Vintage Guitar - September 2017 - open - 87

I

n any conversation about the dawn of hard rock
and metal, several bands rise up - Led Zeppelin,
Black Sabbath, Mountain, Grand Funk Railroad,
and Uriah Heep. But you simply must celebrate
the mammoth contributions of Deep Purple
and its notorious guitarist-in-chief, Ritchie Blackmore.
The band's 1972 album, Machine Head,
put Purp at the top of the hard-rock heap
and was a global smash thanks to the hit
single "Smoke on the Water" and its monster riff. About 20 years ago, Blackmore
stepped away from rock and began exploring the sounds of acoustic music from the
Renaissance era, but he surprised fans by
putting together a new lineup of Rainbow
and releasing Live in Birmingham 2016.
With Blackmore once again on the prowl
and Machine Head turning 45, we asked
him to divulge whatever secrets remain
from the sessions.

HIDDEN ROOTS
Before the metallic crunch of Machine
Head, psychedelia and blues-rock were
evolving. In the latter half of the '60s, the
Yardbirds, Rolling Stones, Cream, Jeff
Beck Group, Jimi Hendrix Experience,
Vanilla Fudge, and Led Zep began pushing the envelope of heaviness - 1970 was
watershed, with Deep Purple's In Rock,
Mountain's "Mississippi Queen," and Sabbath's Paranoid.
By this point, Blackmore had converted
from a Gibson ES-335 to a Fender Stratocaster - a gift from Eric Clapton (we can
see Ritchie with a Strat in photos from the
Fireball sessions, September 1970). The
guitarist's blooming style traces from Les
Paul to the electrifying achievements of
Clapton, Beck, Greenie, Page, and (considering Blackmore's razor-sharp triplets)
perhaps, Alvin Lee of Ten Years After.
If you tally these players with the classic
Strat and Marshall stack, you'll begin to see
Blackmore morph into the young guitarist
who stepped up to record Machine Head.
Even Queen guitarist Brian May concurs,
as he noted in The Ritchie Blackmore Story
documentary.
"Ritchie was already a source of mystery
and wonder - nobody could play like that in
those days," May said. "It's not just the speed
- there were other people who can play
fast... but they aren't Ritchie Blackmore."
We asked Blackmore to fill in the gaps
about the many guitarists who helped shape
his early style.
"Les Paul was a hero of mine," he said.
"But there were lots of country players back
then that were incredible and incredibly

fast - Jimmy Bryant, Chet Atkins,
Cliff Gallup, Scotty Moore, Glen
Campbell, Buck Owens & The Buckeroos, and others whose names I didn't
even know - I'd see them on television
shows. Their style was country, mine
was more rock and classical. I would
improvise mostly in minor keys,
whereas country music was in majors.
When our management wanted us to
go to America to play, I thought, 'Why?
They have so many brilliant guitar
players.' I was kind of reluctant."
This mix of country and classical
is a critical part of the Blackmore
attack, but certainly there is lots of
blues in there.
"I liked Peter Green with John Mayall, and saw B.B. King live, and thought
he was great, even though his selection
of notes was pretty limited. Johnny
Winter was a brilliant player and of
course, I would often play Hendrix
stuff, but I always thought of Jimi not
as a technician but
more of a brilliant
singer that could
emote amazing
stuff on the guitar. He would
come up with
riffs that nobody
else would, like
'Manic Depression,' 'Stone Free,'
and 'Burning of the
Midnight Lamp.'
"One of my main
inspirations in blues
was Shuggie Otis,
the son of [R&B
artist and impresario] Johnny
Otis - I thought
he was great,
and he was

only 15 years old at the time. I
loved Mike Bloomfield in the
Paul Butterfield Blues band, and
Mick Taylor is a fine blues player. I
was also influenced by English rock
and roll players like Tony Harvey
and Joe Moretti."
Blackmore discussed one of
his biggest influences with H.P.
Newquist, of the National Guitar
Museum.
"Jeff Beck is my idol. The guy gets
notes from nowhere, you know? Sometimes he finds notes I just do not have
on my guitar. When 'Shapes Of Things'
came out, everybody went, 'Oh my God!
Who is that... and why is he playing this
Indian stuff? It shouldn't be allowed.' It
was just too good."

SOME STUPID WITH
A FLARE GUN
With this myriad of guitar creativity
instilled in young Blackmore, he was
ready to take on the world in the early
'70s. The recording of Machine Head
commenced in Switzerland during
December of 1971. The plan was to cut
the album at the Montreux Casino, a
popular concert venue. But it was not to
be: a fan at a Frank Zappa & the Mothers
show fired a flare gun during the show,
igniting the ceiling material and causing a devastating fire. Miraculously, no
one died, but the casino was heavily
damaged and Purple bereft of a studio.
Using the Rolling Stones' Mobile
Studio (a.k.a. RSM, a
then state-of-the-art
Helios console and
the outboard gear
of a full recording
studio housed in a
commercial van),
the band relocated
first to a local theater, Le Pavillon, and
cut the basic track for
"Smoke on the Water,"
but were evicted by
police for playing
too loudly. Finally,
they found the
e mp t y G r a nd
Hotel and set
up shop.

Fender's Ritchie
Blackmore
Signature Strat.
September 2017

87

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