Comments on: Our Ten Best- Episode 11: Classic Rock Guitarists

By: Bodie

Bodie — Fri, 21 Apr 2017 11:58:58 +0000

Richie Blackmore the best guitarist ever!! He is influenced some guitarist.
Genius and talented, both for play guitar or songwriter.
Great in studio and live concert.
unfortunately a lot of people doesn’t know about him including few magazine ranked him to low.

By: klaus

klaus — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:58:55 +0000

Hendrix is the best Guitarist of all Time.Er kann alles spielen.

By: Murray

Murray — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 23:53:04 +0000

Where is everybody?

Check out Ritchie Blackmore’s solo on “Child in Time” on Deep Purple’s “Nobody’s Perfect” live album. I would be interested in comments from all. …To me, it is the best hard rock guitar solo ever. It also shows just why Blackmore is (by a freakin’ long shot) the best hard rock guitarist ever – musically and technically (and for those who care about such things, “speed-wise”).

By: Murray

Murray — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:41:29 +0000

Hello all, Ritchie turns 65 today (April 14). There can be no doubting his hard rock guitar mastery of this true “Child in Time” – best ever in my opinion. We can all only hope and pray that this is the year he and his D.P. Mark II mates somehow get back together, i.e., while they all still have the musical chops to recreate the magic that personified D.P. circa 1969 -1972. Such magic hasn’t happened since with that (or any other) band. And yes, I include Gillan and Glover in “the magic equation” of the Mark II lineup – for as many of you know, Ritchie soldiered on with the band until 1975, sans Gillan and Glover. The guitar wizardry of the Man in Black was still there in abundance (spades?) – but alas, the magic was not. …Go figure the intangibles that make for “the best of the best” on such lists.

Happy Birthday Ritchie!!!

By: Darrell

Darrell — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 03:17:24 +0000

Wow, I’m glad to see Ritchie getting his dues, both on the list and with all the comments. Since Hendrix died, Ritchie has been my favorite rock guitarist. Such a unique style and so much talent. I like the fact that in concert, Ritchie will go after a riff that is so challenging and complex, that most others would never even attempt. It’s a shame that he isn’t even more famous; so many people don’t really know who he is.

I’m a little surprised that Satriani isn’t on the list – he’s great technically, but his song writing doesn’t always match the others on this list. But I would put him above Johnny W and Michael Schenker – even though I love them both. And Buckethead should also get honorable mention.

By: Gerry

Gerry — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:21:04 +0000

What about Roy Buchanan?

By: David Linck

David Linck — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:36:39 +0000

I am so glad to see so many sane responses discussing the brilliance of Ritchie Blackmore. No other guitarist spans the decades of both recording and performance with his constant awesome virtuosity and inventiveness. I have seen just about every major rock guitarist live (including Hendrix) and no one touches Blackmore live. Ever. Pity that so few videos and films exist of his early playing. One just has to watch the 1972 Denmark Hallen show to see a glimpse of his energy and balls-out mastery of his instrument. In the studio, how many guitarists can match up to the pantheon of classic riffs and solos Blackmore created, often (at his own admission) in one-off sessions over 5 decades of quality recording. Even at his most bored or repetitive, Blackmore always finds something interesting to play in any style. The much overrated Page, for example, could never play as well live consistently, although his songwriting was very strong. Beck is one dimensional, as is Clapton, when compared to what Blackmore has chosen to play over the years. Few guitarists inspire fans to savor each song as Blackmore has, even today with Blackmore’s Night. Anyone who sees the current band in concert knows the demon is still loose, dancing along the strings with a fluidity and intelligence few musicians in any genre have ever attained. Not to mention the man, at 64, looks twenty years younger and will outlive and outproduce his peers if only for the fact that his ability to inhabit new music and his willingness to please himself keeps him fresh and vital. The fact he is not in the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame points out how shallow and ridiculously irrelevant that institution has become.

By: Ahmed Shaikh

Ahmed Shaikh — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:39:28 +0000

Ritchie Blackmore should be #1.
He is undoubtedly the most creative guiterplayer.
Axel Rudi Pell is also a follower of him.

