Ritchie Blackmore
5
Hey, I just don't get it !
I listen to music from the '30s (Did you know Fred Astaire sang, a lot ...) to now (2009) and get a heavy load of all I can find from polyphonic music, renaissance, Baroque, Romantic, Impressionist, Stravinsky, Messiaen or Mathieu. I’m a music fan for sure. I drowned myself for years in the music from the ‘60s to the ‘80s, and massive doses of progressive rock, rock and blues. Well, there is always something else to know and consider and I don't pretend to have the definitive word on guitarists, but ...
Seeing Ritchie Blackmore (RB) listed as the 55st best guitarist (electric) of all time (according to Rolling Stone mag), is like reading a “scientific report” stating that after all the earth is flat …!!!
Who wrote that ?!
Now, I can understand a couple of things. Deep Purple is not, and was never the most fashionable group in any period. When progressive rock came by, Heavy rock was considered a thing of the past. When Metal came by, even if most of the good guitarist in the genre where inspired by the neo-classical style of Ritchie, fans were mostly unaware. The trashy sounds of punk rock, alternative and some others owe a lot to the rhythmic frenzies that Blackmore created in the dawn of the seventies, to the contempt of all “educated critics of the time” and to the awe and pleasure of millions of fans. As for destruction derbies on stage, the timid guitar immolation of Hendricks at Woodstock is pale in comparison to the total wreck Blackmore created and pioneered, like the one at the California Jam (1974). You want presence, individuality and authenticity …well, you cannot ignore RB.
This kind of stuff has been enough to put some artist in the top list of their craft, pioneering, personality, exploration. But with Blackmore, it is just the tip of the iceberg. He had to play with some of the very best (of all time) in rock (“In Rock”, …you get it ?) :
- Ian Gillan is, in all justice, a myth in itself, redefining rock singing and, for me, creating more classic material than any other singer (sic) of this period, to this day …
- John Lord, with his Orchestral work (classical, played with the London Symphonic), proved to be a top in musicianship, a master and a guide;
- Roger Glover was a polyvalent bassist, steady and sure, able to compose with the very thunderous egos of Deep Purple;
- Ian Paice, the very underrated drummer of Purple, was able to provide all the very precise and heavy mayhem needed to punctuate the music of those classic rock albums;
- Don’ t forget David Coverdale, Glenn Hughes, Ronnie James Dio, Joe Lynn Turner, …
He played with them, and many times, they had to play catch up as he “personified” so many track, leaving marks carved deep like those riffs on “Smoke on the water”, “Space Trucking”, "The Mule", "Fireball", "Picture of Home", "Perfect Strangers", "Twist in the Tale", "The Battle Rages On" or those “solemn hurricane solos” from “Child in Time”, “Lazy”, “Speed King”, “Highway Star”. It was not always because of virtuoso complexity (which he showed a lot, live most of the time, leaving one wondering what he could not do …) or even just master musicianship (which he also showed and still show with Renaissance music (who could have guessed this one)). Others have played this stuff, great musicians too (who would diminish Satriani, Steve Morse, ...). No, it is something else. The fundamentals of Ritchie’s craft are about that something else …
He played, in studio or even more live, as if each note, each chord, each attack, each staccato or legato or off beat or understated sound was the result of the careful decisions of a board of directors based on numerous rigorous studies from some “brain trust”. …but at lightning speed !
Is perfection possible in music. One can work hard at it, put it as a distant goal, inspiring, demanding, a calling. Yeah ! One can …
But Ritchie Blackmore seemed, almost from the start, to send postcards from that elusive place, posting news from a world we can only dream about, …so far !
