Chicken pickin’ counterpoint
Steve Morse talks to Rick Beato and plays some music. Dig in!
Thanks to Mike Whiteley, Uwe Hornung, and Tobias Janaschke for the heads-up.
![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/glover5.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/paice2.jpg)
Steve Morse talks to Rick Beato and plays some music. Dig in!
Thanks to Mike Whiteley, Uwe Hornung, and Tobias Janaschke for the heads-up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
A fascinating discussion, but–a little sadly–it makes clear what a small portion of Steve’s total musical personality, which is many-sided, he could express in Purple.
I’m very sorry people threw things at him on stage when he was with Purple. It shouldn’t have happened. I love Morse-era Purple, even though it was Blackmore-era Purple I fell in love with 48 years ago.
December 31st, 2023 at 03:10Thanks ever so much for the Steve Morse on the Rick Beato show. A wonderful 68 minutes of life spent there. His melodies came to me back in 1982 when I first heard his playing on The Dregs Industry Standard album. So much diversity & different styles & sounds, a wonderful down to earth musician. Bach indeed & Albert Lee & everything else. A good way to bring in the new year & all the best to one & all for many more to follow. Cheers.
December 31st, 2023 at 07:06Not being a musician I found this so interesting!! I never thought of SM as a “sub” after Perpendicular, just wish the 8 or so times I saw him in Purple they would have played more of the Morse era tunes. I get it that most fans are casual and want to hear Machine Head but we are not most fans here! His enthusiasm on stage sold me immediately and that’s what he was talking about towards the end of he interview. There was the Blackmore era, the short Bolin era and the 26 years of stability with the Morse era and hopefully a few more with McBride. They are without a doubt my favorite band and I always enjoy reading/hearing about what the current and former members are up to! I miss Morse since I’m a fellow “Yank” lol Cheers and Happy New Year!!
December 31st, 2023 at 13:08Yo,
Yes indeed, a solid interview & great viewing plus playing too. It’s good to learn the how’s & why’s of the rig set-up, & even why the pick-up-choices are the way they are…
I’m sure that the red-necks only threw stuff at him initially, as it’s quite clear for everyone to see & hear that Steve was a far-more-advanced player than RB could ever hope to have been, & that Steve continues this musical evolution to this day, with over 8-10 hrs a day playing indicated, or around 10,000 notes estimated lol !
DP did well to incorporate Steve into the band, & as I’ve said many times now, Steve’s era of music will outlast the earlier stuff, because it has a timelessness about it, & great executional skill involved from everyone in the band.
I hope that young musicians see the benefits of study, & attending a school where you’re surrounded & engulfed with music 24/7. A couple of years in one of these places will sort you out, & get you started on the “right” path, & offer the better opportunities perhaps. I can say this because I’ve been there lol !
And yet, we have all these awesome musicians out there, & listen to the terrible state of radio on the air-waves & what we have to listen too. Corporate lolly-pop advertising depriving the masses of real talent & good music.
Long live DP, & thanks Steve for a great show, it may have only been 3-full-tunes, but your acoustic playing is phenomenal. Superb melody & playing, awesome.
And to ponder Simon being of at least equal ability is amazing. Good things to come !
Peace !
December 31st, 2023 at 23:49Lovely interview. Whether you appreciate Steve’s style (which is essentially all smiles where Ritchie’s was all frowns) or not, he was the most dedicated and consummate musician who ever played with Purple.
January 1st, 2024 at 03:14It breaks my heart that in all of his 28 years in Deep Purple, thing that sticks out the most to Steve is being rejected by extremist fans. I really get the sense that Steve feels that he was never really accepted as a full time member of DP by the fanbase, and was only just a sub.
He deserved much better treatment than what he got – the fact that people threw things at him is not okay. I wish those of us who loved what he did in DP stuck out more to him than all the bad times, but such is life. He was, and remains to me, the best guitarist the band ever had, bar none – both as a musician, and as a human being (I unfortunately can’t say the same for Ritchie). Remarkably underappreciated composer, musician and artist – especially by certain segments of the DP fanbase. So sad.
January 1st, 2024 at 05:59An enjoyable discussion!! One of the best things that ever happened to DP was him joining them!! What a fantastic Guitar Player!!
January 1st, 2024 at 12:02Purple have always been my favorite band (since 1972).
I have known SM since 1978 when a friend introduced “Free Fall” to me. I also then liked Kansas before Steve joined, so when he joined them I thought “what a treat”. Little did I know that he would later join DP.
I have enjoyed every DP record with him since (including “Turning to Crime” which I liked for the fun of it).
A friend of mine did an interview with Steve (some years ago now) for a book he would write and he got me an autograph dedicated to me, guitar drawing and all.
Happy New Year
January 1st, 2024 at 15:20Janbl
The last time I saw Steve with Purple was quite disappointing, to be honest. During the last years with Purple I had the impression that Steve had lost quite some interest in what he was doing. The spark was missing – no comparison at all to his 90ies/2000s performances. The first time I realized that was around the orchestra tour in the early 2010s. Apart from athritis-related wrist issues, which had a big impact on his playing obviously, he got further restricted of being himself by Ezrin. That last making-of in the studio made me feel that something’s very wrong. When I listen to him in this video with Rick it seems that he “recovered” from that situation and a lot of what I liked about his playing came back. For me, it didn’t come as a complete surprise that Steve left the band (even without the health issues of his wife being the main reason, at least officially). I hope that he has a lot of productive years as a musician in front of him without being restricted in any fashion.
January 1st, 2024 at 17:39I agree with # 8 about Turning to Crime!! A very fun album to listen to!!
January 1st, 2024 at 19:16It’s a weird coincidence that both Tommy and Steve, two extremely gifted Yank guitarists, spent the commercially viable parts of their careers as overshadowed subs for guitarists that had shaped their respective bands, e.g. for Joe Walsh + Ritchie in Tommy’s and for Kerry Livgren + Ritchie in Steve’s case while their own bands (Energy + Tommy Bolin Band i.e. Dixie Dregs + Steve Morse Group) never surpassed a fringe status. If you’re good at your art like both Bolin and Morse were/are, that must be frustrating. Ironically, even Steve has said that he liked Tommy in his other projects, but not with Deep Purple. (We can’t ask Tommy what he thought of Steve in DP.)
I had been aware of Steve’s work pre-DP, both with the Dregs and with his own group (even saw them live once), but I’d be lying if I said I was a fan, distant abstract appreciation sums up my feelings towards him better. I’m no great fan of instrumental rock per se and both DD and SMG were music aimed at musicians and especially the guitar and drum clinics going crowd. They would always rave about him, he garnered adulation in the music mags.
Moreover, Steve’s guitar style is overall much too cheerful for me, he’s a Southern boy from Georgia and Florida after all (he’s lived there since his teenage years though he was born in Ohio and first lived in Tennessee and Michigan) and that means growing up in a major scale world. My personal preference is darker players such as Blackmore, Iommi, Gilmour, Glenn Tipton and KK Downing. Steve, for all his talent and technical expertise, can’t play a moody solo – like Blackmore can pull effortlessly out of his sleeve anytime of the day (or night) – to save his life. He never sounds dark.
All that said, I welcomed Steve in DP, gave him the benefit of the doubt and he sure didn’t disappoint, the band had a good run with him while it lasted – and for the first time in his life he deservedly earned real money with his art and craft, let’s not forget that. In the 80ies (when he cut his hair short) he had to work as a commercial airline pilot to make ends meet. Other than with Kansas and DP, Steve has never participated in commercially viable projects, he was not a sought after session guitarist like, say, Waddy Wachtel or Steve Lukather, never played on a hit and guested mainly on records of other “musician’s musicians”.
Ritchie in his prime had the knack of being simple and accessible without being mundane. Most of his famous riffs aren’t difficult to play (Lazy is an exception), but they are hugely effective and moreover sound like him even if he swiped them from someone else. In contrast, the last time Steve wrote something truly simple was possibly when he was 12 years old, he’s an extremely refined and elaborate, ornamental and embellishing player by nature, even when he tries to sound simple, his playing really isn’t. He could never exhibit his broad abilities to their full extent in Purple, but they really shone in Flying Colors (frankly a band where he was much better placed than in DP). As the saying goes: You could drag Steve out of the University of Miami School of Music, but you never got that University out of Steve, he thinks and plays like someone who studied, lived and breathed music in all its intricacies. That’s not a knock, that is just him. I’m sure he would have been a great music and guitar teacher, it’s something I could even see him doing in the future. (That he would join another name legacy act – even one that only tours North America – seems unlikely to me.)
January 1st, 2024 at 19:48Incredible boring.
He doesn’t mention Deep Purple much.
He after all played in the band for 20 years and made a living by copying Blackmore
January 1st, 2024 at 20:15Yo,
@11 said…qt.”Steve, for all his talent and technical expertise, can’t play a moody solo – like Blackmore can pull effortlessly out of his sleeve anytime of the day (or night) – to save his life. He never sounds dark”.
Bollox to that statement lol !
RB was & remains a poor soloist & improviser. They all sound the same, because in true essence, they “are” the same…That’s why I can even copy them nearly note for note…The same cannot be said about Steve, who is leaps & bounds ahead of RB musically…
What made RB noticeable was his ability to attack the notes a certain way, his early Mk-II sound, & on a good night, it all fell into place the right way. IMO, his best efforts are found within Rainbow’s 1982 “Live Between the Eyes”, where the whole gig smokes, with him throwing everything in his book out there. It went down-hill from here, but with some high-points, & even new phrases to be found on the awesome “Perfect Strangers”…
By contrast, Steve was not the perfect fit for DP, he was too well trained musically to simply play simple RB riffs & solos, which is exactly the reason why the band asked him to join, to break away from RB bollox. And the whole band jumped musically to heights they all thought not possible imo. The only issue remains with the fans, who remain confused with all the changes of line-ups over the decades, & find some homeliness & comfort with the Mk-II staples played.
Yet Steve is not silly or unwise, & he knew what he’d be up against. Both Steve Vai & Satch are well known to advise other musicians to never ever join a famous band as a replacement, & yet Steve did.
Gladly, the band with Steve was a completely different band than any incarnation that came before it, & time will show that the music made with Steve is far more musical, imaginative, timeless & enjoyable to listen to.
Simon now has this opportunity too.
Peace !
January 1st, 2024 at 22:47That‘s unfair, he never copied Blackmore, he interpreted him on the Mk II stuff, but never aped him in sound, attitude, choice of notes or visuals. Steve was as much his own man as Tommy Bolin was. That he was restricted to churning out the same old Mk II chestnuts over and over again was not his fault, I‘m sure he would have preferred Mk VII to VIII material.
Where he stayed close to Blackmore like on the Highway Star solo, he only did so because he felt that Purple fans wanted him to be faithful to an integral part of the song. Tommy Bolin caught a lot of flak in 1975/76 refusing to do just that.
January 1st, 2024 at 23:41Excellent post Uwe & as we have discussed earlier that Steve Morse is much more suited to his own instrumental music, there is no surprise in that as it is his forte & vision etc. I could imagine his working with Flying Colours may be more to his liking at times also & work out better. He has worked well with vocal songwriters at times over the years. Kansas was only two albums & that was so much more suited to that 1980’s rock & also with people who were from that (his) part of the world. I do like some of that Kansas era, but not as much as the classic Kerry Livgren progressive & violin era of the 70’s. Same with Flying Colours & Morse working with guys from his part of the world. As you have stated before Purple are British & are totally different in so many aspects to Morse & his world. Within Purple he has had to work composing with both Gillan & Glover, entirely different aspects there & some of it worked & it was great for Morse to be in an established band for so long. You are not wrong with light & dark aspect to the guitarists. And I still remember Blackmore saying what Pete Townshend told him in the late 1960’s, keep it simple etc. Steve Morse is much more technical & while that is great for many things, is it when it comes to vocal songwriting collaborations. Anyway all good & the Rick Beato video was wonderful. I had to laugh at that comment Beato made at the end about listening to Morse playing certain music for a solid hour or so. Didn’t Morse joke with ‘that may get a tad repetitive’ etc. He is well aware of how it all goes down & it is what it is. Cheers.
January 2nd, 2024 at 00:05First of all, Steve Morse definitely saved our favorite band from collapsing to its’ death.
January 2nd, 2024 at 02:45Slaves & Masters and The Battle Rages On… were mostly ‘not so good’ (to be nice).
The Morse era is my favorite era of Deep Purple since the MkII years of 1969-1973.
There is not a single bad album since he joined, and all of those records (1996-2021) are exciting, fun and innovative.
He helped remake Deep Purple be the best band in the world again.
Wonderful, wonderful!!
I am still sad that he left Deep Purple, though I truly understand why he did.
Thank you Steve.
You are awesome!
That’s funny. I don’t remember him “copying Blackmore” on Purpendicular, Abandon, Banana’s, Rapture of the Deep, Now What, Infinite, Whoosh and Turning to Crime. All these albums, to me, are more interesting than anything Blackmore has done he since left Purple.
January 2nd, 2024 at 08:09henrik
he was talking about guitar playing mostly..why should he just talk about purple…yawn!!!! steve is one of the most gifted overall gutiar players ever and songwriter……he never copied blackmore ever …only played his songs….blackmore is like a student player compared to steve…ask any decent guitar player
January 2nd, 2024 at 09:48@Henrik #12
January 2nd, 2024 at 11:24Understand music and revel in Rick Beato’s interviews. The bits about Purple were obviously edited and I would like to have seen more of that also, Beato is all about the music and you’re misunderstanding his purpose, if you’re after anything else.
When Steve joined DP he helped pick them up off the floor where RB was trying to keep them. RBs leaving extended DPs career until now. That might not have happened with someone other than Steve. Steve was not a sub. he was as creative and played as well as anyone who ever played with DP. And he smiled. I personally like all of his stuff with DP as I do with RBs but they have different styles and personalities and Steve had an era with DP when rock music was not as popular as it was when RB was with them. Therefore not the world wide popularity. Steve is the reason that we still have DP today and all the great music after RB left. What a pity he had to leave but family are more important. I can only wish him well and maybe SMcB will do as well in the future. I am a DP FAN. Not just an RB fan and just as well because I would have had very little new rock music that I could listen to since RB left DP and Steve kept the the show on the road and the great new music coming over so many years. All the best to Steve and family in 2024 and a happy New Year to all.
January 2nd, 2024 at 12:43@13 Blackmore was not a poor soloist and improviser, Jon Lord rated him highly (as have the likes of Satriani, Vai, Malmsteen, Rhoads and even EVH until Blackmore had snubbed him in a bar), and for the most part the live Straight Between The Eyes video is average, Blackmore being messy and too reliant upon an octave pedal on solos. Steve himself said that Blackmore played across the fretboard, which he would have got from his early interest in jazz, rather than in boxes like many of his peers. He also pointed out that something like the fast part at the end of the Child In Time solo is difficult to execute.
January 2nd, 2024 at 12:57Steve is a fine musician and of the dozen plus gigs I saw him with Purple I’d preferred to have seen them perform more from his era (Purpendicular is one of the band’s best).
I don’t believe he’d tired of being in the band as he had said that although he wasn’t their first guitarist he wanted to be their last.
I did tire a little of Steve’s too many notes syndrome in many of his solos, an over-reliance on speed. Having said that he could conjure up some wonderful melodies (Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming being a particular favourite).
Of course Purple couldn’t be home to all sides of his playing, but his years in the band focused his playing to the point where he became a better songwriter rather than an instrumentalist, plus he became a better performer.
Very silly to assume that Steve’s era will outlast Purple’s halcyon days when the Blackmore era is much more popular amongst fans. Steve’s contribution is vital to their legacy and is rightly celebrated, but to put technical excellence above Blackmore’s own work and his importance within the band is somewhat reductionistic and narrow-minded.
Lol…not even Mozart claimed to ‘understand’ music.
January 2nd, 2024 at 15:19Morse would never have been able to make a profitable career on his own as big as Deep Purple.
He’s made a career playing Ritchie developed riffs.
And doesn’t own up.
A subject of the soon-to-be Queen of Denmark
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/fashion/2024/01/02/TELEMMGLPICT000361399537_17041936548650_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwSX5rhseiWKOo9p9OQ-ymek.jpeg?imwidth=1280
(I assume she retains some sort of sovereign control over her former island and its inhabitants too, going forward I’m therefore in favor of using ‘Æustråliæ’ as the new official spelling)
quoted me as follows:
”Steve, for all his talent and technical expertise, can’t play a moody solo – like Blackmore can pull effortlessly out of his sleeve anytime of the day (or night) – to save his life. He never sounds dark.”
and then cheerfully chirped:
“Bollox to that statement lol !
RB was & remains a poor soloist & improviser. They all sound the same, because in true essence, they “are” the same…That’s why I can even copy them nearly note for note…The same cannot be said about Steve, who is leaps & bounds ahead of RB musically …”
(sighs) That is a whole lot to comment on, lieber Herr Gregster, do you really think that Steve needs to be supported by putting Ritchie down? “RB was & remains a poor soloist & improviser.” Really? In my book, he’s disproved that with his solo to Hold On alone. You’re beginning to sound like the mirror image of those Ritchie acolytes that feel forever obligated to celebrate their hero by denigrating Steve (or Tommy). Can’t we settle for the fact that Ritchie, Tommy, Joe, Steve and Simon were/are all in their own way remarkable musicians? DP have never had a slouch as a guitarist, but always held the highest standard.
Ritchie is an auteur and forged a highly individual style for himself at a time when there were few role models for him, name me one guitarist of the late 50ies, 60ies and early 70ies who incorporated Eastern and classical scales like he did? Steve otoh went to music university in the mid 70ies and had a myriad of well-established guitarists to draw inspiration from. One guy played for Lord Sutch and Joe Meek pre-Beatles, the other guy jammed with Pat Metheny and Jaco Pastorius ten years later when rock and pop culturally ruled the world and fusion had established itself as a progressive genre. Ranking the two is (almost) like ranking Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Eilish – what’s the point?
Granted, across the board Steve has superior technique to Ritchie (as you would expect from someone who studied guitar, is a sight reader and spent the first 20 years of his music career playing fusion and prog!). But that doesn’t mean that Steve can easily replicate everything that Ritchie does – Blackmore’s idiosyncratic slide playing, vibrato, bendings and choice of notes/scales come to mind. If I may quote Steve from an interview: “Nobody can sound like Ritchie Blackmore and I’ve never even tried.” And I don’t think Steve was referring to technical ability, he was referring to feel and inspiration.
And as regards your – dare I say “offhandish”? – remark that Blackmore solos “all sound the same, because in true essence, they ‘are’ the same”: Last I heard, Steve’s soloing is mostly in major and Mixolydian scales, with a lot of chromatic runs to bridge things. Playing in a Dorian mode occasionally is about as minorish as he ever gets, which is why he never sounds dark and mysterious as opposed to Ritchie whose go-to-scales are mostly deeply minorish and Eastern-tinged (though he used a Mixolydian scale at the end of his Stargazer solo which ends in what I always call “the yelping seal”). Both Ritchie and Steve work very muh within their respective own recipes and ingredients lists when soloing in a rock format and do not really go out of their way to avoid those recipes and ingredients. So if you call Ritchie a soloistic Jack of Spades, then by the same token Steve is a soloistic Jack of Hearts.
