Beethoven’s fifth symphony defines classical music for a lot of people. Likewise, Ritchie Blackmore’s chunky, fire-and-brimstone guitar intro to Deep Purple’s “Smoke On The Water” has defined rock ’n’ roll for generations of guitar players.
But both of those classic tunes are old news. Blackmore has rolled on and Beethoven, well, he’s kept rollin’ too.
Today, Ritchie Blackmore is enjoying himself. He’s been touring the world these past 18 months, thrilling fans with the latest incarnation of Rainbow and a killer collection of tunes from the album Stranger In Us All. In late 1996 he contributed some sizzle to Pat Boone’s quirky In A Metal Mood. And this summer he released the album he has wanted to do for decades--a collection of Renaissance-era tunes called Shadow Of The Moon he recorded with his fiance, vocalist Candice Night.
Surprised? Don’t be. The man in black has always had a kind of Middle Ages aura about him. Shadow Of The Moon is simply a further exploration of that side of his almost mystical persona.
“It’s obviously not hard rock,” Ritchie says. “It’s the other end of the scale. It’s one of the most satisfying records I’ve ever made. I’ve always wanted to do it, but I just didn’t have the time or the expertise to pull it off.
“I don’t think I’m good enough to be a purist classical musician, but I do like stealing parts,” he says with a laugh. “There’s a lot of interesting progressions in classical music. At home I play more Renaissance music. That’s my main music. I go from blues to Classical to Renaissance. Those are my three favorite styles of music.”
And his three favorite guitarists? Other than boyhood idol Hank Marvin, Ritchie isn’t naming names. Marvin, he says, set the rules. Today’s players break them too often.
“I don’t, as a rule, listen to many guitar players. I find myself listening to certain guitar players and saying, 'Wow, that’s incredible,’ but it doesn’t move me because I want to hear a reason for them playing a tune. I want to hear a melody and a progression, something that moves me, not just a very fast exercise that’s clever and impresses all the other musicians. I’d rather hear someone trying to say something from the heart, rather than the head. I look at competition playing as too much ice cream, not enough meat and potatoes.”
Of course Ritchie went through his ice cream period early in his career too. It was Deep Purple and Rainbow bassist and producer Roger Glover who, he says, helped him recognize that speed was simply ego-fattening.
“If I found myself just running around, especially on Purple records, Roger would often say to me, 'Well that’s a great exercise. It’s very fast, but it doesn’t mean a lot.’ At first I would say, 'Well I think it does.’ But then I started to realize that it was true. It wasn’t an extension of what was going on in the song. I was just being self-indulgent.
“So then I would stop and think, 'What do I really want to hear?’ And I find that much more rewarding. It’s kind of easy to run around and play scales. It’s much more difficult to slow down and just hold a note.”
Slow down. Hold your notes. Great advice. Ritchie laughingly makes one more suggestion:
“I would say that--actually I think Tony Iommi said this originally--after you’ve learned your second chord, get a really good lawyer, because you will be ripped off. There are no two ways about it. That’s a very good thing to remember.”
