Ritchie Blackmore Discusses Yardbirds

[patman]

I agree that a huge part of Stevie is Tommy Shannon's superb playing

[westen44]

All I can say is that if I knew I was going to be stranded on a desert island for the rest of my life and I could only listen to one artist this is what I'd do.  I wouldn't take the music of Stevie Ray Vaughn, the Rolling Stones, the Who, Cream, the Yardbirds, the Beatles or any others.  It would be the music of James Marshall Hendrix, period.  I would especially want to take all the live recordings I could possibly find.  Because Hendrix never played live the same way twice.  Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of his live music.  But what we do have is enough to listen to and never get bored.  In general, I tend to prefer British rock.  But in this particular case, I do have to make one exception.  It's definitely Jimi Hendrix. 

I tend not to get along with many Hendrix fans.  Partly because I prefer his early music and many others seem to not do that.  But also because it's his music I like.  I'm not particularly interested in getting into the intricate biographical details of his life like so many others.  But anytime someone on the level of Ritchie Blackmore says he is a Hendrix fan, that does interest me.  Because I honestly didn't know he felt that way. In fact, I had no idea.   

[gearHed289]

When I started listening to Albert King in the early 90s, his influence on SRV was immediately noticeable. SRV had a "thing", that's for damn sure. I remember where I was when I heard about the chopper crash at Alpine Valley. 

[TBird1958]

 Lots of people "play" Starts, very few master them as well as Hendrix, Blackmore, SRV and Trower have. 

[westen44]

Sadly, two of those are no longer with us.  And Trower doesn't look well, although that could just be the effects of aging.  Blackmore is the same age, but doesn't look as old.

[uwe]

SRV was technically and sound-esthetically an excellent guitarist, Rob, no argument from me. We can also agree on the lack of innovation, but then the Blues genre is not exactly known for that which is part of the reasons why Hendrix left it behind as he progressed.

Hendrix was technically a good and more impoirtantly an interesting player, but he was never the best, not even in the 60s. Most established guitarists are today likely technically more advanced than him, but that wasn't and isn't the point in weighing his colossal and lasting influence.

I always thought Hendrix' influence on Ritchie was rather obvious, perhaps not as distinctly noticeable as with Robin Trower, but overt nonetheless. Put differently: What guitarist other than Hendrix do you hear as a chief influence in Blackmore's 70s playing (when he was at his peak)? Blackmore was for instance a lot more Hendrixy than Clapton, Beck or Page. It wasn't some well-kept secret either, I remember a review of Rainbow's Rising album in the New Musical Express in 1976 where the author remarked on the influence, but also rightfully stated: "Blackmore is never gonna be another Hendrix, he is not into that type of frenzied inspiration. He's built his unquestionably deserved reputation on a clever mix of drama and dynamics which have rarely been put to better use than here."

It was Blackmore's playing that eventually led me to to appreciate Hendrix.

[gearHed289]

That NME quote is spot on. 

[westen44]

What confused me is that I ran across a quote several times from Blackmore in which it looked like he didn't like Hendrix very much.  It would be hard to paraphrase.  But it was something like he was mostly impressed by the way Hendrix walked, not the way he played.  I guess Ritchie was having a bad day or for some reason he was contradicting himself.  But we all have bad days and from time to time we all contradict ourselves.  Or we just fail to be articulate.  Not being articulate enough is something I've personally faced many times.  That review of Rainbow in which the music critic was speaking of frenzied inspiration, that's something which might bother me.  I've heard several guitarists do that in regard to Hendrix.  But certainly Ritchie Blackmore doesn't do that.  In fact, someone could make a good argument that he is Hendrix's superior.  But Hendrix was a pioneer.  That's where he shines the most. 

As for people liking Hendrix or not, that doesn't really matter to me.  People can choose their own guitarists to like.  It's a free world, or at least it's supposed to be.  When it comes to bassists, though, if anyone says anything critical about Jack Bruce, that genuinely gets on my nerves. 

[uwe]

Blackmore is notorious for saying one day this and the complete opposite another, he likes to confuse people and keep them on their toes, it's not your fault. He has both derided and praised Fleetwood Mac at various times. Same with Eric Clapton. Or Jimmy Page. He likes to pull the rug from underneath people.

There are a few musicians which he  - by chance or intent - has consistently held in high regard, i.e. Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck (his favorite guitar player though not much of an influence on his actual playing), Johnny Winter (as a blues player), Rory Gallagher (his son is named after him) and, surprise, even Tommy Bolin. He also rates Bob Dylan a lot, likely for his idiosyncrasies. 😂 Not to forget ABBA, Blondie and Neil Diamond! (seriously!)

[westen44]

I agree with Ritchie Blackmore on all of those artists he holds in high regard except for Neil Diamond. 

I know Dave didn't like Blondie for some reason.  I just saw that Deborah Harry has now turned 80, BTW.

As for ABBA, in many cases if you say you like ABBA, you will get slammed in the U.S. for not being cool and for liking pop music.  That's okay if people feel that way.  I don't really care.  I've already told the story several times before, but it's the only claim to fame I'm ever going to have.  I once got criticized by a co-worker for liking ABBA.  Then not long after that I was mentioning to another co-worker (who knew me better) that my cover band from long ago (when I was 20) once opened up for the James Gang.  He was so impressed.  However, I hadn't been too impressed with my band that night when compared to the James Gang.  We were rank amateurs compared to them.  But at least after telling that story my co-worker no longer wrote me off as a shallow pop music fan.  He even invited me to a blues festival. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf6j1C52fUc

[Pilgrim]

I've always liked "Still I'm Sad."  It has its fans.

Since the video on the Yardbirds, I've encountered another Blackmore video.  This one is even more interesting.  It's about Jimi Hendrix who has been my favorite guitarist since age 16.  It was puzzling because in the past I had read comments from Ritchie Blackmore that were critical of Hendrix.  But this one is positive.  This may cause me once again to reevaluate how I feel about my taste in music.  Because now there is Blackmore praising not just the Yardbirds, but Hendrix himself.  The bottom line is I think I used to overrate my taste in music.  Then I underrated it.  Now I'm looking at it from a new perspective and maybe this one is accurate.  Because now I've got Ritchie Blackmore himself feeling the same way.  I can say without reservation that I think Blackmore has great taste in music!!  He is light-years ahead of me in talent, but at least we have similar tastes in music. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhPGfBiFDhc

I don't think I need to to overrate or underrate my taste in music. It simply is what it is. I know much less about band members than many others here, and don't really care. That's because I like what I like, which is the point of enjoying music. Over time that changes as I discover different bands and performances, and that's ok too. I respect the knowledge of many here, but taste in music is a different thing, and sufficient in itself.

[uwe]

If you know just a little about how music is constructed and comes into existence, then it is very hard to say that ABBA are crap. You might dislike their pop image and smile about the lyrics and accents, but the structure of the music itself? That's pretty damn good.

[Basvarken]

And their bass players were both excellent!

[doombass]

And their bass players were both excellent!

Yes, and furthermore Rutger Gunnarsson's importance went far beyond bassplaying. He also constructed a lot of the instrumental arrangements. No wonder the basslines he played influenced the songs to such extent.