By the way: the elder Miles Davis wasn’t very variable in his approach to solos either (and sometimes indeed reminded me of Blackmore in his introverted lyrical improvisation), he was first and foremost Miles Davis.
January 2nd, 2024 at 18:12“incredible boring”? As Don said: “anyone sitting around criticizing others, probably doesn’t have much of a life”.
January 2nd, 2024 at 21:26“The last time I saw Steve with Purple was quite disappointing, to be honest. During the last years with Purple I had the impression that Steve had lost quite some interest in what he was doing. The spark was missing – no comparison at all to his 90ies/2000s performances. The first time I realized that was around the orchestra tour in the early 2010s.”
I second that Tommy. Steve always cared way too much about music and people to put on a shoddy or even lackadaisical performance, but in the first 15 years or so there were more sparks of inspiration and elation in his playing, I think the band fired him up more. Over time that became rarer and rarer and in the end his performances were just solid – but even a just solid Steve is still pretty darn good in my book. Same with his fluidity, his wrist condition made him lose some, but it was still plenty.
My last gig with Steve Morse was not a Deep Purple, but a Flying Colors one – there the inspiration and elation of the old days were present again in spades and the dedicated Progster audience ate out of Steve’s hand. He looked as happy as I hadn’t seen him in ages with DP.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPtHRfdmsYg
It’s a pity that Flying Colors don’t do more. I’m a Purple fan, but that band is “seventh heaven” for Steve and his abilities. And for all its sophistication it is still catchy as hell.
January 2nd, 2024 at 21:29@21…
RB is a poor soloist ! He could be a great showman, & play the tunes off-the-record reasonably well, & through the heat-of-the-song, provide a jaw-dropping expose of a modified solo, & even extend it for a while, but he can’t improvise a solo to save his life imo.
Back in the late 1960’s / early 1970’s, for sure his sound & efforts were rewarded for being new & innovative, but they changed little, & I think he was tired of playing & lost interest. The solo work performed with his Gibson he’ll tell you himself, was simply patterns repeating themselves, typically based on diminished scales & played through chromatically. Tunes like “Wring that Neck” through to “Space Trucking” where there are large solo / improvisational passages are very much repeated over & over, with short snippets of folk-tunes & the “New Age Symphony” to break things up a bit. But the opportunity to take a ride on the wild musical side of music is traded for showmanship in these instances. Only Jon Lord was making new ground most of the time in these situations.
And when you look at the reunion gigs, these same opportunities to fly anywhere through “Space Truckin'” were missed totally…Instead, RB preferred “Ode to Joy / Difficult to Cure” to play through as a safety-net, once again filled with diminished note sequences & chromaticism that we’re all very familiar with. He did incorporate the Harmonic-minor-scale into his playing during the re-union era, but that’s about it…On the positive side, he worked hard to sound & play the way he does, in that he’s instantly recognizable, but he’s also very predictable, & that’s why I say what I say. Perhaps I’m being too hard on him, but like RB himself, I guess I got tired of him & his playing & its predictability.
The solos played from songs of the albums were generally OK & pleasing, but there were only a couple of new ones where he seemed inspired once again to explore new vistas, such as “Under the Gun”…
The idea of a great solo is to take the listener on a musical journey that differs a little from the tunes main melody ( or a lot if you want ), & then bring you back into the tune. And ideally the listener can hum / whistle or sing back the bulk of what was played.
That said, RB is one of the great riff makers in the world. I think perhaps he got tired of his own playing a long time ago, but as a “super-star” (lol) had to deliver to the masses the same-old-stuff to earn-his-keep.
Steve always allowed you to hook-up & listen to his solos, & ride the roller-coaster with them. They were the opposite to RB in that they were never really in your face or offensive, demanding / dominating your attention.
Jon had to rate RB highly, as DP were recognized as a guitar driven band, & RB was the driver. You don’t shyte in your own back yard, or bite the hand that feeds you. And RB took full advantage of that fact, especially in the 1970’s, but lost-out in the 2nd-era.
Thankfully the band moved on without him playing excellent R & R, whilst RB plays 15-16th century folk music dressed as a gnome…Great !
Long live DP, & looking forward to Simon’s efforts with the band !
Peace !
January 2nd, 2024 at 22:04@ 21 – excellent comments & thanks. Regarding ‘technique’ it alone does not replace melody, it never will. Blackmore is a song based melody man from the 1960’s sessions etc as are Gillan & Glover. They were at the right place at the right time & they excelled. Steve Morse is a totally different musician in that sense & from a totally different era. Instrumental melodies indeed, in most cases replacing the singing of another human being. Wonderful he is at that & that is why my ears pricked up instantly when I first heard him in 1982. He paints from a much broader palette than Blackmore for that reason amongst others. He has worked really well with good quality lead vocalists at certain times, but I don’t feel that that is his niche at all. Blackmore is from one side of the planet & Morse is from the other. How much influence Morse has when collaborating in vocal songwriting is the question, just the same as when Blackmore is collaborating with lead vocalists. Blackmore’s personality is more forceful, aggressive even while Morse is quiet & laid back. Did Blackmore get the best out of Gillan & Glover at times & vice versa. Morse joined someone else’s band & has been the underdog in that sense. Did he feel that he wasn’t getting his say as much as he would have liked with song collaborations? Purpendicular is the best to my ears & I do think at that time he was more out there in that sense of the word, songwriting wise. He was given more rope etc. Other albums I am not so sure, I don’t hear the song quality improving until Now What & was that Ezrin’s contribution in that sense. Did Ezrin get more involved in certain songs as he has done in his role as a ‘producer’ with other artists. It is all about melody & songs. The instrumentation takes care of itself. Some people work & get the best out of other people, some others not so much at times. Rock music eh, it has all sorts of flavours like many things in life. In regards to some people saying Morse ‘saved’ DP, he didn’t. He was there at the right time & he enjoyed most of it no doubt & good on him for that. Otherwise they would have found someone else to continue on with just like they have now with Simon McBride. Cheers.
January 2nd, 2024 at 22:20@13: “RB was & remains a poor soloist & improviser.” Pure bollocks. RB’s solos are almost all improvised, and I’ve yet to hear a rock guitarist who can make his instrument sing the way Blackmore does. He’s not in the highest echelon of technically brilliant rock guitarists, but then again most of the other “guitar gods” of his era also aren’t. That’s not a knock. He’s a superb, versatile guitarist who puts more feeling into one of his solos than most of the speed merchants out there put into several albums worth of solos.
Having said that, I have only admiration for Steve Morse. I’m grateful to him for reviving my favorite band. In addition to his musical contributions, which were vital, his personality — great guy, team player — was equally important. Purple was always at its best when all were contributing, as “Machine Head’’ made clear. They all have/had much to offer. Blackmore failed to grasp that. Perhaps because of this, I listen to the Morse-era albums more often than I listen to post-reunion Blackmore-era albums these days. I find them more interesting. Like many of you, I wish they played more Morse-era tunes during the handful of times I saw them on stage in New England. I suggest the new lineup play “Well-Dressed Guitar” as homage to Steve.
The fact that Purple with Morse weren’t as popular as Purple with Blackmore had nothing do to with the music and everything to do with the continuing decline in musical taste among the masses. At one point in 1973 Jethro Tull’s “A Passion Play’’ — one of the proggiest hard rock LPs, or heaviest prog LPs — was No. 1 on the Billboard charts. A band like that couldn’t sniff the Top 100 these days.
Cheers.
January 2nd, 2024 at 23:06To my ears Blackmore rates incredibly highly in the solo guitar melody side of things, right up there with David Gilmour & a few others. He also has a knack for riffs & yes we know he borrowed little things here & there to come up with his version, kudos to him for that. Melody is what most people listen to music for, a nice tune & emotional feeling. Some people listen for the poetry or lyrics, others for the rhythms & others listen to the arrangements & the technical aspects to the music. But at the end of the day it is the tune that you can whistle or hum & that proverbial ‘earworm’ as it is called that gets in your head. As youngsters we hear twinkle twinkle little star etc, we hear the melody & the words. Then we seek out more if we catch the musical bug. Steve Morse is a incredibly melodic guitar player & composer, that is why I listen to most of what he has done but not everything. Just like most musicians, there is always some of their music that doesn’t rock the boat at certain times. The DP members who heard Morse heard what some of us also hear, melody & diversity. The fact that he is a nice chap added to their luck in finding him & that he agreed to accompany them on a musical journey for a while was good for them all. @ 28 – Yes indeed Jethro Tull & A Passion Play. Not my favourite Tull album but all in all I know what you mean. Back then people were listening for tunes & a story perhaps to accompany the melody. The fact that some artists played them & cleverly joined them all together was a bonus of sorts. A 20 minute composition, why not. These days the attention span has dwindled somewhat. Rick Beato did an interesting take on that with Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven. He asked his young daughter what she thought of it. From my memory of a few lines she apparently said to her dad in what she didn’t like about it. “It is too long, the drums don’t start until halfway through it, the words are strange & wait for it, ‘it has a guitar solo in it”! ha ha ha, good for a laugh however that is in so many ways todays outlook on what ‘good’ music should or could be. Or should that be shouldn’t be. Evolution I suppose is one way to put it, time changes things. Cheers.
January 3rd, 2024 at 01:59“Purple was always at its best when all were contributing, as “Machine Head’’ made clear. They all have/had much to offer. Blackmore failed to grasp that.”
Amen to that, George. And it is indeed his greatest crime and folly.
Some of Ritchie’s trademark style elements compressed in less than 90 seconds. Fun to watch (and listen to) and Blackmorites will no doubt immediately feel right at home:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-FVQgg5pHU&t=112s
I guess I have been to too many Blackmore performances like this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDNR6QGlMmA
to subscribe to the Honorable Gregster’s stern view of Ritchie being unable to solo and improvise!
January 3rd, 2024 at 03:19LOL !
@28 said qt.
“I have only admiration for Steve Morse. I’m grateful to him for reviving my favourite band. In addition to his musical contributions, which were vital, his personality — great guy, team player — was equally important”.
“I listen to the Morse-era albums more often than I listen to post-reunion Blackmore-era albums these days. I find them more interesting”.
“The fact that Purple with Morse weren’t as popular as Purple with Blackmore had nothing do to with the music and everything to do with the continuing decline in musical taste among the masses”.
I couldn’t agree more !!! RB had riffs & tricks & some awesome phrases to augment his solos, but they lacked true melody in an overall sense…And this is likely from not pursuing music studies, where a bit of theory helps you along the way to develop the music, & not just draw it into your own sylistic mannerisms, that incorporate past phrases rephrased to suit the moment. He needed to give us more “Weiss Heims” & things like that imo. That said, all of the above is what draws us to his ways, but one does tire of the same thing redressed again & again.
@ 28 also mentioned…
qt.”I’ve yet to hear a rock guitarist who can make his instrument sing the way Blackmore does”…
I really don’t know where to start to reply to this one, but many years ago people suggested listening to “Steely Dan”, since they employed & recorded the best of the best musicians & guitarists to colour their tunes…And it took me a long time to get-into their music to be quite honest ( apart from the hits, & maybe the first 2-3 albums ), but the bands discography is over-filling with quality rock guitarists that can make the guitar sing like RB could only dream of doing…
And as for an early 1970’s reference-point of players that could make their guitars sing, Jimi, David Gilmour, Pete Townshend, Johnny Winter, Eric Clapton, Robin Trower, Jeff Beck, Frank Zappa, Leslie West, Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Carlos Santana, Lowell George, Paul Barrere, Tommy Bolin, Duane Allman, Mick Taylor, Keith Richards,Tony Iommi, John McLaughlin, Jimmy Page & on & on & on…
You’ll love Santana…He sounds a lot like RB or vise-versa imo.
Peace !
January 3rd, 2024 at 07:16First of all I would like to categorically state that Rick Beato’s daughter has a wonderful music taste we should all aspire to share: Stairway to Heaven is indeed pretentious, lumbering rubbish. Clever girl with good ears. There was never a time in my life when I liked that overblown and overrated piece of hippie indulgence.
Turning to the good Gregster, who now adds profuse insult to already thoroughly inflicted injury by dragging out the cerebrally bland Steely Dan (= elevator music for intellectuals) to compare to Blackmore, I think he’s past saving in his Ritchie-denial and it seems to me – good Catholic tradition at work – that only the cleansing power of fire can help, we must curse him all, he never learns ——> BURRRN !!! 😝
No, lively discussions are good, especially in this tribalist day and age where people stop exchanging views and rather simmer in the set of their own beliefs. Though liking Deep Purple, but rating Ritchie as a less than mediocre soloist and improviser does strike me a bit like digging Bob Dylan “except for his lyrics, music and voice”. 🤣
January 3rd, 2024 at 14:20Hear, Hear, @32 Uwe.
@31
Gregster, I’m a fan of all those guitarists. I’d add Martin Barre, George Kooymans, and Michael Schenker to the list. But your list proves my point. Other than a few obvious exceptions, most of those guitar greats aren’t as technically brilliant as are Morse, EVH, Satriani, Eric Johnson, etc.
I think we can agree that “making the guitar sing” is in the ear of the listener. But listen to RB’s “Maybe Next Time,’’ his intro to “Still I’m Sad” on “Stranger in Us All,’’ or several of his Blackmore’s Night instrumentals, and ask yourself if Townshend or Page could compose and perform anything as moving. I believe the answer is “No.”
January 3rd, 2024 at 15:16In regards to Rick Beato & his rather young daughters take on Stairway it was a light hearted way of Rick’s to accommodate his thoughts in wondering ‘how would this music sit in todays world’. It didn’t have to be Zeppelin to get that message across, most of yesterdays music would be a puzzle for many of todays youngsters I would think. However there is still hope as there are many younger people who do discover the older classics & are drawn to it & enjoy it & purchase some of it & then look at todays music & think, ‘I actually prefer this older stuff’ etc etc. So don’t blame poor old Zeppelin if they don’t get it, ha ha ha. It makes me wonder what she would have thought of DP & Child in Time. “It is too long, it sounds like the singer is being tortured, it has a guitar solo in it & then they repeat everything all over again’. Cheers.
January 3rd, 2024 at 21:50@32 said…
“Turning to the good Gregster, who now adds profuse insult to already thoroughly inflicted injury by dragging out the cerebrally bland Steely Dan (= elevator music for intellectuals) to compare to Blackmore, I think he’s past saving in his Ritchie-denial and it seems to me – good Catholic “…
LOL ! I completely agree with the “elevator music” statement, but the guitar work from the guys that played in those tunes is stunning, innovative, & makes you want to pick-up & play.
@33…
Thank-you Sir, but the list I posted was more or less era-specific, & at those times for sure, RB could be considered among the top-of-the-heap technically. I was nearly going to throw in Brian May, & Bill Nelson too, but they “arrived” a little later. And never forget that there’s always the person who lives around the corner that’s equally as skilled as the big-names are, but chooses not to bother with the circus. There really is countless highly skilled musicians that live next-door to you, but you’d never know.
Anyhow, perhaps what RB & Santana have in common is that they both play generally from minor-keys, which flavours their note choices in a very similar way, though the song compositions may sound completely different in real time re-styles, eg Latin vs British Rock. Where Santana really shines, is that he makes a pretty good melody out of the same bag-of-notes every-time. RB can’t & doesn’t do that…RB generally creates a solid “riff” & typically places technically fast & familiar phrases over the top of the riff. But that’s his thing, & how he goes about his playing. And after 50-odd-years of listening to it, you tire of it. And as a musician, once you learn a few tunes of DP or Rainbow, it’s pretty much the same grab-bag of phrases & scales you have to work with. And I remember proving this by chance to myself, when the “Battle Rages On” was released back in 1993 or so, by playing along with it to a bunch of friends at the time…They all looked & stared & asked “How the **** did you do that ??? It’s a brand new recording” ??? And I have the same reply now as then,”Easy, he plays pretty much the same grab-bag of phrases & scales”…He is certainly not a great improviser…All he does on-the-spot, is play the same notes & phrases that fit over the riffs & phrases that he created. So he works within a safety-net of known passages that are guaranteed to work. And you’d be very surprised to learn that a vast amount of RB era DP material can be played using all the white keys of the piano, that links it straight into the key of C-Major, no-bull…You learn this when you play DP tunes on your instrument. And I’m pretty sure I’ve heard Joe, Steve & certainly Simon imply very similar things.
Anyhow, where RB is unique is that these phrases that he uses, are very-much his own, & difficult to replicate, which is why he sounds like RB when he plays, & why we all appreciate what is played. Perhaps his greatest moment is with”The Gates of Babylon”, where he actually plays through some key-changes whilst maintaining his general bag of phrases. Playing through key-changes successfully is when you know you’re getting somewhere in your musical development. Anyhow, I’ve said enough LOL !
Peace !
January 3rd, 2024 at 22:15It’s sad to see this fighting or contest or whatever.
I love (and I think everyone here agree) ALL albums, included Turning to crime, not just for the fun but because it’s a really good album with great Steve for the last time. (And done in such a difficult ways, which at the time was a great plus.)
I do remember too, when Steve said that, not being the first one, he’d like at least to be the last guitar of DP. Sadly, he won’t be. And I also remeber, long way back, shortly after Purpendicular release, him saying he was so glad he joined the band and speaking only beautiful things of them all and of the chemistry within the band, and all the others -Lord, Gillan, Paice- all of them speaking in equal terms, saying out loud what a freedom it was to be rid of the reins of Blackmore.
I don’t know nothing about composition, but for me the way Ritchie Blackmore played (and still is able to play somehow), the way he stroked the notes, his solos, is unique, he’s been the greatest ever. And I love all Morse era and I thank him for taking the band to an even higher level. That today, 2024, we are still enjoying this band and still expecting and looking forward for a new album is just marevellous. Long live all DP Marks and all their rainbows. When it’s definitely gone, there’ll be a big deep hole in our days, even though their legacy will last far beyond the lapse of time reserved for anyone of us.
January 3rd, 2024 at 23:09I think Ritchie – in the right mood – is first and foremost one thing as a solo guitarist: tasteful & terse. His ability to play fast was never vital to me, it’s not that I cannot dig fast guitar playing (I love Alvin Lee’s hyper-fast Goin’ Home performance at Woodstock), but with Ritchie I found that he was most impressive AND expressive with those slow elongated, bluesy, yet somber notes often, but not always played with a slide. He’s as good as David Gilmour to me then.
Of the other guitarists listed by Gregster, I like Hendrix, Clapton, Schenker, Trower, Taylor and Beck for their similarly economical playing too, Santana and Bolin for their flurry of notes outbursts.
