The classic rock guitarist Ritchie Blackmore called “overrated”
Having a conversation about who might be the greatest guitarist of all time is often undercut by one simple question: What do you know about it? For the most part, very few of us can have a qualified opinion on the matter, as we might assert with a bevvy in our hand and a point to prove. If there’s one thing Ritchie Blackmore knows better than most, it is guitar playing.
A widely influential fretboard master who emerged in an era not short of them, he has provided many different highlights in his time, with Deep Purple, Rainbow and as a solo artist. Blackmore is one man who is more than capable of having an opinion, and he often does. But because of his power as a performer, he can get away with it. And he certainly was a particularly gifted guitarist.
As well as blowing away audiences with his elemental talent, Blackmore had the fortune of rubbing shoulders with some of the most prominent guitarists of his era and heeding their brilliance first-hand. Whether it be a young Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, or Eric Clapton, the stories the former Deep Purple man tells about the exciting music scene of ‘Swinging Sixties’ London will never fail to fascinate.
However, like many of his outspoken generation, he is unafraid to diverge from the usual accounts regarding some of these players and provide critiques. These are extra valuable, as they come from a man who knows what he’s talking about and are often well constructed, offering a compelling counterpoint and challenging existing beliefs.
One of these analyses concerns The Who’s leader and guitar hero, Pete Townshend. When speaking to Martin K Webb in 1973, Blackmore revealed that he thinks the ‘My Generation’ hero is “overrated” and not as good as everyone thinks. However, he did say other people were getting credit for what The Who man started.
That’s the crux of Townshend’s creative influence on the world of guitar. No matter what you think of him, to ignore the sheer heft of influence and inspiration he has dropped at the feet of the rock and roll community is to ignore tonnes of the greatest songs ever written. But, for Blackmore, that wasn’t enough.
Blackmore said: “Pete Townshend was definitely the first (To use feedback). But not being that good a guitarist, he used to just sort of crash chords and let the guitar feedback. He didn’t get into twiddling with the dials on the amplifier until much later.”
He continued: “He’s overrated in England. But at the same time you find a lot of people like Jeff Beck and Hendrix getting credit for things he started. Townshend was the first to break his guitar. He was the first to do a lot of things. He’s very good at his chord scene too,” Ritchie Blackmore said.
It wasn’t just Townshend’s playing that Blackmore took issue with. Asked why he doesn’t “leap” around on stage, he used other peers as examples: “I like leaping around on stage as long as it’s done with class. Like Free. They’re the best band in England. Paul Rodgers is a good singer and a brilliant mover. None of this jumping up in the air and doing the splits and all that. He just moves with the music. Not like Pete Townshend who’s gotten to the point that he waits until the photographers are well-aimed before he leaps. He’s not very spontaneous.”
It’s a damning critique of one of the most influential six-string players of all time, but if there was a man well-placed to offer up such a barb, then it is Blackmore.
