The band Ritchie Blackmore wanted Deep Purple to be “clones” of: “They were our heroes”
Former Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore has never been afraid to discuss very much at all. But as well as being able to dish out a searing critique or two, he has also been full of praise for the bands who inspired him the most.
In his time, he’s showered praise on some of the best in the business, from solo artists to bands, and provided many a hot take in the process.
Never afraid to get real, the man who created the iconic ‘Smoke on the Water’ riff is more than within his rights to be so reflective on music. After all, fellow heavy metal progenitor Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi was once asked to name “the greatest riff of all time”, to which he picked the aforementioned collection of notes as the one.
He said: “There’s so many great riffs out there from the past, and up-to-date stuff. But you’ve got to have Deep Purple’s ‘Smoke on the Water’. And, of course, there are a lot of Zeppelin songs. Jimmy Page has some great riffs.”
A titan of rock music, Ritchie Blackmore’s standing has led to him being asked numerous times about his favourite bands. One group he has mentioned on several occasions as having a tremendous impact on himself and Deep Purple is Vanilla Fudge. Notably, the American group instilled rock with a much harder edge, with their hit cover of The Supremes’ ‘You Keep Me Hangin’ On’ one of the most inventive in history. They were also the group that produced the legendary drummer Carmine Appice.
When speaking to Guitar World in 1991, Blackmore recalled how much of an impact Vanilla Fudge had on Deep Purple in the early years, to the extent that he labelled them their “heroes” whom they wanted to be a “clone” of. He said: “We loved Vanilla Fudge – they were our heroes.”
They used to play London’s Speakeasy, and all the hippies used to go there to hang out. Clapton, The Beatles, everybody went there to pose. According to legend, the talk of the town during that period was Jimi Hendrix. But that’s not true, it was Vanilla Fudge.” it’s true that much of the talk in retrospect seems to focus on Hendrix, but so often with hindisht do new visions of the past emerge. Suddenyl, everyone has been to a certain club or accidentally stumbled into a bar where an icon was sipping a drink. Embellishment is as much a part of rock legacy as the guitar strings themselves.
For the most part, though, without any form of real communication like today, scenes could swell between just a few dozen people. Genres formed and destroyed within months. And, likewise, bands could explode and drift into the collective past in an instant. For Deep Purple, a likely a chunk more aspiring artists, Vanilla Fudge were the real deal. Blackmore continued: “They played eight-minute songs with dynamics. People said, ‘What the hell’s going on here? How come it’s not three minutes?’ Timmy Bogert, their bassist, was amazing.”
What Vanilla Fudge had moreso than any other band, was a uniquely robust musical arsenal. Every member of the band seemed able to defend themselves. It’s not uncommon for groups to be heavily reliant on a single part of their orchestra, like Van Halen with Eddie or Guns N’ Roses leaning on Axl Rose incredible voice. But, Vanilla Fudge were different: “The whole group was ahead of its time. So, initially, we wanted to be a Vanilla Fudge clone. But our singer, Ian, wanted to be Edgar Winter. He’d say, ‘I want to scream like that, like Edgar Winter.’ So that’s what we were, Vanilla Fudge with Edgar Winter!”
However, after the curtain came down on the countercultural era, Deep Purple knew they had to chart a different course. Their drummer Ian Paice explained to Metal Evolution: “What we tried to be on the first album was to be an English version of Vanilla Fudge. Take normal songs and put big arrangements around them. We started to realise that it was more important to be ourselves instead of ‘No. 2 Vanilla Fudge’.”
Setting yourself out form the crowd is hard to do when you have just started making music. Naturally, when sitting down to write or perform your first songs, the influences that have shaped you bear their soul between the notes. But what Blackmore realised, is that without individualism, the group could never truly take off, lest they be constantly in the shadow of another band.
Listen to Deep Purple’s first album below.