January 3rd, 2024 at 23:09Uwe said (the cerebrally bland Steely Dan (= elevator music for intellectuals). That is a pretty lively elevator you take Uwe. I don’t mind taking it as The Dan are highly rated by many for clever melodic song composition, crafty lyrics & of course all the extremely talented musicians to boot. Horses for those courses again. These horses we keep mentioning must surely be wearing out that old course by now. Around & around they go, grass down to earth, earth down to stone. Poor old things & I do worry about their hooves & the wear & tear on their general health. Cheers.
January 3rd, 2024 at 23:59Amazing this topic.
It keeps coming back and some are very eloquent in writing about it.
I m not a technical kinda guy/fan.
If it touches/moves me deeply somehow I take it.
I dont want to rain on anyones parade but I must admit I m flabbergasted reading this topic over the years.
Maybe I ought to shut up now. As a certain diehard here on board liked to say : To each his own.
Even Blackmore said taste is an opinion.
January 4th, 2024 at 01:25Of course he could say very different things at other times, so I m not alone there.
Did The Highway Star webpage get switched with some other webpage? I can’t believe that I am hearing from fans that Blackmore was a poor soloist with Deep Purple. To my ear his solos on Child in Time, Highway Star, Lazy, Mistreated, and Stagazer are as good as it gets.
January 4th, 2024 at 05:54‘Too many notes’ is in general represent Steve’s Morse blessing and a curse depending on your ear type.
January 4th, 2024 at 07:58For me a simple tune leads to a simple song leads to memorable song.
99 percent of the population of planet Earth relates to simple tunes.
That’s why ‘The Police’ are the best band for simplicity.
But Steve Morse is the most technically gifted with a advanced musical brain that no one can copy easily.
Peace 🤞
@36 said… qt.”It’s sad to see this fighting or contest or whatever”…
Agreed…I do admit to being anguished by Steve’s remarks about the people that paid top-dollars to have front-row-seats, only to throw “stuff” at him during the concert.
For my part, RB left the band 30-years ago, & I understand that, & I’m glad that he left for his own needs. I also moved-on, but with the new band with Steve, & remain blown-away by the results of everyone’s efforts in the band since that time.
I certainly wanted to let-it-be-known that Blacker’s was a fine player, but has his limitations, & felt obliged to expose a few.
The band DP was rewarded with a most excellent person, who happens to be a continually evolving & cutting-edge musician with Steve, & he deserves at the least, equal respect. And so does Simon.
Peace !
January 4th, 2024 at 10:26Happy New Year to everybody !!
January 4th, 2024 at 11:48I hope that Steve’s wife Janine is well. I think that Steve is perhaps the most deserving of the fact that DP has been held as an authors and in concerts all these years. A nice musical journey. Albums with Steve will age well. Personally, I think his best works with DP
“Purpendicular”,”Now What !?,”Infinite” ,”Whoosh!” and “Live at the Olympia ’96”
When Ritchie left…I thought as a DP fan, who is the best for that position? my first favorite was Laurie Wisefield ex Home, ex Wishbone Ash …, I’m a fan of WA and Laurie his guitar in some parts reminds me of Ritchie Blackmore’s style, melodic solos, and strong singer-songwriter power, (his songs are “Living Proof”, “Goodbye Baby Hello Friend”, The Way Of The World,…. his voice which could be a support and Big Ian, looks good and finally a British man ..
I watched it with Tina, an excellent player.
Many years later
Snakecharmer rock band in which Laurie plays gave us a replacement for Steve, his name is Simon McBride. My parallel DP world was not in vain
I believe the eternal Blackmore vs. Morse debate will never be settled here. I appreciate both guitarists but do prefer Blackmore’s darker, more intense soloing over Morse’s brighter, happy phrasing. Blackmore at his peak between 1969 to the early 1980’s may have been resorting to the same old bag of tricks, but every solo served the song extremely well…each solo was a mini song within the song. Morse, though a tremendously skilled and melodic player seemed however to be replicating his same busy, noodling approach on every solo, and none seemed to go anywhere exciting.
So maybe there’s something to be said for simplicity. Blackmore may not have the same technical prowess or diverse palette as Morse, but he has an ear for composing an effective, improvised solo which is ear-catching and has some immediacy. Morse falls more within the camp of the fusion guitarist such as John McLaughlin et al…..extremely technically proficient, but not concise.
Now if you want to hear a masterclass in how to build an effective and jaw-dropping guitar solo, I present to you, one Mr. Bill Connors (formerly of Return to Forever, pre-Al Di Meola era). This track is taken off RTF alumni bassist Stanley Clarke’s first solo album……. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smmFum2ZeFg&list=PL-ZKdxn0uhJaI8TF_5FVWrRszuFO7OTEg&index=3
January 4th, 2024 at 15:48Wow…can we please start a new topic ??
January 4th, 2024 at 21:31“I’m a fan of WA …”
SO AM I, IVICA !!! And I thought I was the only one in a WA parallel “Sometime World” here …
Laurie was great (as was Ted Turner) and Andy Powell was after all the guy who challenged Ritchie at a soundcheck (when WA were openers to DP) by aping his licks in a good-natured way, thus inspiring a sprightly call & response duel between the two guitarists. Ritchie never spoke a word to Andy, but in a later telephone call with Purple’s erstwhile producer Derek Lawrence recommended Wishbone Ash as a band Derek should check out (the rest was history, Lawrence provided WA with a good recording contract with MCA and inter alia produced their landmark album Argus).
My only concern with Laurie and Purple would have been that he is perhaps not tall enough!
But he is a huge player. Front Page News and Just Testing are my favorite albums of the Wisefield era (though There’s the Rub and No Smoke Without Fire are good too, even Locked In isn’t as bad as everyone says).
I only saw Martin Turner (for the fifth time) in November last year. I also see Andy Powell’s WA regularly, but Martin’s performances have more heart and I prefer his bass playing though Bob Skeat is no slouch.
Laurie’s guitar was one of the few redeeming things in the mind-bendingly banal Queen Musical (the ABBA Musical is high art in comparison) I saw in London (he was in the house band for years together with Neil Murray). As he loitered with his guitar case up the stairs through the emptying hall after the musical, not expecting any Queen Musical fans to give a damn about his identity, I couldn’t help but approach him with a “I really loved your work with Wishbone Ash.” – I saw him with WA twice in 1976 and 1980 – and he beamed back at me, slightly dazzled at being recognized for his WA past in a Queen Musical crowd. (And yes, Neil Murray was about twice as tall as him.)
January 4th, 2024 at 22:54@ 44 – thanks for the Bill Connors link, nice to hear someone who I may have heard before years ago listening to the early 70’s fusion bands, but probably didn’t realise who the guitarist was. Those guitarists from that era indeed, plenty of names there most of us would be familiar with. And the comments from many listeners are interesting & varied, it makes the comments section here seem so quaint, timid & tame & almost innocent, he he he. McLaughlin, Connors, Holdsworth, Bolin, Di Meola & the various drummers & bass guitarists & keyboard players to boot. I still remember owning that McLaughlin Santana album Love Devotion & Surrender way back in the late 70’s. I will source that online for a nostalgia trip & check out more Bill Connors. Cheers.
January 4th, 2024 at 23:17If (an admittedly then still very young) Steve Morse had joined DP in 1968 instead of Ritchie Blackmore, I’m pretty much sure that The Highway Star would not exist today as a site, not even under a name like, say, “The Tumeni Notes Examiner”. It would have changed the time beam forever and there would be no In Rock, no Machine Head, no Made In Japan and no Burn, not even anything similar.
And if Ritchie had not had the good sense in 1993 to realize that his time as the (dark!) sun of the band (with the other guys just circling around him like planets) was up, then DP would have imploded shortly after and Purple would have stopped as a going concern. We would have never enjoyed Purpendicular or Now What?! had Steve not picked up the pieces.
Both were pivotal for their respective eras. And both rate each other as guitarists so I think we can all do the same:
– Steve was never a soulless shredder, his playing disperses positive vibes (like Tommy’s did); in a darker-than-blue-hued musical environment such as Purple that sounded sometimes unusual if you grew up with Blackmore – we’re all creatures of habit.
– And Ritchie might have never climbed the technical heights of the kid from Ohio, but he was no technical slouch himself, especially in the first half of the 70ies. He forged an unmistakable style for himself (and for Deep Purple) and, yes, he could improvise and never repeated a solo note for note.
Now that they are both ex-DP, I’d really like to hear them do a track together. I think we’d all recognize who is who on that recording and shed a nostalgic tear for both of them and what they gave to the band.
January 5th, 2024 at 00:45https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smmFum2ZeFg&list=PL-ZKdxn0uhJaI8TF_5FVWrRszuFO7OTEg&index=3
Crucify me, lieber DeeperPurps, but I hear quite a bit of Tommy (Bolin) in Bill Connors’ lines and phrasing, seems like he gave Cobham’s Spectrum more than a few spins (lots of guitarists did, Jeff Beck among them). Or maybe Tommy was a closet RTF fan? Contemporaries Energy had fusion influences after all, that is how Cobham became aware of Tommy in the first place.
Certainly closer to Tommy in style and mannerisms than to anything Ritchie or Steve ever played.
January 5th, 2024 at 00:59Uwe @49. You are absolutely correct Sir! Bill Connors seems to be channeling a Tommy Bolin vibe in this solo….some of their phrasing is uncannily similar. Bill himself (or an acolyte of his) was once quoted as saying his guitar style was “Clapton meets Coltrane”. I don’t hear a lot of Clapton in it, but I get the Coltrane thing a bit. As for Tommy himself, indeed that Energy album he put out in circa 1972 is spectacular – some of his playing on it is otherworldly.
January 5th, 2024 at 17:03Hello MacGregor @ 47 and a Happy 2024 to you! Indeed, those 70’s fusion cats were dispensing gritty guitar magic of their own exotic flavour back in the day. Another very fine player was Larry Coryell. Some of his solo work, and especially his work with Eleventh House was spectacular. On the latter, sitting at the drum kit was one Alphonse Mouzon….the same fellow who Tommy Bolin played a few tracks with on the album Mind Transplant. Now for Bill Connors himself….if you would like to delve further into his early 70’s playing with RTF, here’s another great clip which will keep you entertained for close to an hour! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ-5FebS7Qc&list=PL-ZKdxn0uhJaI8TF_5FVWrRszuFO7OTEg&index=54
January 5th, 2024 at 17:55LOL ! @ 48 said…qt.”And if Ritchie had not had the good sense in 1993 to realize that his time as the (dark!) sun of the band (with the other guys just circling around him like planets) was up, then DP would have imploded shortly after and Purple would have stopped as a going concern. We would have never enjoyed Purpendicular or Now What?! had Steve not picked up the pieces”.
Dear Leiber Uwe, on many occasions here, you have stated that RB tried his hardest to kill the band off, & failed, since he didn’t get his own way…It’s almost prophetic in a way, how in the tune “No one came”, IG states “Where’s my Robin Hood outfit ?”…And that’s what became of RB…And to further quote from the same tune “What’s he gonna turn out like, someone else said never mind”…
It’s quite possible that Satch indicated that they could & should go on, but that regretfully his solo career was more important to him. And the band realized he was right, & that they were having a far better time & life without RB being a part of it. Steve was a great fit for them, though nothing’s perfect.
If I happened to be a lead singer, it’s possible that IG may well be the dark sun in the DP solar system…
If I happened to be a drummer, IP would likely be that dark sun in the DP solar system…
If I happened to be a bassist, RG would be that sun in the DP solar system…
If I played keyboard, Jon or Don would likely be that dark sun in the DP solar system…
On the above ideals, it’s clear that RB is now a Red Dwarf LOL !
Perspectives…LOL !
I think that the creators of “Spinal Tap” would have a field day quoting the antics of Dwarf-Star RB…They should consider making another movie !
Peace !
January 5th, 2024 at 20:05Wasn’t Eric Johnson influenced by Bill Connors, at least I read comments about that yesterday when searching around online. I certainly could hear that yesterday on listening to that link DeeperPurps sent in. I would have heard Johnson well before Connors as I was introduced to his first album ‘Tones’ back in the mid 1980’s upon it’s release. And then the mighty Ah Via Musicom in the late 80’s. Two exquisite albums indeed.. Cheers.
January 5th, 2024 at 21:23@ 46 – And I thought I was the only one in a WA parallel “Sometime World” here …
January 5th, 2024 at 22:15Sheesh & the times I have mentioned Wishbone Ash here, oh well that is what I get for living all the way out here under a rock I suppose. Seriously though I only own the early to mid 70’s Wishbone Ash, but a wonderful band they were at that time. There’s The Rub is the album for me, when Laurie Wisefield joined them & what great songs & that FUBB instrumental. One of the greatest instrumentals I have ever heard, talk about a twin guitar tour de force, superb. Pilgrimage is also very good & also the debut self titled album. I do find Argus over rated by many, a bit bland, it has some nice beginnings to a few songs but then they drop away to rather boring ‘country’ soft rock style for me. I did have Locked In also but that is where I stopped following them & also after hearing a few later releases. Martin Turner on bass guitar & lead vocals indeed, he was the ‘soul’ of the band in that aspect. Steve Upton the ‘jazz’ drummer is superb & with Andy Powell it worked really well for a little while in the 70’s. That Snakecharmer clip & I could not believe that was Laurie Wisefield playing second guitar there. He was certainly taking a back seat to Simon McBride on that song. I would have thought it could or should have been the other way around, the elder statesman out front & the ‘new kid on the block’ taking the back seat. Maybe they do that on other songs. Well I sincerely hope they do. Cheers.
Now that the inimitable Gregster has determined for us all that Ricardo Blackmore and Charlie Santana were identical twins at birth, but separated in later life due to unfortunate circumstances, I thought I’d leave this here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8ez-8WAUEg
January 5th, 2024 at 22:42Uwe @ 55, that is pure gold!! The Man in White emulating The Man in Black! The Peace, Love & Serenity Guru channeling the Dark Destroyer! The Yin and The Yang. Unfortunately I am not sure that Ritchie would be flattered by the performance – ever the diplomat, here is what he said in an old interview: “….. whereas the (Carlos) Santana guy is just plain rotten. I don’t why he’s got such a name.” (Courtesy of the L.A. Times – Cameron Crowe – June 23, 1974).
MacGregor @53….yes indeed, Bill Connors was an influence on Eric Johnson. In a recent interview on the Rick Beato channel on YouTube in November 2021, Eric discussed some of his influences….here’s what he said: ““Early influences included Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix. Then I really got interested in Bill Connors. He started to open me up to more of a fusion thing, but he also had that Clapton bluesy tone. Then listening to John Mclaughlin started to fuse together the influences…”
January 6th, 2024 at 00:08LOL !
@55…That was a good post TY very-much. I’ll add to that by offering the studio-version which turned out better than the under rehearsed live version…( There’s also one featuring Rush, Queen, Santana & others )…
https://youtu.be/O_Wst_CYuo8
Peace !
January 6th, 2024 at 00:35@#40 dr. Bob, I agree wholeheartedly you took the words right out of my mouth. As a long time fan of every band that came out in the 70s, Blackmore was the top he will never be beaten now he’s getting bashed on a deep purple page. He can’t improvise are you kidding me ?!!! he invented improvising. There would be no Steve Morse, etc. if it wasn’t for Richie Blackmore. these people need to go listen to the who or the Rolling Stones or whatever they love. I love Steve Morse met him twice. Fabulous guy, great guitarist, who came first? Ask Steve, he will tell you!
January 6th, 2024 at 01:24And while we’re on the topic of Deep Purple alumni, and in particular guitarists; we shouldn’t forget to give Joe Satriani his due. When in 1993 Blackmore left the band for good, my next favourite living guitarist stepped in, albeit far too briefly. When I hear this particular solo from Joe’s Flying in a Blue Dream album, I pause to wonder….”What if ??”
January 6th, 2024 at 02:35https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUzX-VtpvxM&list=PL-ZKdxn0uhJaI8TF_5FVWrRszuFO7OTEg&index=9
@ 51 – yes good luck to you for another year DeeperPurps. They do come around far too quick these days it seems. Thanks for that Bill Connors link & I have bookmarked that & will have a listen soon. Interesting reading about him going to classical guitar after the ‘rock fusion’ stint. Being inspired by the great Julian Bream apparently amongst others. I have a few cd’s of Baroque recordings of Bream & also a collection of his lute recordings, a masterful player he was. I will also have a listen to Larry Coryell, I have heard about him plenty of times over the years. As you said so many hot players back then. Cheers.
January 6th, 2024 at 05:01DC appears to hold RB in high regard, grateful for the chance he was once given. RB has enabled the careers of so many members of the family tree. Dio, DC, Hughes, Gillan, Glover, Bonnet, JLT, Doogie, Romero. These are guys that have moved from RB to Schenker to Yngwie. The songs he wrote or co-wrote has enabled the current DP and its crew to earn a living on the road since 1994. Essentially, RB creates work opportunities, so I feel some respect is in order 🙂
January 6th, 2024 at 12:06FLASH THOUGHT (!!!) re the Ricardo/Charlie doppelgängers: They both have much younger wives with whom they make music together and who are in their respective bands. Charlie’s wife, who drums in his outfit Santana, is actually called Cindy BLACKMan, which can hardly be a coincidence!
https://images.app.goo.gl/egH3CNb8tphZ2yTx8
Gregster, an inquisitive and daring mind if there ever was one, is really on to something here …
And we haven’t even looked into the mutually receding hairlines of the two yet. Stay tuned!
January 6th, 2024 at 17:45So I want to chime in on something that’s been constantly repeated here, and that’s that Steve can’t do dark, and his playing is overall too happy for DP.
I for one think that’s utter nonsense.
Yes, Steve does come from a country background, and loves those mixolydian and major vibes, to be sure.
However, he can be dark and aggressive when he needs to be, even moody.
To my ears, the chorus riff in Cascades, the entirety of Seventh Heaven, Watching the Sky and Fingers to the Bone, are not happy sounding songs. Ditto with later stuff like Rapture, Vincent Price and the Power of the Moon.
These songs are darker, moody, super aggressive – Seventh Heaven borders on violent – has everyone forgotten how aggressive and in your face Steve’s pinch harmonics are in that tune, and in general???
IMO, they’re more vicious than Ritchie’s tone/vibe!
C’mon guys, I know Steve oozes positivity, but let’s be objective here – he can be just as dark and moody as Ritchie when the song calls for it. There are plenty examples of it in Morse era Purple – Sun Goes Down, Soon Forgotten… honestly? I think we overemphasize the happier sounding Morse tunes, and we forget just how versatile Steve is. Selective memories to say the least…
Lastly, this idea that positive doesn’t suit DP is complete hogwash.
Purple need not be confined to one mood – ie the darkness of Ritchie – they can be happy and completely change their sound if they want to – and they did with Steve, as they were finally happy again and it reflected in the music.
