LOL,

We must remember here that both Eric & Ritchie are friends, & have been for a long time ! I'm sure that the remark about "shoe-shine-music" was to stir Eric ( & everyone else ) up, whilst asking him " What the heck are you doing ? You you were once leading the heavy-blues-based rock in the band Cream" !!!

Cheers,

Gregster

 

There's a funny story about Ritchie's birthday. He gets a push along toy by his friend Eric Clapton and Ritchie Blackmore is so happy about it that he takes it with him the next few days. This can be read in the Blackmore biography "Black Knight". We really shouldn't take that quote about the "shoe-shine-music" too seriously.

 

Ritchie Blackmore is in my top 3 list.

My favorite (Rock) guitarists of all-time (no particulary order)

Tommy Bolin
Jeff Beck
Jimmy Page
Eric Clapton (for his work from the 60's to Slowhand)
Ritchie Blackmore
Joe Satriani
Jimi Hendrix
Rory Gallagher
Tony Iommi
Steve Howe
SRV

 

I'm mostly done with classic rock in general and classic rock guitar playing in general makes me roll my eyes BUT Blackmore (as well as Iommi) is a major exception. For classic rock he's Number 1 for sure.

 

I never said Blackmore hasn't or couldn't play blues... when called upon to do so, Blackmore plays in the blues idiom quite well, just as Blackmore played excellent funk-style guitar, even pre-dating the entry of Hughes and Coverdale (check out Emmaretta, for example).
Blackmore can play pretty much anything, but again, he really has no interest in the blues (or funk, for that matter), and blues-style playing doesn't form a major influence in his playing. Richard Thompson is another 60s Brit guitarist who doesn't come from a blues-fanatic background, unlike most of the famous UK 60's electric guitarists.

 

One of the greatest hard rock guitarists responsible for a list of classics in this genre. Nothing more, nothing else.

 

he shoud ent be on the list you left out Mick Taylor and others

 

And the Vai band were delivering. I was reminded of seeing an 18 year old Richie Blackmore with The Outlaws in Poole (Richie was an astonishing young player).

The scene was very lively with local Bournemouth / Poole / South Coast, touring national and international acts. Richie Blackmore at 18 (with The Outlaws) was stunning, an exceptional technique for the time married to superb presentation: Richie had the moves.

Robert Fripp. (From his Diaries)

 

Blackmore was one of the pioneers of hard rock guitar music along with Page,Iommi and Clapton. They all had their individual styles and they produced most of the classic hard rock riffs.

 

Ritchie Blackmore is very high on my list of favourite guitarists. My personal preferences are...

1. Jimi Hendrix
2. Mick Taylor
3. Duane Allman
4. Ritchie Blackmore
5. Jeff Beck

...then there's a whole bunch of others, headed by Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Freddie King, Johnny Winter, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Paul Kossoff, Pete Townshend, Dave Davies, Hubert Sumlin, Elmore James and others...