Library Rock's Backpages

Ritchie Blackmore: Wailing over the Purple Rainbow

Steven Rosen, Guitar Player, 1978

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.

Total word count of piece: 4671

Subscribe

Becoming a member is easy. Membership gives you access to all the thousands of articles in the library.

Click here to go to Subscribe page.

Click here for academic and other group subscriptions.