I don’t think that’s a bad thing – everyone seems to forget that the fans don’t define the sound of DP- DP does. It is whatever the hell they feel like at the time. The fact that some fans don’t want to accept changes in the band and the sound is just pure willfulness and a refusal to accept reality – their loss, really.
I for one love the fact that Steve brought so much positivity to the band – they needed and deserved it, and it showed us that they could grow beyond the darkness of Ritchie, which they needed to do. More Power to them!
With Simon, they’ve returned to a darker sound, but I sense Simon can also do positive – perhaps we’ll get a bit more balance between the two extremes with Mark IX? Time will tell…
January 6th, 2024 at 23:57@63…Well said ! +1 here !
@62…Dankeshern Heir Uwe ! But tread carefully here, I only implied that Carlos & Blacker’s often work from the same pool of notes, & that I find Carlos’s work far more melodic…For comparative means only.
@61…”To create, one must first destroy” also seems to be RB’s ways & means of getting things done, – his way…
@59…Indeed, Joe’s is a fine person & awesome guitarist. Not only did he keep the band going, but taking Leslie West on tour with him in the 2000’s was an awesome thing to do, that likely added years to LW’s life…Shyte, he even got married during that time-frame, circa the Woodstock anniversary lol !
@58…RB is a crap improvisor. In the musical sense, it became popular in the 1960’s from free-Jazz, & perhaps you need to listen people like Wes Montgomery, or from the rock world, Gerry & Bob from the Grateful Dead, or any live Little Feat to understand what the term means…The dictionary states qt.”Improvisation is defined as “an activity done without prior preparation”. To improvise is to make up something on the spot. Improvisation in music is the act of creating and playing new music without preparing it in advance. It involves creatively using the available resources at hand, such as musical instruments and your listening skills to compose music spontaneously.
So there’s good & poor improv that we can interpret.
Based on the above statement, & the legacy of what RB has left us to listen too, (namely from my perspective) what’s delivered in the awesome “open-book” to improvise at the end of Space Truckin’, is garbage…In the very early days of the Mk-II era, there were some moments of exciting improvisation, but that was due to a lack-of-tunes to play, so they delivered lots of solo sections. And when you listen to these recordings, you realize that RB was formulating it a bit, as you hear the same things repeated gig after gig etc etc. And that’s OK, no worries, but he couldn’t be bothered towards the end of his stint, & delivered crap most times. Sheez, he wouldn’t even hardly play rhythm guitar towards the end.
Once you open up your musical world & listen to a variety of superb players ( if you choose to ), then you’ll discover RB’s strengths, weaknesses & laziness…And if you happen to have tunnel-vision per-se, Yngwie J Malmsteen delivers the goods pretty-damn-well, & has an air-kick that you wouldn’t believe !
As regards to shyting on RB in a DP forum, he deserves it, (its fair critique that my own playing will back-up if you request it), & it’s better to be honest in your POV than not. RB has laid some incredible music down for sure, but he’s also messed-up quite a bit too, & delivered poorly at times imo.
Peace !
January 7th, 2024 at 09:45Gregster: “RB is a crap improviser”. Does this mean that MIJ appealed to so many because it was rehearsed?
January 7th, 2024 at 15:53Mike, you fearless guardian angel of little Steve @63, I feel addressed by your words!!! And before your flame sword of just revenge decapitates me fully: Of course you can ask Steve to play something minorish and his only reply will be “How fast and for how long?!”. Likewise, I think there is very little in Blackmore’s bag of tricks that Steve cannot emulate – the Highway Star solo was never played more faithfully and with greater accuracy than in the Morse era -, Ritchie’s idiosyncratic way of slide playing perhaps excepted. And with both Purple and Flying Colors, Steve can play riffs that can sound dark, albeit with a grungy/industrial slant as opposed to Ritchie’s more “Yuropean Romanticism” flavor.
It’s not a question of notes, it’s a thing of the heart and mind. Ritchie’s emotional default mode is that brooding, darkish, neo-romantic and neo-classical, “Continental European all the way up to the East” musical tapestry. Steve to me is vast North American landscapes and I don’t mean that dismissively, there is beauty in that too. And it has shaped the rich North American culture and art.
I agree that whenever DP had to replace Ritchie in the past, there was no obligation of them to resort to someone similar, both Come Taste The Band and Purpendicular not only have a very American 🇺🇸 positive vibe to them, but were also breaths of fresh air.
And for the record: Seventh Heaven is one of my favorite Morse era DP tracks ever! Something in it always reminded me pleasantly of The Doors, one of the few “dark” American rock bands.
January 7th, 2024 at 23:11@64….seems to me what Ritchie Blackmore delivered as an improvised solo on Anya during one of his final gigs with Purple is very far from being “crap”. In fact, so impressed were the band members, they applauded him at the end of the song (see Paice & Lord in particular). Watch this clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZupw1nllFs&list=PL-ZKdxn0uhJaI8TF_5FVWrRszuFO7OTEg&index=53
As for Steve Morse; between 2010 to 2017, I attended seven Deep Purple concerts, a few of which I was right up near the front where I could see and hear him play. An impressive player to be sure, but Steve’s soloing from song to song, gig to gig, did not stray far from his usual formula either.
There are only so many guitar licks and phrases one can use before everything is eventually no longer improvisation per se….it is a novel construction of tried and true patterns. That said, Blackmore when inspired, excelled beyond most guitarists at creating exciting and new combinations of all the licks and phrases in his grab bag of guitar tricks. A superb improvisor.
January 8th, 2024 at 01:06@65…
qt.”Gregster: “RB is a crap improviser”. Does this mean that MIJ appealed to so many because it was rehearsed” ?…
The short answer is yes imo…But what MIJ had that surprised everyone, especially the “Wasp”, was the quality of the recordings that resulted from this most unusual little-black-box 8-track recorder that was provided. And by this time, the band had 3 x Mk-II albums under their sleeves, & a few singles that sold quite well, such as “Speed King”, “Strange Kind of Woman” & “Black Night”. This means they had 2-3-years of playing on the road together nearly every night with around 20-new-songs to choose from. So you get used to each other musically, & little phrases that indicate the next change is coming.
Listen to “Live in Stockholm 1970” or “Longbeach 1971” & compare…
When you acquire the “Live in Japan” 3 x CD offering, you get the gist of what happened over the 3 x nights in Japan 1972, & certainly the right songs were selected for MiJ imo. There is some excellent playing throughout from all the band-members, but technical hitches & out-of-tune instrumentation meant that the better choices made it on the album.
And as for RB’s soloing, once again, he has a bag-of-tricks that he works from, & often he can & does, cut & paste the same phrases, but in differing orders to complete solos with…”Child in Time” & its differing live versions provides excellent evidence to what I’m saying. Does this represent “improvisation” or forgetfulness is open to your own opinion…To myself, it’s forgetfulness playing catch-up, whilst trying to remember what was originally played on the record. There’s nothing really new being offered, just the same phrases trying to find the correct order / sequence of being played in.
There’s a 1972 “Live in London” recording that actually contains new & inspired solo-work, with Mike Harding(?) presenting the TV aspects. If you can find this, then you’ll hear what is imo opinion “new improvisation” vs “trying to remember what was originally played”…So he can have his shyte together at times, & deliver new music.
And don’t ever forget, that RB has NEVER played the riff to SOTW correctly that we have to listen to / watch in the live arena. There’s always a fluff or error, & that = sloppy playing imo, or perhaps he was simply playing an on-stage joke with the band ?…
Peace !
January 8th, 2024 at 04:28Carlos Santana overdubbed most of MIJ in the aftermath in the studio. That was one of the best hidden rock secrets ever, but the truth always comes out eventually.
January 8th, 2024 at 07:05LOL !
Herr Uwe said qt.”Carlos Santana overdubbed most of MIJ in the aftermath in the studio. That was one of the best hidden rock secrets ever, but the truth always comes out eventually”.
Not likely…Carlos seems to be more consistent, plays a little slower, & doesn’t make as many mistakes ! ( And he improvises far better 😉 )…
Peace !
January 8th, 2024 at 12:45Oh my, my own contrarian leanings let me wholeheartedly applaud Gregster’s courage – these hardy men from the Australian Outback know no fear! – to stand up in this lions’ den of a DP forum and proclaim that the black emperor with the white Strat has no clothes on.
BUT … Aren’t the improvisational standards you apply and measure poor Ritchie against excruciatingly high, especially in a rock format, a hard rock one to boot, my dearest Gregster? Night for night he would rely on his style, his experience and his bag of tricks, but isn’t that true for pretty much any rock guitarist? And the overwhelming majority of those stuck a lot more to their own template than Ritchie ever did. Steve Morse is a brilliant, versatile guitarist, but not really a wild improviser: His sports athlete’s training regime approach to guitar playing and his desire to have complex musical parts pre-written and neatly executed are really anathema to free-form improvisation. Steve also tried to please people: If he saw one of his licks garner a markedly enthusiastic reaction from the DP crowd, you could sure as hell bet on it being repeated on the following night. And not because Steve had a lack of imagination, but because Steve wanted “to do things right” and to the best of his abilities + make people happy.
Sure, routine and professionalism crept in with Ritchie too – no surprise given the amount of gigs DP did on their breathless itineraries. Made in Japan is a case in point: By then the post-Machine Head set list had been played so many times by Purple and was so over-rehearsed, they could do it in their sleep. And it is true, the early 70ies gigs of DP were more daring experimental because back then DP would throw lots of things against the wall to see what sticks. But Ritchie would still continue to take risks and his own quick boredom with things (and – at times – his laziness as well as his cock-sure belief that he could get away with anything and did not need to replicate his own stuff note for note night after night) prevented him from playing rehearsed solos only. That he would alternate the sequence of the riffs and licks from his own portfolio, use recurring themes and resort to mannerisms “that work for sure” – all that is true, but which rock guitarist doesn’t do that even when improvising? Robert Fripp, Jeff Beck, Allan Holdsworth, Frank Zappa, Adrian Belew, Reeves Gabrels, Tom Morello – even the guys who played much more “out there” than Ritchie ever did, they all relied and rely on their own recipes and list of ingredients. You can’t reinvent scales, keys and harmonies every night anew.
Ritchie is not Miles Davis and Made in Japan ain’t Bitches Brew, but cut the guy some slack for being a lot more free-form than other guitarists of the era and the genre.
There you have it: I have now made amends for all those nasty things I have written about Rainbow and Blackmore’s Night in the past which will surely reserve me a maple, alder or ash splinter from one of the many Strats massacred by him should His Darkness one day entertain to grant me an audience in the Eternal Rock God Hunting Grounds. For all his faults and idiosyncrasies as well as sheer loggerheaded stubbornness, the man has a true gift for developing a solo off the cuff even over musical themes he does not particularly care for. If that does not meet your improvisational standards, so be it, but it’s remarkable enough for a lowly bassist like me.
January 8th, 2024 at 15:35Alas!, give Gregster an A+ for tenacity und resilience! Whenever I magnanimously offer him a peace laurel, he thinks it’s a shovel und proceeds to dig his hole even deeper …
“Ít’s only been an hour
Since they locked him in the tower
The time has come
He must be undone – by the morning …”
January 8th, 2024 at 16:34Let’s look at the facts point by point.
January 8th, 2024 at 21:071. Steve Morse’s sophisticated guitar playing and musicianship are light years ahead of Blackmore’s confusing guitar playing.
2. Steve Morse’s guitar solos are well-structured, demanding, melodic, diverse, and often touching. In Blackmore’s solos, you can hear the non-concern attitude, he smears notes back and forth, but he can’t really improvise, in many cases he is unlistenable.
3. Humility is reflected in Steve Morse’s personality, he is a pleasant person. Unfortunately, we cannot say the same about Blackmore.
4. Real songwriting started in the band when Steve Morse joined. It changed the band’s sound, but at least they don’t have to get involved in serious legal disputes anymore. (As we know, the hits of the 70s and 80s were mostly stolen tunes.)
5. Steve Morse’s guitar sound is perfect. Full, sufficiently hard, but at the same time soft and delicious. Blackmore’s guitar sound is clichéd. 6.Many of us can feel that even though Steve was in the band for a long time, he was never really a real part of the band. I realized this when Steve left the band. If he had really been a member, the band would have disbanded after his departure. But it seems that Steve was just an assistant to the others, just like Simon McBride. As an interesting fact, I mention that Don Airey became a permanent member of the band at the end of 2006. Until then, his contract was completely different.
Uwe # 71…….agreed 1,000% with you on all points written there. Blackmore as an improvisor was superior to the vast majority of guitarists in the rock world, and would even give several jazz fusion guitarists a good run for their money. Take for example the solo from Gates of Babylon where he was improvising through multiple, complex chord changes…..very few rock guitarists would be able to craft such a solo on the fly like Ritchie did. And check out the much maligned last track on side 2 of the Burn album…the instrumental A200. Get past the science fiction synth passages and listen to what Ritchie threw out there on the fly in the form of a dark, intense, cascading guitar solo. Ritchie was very far from being a “crap” improvisor.
January 8th, 2024 at 21:54LOL !!!
@72…All this discussion started from your very own comments in post #11 my friend, & I’ve only been expressing my own POV since then…
qt.”My personal preference is darker players such as Blackmore, Iommi, Gilmour, Glenn Tipton and KK Downing. Steve, for all his talent and technical expertise, can’t play a moody solo – like Blackmore can pull effortlessly out of his sleeve anytime of the day (or night) – to save his life. He never sounds dark”.
And with what’s available via CD or DVD that I have, the evidence would suggest otherwise, indicating that “yes, RB “could” do as stated, but often with poor results & mistakes” indicating poor improv skills, whilst Steve hardly ever made any mistakes.
The reason why I persist in my stance, is that over the decades, this aspect of RB’s playing never improved…And the bands / musicians that I listed from the Grateful Dead & / or Little Feat, delivered the goods / improvised solos differently, & very successfully every-night, within any decade. This is why I have around 200-Gb of the Dead & Little Feat live to listen too, as you learn how to twist & shape solos around so that they’re very different every-night… Alas, that leaves RB as perhaps capable, but poor in execution with his own material imo, as the music reveals to me, & why it gets very predictable over the decades to listen to in many respects.
This is not an attack on RB, simply a revelation that a great many other players improvise far better & more successfully, that’s it lol !
Peace !
January 8th, 2024 at 22:20Uwe:
I disagree with you most vehemently that Steve’s answer to playing minor tunes will always be “how fast and how long” – Vincent Price and Rapture of the Deep are both great examples where this isn’t true . I take your point that the American heartland is the emotional center of his playing, – I don’t dispute that for a second. My whole point is that he can go travel to Eastern Europe and hang with Ritchie when he wants to 😉
Gregster:
Your point about Ritchie being a poor improviser is not true – I do agree with Uwe that every guitarist has their bag of tricks, and that you are holding RB to too high a standard. I actually think that Ritchie does have more versatility to him and is not just limited to his bag of tricks – listening to live performances by Blackmore’s Night, for instance, proves that Ritchie can improvise wonderfully *when he wants to or can be bothered to*
That is, I think, Ritchie’s entire problem, and the one area where Steve is a better improviser than him: he can’t be bothered to expand beyond his usual bag of tricks. Can he? Absolutely. Does he want to? No.
Ritchie Blackmore isn’t a poor improvisor – he’s worse than that – he’s a lazy one who can’t be bothered to apply himself even though he has the musical knowledge and technique to do so. Steve on the other hand, beats him fair and square in that department, and is always looking to push himself and learn something new. This is what makes him a great improviser, imo – his willingness to learn.
Ritchie, for all his talent, doesn’t want to learn, and expand his horizons – he’s happy where he is, no more, no less. He could be even better than he is – he just doesn’t want to be. I don’t think that makes him a poor improviser – he could improvise till the cows came home, Jon spoke often of this. But it does make him a lazy one – and honestly, I think that’s worse!
January 8th, 2024 at 23:04@76 said….
qts.”I actually think that Ritchie does have more versatility to him and is not just limited to his bag of tricks – listening to live performances by Blackmore’s Night, for instance, proves that Ritchie can improvise wonderfully, *when he wants to, or can be bothered to”…
“That is, I think, Ritchie’s entire problem, and the one area where Steve is a better improviser than him: he can’t be bothered to expand beyond his usual bag of tricks… Can he ?… Absolutely (imo). Does he want to ?… No”.
“Ritchie Blackmore isn’t a poor improviser – he’s worse than that – he’s a lazy one who can’t be bothered to apply himself even though he has the musical knowledge and technique to do so. Steve on the other hand, beats him fair and square in that department, and is always looking to push himself and learn something new. This is what makes him a great improviser, imo – his willingness to learn”.
“Ritchie, for all his talent, doesn’t want to learn, and expand his horizons – he’s happy where he is, no more, no less. He could be even better than he is – he just doesn’t want to be. I don’t think that makes him a poor improviser – he could improvise till the cows came home, Jon spoke often of this. But it does make him a lazy one – and honestly, I think that’s worse” !
Well said Mike. I’m nearly 100% behind everything that has been said. And no-doubt there’s an ability to improvise, but from all I have to hear from the recorded materials available, I only ever hear snippets here & there…Some people also close-up if they’re in-the-know that the record-button or camera is on, perhaps RB is camera shy ???…He certainly made me laugh my head-off when in the middle of the “Highway Star” solo in the UK circa 1993, when he somehow spotted a cheeky cameraman that gave-him-the -irrits before the show, & then wandered over across the stage & dowsed him with water LOL !!! That was even funnier than being almost blown-off the stage when his Marshall cabs went too-big-a-kerboom at the Cal jam lol !
I can’t comment on Blackmore’s Night, though I’ve heard a few early recordings at the time of their release in the late 1990’s. That sort of folk music does nothing for me except to want to turn it off, & play something else. Had he done something with incorporating modern themes in there too, like LZ managed, it would be a different tale to tell.
I’m really happy that the band found Steve, & received 30-odd-years of awesome, trouble-free touring & writing, & that Jon had nearly 10-years of that. They deserved it after all the years of uncertainty. And I’m sure Simon will enjoy his time, & secure his own place of honour in the DP annals.
Peace !
January 9th, 2024 at 10:25I have no desire to prolong what’s turned into a Blackmore vs. Morse debate, so this will be my final post on this thread. I enjoy listening to both. They’re very different, and that’s a good thing. But I find the Blackmore bashing here unwarranted. Sure, he could be lazy, could be accused of overusing the harmonic minor, and I’m not a fan of his live performances during the reunion era. He might not have expanded his musical horizons as much as other guitar heroes, but I say “so what?” He wrote and performed, often improvising on stage and on record, memorably, movingly, and uniquely. As I stated earlier, he could make the instrument sing, from the Mark 1 instrumentals, to the plaintive solo in “When a Blind Man Cries,’’ to the brief but brilliant outro in “Since You Been Gone,’’ to his Blackmore’s Night recordings.