By: bbbob21

bbbob21 — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:12:11 +0000

I had the pleasure and privilege to see Ritchie Blackmore with Blackmore’s Night for the second time in Chicago last Saturday night at the House of Blues. The band was superb and they played for two hours and twenty minutes doing their renaissance thing. At the 3/4 mark they rocked it up a bit doing (in this order) Woman From Tokyo, Smoke on the Water, and Black Night with his wife taking lead vocals of course and the rest of us in a sing-along. It was fucking great. Ritchie gave so much of himself to the audience that night both in his incredible guitar playing and his personality and playfulness. I have seen Blackmore (5) different times. Twice with Deep Purple, once with Rainbow and twice now with Blackmore’s Night.

I am a workingman’s guitarist as I am sure their are others writing hear as well. One thing we all have in common in writing here is we love guitar music. Here is a list of they guitarists I’ve been fortunate to see and hear play in person: Ritchie Blackmore, Eric Clapton, Rory Gallagher, Steve Howe, Santana, Jeff Beck, Allan Holdsworth, John McLaughlin, Adrian Belew, Robert Fripp, Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, Edward Van Halen, Joe Satriani, Steve Morse, Steve Vai, Ted Nugent, Robin Trower, Peter Frampton, Derek Trucks, Eric Johnson, Al DiMeola, and I may be forgetting some. Let me close with a few quotes from some of the greats about each other:

Ritchie Blackmore – “Jeff Beck gets fucking notes from nowhere you know. Sometimes he finds notes that I don’t have on my guitar”

Eddie VanHalen on Allan Holdsworth – “He’s the best in my book. He can play over any chord change you want, and his improv comes from so deep down.”

David Gilmour – I like Eddie Van Halen’s playing alot. Of course, I can’t do that at all. I don’t have the dexterity in my fingers to play that fast.”

I love all these guys..long live the guitar.

By: dermot murphy

dermot murphy — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:01:24 +0000

as an observer of rock guitar since mid60s – these comments about Blackmore and Hendrix , the key players on the list.Hard rock guitar owes much to the rock blues crucible of late 60s Beck Clapton Page but perhaps most to Ritchie Blackmore whose powerful attackiong slyle comes closest to defining the genre.There are at least two Blackmores _ the searing guitrarist of early Deep Purple (69-75) taking rockl guitar on occasions to zones as dissonantly innovative as Hendrix an the fluent master guitarist of Rainbow and later Purple.Hendrixs ratcheted up blues style is cosmically cen trifugal (spiralling outwards).Like john Coltrane in jazz and Maria C allas in opera Blackmores centripetal style at its most intense is like a heat seeking missile tracking its quarry at blitzing speed and with lethal effect. Two performances of Mandrake Root (Ortf ina 1970 and Granada Tv 1970) make the point.The balances are not optimal and the guitar levels on the Ortf execrable (perhaps the guitar sound on the Ortf live session could be isolated and the violume raised considerably.Its one of those rare performances where the guitar cries out justifiably for louder volume. Mandrake Root was frequently concertised by Deep Purple at the time.Using the group as a sort of musical trampoline Blackmore kicks starts a solo of sundering fury. No other guitarist( I have seen or heard and that includes Hendrix )matches it . Blackmores use of the tremolo bar is merciless yet the effect is superb. Its all part of the musical equipment needed to achieve momentary RAPTUS. In these performanxces Blackmore draws leves with the greatest guitarist Jimi |Hendrix.Its instructive to compare Blackmore with the latterday Steve Morse
Morse is fine technically and has oodles of speed but compared to Blackmore is a one trick pony. There is no incremental growth in his solos. Where Blackmore tonal colourings al;one can sound like a marauding bass guitar MORSE is samey .Factor in Blackmores cumulative heft and the discrepancy between a peerless master and a very good guitarist becomes apparent. At long last a list that actually names the two key p layers in rock guitar The debate will rage over taxonomies to wit is Hendrix rock or blues (given a conspicuous absence of a rock prequisite – a driven up tempo beat) In 1970 I believed that Ritchie BLACKMORE WAS second only to Hendrix in the rock guitar pantheon. ALmost forty years later i am of the same opinion. Dermot Murphy.
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