Ritchie Blackmore: Wailing over the Purple Rainbow

WHILE RITCHIE Blackmore’s Baroque-tinged shred solos make him the in-vitro father of today’s progressive- and classical-metal movement (just ask Yngwie), his foot-stomping power chords in Deep Purple songs like 'Smoke on the Water', 'Rat Bat Blue' and 'Space Truckin'' set a huge precedent for the role of rhythm guitarists in less articulate forms of heavy rock–not to mention that 'Smoke' was the first tune a generation of kids learned to play.