January 9th, 2024 at 15:18I know a bit about music theory, composition, and performance, and I believe that the slow movements of Beethoven’s sonata form pieces are among the most moving, poignant pieces of music ever written. They’re more powerful than the spoken word. Most of those works are in basic major or minor scales, and unlike a lot of what Beethoven composed, many aren’t technically difficult to play on the piano, though they’re difficult to play well. I’m not comparing RB to LVB, but the point is, to me, much of the rock music Ritchie has written and performed, in studio and live, is memorable. If you believe the man, the only solo he plays that wasn’t improvised was “Highway Star.” So, yeah, I’d say he’s a pretty good improviser. Cheers.
This is actually a very good discussion as it transcends the usual tribalism “X is the only worthy lead guitarist of DP and everything Y did is a load of crap”. Rather it is illuminating to read that certain aspects in the guitar playing of the usual suspects all mean something different to you all. That’s good.
Mike, my “how fast + how long?” quip was not intended to denigrate Steve, but to emphasize that he can of course improvise in minorish scales. Your “My whole point is that he can go travel to Eastern Europe and hang with Ritchie when he wants to.” puts it even better though I dare say that if Ritchie is Count Dracula then Steve is more Jonathan Harker: He can travel there, but sucking blood from female bosoms is not really his thing nor favorite diet.
Mike further wrote:
“Ritchie Blackmore isn’t a poor improviser – he’s worse than that – he’s a lazy one who can’t be bothered to apply himself even though he has the musical knowledge and technique to do so. Steve on the other hand, beats him fair and square in that department, and is always looking to push himself and learn something new. This is what makes him a great improviser, imo – his willingness to learn.
Ritchie, for all his talent, doesn’t want to learn, and expand his horizons – he’s happy where he is, no more, no less. He could be even better than he is – he just doesn’t want to be. I don’t think that makes him a poor improviser – he could improvise till the cows came home, Jon spoke often of this. But it does make him a lazy one – and honestly, I think that’s worse!”
Amen to that as well – Blackers is a talented, but lazy bum. But I make one reservation: In a way, Steve’s obsession to be always perfectly prepared, inhibits his improvisational freedom as much as Blackmore’s laziness limits him. Ritchie, bathing in his own vanity and with his general sense for mischief, is more of a risk-taker, even if that occasionally means a bum note or a rhythmic glitch (he’s also quite excellent playing drunk, I’ve witnessed it!). Anybody playing slide with a beer bottle in an arena is not obsessed with getting things just right and a certain devil-may-care attitude is a part of all great rock music live.
Connected with that: What you wrote, Honorable Gregster,
“(Blackmore played) often with poor results & mistakes indicating poor improv skills, whilst Steve hardly ever made any mistakes …”,
seems to bundle up “faultless execution + inspiration” as the key ingredients of good improvisation. I disagree, sure you need a certain amount of chops, but the quest for perfection can often obstruct the path to “brilliance in the spur of the moment”-improvisation. Ritchie could be sloppy, yes (never as sloppy as Jimmy Page though!), but even in moments of sloppiness sparks of brilliance would flash.
And it’s true that Steve soloed live so faultlessly with DP for many years it was uncanny, I noticed that too though I didn’t deem it entirely a good thing. But if truth be told that changed with the condition issues of his arm. I saw a lot of Steve performances up close and over the years Steve lost speed and fluidity and, yes, even made mistakes (and you could see how much that pissed him off/frustrated him on stage whereas Blackers would flippantly shrug it off). He is still TECHNICALLY great and better than most guitarists, but he is no longer at his peak (neither is Ritchie though his ability to solo melodically at moderate speed is largely undiminished).
Finally, dear Patrick @73:
“1. Steve Morse’s sophisticated guitar playing and musicianship are light years ahead of Blackmore’s confusing guitar playing.
2. Steve Morse’s guitar solos are well-structured, demanding, melodic, diverse, and often touching. In Blackmore’s solos, you can hear the non-concern attitude, he smears notes back and forth, but he can’t really improvise, in many cases he is unlistenable.”
Objection, Your Honor!!!
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/582ba2c86b8f5bc9c580709b/1533593721204-3W9NI5TNKJCU351JE6GH/image-asset.gif
One man’s “confusing” is another man’s “refreshingly idiosyncratic and gifted”, I myself worship Blackmore’s non-predictability!
“you can hear the non-concern attitude, he smears notes back and forth”
Right he does and I love him for it. As a great English philosopher once put it …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGaBlygm0UY
“5. Steve Morse’s guitar sound is perfect. Full, sufficiently hard, but at the same time soft and delicious. Blackmore’s guitar sound is clichéd.”
Ouch. Let’s phrase it this way, Steve’s guitar sound is a child of the technical possibilities of the 80ies and beyond. Multi-level distortion, “phat”, ultra-processed, loads of compression … Horses for courses, but for me it is approaching “too doctored” though I’m cognizant that it is very much part of his style and that he puts a lot of thought into it. But I’m more a fan of Blackmore’s sparse purism, you can give him any guitar and he’ll plug it into any amp and you’ll hear it is him right from the start …
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_7lXkDSLlMs
To all those saying that those few seconds of Ritchie are too sloppy, too cliched, filled with too many mistakes, too repetitive and played with a bad sound …
https://media1.tenor.com/m/K-A0gut56sIAAAAC/ritchie-blackmore-guitar.gif
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/3a/90/2c/3a902c2ce2b924b22c142d927a88082d.gif
My God, what has become of me, I’m defending Ritchie???!!! Maybe I should join a Rainbow fan club or buy some medieval garb for the next BN gig?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPlYOA8UMrs
(btw this vid with Candice guesting and a cameo Ritchie drinking at the tavern bar is hilarious, inter alia name-checking “Kill the King” and “Rising”
)
January 9th, 2024 at 17:10Let’s get away from the topic of how good or “crap” an improvisor, the various Deep Purple guitarists may have been / are. Rather, let’s focus on which guitarist made an indelible mark in rock history, within the band itself, and the genre as a whole. Though Steve Morse is a brilliant guitar technician with a very melodious touch; has he ever written or composed anything which one could term EPIC, with immediate recognizability, not only to guitar nerds, but for the wider listening public? I dare say not. Despite some excellent contributions to the Purple canon from Purpendicular to Whoosh, there is nothing that really stands out as classic, epic, monumental, etc. His compositions and playing on those records and in concert were top drawer – never anything less than fully competent and professional; but there is not much that could be termed classic or well known to the general public . Blackmore on the other hand, wrote EPICs which still stand the test of time…..Highway Star and Stargazer are two obvious examples. And whether or not one counts “Smoke” as epic, it is nevertheless part of the classic rock zeitgeist. Blackmore is also considered one of the major “riffmeisters” in the rock world. I do not believe that Morse has created many widely known classic riffs. So, in the greater scheme of things, for all their qualities and limitations, both guitarists, Blackmore & Morse, brought good things to the Purple table. But it is Blackmore who will always be known as the key Deep Purple guitarist. Those who followed, all excellent guitarists in their own right, and who allowed the band to continue carrying on, did not leave the same indelible, classic mark on Purple that Blackmore did.
January 9th, 2024 at 17:35That’s a great example, DeeperPurps @67 you posted here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZupw1nllFs&list=PL-ZKdxn0uhJaI8TF_5FVWrRszuFO7OTEg&index=54
Danke schön!
January 9th, 2024 at 17:45Ritchie Blackmore guitarist (Briefly)
A) Sonngs co-author-cover (minimum ONE MILLION views on You Tube)
B) Improviser
A
“Hush”,”Mandrake Root”,”Help!”,”Hey Joe”,”Wring That Neck” ,”Lalena” ,”April”,”Speed King” ,”Child in Time”,”Hard Lovin’ Man” ,”Black Night” ,”Into the Fire” ,”Fireball” ,”Demon’s Eye”,”Strange Kind of Woman”,”Highway Star” ,”Pictures of Home” ,”Smoke on the Water” ,”Lazy” ” Space Truckin'”,”When a Blind Man Cries” ,”Woman from Tokyo” ,”Burn”,”Sail Away” ,”Mistreated”,”Stormbringer”,”Lady Double Dealer” “The Gypsy” ,”Soldier of Fortune ” ,”Man On The Silver Mountain” ,”Catch The Rainbow”,”Temple of the King”,”Sixteenth Century Greensleeves” ,”Still I’m Sad”,”Tarot Woman “Starstruck “”Stargazer” ,A Light in the Black”,”Long Live Rock ‘n'”,”Gates Of Babylon””Kill the King”,”Rainbow Eyes “,”All Night Long ,”Since You’ve Been Gone”,”I Surrender,”Spotlight Kid”,”Difficult to cure / Beethoven’s ninth””Death Alley Driver”Stone Cold”,”Street Dreams”,”Can t Let you go”,”Knocking at Your Back Door”,”Nobody’s Home” ,”Perfect Strangers”,”Gypsy’s Kiss” ,”Wasted Sunsets”, “Son of Alerik” ,”Bad Attitude” ,”Call of the Wild”,”Love Conquers All”,”The Battle Rages On”,”Anya” “Ariel”,Black Masquerade”,”Wolf to the Moon “Wish you were here, Where Are We Going From Here ,Shadow Of The Moon ,Loreley,.Dancer and the Moon .Under a Violet Moon ,Ghost of a Rose “.Diamonds and rust ” ,I Saw Three Ships ” Greensleeves “,” The Storm”, Fires At Midnight”,” The Circle “,”. Still Remember “, “The Moon Is Shining ” ,”Darkness ” ,”Lady In Black” ,”Once in a Million Years”……
B
Guitar Improvisations (selection according to the author’s list)
DP “Wring That Neck” (Live in Paris 1970),,DP”Strange Kind Of Woman ” Made in Japan 1972,DP “Lazy ” Made in Japan 1972,DP “Child in Time ” Made in Japan 1972,DP “You Fool No One “(Made in Europe 1975,) DP” Anya “-Come Hell or High Water 1993 Rainbow ” Man on the Silver Mountain – Blues – Starstruck” On stage 1977,DP “Mistreated “(California Jam 1974 DP ,Concerto for Group and Orchestra “1st Movement”: Energico 1969, DP”Speed King” (Burn)” -Come Hell or High Water 1993,Rainbow “Difficult to Cure / Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony Rainbow “Live At Budokan”1984 ,Rainbow DVD Long Live Rock’N’Roll Live Between the Eyes San Antonio 1982DP “Mandrake Root”British TV show “Doing Their Thing”(1970),Blackmore’s Night – The Circle … A Knight In York DVD 2012,Blackmore’s Night ” Fires At Midnight”DVD Paris Moon (2006) etc etc. …
January 9th, 2024 at 18:26It is a nonsence to compare Steve with Bkackmore, imho. Steve is way ahead of Blackmore in almost every sense as a guitatist, composer. Blackmore was in the the right time and the right place with the right people and did his bit in a revolution.
January 9th, 2024 at 20:11Ivica,
January 9th, 2024 at 20:32I sign your every word.
Although we can now expect Gregster’s attacks from all weapons..
Sad, but true..
Sure thing, Blackmore was to Purple an undeniable driving force, sound and style innovator, creator of various line-ups, dominating stage presence and chief songwriter. No one can sensibly deny that. It doesn’t mean that the other guys played no role or that Blackmore did not need them, but he was DP’s central figure from 1969 (early on, I think Jon was the larger presence) to 1993 – the Bolin era excepted of course.
But it’s not diminishing his many contributions if one points out that the mid to late 60ies, 70ies and 80ies were the era were classic rock was forged in a both culturally + commercially very receptive and fertile environment. Ritchie’s most productive decades followed the demise of The Beatles; Steve joined Purple post-Nirvana. Irrespective of his writing talents, he could then never have replicated Purple’s pivotal role in the first half of the 70ies. When Steve came, DP were no longer within the Zeitgeist – no band from their era was.
But neither do I think that Steve would have co-written a comparable amount of hard rock classics had he instead of Ritchie been hired by Tony Edwards and John Coletta in 1968. Steve’s career with the Dixie Dregs and his own band from the mid 70ies onward showed that he was comfortable nesting in the ivory tower of fawning Guitar Player subscribers and fusion fans as a true musician’s musician. And if he had made money with that, he would have continued doing just that – as he does today again, in an economically comfortable position due to his almost three decades with Purple. Unlike Ritchie, he never wanted to write hits, have people move their butts to it and shake their hair, he wanted people to listen to his crafty art and hold meaningful discussions over it.
Like we do here!
January 9th, 2024 at 21:05@ 79 – “My God, what has become of me, I’m defending Ritchie???!!! Maybe I should join a Rainbow fan club or buy some medieval garb for the next BN gig?” You have done very well Uwe & a few others here also, many thanks one & all. Yes please Uwe we need to see a few ‘selfies’ of that garb, please oh please. Many have always wondered & now it is just a little bit closer to happening, we hope, he he he. What a momentous occasion that will be. Regarding the ‘battle of the guitarists’ It isn’t for me about who is better technically, it is what I like more in certain aspects, but we all have our likes & dislikes. Each to their own as we say. Those guitarists from the 60’s era are from another planet compared to the guitarists from later on. It is the way of things. They have a few extra arrows to their quiver. I am talking about ‘feel’ or something else that the old school brings. A different schooling would be another way to look at it. Steve Morse is in between those two era’s, his younger days are learning from the older ways then being involved in the ‘new’ era of guitar slingers. I think that leaves him in good stead though. He did pick up a few ‘modern day bad habits’ as the 80’s moved into the 90’s though, but that is being a little unfair on him. His early Dregs playing is different to what came later in some ways. I do prefer his earlier playing up until the late 80’s. All in all the post 70’s guitarists are great players in their way, but I do find myself listening to more of the old school music as the years pass, I always have but even more so these days. Less is more could be another way of looking at it. DeeperPurps @ 67 – yes that Stuttgart DP gig is the one I stumbled on a few months ago, grand it is. Ivica @ 82- that is some good tallying up the numbers there & I applaud your dedication indeed. Cheers.
January 9th, 2024 at 21:21Sure thing, Blackmore was to Purple an undeniable driving force, sound and style innovator, creator of various line-ups, dominating stage presence and chief songwriter. No one can sensibly deny that. It doesn’t mean that the other guys played no role or that Blackmore did not need them, but he was DP’s central figure from 1969 (early on, I think Jon was the larger presence) to 1993 – the Bolin era excepted of course.
But it’s not diminishing his many contributions if one points out that the mid to late 60ies, 70ies and 80ies were the era where classic rock was forged in a both culturally + commercially very receptive and fertile environment. Ritchie’s most productive decades followed the demise of The Beatles; Steve joined Purple post-Nirvana. Irrespective of his writing talents, he could then never have replicated Purple’s pivotal role in the first half of the 70ies. When Steve came, DP were no longer within the Zeitgeist – no band from their era was.
But neither do I think that Steve would have co-written a comparable amount of hard rock classics had he instead of Ritchie been hired by Tony Edwards and John Coletta in 1968. Steve’s career with the Dixie Dregs and his own band from the mid 70ies onward showed that he was comfortable nesting in the ivory tower of fawning Guitar Player subscribers and fusion fans as a true musician’s musician. And if he had made money with that, he would have continued doing just that – as he does today again, in an economically comfortable position due to his almost three decades with Purple. Unlike Ritchie, he never wanted to write hits, have people move their butts to it and shake their hair, he wanted people to listen to his crafty art and hold meaningful discussions over it.
Like we do here!
January 10th, 2024 at 00:15This should get the comments away from the two guitarists, well for a few nano seconds at least. @ 79 – ” if Ritchie is Count Dracula then Steve is more Jonathan Harker: He can travel there, but sucking blood from female bosoms is not really his thing nor favorite diet.”????????? Forgive me if I have never noticed before but Count Dracula always sucked blood from the neck didn’t he? Or have I innocently missed something over all these years, not to mention some dastardly vampire movies to boot. Cheers.
January 10th, 2024 at 03:46Agree with Uwe @ 79 in regards to the ‘perfectionist’ not making mistakes comments. This is one of the key problems with todays outlook on ‘everything has to be perfect’. A load of crap indeed, it is a rock ‘n roll concert, simple as that. If musicians cannot or are not game enough to venture out onto the plank, that is a sad day indeed. Music & also other skills in life are certainly now in that horribly restrictive realm more than ever & I fear it is never going to return to the days of wonder. Don’t make a mistake, whatever you do! It reminds us of those old school teachers & music teachers, as hard as nails & far too dominating & angry with their students. Children being caned across the knuckles for making a mistake or for going out on a limb & trying something different. Today it is vanity image thing & also machines controlling this absurd environment. No improvising, forget it in my book. No taking risks, how boring indeed. Better get the autotune out & the click track. It’s pathetic it really is. Check out those old school violinists from the 19th & 20th centuries, improvising big time live in concert. Paganini was a wild improvisor allegedly. People loved it apparently. Whatever happened to a passionate live performance? Keith Moon was an improvisor on the drums, he was an exciting musician in that aspect. Rant over & I didn’t even mention anyones name except for Keith’s. Oh by the way, are we going to get to 100 comments, it getting closer by the day. Cheers.
January 10th, 2024 at 04:22Sorry I did mention another name in my previous post, Niccolo Paganini, or was that Yngwie Malmsteen. I keep getting those two mixed up for some strange reason. Cheers.
January 10th, 2024 at 06:34Yo, @ 63 Attila said…
qt.”It is a nonsense to compare Steve with Blackmore, imho. Steve is way ahead of Blackmore in almost every sense as a guitarist, & composer. Blackmore was in the right time, and the right place, with the right people, and did his bit in a revolution”.
Well said ! But we must be mindful & respectful to other-peoples opinions & feelings.
Now, it appears that I have been moved to indicate clearly, what an improvisation is all about…Below you’ll find a link to a tune I made a few months ago now. It’s silly simple, with a constant Bass-note-drone playing Ab, drums, & myself attempting to see if I could put 5-6 minutes worth of engaging music together, improvise, & hopefully entertain myself lol.
The point here is that you should ask yourself, why didn’t RB do more stuff like I have with all the opportunity he had with tunes like Space Trucking to play through ?…
Whether you enjoy what you hear is irrelevant, but does the improvisation take you on a musical journey & back ?…
The only premeditated sections are the introduction riff at the beginning & end, the rest was sketched-out in my mind to enter as many keys inside & outside as possible…It’s a first take, & I left it warts & all because it “is” an honest improvisation, & thus can’t be repeated a 2nd time, & there was some interesting moments that surprised me, where finally, some tapping has entered my real-time-musical world on command.
Enjoy, & throw as many tomatos as you like, I could care less lol ! I just wonder why RB couldn’t do more of “this” more often.
https://soundcloud.com/rastus-2/ai-intervention?si=92129391c55b49cebeb8416c2566440d&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
Peace !
January 10th, 2024 at 09:51I myself got into DP via JCSuperstar and IG and soon “discovered” RB as a “fantastic” guitarist who could do no wrong. I saw them first time with DC and GH in KB-Hallen ’73 and again in Brøndbyhallen in ’75. After that I did see Rainbow a number of times and thought that RB gave a great show.
