Ritchie Blackmore's "Pictures of Home" solo - most technical guitar solo recorded up to that point?

Aside from Jan Akkerman's on "Hocus Pocus", of course.

Were there any other guitar players around 1971/72 (aside from Akkerman) who could with as much technical skill as Blackmore did on this solo?

1:37

 

I love the tone and it's very seamless, timely, and of course cleanly executed . The only thing for me is it has a bit of an 'exercise' aspect to it, a 'practicing scales' sort of mentality to it, and seems to me a variation of notes closely placed together on the fretboard. Until it builds towards the climax and into a higher register. I like how the notes all sound precise and yet there is still some feel in hearing them played too.

 

I have no idea how does the part starting at 2:03. Maybe not as fast as Akkerman's "Hocus Focus" solo, but probably harder to reproduce.

 

What a master it's like the Fender Stratocaster was built for him he really knew how to use it.

 

Roger Glover's bass rip is cooler

 

@HotelYorba101 could you give us a tutorial on how mind numbingly simple this solo is?

 

Lemme remember how a B pentatonic scale goes

I am trying to dissuade them from making so many threads though so I don't want to feed the forum schtick which I sadly contributed to it prior

 

What a fantastic drum intro!

 

most technical guitar solo recorded up to that point?

Not if you include jazz.

 

That is wise.

 

Blackmore was awesome and an early innovator with chops for sure.

If we're only talking rock, then it's a very short list this early on. Akkerman and Ollie Halsell are other names of note.

Obviously if we're expanding more into jazz and fusion, there was also John McLaughlin and Allan Holdsworth.

And if it's jazz more on the straight ahead side, Joe Diorio, George Benson, Pat Martino and Joe Pass are great places to start.

In country there was Jimmy Bryant with great pick technique who was also one of Blackmore's favorites. Blackmore was also a fan of Les Paul and Django and they also played with chops.

 

thanks, I enjoyed it...not the best though.

 

yes! excellent drums...nice sound as well.

 

Paging Mr. Mclaughlin...

 

Ian Paice? Love him on the drums! I mean, love his drumming!

 

Wow no love for Glover @3:40? I guess it's just me, but I always found that impressive as hell! Loved that picked tone of his. Great song, great album around.

 

an excellent drummer!

 

Surely it's not the most "technical" recorded guitar solo up to that point

 

Regardless of this lead break, Blackmore is a great guitarist....

But in 1971 John McLaughlin had his stunning style of playing on Mahavishnu Orchestra's Inner Mounting Flame...

Also in 1971 we had Steve Howe with Yes on Fragile and the Yes Album with his stunnging style of playing.

In 1970 George Benson displayed his stunning style of playing on The Other Side Of Abbey Road...

Aside from that though prior, there was Django Reinhardt playing stunning lines with two fingers and a nub....

There have been many great guitarists.... and there still are, but many sixties and seventies fans discount most modern guitarists as having no feel, yet carry on about how technically great their favourites from back in the day were... it's all a complete nonsense...

and I didn't even need to mention Hendrix, who was of course very technically proficient.

My advice would be stop worrying about some so called best, or first, or whatever, and just enjoy the wealth of music we are blessed to enjoy.... if we want to

 

Bringing jazz players into this matter is a bit of a tricky issue, because the "Pictures of Home" solo has plenty of very quickly done bends, which is something that jazz players tend to generally eschew. I mean, listen to the part between 1:55 and 2:24. Were there any jazz players before 1971/72 who could reproduce that on the electric guitar? I don't think Akkerman in his prime years would've been able to either.

 

It’s a fantastic song. Everyone plays great,

 

OK, I'll bite... Why would jazz musicians need to do bends?
Do you even know what jazz is? What jazz musicians do when they play? Do you even know what improvisations are about?
We've providing you tips and you keep ignoring them, pretending to know what jazz musicians *should* do (your rant on John Coltrane was a classic). Here are some facts: you have no idea what jazz is, you need to find a new hobby, your little "naive"-shtick isn't fooling anyone.

 

You completely missed my point. Like completely.

The idea of the thread is, was anybody back in 1972 able to reproduce a solo like that on the electric guitar? Akkerman instantly came to my mind, because he was one of the very few who could play faster Blackmore back then, but the interesting thing here is that the "Pictures of Home" solo has lots of ultra-fast bends in it, and I don't think even Akkerman would've been able to reproduce the thing back then.

Now, onto the jazz thing... Of course I'm aware that jazz guitarists were more technical than rock guitarists back then. But that's where the bending issue comes in - they rarely do bends because the jazz doesn't "require" bends. And the "Pictures of Home" solo has some very hard to execute, quick bends in it.

Get my point now? Yeah, even jazz players likely would've had a lot of trouble with this solo.

 

Jazz doesn't "require" or "not require" anything. You play who you are with what you have, period. If a jazz musicians feel like doing bends, he/she does it. And why on earth would a jazz musician "reproduce a solo", or "play faster Blackmore" when the whole purpose of jazz is originality, creativity and spontaneity? Get my point, now? Once AGAIN: you clearly don't have the faintest idea what jazz is about... which doesn't prevent you discussing what it is or what is should be.
As for having "a lot of trouble with this solo"... just as with any type of music. It doesn't prove anything... Blackmore couldn't probably play Heitor Villa-Lobos 12 studies for guitar, or any of Wes Montgomery's solos. It doesn't prove anything in favor or against Blackmore. Different styles.
Why are you so obsessed with those pointless comparisons?

Once again, "That's one of the problems with what seems to be your general approach to everything: if something that you don't know anything about appears unlikely to you, then you conclude from that appearance that it can't be. It doesn't matter to you if, say, other people have established its existence and background decades ago, and it doesn't matter if there maybe exists a huge amount of knowledge about it and evidence for it based on decades of research; it doesn't even matter if you know the meaning of the terms you use to discuss it, or what your senses (you know, eyes and ears and such) would easily tell you if you weren't so busy with your brilliant deductions; if you don't feel it's the case, then it isn't." (from Black Sabbath History; Question Answer Thread; New Fans Needed)

It seems to apply to every thread you start...

 

You have a tendency to comprehend literally the opposite of what I'm saying.

Like seriously... when I say a thing like "they rarely do bends because the jazz doesn't "require" bends", you really don't get why I'm using quotation marks around the word "require"? It's a simple fact that jazz guitarists bend notes a lot less frequently than rock players do, so if you are a jazz guitarist, while your overall technique needs to be better than that of rock players, your bending technique absolutely does not. When Ritchie Blackmore came out with a solo in 1972 that is filled with ultra-fast bends and other hard-to-play things, it makes you wonder, could anybody back then reproduce that? That's the question I'm asking with this thread, and you completely missed it.