“You never knew what you were gonna see”: Brian May praises Ritchie Blackmore as hugely underrated
As a part-time astrophysicist with a PhD from Imperial College London, it is safe to say Brian May appreciates mathematics and scientific accuracy. This certainly translates to the Queen guitarist’s contributions to pop music, which were invariably precise, complex and progressive. Accordingly, May likes to see similar qualities in the guitarists he’s inspired by.
When May finished his BSc in Physics in 1968, London basked in its golden age of rock guitarists. Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page circled the city, making fellow guitarists red in the chops and green with envy. Naturally, May was a fan of these technically skilled giants, but as an astute guitarist himself, he found greater pleasure in seeking out compositional and stylistic nuances.
As a passionate fan of The Beatles, May felt the band’s lead guitarist, George Harrison, was unfairly underrated during his time, eclipsed by the crowding talents of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Speaking to the Express in 2022, May revealed that the Beatles were Queen’s “bible”. He explained that “at every stage in their career and their music development, they were models. And they still are to me, I must say”.
Harrison famously took it upon himself to learn the sitar in the mid-to-late 1960s. His lessons with Ravi Shankar brought a unique edge to his playing, but earlier in the decade, he explored new ways of approaching the six-string, inventing his own chord variants in some regions of the Beatles’ catalogue. “I love George, I love his playing,” May praised. “I hold George in such reverence and I think he’s so underrated by the guitar community. Everyone raves about people who play fast, but if you look at the catalogue of stuff he’s produced, it’s colossal.”
Similarly, May feels that Ritchie Blackmore, the guitarist of Deep Purple, was criminally underappreciated as a player. “People don’t talk about Ritchie Blackmore enough,” the Queen guitarist said in a 2014 appearance on Planet Rock. “I don’t know why. But he was such a trailblazer and technically incredible, unpredictable in every possible way which is great. I mean, that’s what you love, isn’t it?”
It appears that May values creativity and originality over technical skill. In a sense, most people do, given that Jimi Hendrix was revered as a trailblazer. Modern-day YouTube guitarists might be able to imitate some of Hendrix’s material, but they didn’t write the songs or have the ideas in the late 1960s when it was new.
In a similar sense, Blackmore and his Black Sabbath counterpart, Tony Iommi, will live on in rock history as early innovators of the heavy metal and hard rock genres. May remembered being pleasantly surprised whenever he watched Blackmore play with Deep Purple or Rainbow. “You go to a gig and you want to see something which is not predictable, not like just reproducing something,” he continued. “You never knew what you were gonna see when you went to see Purple when Blackmore was in it, but also Rainbow.”
Ritchie Blackmore is known for his speed, accuracy and innovative tone. These attributes can be heard in the montage of his ten greatest solos below.