But when I saw reunion DP in Malmø in ’85 I already there felt that RB had “lost it”. Granted he was thight in the songs but the solos felt sloppy in the improvised parts but fine in the “rehearsed” parts.
I have just re-listened to some recordings from then and still think that all his solos sound alike as if he tries to be “the fastes guitarist”.
Oddly at the shows with JLT it seems that he did pull himself together (the problem here, for me, was JLT). It dissapered agian when Ian came back.
It is always a joy to listen to Jon Lord otoh.
All this my own opinion of course, and just to see if we can reach 100 comments.
January 10th, 2024 at 12:10As we are now on the quest to reach the magical 100 posts, I will chime in here only briefly (for now! ) with a clip of some of Ritchie Blackmore’s greatest guitar solos (studio versions) of all time.
Note that only ten (10) of the most obvious ones are listed in this particular clip – there are so many other amazing solos which could have been included if the list had been expanded to, say (easily) 25, or so. Make that 50 or more, if one was to also include some of Ritchie’s live performances.
Suffice to say that all of the examples herein are top shelf offerings which establish that Ritchie was one of the greatest guitar improvisors, ever, from both technical and melodic expression standpoints. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCp9n4_zUfA
January 10th, 2024 at 16:08“Forgive me if I have never noticed before but Count Dracula always sucked blood from the neck didn’t he? Or have I innocently missed something over all these years, not to mention some dastardly vampire movies to boot.”
Alas!, but I always forgive you, Herr MacGregor, it’s become a habit of sorts. What kind of person would I be if I blamed you for the glaring gaps in your education you innocently suffered in, apparently, missionary school? Never did they teach you poor little savage that this neck biting folklore is a movie-sanitized version of the real thing – Bram Stoker’s Dracula 🧛🏻♂️ bit bosoms not throats. He sucked the blood from close to the heart (supposedly more tasty there), in an area between lower throat, shoulder and, dare I write this here … brrreast … watch it now, Tom Cruise seems to be well-informed (from L. Ron Hubbard’s advanced teachings one can only surmise?) …
https://youtu.be/HWafcEtOSHo
But in a PG world that was rarely filmed. The sexual connotation of the vampire bite & bloodsucking act and how female victims seem to blissfully lose their inhibitions during it (and turn to insatiably lustful man-murdering nymphomaniacs themselves in the aftermath, all very Freudian!) would have been even more overt, so the teaching nuns at your school hid that aspect from you. Until now of course and my insidiously corrosive-corrupting influence on you.
But better late than never. Just keep on asking me, I’m really only there to help.
January 10th, 2024 at 17:14To Speedfinger Gregster, the SoundCloudster:
Ah, thus it is all revealed: You sound a lot more like Bolin (and when you go chromatic like Morse; when you go neo-classical a little like EvH) than you do like Blackmore! That is why you’re always waving the Bolin flag here, I caught you!
But does it prove that Ritchie is less improvisational just because he’s generally more terse? His style is a lot less busy than yours, more space, more delayed and elongated notes, more “bowed instrument” type restrained playing. He’s much more teasing in his approach while you – all that brimming testosterone waiting to erupt – go for the jugular. Technically very skillful btw, but with a decidedly American rather than a – cue in the vampires 🧛🏻♂️ – ‘Yuropean’ one. Well, last I heard, Australia is a long way off from Transylvania!
January 10th, 2024 at 17:55Patrick O’Lowrey @73,
Fantastic observations/truths 1-5. But I have to disagree with 6 with every ounce of respect. But opinions are subjective, a wonderful thing. :>
This has to be the longest thread in the history of THS. At this point I have no energy to revisit Tolstoy’s War & Peace!!
Peace,
January 10th, 2024 at 20:41Ted
qt “I have no energy to revisit Tolstoi’s War & Peace!”
yes, and still the battle rages on!
Steve is a very smiling guy. But he can’t do the horse eye like RB.
Let’s go to # 100!
January 10th, 2024 at 21:45@ 94 – those nuns were only trying to protect us from the dark forces of evil Uwe. Little did they know that Black Sabbath & Deep Purple were on the horizon & moving in for the kill. And how ironic that Blackmore has been accused of ‘vampire’ style acts by sucking the musical ideas from band members & then discarding them all with contempt. And all this on a thread here at THS that initially was about another innocent guitarist & point counterpoint. Such is the power of the ‘dark side’ & it’s evil machinations. Poor ole Steve Morse, he must be rolling his eyes by now surely. Not to mention a thought he probably has had from day one of his association with DP. “These DP aficionados, their a strange lot are they not”? Regarding ole Dracula, yes they possibly could have been ‘sanitised’ versions of neck biting as the original Nosferatu movie did alter things to avoid copyright issues from Bram Stokers estate. And even then the estate still halted that 1921 movie but only after it’s initial screening. Luckily someone saved a copy somewhere & it has appeared for all of us to ‘enjoy’. A bit like DP music, timeless. Cheers.
January 10th, 2024 at 22:26It’s also the first thread that has delved into the feeding habits of vampires, Ted!
Steve being treated like an assistant like Patrick said? If that is the way DP treats assistants then I sure would like to be one there! He became the band’s main writer, he had extended solos and solo spots, Big Ian would continuously cheer him on live, all other Purple members were full of praise for him and he was adamant to have Steve be the guitarist on stage live at the RRHF. Ok, so Steve couldn’t contribute to their European soccer teams and politics as well as old BBC series frequent intra-band discussions and banter, but that is what happens to you if you are the sole Yank in an otherwise Brit outfit.
That said, Steve sometimes did feel like the alien among them. I remember a Classic Rock (the magazine) lengthy feature where all members were interviewed/spoken to over several days (the journo was on tour with them around the time of Infinite) and, by chance, Steve’s interview slot was the last one. At that point, the author wrote slightly taken aback, Steve had already resigned himself to the (false) realization that he would be the only member not to be interviewed for the CR article and was genuinely surprised when he was finally approached. Moreover, the management seemed to have formed that same opinion too! It was all bollocks, his interview was intended at all times by the rock mag, but when I read that it did make me wonder whether Steve felt somehow isolated or had withdrawn himself from the band.
January 10th, 2024 at 22:29@ #13, Gregster: “RB was & remains a poor soloist & improviser. They [his solos] all sound the same, because in true essence, they “are” the same … That’s why I can even copy them nearly note for note …”
This website’s very name refers to a song which to me features one of the most inventive guitar solos of its time. Blackmore is a bluesly player and that side of his playing is rather quickly understood by many people. But there’re also classical and jazzy elements which mix it up very nicely. His understanding of how much guitar is needed for certain parts, dynamics and tone are among his greatest strengths as a guitar player. It still fascinates me that the simplicity of his backing tracks not only left enough space to be filled by the Hammond organ but also made everything sound big and still transparent. It just fits brilliantly. My favorite rock guitar solo is the one of Child in Time – pure magic if you ask me, even after so many times I’ve listened to it. I know it was brilliantly cut together but even in parts it’s astonishing. That concluding A minor sequence is not so easy to play cleanly, even for seasoned guitarists.
I could go on and on but to make a long story short: Gregster … don’t kid yourself!
January 10th, 2024 at 22:48@ 96 -may I suggest Wagner’s The Ring Cycle then? Cheers.
January 10th, 2024 at 23:20wow what a collection of comment, thoughts and comments
As a young teenager I was captured by the DP particularly the MK11 and totally loved the RB guitar etc
Latter on a rather cold February with some concerns I went to a concert with the newbie SM in Portsmouth 1996 and was blown away and following the gig immediately bought tickets for the subsequent Brixton gigs.
Both versions have their highs and lows and I for one have absolutely had a great time.
Here’s to the new version let see what happens
January 10th, 2024 at 23:28I forgot who said it in this thread, but someone suggested Steve hasn’t written anything epic that would appeal beyond guitar nerds while Ritchie wrote epic songs that are beloved by the fanbase.
Now I have two problems with this, the main one being that Blackmore composed these songs at the peak of the band’s fame when they were younger.
By the time Steve joined, DP was never going to reach that level of mass public appeal and acceptance ever again, which I think largely contributes to this nostalgia of epic songs/riffs.
So comparing Steve to Ritchie on mass appeal is simply unfair – of course Ritchie wins that ,one, it was the 70s!
But to say Steve has no epic sounding songs that are generally beloved within the wider DP fanbase beyond general guitar nerds?
Simply not true!
For evidence of this, I actually think Steve’s two epic sounding compositions that are widely beloved by fans, evidenced by the fact that the audience sings along to these riffs whenever played live anywhere in the world, are Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming and Rapture of the Deep.
The former especially is the very definition of epic, incredibly sweeping and emotional in its composition, and stands toe to toe with anything Ritchie ever did in the band, imo.
January 11th, 2024 at 02:50There are may good reasons why some may consider Blackmore as a Dracula figure.
January 11th, 2024 at 08:08He dresses in black. He hangs around old castles, especially in ‘old’ Europe. He doesn’t go out at night, remember The California Jam & waiting for sunset. He is prone to certain moods & cranky behaviour at any given time. He loathes seeing his image in a reflective mirror or lens, remember him smashing that camera lens in a rage of fury & then he returns to playing the concert as if nothing ever happened. He burns all before him in an effort to put off his pursuers as he leaves the scene of the crime. He sucks the life out of musicians & then gets someone else to ‘get rid of them’. He has a penchant for younger women who are totally unsuspecting of him & his previous behaviour & we do not hear any mention of the following in the music he is associated with: Crucifix, rosary beads, wooden stakes, silver bullets & garlic etc.
(Some may try to prove certain things not correct in this summary of Dracula & his habits. Good luck with that). Cheers.
Congratulations Tommy H on being the 100th comment, a first here possibly I am not sure. Damn I missed it by THAT much!!! As did Uwe also. Anyone remember that saying from an old tv comedy! Cheers.
January 11th, 2024 at 08:32Ok, let’s go for 200 then.
#93 – All those solos was pre reunion, not much post that I can think of.
January 11th, 2024 at 09:07Maybe “Anya” (and not because my daughters name is Anya (not from the song but rather Buffy the Vampire Slayer though (might be appropriate in this thread?))) or “Mitzi Drupree”.
It looks like I had better eat my own words regarding being correct. That should be ‘ he doesn’t go out UNTIL night’. Cheers.
January 11th, 2024 at 09:27I’m sure Ritchie would enjoy the vampire comparison so convincingly brought forward here by the former nun pupil.
Steve, of course, is a long-standing vegan (or vegetarian, I’m not sure).
And that kinda sums both of them up, doesn’t it?
I think of Purple in eras. Ritchie substantially co-built the House of Purple in the 70ies, then showed dereliction of duty, returned as the prodigal son and contributed again to its upkeep in the 80ies. His Dark Crankiness then chose to jump ship again and by then he had become a stunting force for Purple. His departure was inevitable (unless you would have preferred a band dissolution) and Steve then became the loving second wife that raised Ritchie’s kids all these years. Blackmore is so idiosyncratic, he’s irreplaceable, but Steve did the best job humanly possible as his successor. It was good for Purple to have had both of them. The legacy of one must not overshadow the legacy of the other.
I really like what Tommy H wrote, a worthy centennial contribution that was. “Made DP sound big, yet transparent”, I love that comment 💕, so true and perceptive. It’s also something that Jon Lord pointed out in his later years that Ritchie’s style of playfully fencing with the music gave him the room to let his keyboard work shine.
But for the record: Steve Morse wrote or co-wrote amazing pieces of music with Purple too. Nothing that immediately jumps for your jugular like, say, BURN, but a great number of songs that are beautifully crafted and are deeply satisfying slow-burners. And I can’t blame Steve for the fact that Ritchie found it easy to floor a 16-year-old Uwe while the 60-year-old version of the latter takes a bit longer to be impressed. Those of us here old enough shouldn’t completely discount the possibility that a great share of our love for Blackmore consists of nostalgia for our days of adolescence and how music back then had our hormones rushing. Just sayin’.
I’m happy for both of them to have been members of Purple at different times, and in an alternative universe I would love to see them share a stage one more time with the band.
But onwards, Purple Soldiers, let’s speculate on how the new album with Simon is gonna be!
January 11th, 2024 at 14:20Y’all,
We appreciate your enthusiasm with regard to the number of comments. However, this is far from the record (and it was even more than that in the bad old times).
January 11th, 2024 at 18:41@ 108 -” Those of us here old enough shouldn’t completely discount the possibility that a great share of our love for Blackmore consists of nostalgia for our days of adolescence and how music back then had our hormones rushing. Just sayin”.
January 11th, 2024 at 20:45No not necessarily Uwe, melody & the infatuation for certain music is what drives my affection for so many artists & always has. Even the musicians & composers from many years before our ‘adolescent’ era. The adrenalin yes in a smaller way (cue Kiss & I wanna rock ‘n roll all night) & that of course includes other things in life from our younger days. These days it is still the search for nice melodies & songs etc that drives me to listen to ‘new’ music. Everything becomes nostalgic, now DP era with Steve Morse has become nostalgic, it just isn’t as far removed from our present day life. I know what you mean though. Regarding Morse being a vegetarian I didn’t know that. I am a vegetarian also, not vegan though as I couldn’t cross that bridge. Not that that has anything to do with the music at all, although I guess it does put a stop to Morse being a ‘bloodsucker’ in that sense of things, he he he. Come to think of it, how can I still be under the Count’s spell now that I don’t indulge in that diet? Interesting & thanks for bringing that up. See what happens when I am indoctrinated by the upbringing I had. Now I don’t know which way to turn. Cheers.
That really hit me straight between the eyes and struck my painful heart as well.
Re reading the 2008 thread……
OMG
I wish I had known way back that….
January 11th, 2024 at 20:47371 comments in 2017, no wonder I missed that, all those chart positions etc, I don’t ever concern myself with that at all. And that was before Uwe Hornung joined here wasn’t it? Ouch, sorry Uwe I couldn’t resist ha ha ha. Cheers.
January 11th, 2024 at 20:52I checked that archaic thread Nick, no mention of nuns or vampires, so it doesn’t really count!
Seriously, how some people could get worked up about a potential name for a collaboration of ex-Rainbowsters is beyond me: If Mick Taylor decided today to tour under the moniker Mick & the Bluesbreaking Mobile Minerals to allude to his times with John Mayall and the other Mick, I wouldn’t question his legitimacy to do so. (Good guitarist he was too, even Ritchie thought so.)
The name-calling in that thread was hard to stomach too, insults towards everyone including ex-members of Purple and Rainbow, calling Ritchie’s wife a “harlot”, ouch, all very social media at its most deplorable.
It’s not that I mind a little heat und emotion in conversation, some people even say I like to instigate it, but I generally feel that anyone showing up here shares in some way my love for the Purple Family and that bonds us above all, Glenn Hughes-haters from Australia who play guitar very well included. And while I poke fun at anyone, I try to not insult and bite people away.
How does Gregster always end bis posts, mit ein bißchen Frieden?
https://youtu.be/W9S3YMmIFdw
January 11th, 2024 at 22:40“And that was before Uwe Hornung joined here wasn’t it?”
Now THAT is a nun-sensical statement if I have ever heard one, brevity is my second nature, you darn plant-munchin’ ‘roo!
https://giphy.com/gifs/storyful-animals-funny-kangaroos-FVOU6vzPq3XtNfgA66
Yup, Steve is a veggie, so is Roger btw (for a long time). Their dietary requirements are part of Purple’s tour rider.
You just wait, Candice is gonna turn Ritchie into one too! ☝️🤓
January 11th, 2024 at 23:16Mike Nagoda #103. I agree….Both Screaming and Rapture are good examples of Morse writing / playing in an epic vein in latter day Purple. And I agree that those are beloved by the Purple fan base. And Morse does get close to epic in certain parts of the Now What and Infinite albums. Are they all that well known by the general public?….probably not because Purple has not received much in the way of exposure radio/media-wise since the initial excitement generated at the very outset of the 1984 Mark 2 reunion and tour which followed.
Janbl #106. If we are only looking at post-reunion Mark 2 Purple, there are some other good examples of fine Blackmore soloing beyond just Anya and Mitzi. Here are a few more: Knocking At Your Back Door; Spanish Archer; Fire in the Basement; and Wicked Ways. And if we want to go a little past that into the final iteration of Rainbow, there are: Wolf to Moon and Black Masquerade. Even on some of the Blackmore’s Night material, when Ritchie straps on the Strat, there are some impressive examples of soloing. On his 2021 Nature’s Light album, there are a couple of excellent extended Strat solos on it.
Now, back to the Blackmore and Morse debate…..My learned friend Uwe captured my sentiments exactly with his comment #108, to wit: “But for the record: Steve Morse wrote or co-wrote amazing pieces of music with Purple too. Nothing that immediately jumps for your jugular like, say, BURN, but a great number of songs that are beautifully crafted and are deeply satisfying slow-burners.” And that, pretty well sums up my thoughts about Steve Morse vis-a-vis Ritchie Blackmore…….Steve has written/played some wonderful music for Deep Purple which I appreciate and enjoy; whereas Ritchie has written /played music in both Purple & Rainbow which excites and intrigues me to this day. And, for me, “nostalgia” is not a factor in that…..it goes rather to my musical preferences for darker, more intense music….the Phrygian mode, the Snakecharmer and Gypsy scales, Middle-Eastern and Indian music, etc. I hear that all over and through Ritchie’s playing…I don’t get much of that from Steve’s.
January 11th, 2024 at 23:33LOL!!!
@100 said qt.”I could go on and on but to make a long story short: Gregster … don’t kid yourself”!
My friend, I’m not kidding myself, & if you scroll through & read all the posts, many are in support of my POV, which is awesome ! RB “is” a poor improviser according to many of us here.
Kudos to Steve the master, & Ritchie the dodgy apprentice !!!
And I’ll relink my own improvisation for you, since our most honourable Uwe even commented on it, stating there were elements of speed, EvH, Morse, & Tommy Bolin heard in there lol, with the point-in-question remaining, why didn’t the lazy-ass-apprentice RB do something similar in the allotted time given in tunes like Space truckin’ , when this hack-apprentice ( myself ) can do it ???…I put my own money/music where my mouth is yo ! True, on-the-spot improvisation, so people understand what that word actually means lol !
Thanks Uwe for the positive feedback, that wasn’t expect at all, though appreciated !
https://soundcloud.com/rastus-2/ai-intervention?si=92129391c55b49cebeb8416c2566440d&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
Peace !
January 11th, 2024 at 23:41@ #108, Uwe: Thanks a lot, much appreciated! I consider it an art to get a great sound with a guitar and a Hammond organ. It requires that both players are very careful about their arrangement, otherwise it’s either a mess or the Hammond typically goes to the background being hardly perceived. That’s pretty much why I couldn’t really enjoy the sound of Black Country Communion.
