The guitarist that left Ritchie Blackmore in awe: “How the hell is he doing that?”
Being a guitarist in a collection of bands dubbed ‘The Holy Trinity’ of rock and roll is high praise. But in the case of Ritchie Blackmore, it’s well-earned. As the man responsible for writing the riff that is played first on every store-bought guitar around the world – ‘Smoke On The Water’ – Blackmore has a level of credence on guitar playing punditry that few others are afforded.
But despite Deep Purple’s cemented place within the pantheon of rock and roll history, Blackmore’s personal influence is often consigned to the shadows of conversation. While the heady days of 1960s experimentation forged a path for success for Deep Purple, it also provided a competitive reality by which his work would be measured. If it weren’t for the emergence of Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page in the 1970s, then the rosette for sonic innovation would probably have been awarded to Blackmore.
As the compositional experimental 1960s gave way to the distorted ‘70s that championed hard rock and sprawling solos, the landscape of guitarists became somewhat competitive. As culture likes to so often do, the titans of the pedalboard were pitted against one another for their ability to steal the limelight of a song with sprawling fuzz licks.
And as the decade turned, Blackmore seemed to be at the pinnacle. In an interview posted on Deep Purple’s YouTube channel, he admitted: “It seemed in our time, which was like 1970, the biggest bands were Led Zeppelin, ourselves – Deep Purple – and Black Sabbath”.
But while he is willing to concede Zeppelin’s role in defining the scene, it seems that Page’s musical reverence, along with Clapton’s a source of bemusement, or day I say it, irritation for Blackmore.
In an interview with Jon Tiven for International Musician & Recording World magazine, Blackmore spoke of his contemporaries and, in particular, his fondness for Jeff Beck before offering his rather scathing assessment of Clapton.
“I like Jeff [Beck],” Blackmore replied. “He’s my favourite guitarist. There are a lot of guitarists around that get overlooked. When you’re a guitarist yourself, you tend to get so buried in what you’re doing. Mike Bloomfield is really good. Steve Howe’s always been a very good guitarist. I’m not too struck on Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton; I never saw what was in Clapton at all. He’s a good singer.”
He continued to describe Beck as “a very natural guitar player”, before saying, “Being a guitarist, I obviously know a lot of tricks of the trade, but whenever I watch Beck I think, How the hell is he doing that?”
“Your head should tell your hands where to go; the hands shouldn’t do it all by themselves,” he concluded. “Hendrix’s head must have been very good. I’d say, from listening to his music, because he never repeated himself. That means his hands weren’t having the say. He was saying, ‘I want to play this.'”