@ #109, Nick: Yes, but those were the days when even the musicians themselves cared about the comments on this website. I remember that on at least one occasion earlier on, even Jon Lord and Roger Glover wrote comments if I remember correctly. The “even more” link of yours features a comment by none other than Tony Carey. I also enjoyed the comments by Paul Mann when something related to (The Concerto for Group and) orchestra came up.
January 11th, 2024 at 23:44@ 110
” Those of us here old enough shouldn’t completely discount the possibility that a great share of our love for Blackmore consists of nostalgia for our days of adolescence and how music back then had our hormones rushing. Just sayin”.
I missed that quote earlier on.
It was devoured by the Tsunami s of text Uwe produces.
I think for sure it depends on your age.
When I started this “affair” with this kinda music in 1977 overhere it was obvious the worst recipe to get girls interested.
It had been normal 5 years earlier, maybe even 2.
Most of them girls followed whatever was fashionable so my choice was not made to score.
I could have ” adapted” like some fellow rockfans did, dress the part, cut my hair, etc….
But me being what I am I refused to go along with trends.
Espescially since most music after 77 was crap to me.
How can you pretend to like something, even dance to it when you hate it?
I d have fared better if I wasnt a loner in other fields as well.
I never smoked, didnt start drinking frequently in my 40 s, showed a clear dis interest for football and sports didnt became my thing before I was 19.
So, no triggering of hormones here.
I was kinda late there as well. It just didnt came into my mind, that way, before I was 15 or 17.
Ok, tried to behave here.
January 12th, 2024 at 00:29Back in the day I did peruse THS often, however the 2008 and 379 comments I don’t really remember as such. I do see a few familiar aficionados commenting there though, so good on them all & some are still here & still very dedicated to the cause indeed. I wasn’t ‘game’ to join then as I thought I would get torn asunder if I start waffling on. So I gradually observed others commenting & gained some insight into how to go about it & they didn’t seem to be that bad a bunch here after all. I think I joined about 2011 & the THS hasn’t been the same since. It is a credit to the folks operating this site indeed, the resilience, patience & ability to withstand the ‘verbal’ onslaught at times is to be commended. The 100 or so comments here today is nothing compared to the 2008 & 2017 leviathans. Cheers.
January 12th, 2024 at 00:40Talking of Black Suede (Dracula) here is an isolated Ian Gillan vocal take on Smooth Dancer. Uwe I have just read sections of Bram Stoker’s Dracula & the ladies & also some children did indeed get bitten on the neck. Dracula himself had his fetish though as he forced some of the ladies to suck his blood from his chest area just above his kind & tender heart. Oh dear, those nuns were correct all those years ago with my Catholic schooling then. They always said to me to never listen to anyone else. Cheers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDkyr8A7HAM
January 12th, 2024 at 07:39I’m more interested these days in when the new Purple book ‘Fire In The Sky’ will be released, than what the current band are doing. Been that way for a few years now.
January 12th, 2024 at 10:49Well now….as this stream seems to have veered significantly towards the topic of vampires and other assorted blood-thirsty creatures; let’s hear the Dark Destroyer’s take on the In Rock version of “Bloodsucker”….. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LGtYLpUs4w
And now, let’s hear the Light Bringer’s take on that same song from Abandon…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE8HezZJKR0
What hear ye?
January 12th, 2024 at 14:18“It was devoured by the Tsunamis of text Uwe produces.”
I’ll attempt to be more ‘windstil’!
January 12th, 2024 at 15:56Dracula’s preferred areas of enjoyment aside, that isolated vocal track
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDkyr8A7HAM
you posted is really interesting, Herr MacGregor. That song with its distinct Little Richard influence should have really been another single from WDWTWA. For all its energy and the biting lyrics about the Transylvanian, it is catchy as hell. Listening to it naked like that it strikes me that it serves pretty much as the blueprint for how Sweet wanted to sound on their heavy B sides. That angered vocal is soooo much what Brian Connolly would have done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGargI7FhwM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-RTCRPMoaQ
January 12th, 2024 at 16:26“What hear ye?” @122
If I sink my fangs into it: I like both versions, but there is no escaping the fact that Ritchie’s solos sound like those of a tortured, brooding mind while Steve is, well … an American you know?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5bcpjUjLpU
Whatever Steve plays, it has that – lovable – Yankee ‘forwardness’ to it. And that’s not US bashing, “the gem of the land of the sea” has graced modern music like no other.
Incidentally and with all due respect, while I find the current National Anthem of the USA musically trite and ponderous (= not at all aligned with the sociological and cultural dynamism that makes the US stand out), John Philip Sousa’s “The Stars & Stripes Forever” is a cracker of a composition and encapsulates American spirit (as perceived by me, having lived among them for a while) perfectly – THAT piece of wonderful music should be your National Anthem! Brings a warm smile to my face every time I hear it.
January 12th, 2024 at 18:26Yo,
I recall that when Jon Lord passed-on, the pages here were over-loaded with replies, & were then deferred over to family…I’d suggest that this event was the busiest this place has ever been.
RIP Jon !
Peace !
January 12th, 2024 at 22:00Uwe those two Sweet songs have got to be what Judas Priest were heavily influenced by. Yes I hear a ‘tortured’ or strained Ian Gillan style vocal there, Connolly obviously was influenced by the leather lunged screamer. Connolly was a great lead vocalist as was Noddy Holder, powerful & melodic they both were. Rob Halford & the twin guitar Priest thing that is big time, the Burn the Flame song especially. Does the Sweet influence spread even further? Thanks for those two songs. Regarding Smooth Dancer yes I have always really enjoyed that rocker indeed. That whole album has so many songs that sort of get forgotten, I suppose after the classic & very popular MH that probably is why. A gem of an album is WDWTWA. Cheers.
January 12th, 2024 at 22:06@ 118 – some really good points there that were also relevant to us out here in the Australian ‘outback’ at that time. Not many people out this way were into hard rock music at all. It was the more acceptable top of the pops hits etc. So of course we didn’t care about whether the girls were interested or not. We all had our favourites but at times that ventured into ‘uncharted’ territory. Now I will go out on a limb here & reveal a song that we use to sing along to when inebriated & carrying on like silly young lads often did. The song in question & Uwe will enjoy this……………John Denver’s ‘Thank God I’m a Country Boy’. There you have it, a revelation that not many know about at all & one I DID NOT EVER dare to reveal to other friends of the hard rock variety. By the way I really enjoyed the “devoured by the Tsunami s of text Uwe produces” line, a classic indeed. Cheers.
January 12th, 2024 at 23:00@ 122 – I have managed to avoid that Abandon version of Bloodsucker for it’s entire existence, until now. And I wish that I still had avoided it. Not to worry & I didn’t listen to all of it. We always knew that Gillan wouldn’t be up for it simply because of age & history. Ian Paice’s drumming is no where near as ‘progressive’ & forget about the guitar. The original is a killer track so any version by anyone is going to differ so much. It is a vocal tour de force the original, not to mention the guitar, keyboards & drums technique & sound & Glover’s bass in 1970 is wonderful indeed. Why do some artists revisit older material? Well sometimes in can work out better but rarely does it ever work. And it is a bit of enjoyment perhaps also, I don’t know. Call me old fashioned. Thanks for the invitation DeeperPurps & thankfully I still have the original song ingrained into my psyche. Cheers.
January 13th, 2024 at 03:05Talking of AI and totally unrelatet to this thread (?).
Here is what it would have sounded like if Johnny Cash did “Anyone’s Daughter”. Not too bad and yet thought-provoking on what can be done (and misused) with AI.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0HIYqf3zsw
January 13th, 2024 at 11:57I heard AI would blow our minds but suddenly I find a lot of them.
Some quite enhoyable, like Dio doing a BN song.
Havent tracked Gillan singing MK 3/4 songs yet.
OMG, where is all going to?
January 13th, 2024 at 21:20Am I not too old for all of this?
Not sure I cant take it all in.
Tommy H. @117:
Jon has never commented on this site (Svante will correct me if I’m wrong). He used to post on the newsgroup, back in mid 1990s, along with Roger and Colin Hart.
Tony Carey used to be a regular here, until one day “things escalated quickly” and he left. That incident prompted us to introduce pre-moderation of the comments. OTOH, Roger and Paul Mann still contribute occasionally.
January 13th, 2024 at 23:09@ #116, Gregster: Believe whatever you like. We all have our opinions – that’s absolutely fine and interesting, too. We won’t agree on the subject and the number of supporters of a certain opinion is irrelevant. I would strongly assume that there’re more Blackmore than Morse fans out there anyway. I appreciate Blackmore and Morse for different reasons. However, I would never be tempted to call either of them a dilettante.
@ #132, Nick: Thanks, that’s very interesting. I’ve been visting this website since about 2000 and thought that I once read a comment by Jon. I maybe wrong, it’s been a long time ago.
January 14th, 2024 at 01:51@ 130 – just what we all need, a dead pan vocal on a Deep Purple song. I suppose that says it all for AI doesn’t it? Predictable that Johnny Cash would have done that as that is how he ‘sings’. Not that I mind a couple of his old classics. Is that why I listened, indeed it was. Ho hum, such is life. The ‘new’ Elvis concerts will be out & about soon & I just cannot wait. Pencil me in for those & more. As Rock says @ 131 where is all this going. Well we know where, straight into the rubbish bin. More pollution for poor ole Mother Earth to contend with. Cheers.
January 14th, 2024 at 03:28Uwe @ 125 / MacGregor @ 129…..indeed the sound of Blackmore vs. the sound of Morse on that old chestnut “Bloodsucker” elicited the reactions I expected!!
Now for Round Two! The original opening track (and statement of intent) from Shades, back when it all started in 1968; and the last track from the final studio album Whoosh in 2020 (No, not the anomaly that is called “Turning To Crime”….I don’t count that one as part of “the canon”).
The dark & dramatic……. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt2W1MGwrwM
-versus-
The bright & whimsical…… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q64iA5PrtRs
Verdict?
January 14th, 2024 at 04:06@132, 117: That is correct. Jon chimed in when the newsgroup was alive. After that, he mailed us a couple of times with comments.
January 14th, 2024 at 10:52LOL !!!
@133,,,Tommy, believe-it-or-not, all this friendly “bickering” started with Uwe in post #11, & the comments suggesting that “RB can pull a dark-solo out-of-his-hat, any-time he chooses, whilst Steve’s were always too happy sounding” or similar…
That was the “click-bait” masterminded by Uwe for me to reply to, at least enough for myself to try & steady-the-compass, as we guide our way through relatively uncharted waters of bollox, with comparisons of proper “improvisations”, before we go crashing on the rocks…
All I ever wanted to establish was that RB missed countless opportunities to freely improvise, which he chose to do, as evidenced on countless recordings, especially the tune Space Trucking from the later Mk-II days onwards…Prior to those days, snippets of Mk-I material always presented itself from the 1st 3 x albums when the spotlight shone on RB with his allocated free-form-improvise section…You heard bits of Mandrake Root, Wring-that Neck, & even the melody of what would become The Mule on Fireball in some instances etc etc.
Also, as the discussion grew, it also soon developed into a SM is better than RB argument & vice-versa, where the truth is that they’re both accomplished players, but one perhaps fell lazy, & the other continues to grow musically…And it also got to the point where I felt it necessary to provide a link to one-of-my-own 1st-take warm-up improvisations, to help explain to folks, what the term means, by providing an example for anyone to listen too as a reference-point. -( Thanks admin. ).
Thankfully, from my perspective at least, there are people in that visit in here, that agree that the band grew musically & prospered greatly, & had an unmatched 30-year-run with minimum hassles once SM joined, as the body of studio & live material faithfully represents. And in this regard, SM can & does improvise extraordinarily well, any other consideration being an opinion of personal likes & dislikes about one-or-the-others demeanour.
Surprisingly, I’m pretty-sure that no-one has yet mentioned perhaps RB’s finest moment on film, where he does improvise mostly ( though thought-out-in-sections ), & is my personal fave, is the playing & improvisation found near the end of the tune “You fool no one” from the Cal-Jam…And that turns 50 in a couple of months time…
Peace !
January 14th, 2024 at 11:59Referring to John Denver is a thing to be filed under Guilty Pleasures, I think.
In movies sometimes songs a lot of us consider to be NOT DONE are used in a way they get a whole new and different appreciation.
Quentin Tarantino, did he pick the music, had great choices of music for his productions,as well.
Just the 2 KILL BILLS make great soundtracks.
How would I ever get to know this Japanese punkrockcombo without the movie? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjZvIWV5TW4&ab_channel=henshaw666
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke6KUtcG9jY&ab_channel=awdragon200
I ve to dig hard here, a lot of data in that skull I cant get trigger right away.
But you mentioning John Denver I now associate with that special agent in a recent movie .
Mark Strong as Merlin stepping on a bomb and proudly dies while singing his favourite music.
https://www.change.org/p/mark-strong-mark-strong-to-record-a-full-version-of-take-me-home-country-roads
January 14th, 2024 at 18:15@ Nick and Svante
I re read that 2008 thread and thinking that moderating killed Tony Cary s willingness to participate saddens me.
I m not a fan of moderation.
Only when people are treatening, doxing or evidently going OTT with abusive words.
Last year I thought I finally found a place on X and not being bothered by jackassses reporting you just for the fun of killing someones account for dubious reasons…..
I thought under Musk I was free from that terrorism.
But after 1 year I got suspended, again for the wrong reasons, as if the old moderators were back.
Its frustrating and very weird.
I m afraid mister pro speech wants to trigger people without a blue finch and other things I dont want to pay for to get a subscription.
Reading being suspended and trying to make a new account will result in being suspended again is just the old bollocks again.
Reading being suspended but they give me 1 to 2 hours readingtime but also the text “If you want to read more you have to take an subscription” was a give away.
I never treat people with violence or anything, I m not using foul language(I know thats a slippery slope, even here, just a short while ago when we got into things you felt might offend women!)but still suspended.
Appearantly “the last drop” was a report by someone I hardly had contact with but said I harassed him.
Yeah, I posted a reply to his post based on historical facts, nothing more.
Thats just old fashioned enabling people with long toes to give you trouble.
Yeah, I m one of those people who felt it was insane and evidently being partial when Twitter suspended Trump there.
Which probably makes me sound like “a certain charactre” while I m all over the place politically.
January 14th, 2024 at 18:33@ 135 – DeeperPurps I didn’t mind the recent And The Address version & being an instrumental I didn’t have to worry about the 52 years ‘difference’ in vocals at all. Plus Steve Morse’s guitar solo is a good one, not typical of his noodling sort of repeated solo’s he tends to play at times. That recent version certainly pays homage to the original & passes the pub test also. Cheers.
January 14th, 2024 at 19:32Mr. Gregster # 137……I must beg to differ re your assertion about my learned friend Uwe’s planting of click-bait in his post #11. Rather, it was you Sir, who laid the bait with this particular nugget in your post #4, 2nd paragraph: “…..as it’s quite clear for everyone to see & hear that Steve was a far-more-advanced player than RB could ever hope to have been…”.
Our mild-mannered minstrel and his acolytes were quietly minding their own business until then!
Signed…..a concerned red-neck.
January 14th, 2024 at 20:09janbl @130: That AI Johnny Cash version is brilliant, danke for posting!
January 14th, 2024 at 20:34DeeperPurps@135: “Verdict?”
Same as before: Steve is just more jaunty in groove and expression, even when he plays the exact same notes a Blackers.
Mind you, stating that Steve can’t repeat Ritchie’s feel doesn’t mean he can’t muster one of his own. Of course he can and he often did, it’s just a different thing, but if ‘Haunted’ (the composition + the guitar solo) are unemotional to anyone as a listener, then they cannot be helped:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVG8lguytlk
Tommy Bolin could never sound dark for the life of him either.
RV & Herr MacGregor: I shoulda written “endorphins” rather than “hormones” in my tsunamical post #108. Listening to DP, Status Quo and Judas Priest never gave me a boner, but it sure sent the endorphins rushin’ and a-gushin’. Still does sometimes.
Suzi, Cherie & Chi were more active on my hormone front now that you asked!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MnWdxb3psU&t=55s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EBvXpjudf8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IefcDO2s9Q
Do I really have to come out with all my adolescent wet dreams here?!
January 14th, 2024 at 21:04“Rather, it was you Sir, who laid the bait with this particular nugget in your post #4, 2nd paragraph: “…..as it’s quite clear for everyone to see & hear that Steve was a far-more-advanced player than RB could ever hope to have been…”.
Our mild-mannered minstrel and his acolytes were quietly minding their own business until then! ”
Honorable DeeperPurps @141: Man you really ran that Gregst(h)eretic over like some Aussie roadkill!
https://cdn.animalsaustralia.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/23225442/1000-road-toll-01.jpg
There is one other thing I like about Ritchie’s playing, the violin’esque flair it has (Uli Roth and Yngwie Malmsteen have that too, no doubt inspired by Ritchie), you can hear it here in Steve’s and Ritchie’s playing of the Highway Star solo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBqJHLhBOmI
But you can’t knock Steve, he was great with DP in his own way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jrpdYmvyHU
January 14th, 2024 at 22:59MacGregor #140 and Uwe #143….your insights align closely with my thoughts about that Morse version of And The Address – a bright, happy tribute. I much prefer the original version of it though – the darker tone is more pleasing to my old and weathered ears.
On the topic of Tommy Bolin….yes, he too was an upbeat guitarist and rarely does one hear darkness in his playing. From a review of almost his entire catalogue of studio and live recordings, the closest he got was the live rendition of Down Stretch from the Energy Live Broadcasts album. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXsGhPQUCsc
While we’re on the topic of feel-good hormones and neurotransmitters; beyond the endorphin rush of hard rock and metal; a dopamine response may also be elicited. And on that, I present to you, Deep Purple alumni Glenn Hughes with the esteemed Tony Iommi, performing their track Dopamine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7FtTpgR4ng
As for hormones relative to one’s formative years (of rock music appreciation among other things); a young fellow growing up on a diet of early-1970’s American television may have been exposed to this equestrian delight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9xTXZwnJUk
January 15th, 2024 at 00:24LOL !
@141 said…
qt.”Mr. Gregster # 137……I must beg to differ re your assertion about my learned friend Uwe’s planting of click-bait in his post #11…
*1. Rather, it was you Sir, who laid the bait with this particular nugget in your post #4, 2nd paragraph: “…..as it’s quite clear for everyone to see & hear that Steve was a far-more-advanced player than RB could ever hope to have been…”.
*2. Our mild-mannered minstrel and his acolytes were quietly minding their own business until then!
*3. Signed…..a concerned red-neck”.
*Whoa !!! Another lengthy post to type-out…
R1. LOL ! My comment in #4 was honest, & factual, as anyone who watched the video would agree…You don’t see or hear of many tutorial videos from RB, if at all…I did see Uwe’s post #11 as worthy of replying to, as it wasn’t a POV, it was a grossly miss-leading statement, as proven by further posts, & available recordings…
IMO, RB hasn’t delivered many, if any at all, “true” improvisations that sound new & fresh since the Cal-Jam, “You fool no one” circa April 1974…Just pick any live recording since 1996, & you will here new & inspired playing from Steve virtually every-time to my ears…And I’m a RB fan per-se !!! But the listening content to my ears stack-up against RB in the improvisation dept.
And as for a noticeable difference between the playing styles of both, generally RB loves playing in triplets for faster passage expressions, whilst Steve delivers in 1/16 notes…( Mathematically within 1 x bar, RB delivers 4 x triplets, aka 12/4, whilst Steve gives us 4 x groups of 1/4-notes, 16/4 )…
R2. No comment, on the grounds that we will distract from the threads original intention too much.
R3. Quite a strange-way to sign-off DeeperPurps, but if you had in fact thrown shyte at Steve Morse whilst on stage performing in the past, perhaps the self-imposed title has some disgraceful merit.
RB for all intents & purposes, has NOT been associated with the band for around 31 years now, & only delivered around 15-years of input, whilst trying his best to kill-the-band-off in 1993… Nice.
It’s well & truly time to celebrate Steve’s massive input & legacy, & to welcome Simon, who may well be the best guitarist yet to join the band.
Long live Deep Purple !
Peace !
January 15th, 2024 at 00:41Uwe @ 143 – “Do I really have to come out with all my adolescent wet dreams here?” No please don’t activate that ‘tsunami’ Uwe, please no, show some mercy. Cheers.
January 15th, 2024 at 05:43Herr MacGregor @147: You’re so right, I really shouldn’t ejaculate all that here!
January 15th, 2024 at 18:15Honorable Gregster: I have a hunch that you misunderstood my initial post @11. Nowhere did I say there that Steve can’t improvise – a preposterous statement -, all I did was say that he doesn’t sound dark doing so:
“Steve, for all his talent and technical expertise, can’t play a moody solo – like Blackmore can pull effortlessly out of his sleeve anytime of the day (or night) – to save his life. He never sounds dark.”
The emphasis was on that he can’t do “moody” (while that is second nature to Ritchie, he really can’t sound bright), not that he can’t solo.
Yet you ran off with the ball into a totally different direction stating “only Steve can improvise and Ritchie can’t” which in all reticence I would qualify as a fringe opinion. (And speaking of triplets vs. 1/16, I prefer Ritchie’s triplets as more musical than Steve’s machine-like 1/16 notes, John Petrucci does little for me either, but that is a matter of taste and says nothing about their improvisational capabilities.) Why Ritchie has to all of the sudden lose a gift for improvisation for which he is world-renowned just to make Steve shine more is beyond me. Steve was/is good enough all by himself.
Re DeeperPurps’ “equestrian delight” @145: Yeah, that horse was hot!
But so was/is the rider(ess), I’ve always liked Cher (pre- or post-surgery), she’s her own woman and her contralto voice really stands out in a pop and rock world populated by sopranos and mezzo-sopranos. You recognize her voice immediately. Saw her live once in the 90ies, it was good fun. Cher can’t really dance like most female solo acts, so she sticks to her trademark Cher-catwalk-strut, but she has charisma in loads and a good sense of self-deprecating humor. And, lest we forget, no one has aroused a battleship (and its crew) more – ever!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n3A_-HRFfc
(The little blond kid playing guitar with shades and – Gregster will approve – a Jimi Hendrix T-shirt in receipt of a motherly bump at 02:41 is Elijah, her son with Gregg Allman. He played with her – by then a young man – at the gig that I saw too.)
January 15th, 2024 at 19:34Is it just me but someone with a repeatbutton saying Blackmore cant improvise makes me wonder a lot.
January 15th, 2024 at 19:59Not to say annoyed.
Regarding the violin influence in certain guitarists music yes indeed. I even hear it occasionally in Hendrix, especially certain live recordings. The younger violinist & Hendrix geek I often talk to has always gone on about that. But I suppose he also could be being a little bias in his assessment. @ 145 – Yes DeeperPurps the original And the Address is much darker & let’s not let the ‘pastoral’ gentleman Mr Lord off here too easily. That dark horror themed slowly building intro certainly sets it up from the beginning. Lord as we know underpinned the Man in Black so well it makes me wonder about the darker elements to a lot of Purple’s music at times. That foreboding Hammond we have to love it. Also a bit of Hank Marvin influence in the Blackmore guitar at times. Cheers
January 15th, 2024 at 21:19Gregster # 146……Indeed, it seems that there might be several more lengthy posts to type on this particular topic!
So, back to the sequence of events. In my #141, I cited your post #4 as being the one which got this whole debate going. Now if we examine closely what you wrote at #4, para. 2 once again; your most recent assertion that it was “factual” might not necessarily be seen so by certain others here. Let’s look at your phrasing along with my annotations in CAPS:
“…..as it’s quite clear (WHAT EXACTLY IS CLEAR?) for everyone (“EVERYONE? NOT QUITE THE CASE AS THIS LENGTHY TOPIC STREAM SEEMS TO ATTEST) to see & hear that Steve was a far-more-advanced (IN WHAT WAY BEYOND SIMPLY STYLISTIC?) player than RB could ever hope (BLACKMORE ESTABLISHED HIS TECHNICAL CREDENTIALS, INNOVATIONS AND LEGACY LONG BEFORE MORSE WAS ON THE MUSIC SCENE) to have been…”.
Now I have examined Uwe’s post #11 and see it as both opinion and fact-based, but with nothing in it which could be construed as provocative or inflammatory, nor was it “click-bait”. I dare say that whatever Uwe may have chosen to write in #11 might have been influenced by your initial assertion at post #4/ para. 2….but only our learned friend Uwe can actually say for sure.
As for tutorial videos, that is more a Steve Morse thing. He is a “schooled” musician of a certain, gregarious manner and personality type who generously shares his musical knowledge in guitar magazines, videos and clinics. That’s not Ritchie Blackmore’s thing. That Ritchie’s personality off-stage is perhaps more of an introverted nature, and that he doesn’t do educational presentations; does not make him any less of a gifted guitarist.
For an examination of available recordings by which to make a determination as to who is the superior guitarist in a studio or live context; I am sure you, I, and several others here could trot out multiple YouTube videos to support our respective points of view; but in the end the verdicts rendered will simply be a reflection of our own personal musical tastes. It all boils down to how much one gravitates towards either the bright Morse or the dark Blackmore style.
To the topic of “true” improvisations which sound new and fresh since Cal-Jam April 1974…..yes that fantastic Blackmore solo on YFNO was in its embryonic, early state. Lots of raw and funky flavour to it before he slipped into his “eruption” mode which at times did have the occasional rough patch, but that’s ok, he was off-the-leash and following his muse with overall fine results. Then there was the standard blues passage, followed by his various bag-o-trix funk and medieval flourishes before launching back into the riff.
Ritchie and the band followed that same formula on subsequent live recordings of that song. The the late 1974 Live in London version of Ritchie’s YFNO solo incorporates many of the same motifs, albeit less raw than Cal-Jam, and it contains a few more melodic passages in the body of the “eruption” solo along with extra bits & pieces from The Mule, Hey Joe, etc. It is about a minute longer than its predecessor.
Ritchie’s real tour-de-force solo is on the 1975 Made In Europe version of YFNO which starts out as a refined, smooth, funky and melodic passage and then breaks into the “eruption” solo with all its slides, divebombs, sweeps and rapid-fire descents which I cannot help but think must have inspired Eddie Van Halen’s own approach to his trademark “Eruption”. However….whereas Eddie got great public plaudits for that classic bit of guitar-karate (as fusion guitarist Bill Connors terms it); Ritchie essentially created much of the same solo in YFNO, a full three years or more before EVH did, and did it via alternate picking, rather than tapping EVH-style. Line up all three of those YFNO versions I have mentioned above and listen for the differences in each one. Ritchie was pulling different tricks out of his magic bag each time, creating different combinations of things he may have done before, but with a different twist. He was in pure improvisational mode on each version….as he usually was in every concert in Deep Purple and Rainbow.
As for playing technique, yes Highway Star is a good example of Ritchie playing in both triplets and groups of fours, on his sixteenth notes. On Still I’m Sad from the first Rainbow album. Ritchie’s solo contains groups of sextuplets in certain bars. Ritchie’s soloing on Kill The King and A Light In The Black was even faster, and in those we can hear Ritchie shredding at times, on thirty-second notes. Ritchie was just as capable of speed and dexterity as Morse.
Now, as to my second point about how our Merry Minstrel and his various disciples here on this page who were going about their day until your post #4; I do understand that you don’t wish to rehash old ground already covered here in this particular debate stream. Likewise! But from your statement to the effect that Morse was the superior guitarist, the inference was therefore that Ritchie Blackmore was the inferior one. Given the Beato video interview of Morse, the discussion on this stream should ideally have remained in a positive vein, (ie): the good qualities of Morse, without resorting to diminishing Blackmore’s abilities and accomplishments. My friend Gregster, Ye cast the first stone! And thus the skirmish began!
And on the topic of “red-necks”! Having observed your post #4 on this thread, and your various other missives on a variety of topics here on this site, I have seen the term redneck used a number of times in your comments as it relates to Blackmore followers / loyalists / fanatics. You and I exchanged on that issue a few months ago. If the usage of said term is in good fun, that’s fine; I will wear same as a badge of honour. That said, the unacceptable misbehaviour of various boorish, rogue miscreants towards Steve Morse has no place whatsoever at a concert. I think the vast majority here on this site would agree on that point. To be a Blackmore fan does not necessarily equate to being a redneck, and certainly not a boor.
Now as for Ritchie Blackmore’s contributions to Deep Purple, the fact that he has not been with the band for 3 decades does not diminish his status as one of the original founding fathers and driving forces. He gave the band its name, its many signature riffs, much of its legendary standing, and the vast majority of concert setlist songs, even to this very day. He was a huge figure in the band, and even away from it, his legacy and influence do live on. He left the band after irreconcilable personality rifts made it impossible to go on with him. Since then he has moved onto more sedate pursuits – following his muse in a renaissance-music vein. He is happy and unconcerned with what is happening in Purple. And he has also been very complimentary of Steve Morse’s guitar playing and musicianship. Ritchie has moved on, and has continued to grow as a musician – just in a different way from Morse.
Agreed, we should celebrate Steve Morse’s fine contributions to Deep Purple and for the longevity that he gave to the band. He deserves it. And we can do that without diminishing Ritchie Blackmore’s legacy.
Likewise, I wish Simon McBride much success within the new Mark of Deep Purple.
Kind regards.
January 15th, 2024 at 21:26@ #152, DeeperPurps: I could not agree more, very well put!
@ #116 and following, Gregster: Modesty is a virtue.
January 15th, 2024 at 23:40DeeperPurps wrote to Gregster:
“I dare say that whatever Uwe may have chosen to write in #11 might have been influenced by your initial assertion at post #4/ para. 2….but only our learned friend Uwe can actually say for sure.”
He can. I saw no point in bashing Steve (a man whose complete works I own, guest appearances on Liza Minnelli albums no one of you has ever heard of included!), but I just wanted to point out that Ritchie looms dark and Steve shines bright, if Deep Purple is Dynasty (the series), then Ritchie is Alexis and Steve is Krystle Carrington.
That they both can improvise is (and remains) for me a given.
January 16th, 2024 at 01:29@ 152 – that is some lengthy post there DeeperPurps & may I say even Mr Uwe Tsunami himself could be impressed by the size of that. Cheers.
January 16th, 2024 at 07:17Shall I change my handle to TsUWEnami then?! 😂
January 16th, 2024 at 10:23Yo,
So here we are, nit-picking, but so-be-it ! I’ll start the reply again with Uwe’s statement in #11….
qt.”Steve, for all his talent and technical expertise, can’t play a moody solo – like Blackmore can pull effortlessly out of his sleeve anytime of the day (or night) – to save his life”…
*”PULL EFFORTLESSLY OUT OF HIS SLEEVE DAY OR NIGHT”…
*The above statement to my interpretation, implies clearly, that RB can improvise successfully, day or night…He doesn’t, & hasn’t for decades, perhaps over 50-years, as prior posts, & based on my own posted musical representation of what an improvisation means indicates.
Moving on…Perhaps in your discography there are other times beyond the Cal-Jam where he does improvises some more, but likely, it’s the same note sequences played in differing order, as all the live Mk-III albums & DVD’s indicate that I have.
What was interesting about RB circa 1973-74, is that he often had a mental block when it was time to shine & let rip…This mental block clearly represents itself numerous times, in the playing of a boring phrase, that ultimately turned into the riff of “Highball Shooter”…He repeats this phrase constantly as a stumbling-block throughout the Cal-Jam, & you even hear it through the NYC University gig prior to the Jam, where the only existing Mk-II footage exists of the band in the US-of-A at that time. The 3 x tunes being SOTW without the guitar solo, Space Trucking ( heavily edited ) & I think SKOW…So RB had his problems when opportunity to shine was there…You never got that with Steve that I’m aware of. And let’s not forget the mental blocks & forgetfulness he had during the solo through “Lay down stay down” from the Cal-Jam…It was never officially released until the 2008 version with different camera angles & the “lost” tune restored. I suggest it was edited away originally because the guitar solo stunk. But that’s OK, playing in-front of 450,000 people would scare the shyte out of anyone !
Morse is a superior guitarist in every way when compared to RB & subsequent improvisations period. The music speaks for itself, I have nothing to say. Why copy RB when you have more musicality within your own playing ?….
I defend Deep Purple on the grounds that RB wanted to destroy our band. He cast the first stone 31-years ago…Luckily, I have a tennis-racket & will play ball when needed..”Deuce”…
The fact that RB hasn’t played with the band for over 31-years & tried to destroy it, kills off any love for the man on my behalf, though I forgive him, & respect his earlier input. But he is, & remains a 1st class ass-hole imo. Why like ass-holes, isn’t the world full of enough of them already ?…His own “RB story” DVD reveals quite a lot about the man.
qt.”Ritchie has moved on, and has continued to grow as a musician – just in a different way from Morse”.
Indeed, & that’s where I left him, way-back-when folk music took over, & I wished him every success…And thankfully, DP continued on for 30+ plus years & counting.
And as for the statement of me trying to diminish RB’s repute, my friend, he’s done that all by himself…I just try to help people remember, & bring “old-news” & recordings to this table, so that we don’t get carried-away with miss-leading statements from time-to-time, in our enthusiasm for the 1960’s & 70’s DP.
I only try to bring balance where necessary, & remind people of how lucky we actually are, to still have a band & new music to celebrate.
Peace !
January 16th, 2024 at 10:46Gregster #157. I will be brief this time. You are choosing to hear what you want to hear as it relates to Ritchie Blackmore’s playing. Your visceral distaste for Blackmore permeates all your comments and is no longer objective. Your Saint-Steven is indeed a fine guitarist, but no better than Ritchie. This is not a foot race nor a competition. It is two different guitarists with two completely different styles who both brought good things to Deep Purple. Why belabour the points about Ritchie’s personality, his conflicts in the band, or his off nights on stage? His catalogue of recordings over 50 plus years defines what is one of the true legendary gods of guitar. Just accept it, and praise him as you do St. Steven. There is plenty of space in the Purple Room for great guitarists of all styles.
January 16th, 2024 at 16:32Errrm, may I lend a hand deciphering and interpreting
THE LEGENDARY TS-UWE-NAMI SCROLLS
here ???
https://media3.giphy.com/media/l41m2oBuXFVYbTNcs/200.gif?cid=82a1493bhrokcpeej3vl3tmxmesjgq4nvhdw8j5ohku4iyi6&ep=v1_gifs_search&rid=200.gif&ct=g
***************************************
” *”(Steve … can’t play a M O O D Y solo) – like Blackmore can) PULL EFFORTLESSLY OUT OF HIS SLEEVE DAY OR NIGHT”…
*The above statement to my interpretation, implies clearly, that RB can improvise successfully, day or night … He doesn’t, & hasn’t for decades, perhaps over 50-years, as prior posts, & based on my own posted musical representation of what an improvisation means indicates.”
***************************************
Uhum, not exactly, I wished to say that Ritchie’s solos sound MOODY – and if you wake him from sleep and push a Strat in his hands. He can even pull off a moody solo with – wait for it! – the one and only Captain Kirk “SINGING”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYMsP1-NgSg
And if that’s not improvising to you, lieber Gregster, then our concepts on the subject must differ.
https://media.tenor.com/_MnGroqJVzMAAAAM/william-shatner-shocked.gif
At no point did I wish to say anything about Steve’s capabilities as a soloist and improviser other than that he is a musical Dr Jekyll and not a Mr Hyde. Or, if you like, a Jedi and not Darth Vader.
“Not listening this young Padawan Gregster is. Too much impatience in him. Failed as a teacher I have.”
https://cdn.thecoolist.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Yoda-Quotes.jpg
January 16th, 2024 at 17:27LOL !
Leiber Uwe said…qt.”“Not listening this young Padawan Gregster is. Too much impatience in him. Failed as a teacher I have”…
To understand anything in life, one must be able to inspect, appreciate, & analyse all aspects of what is investigated…The good & the bad, the light & the dark, both sides of the coin per-se…
There are countless great musicians “on record” that we all can appreciate & listen to, & learn from, just as there are many colours that can be made from a rainbow…
Back in 1993, the results of RB’s activities forced me to let-go of DP, because it was turning into a circus, & he was making himself a self-appointed ring-leader…After that time, I realized more than ever, that there’s lots of awesome music out there, & listened to may differing artists from all musical styles, especially the instrumental Jazz folks, as they are the ones pushing the boundaries of music outwards.
This gave me time to appreciate & select new & upcoming bands, such as STP, Spacehog, & appreciate local bands like Died Pretty, whilst revising the great bands of old, & try to discover where the secrets of their success lay. So it was a great time of musical expansion per-se, & eventually, one goes full-circle, & arrives back to their musical origins.
So when I come back to my musical roots, of which DP are a part ( 1 x slice of a very large pie ), musically, one appreciates what they did, & one appreciates that in those times, changes in line-ups happened, & you look for causes / reasons for these changes…And once you determine / understand that the main issue / central cause of most of the issues has left the band for good, you appreciate the new band, with fresh & open ears, & realize how stale the old band had become…
Long live Deep Purple !
Peace !
January 16th, 2024 at 23:36Yes Uwe you may use your new ‘pseudonym’ if you want or need to. After much deliberation the elders have returned from a very important meeting after unanimously voting in your favour. Proceed with caution. P.S. Good work by the way with that clever re wording or should that be re spelling. I am impressed. Cheers
January 17th, 2024 at 02:50I think we have flogged this old horse to death. We Darksiders will have to agree to disagree with the Lightbringers. The only thing I think we can all agree on is Deep Purple is our favourite band, and leave it at that.
January 17th, 2024 at 16:49MacGregor @101,
There are actually at least two stage performances in Berlin und Wiesbaden this year.
Uwe,
Suggest you to attend a performance and provide a review. 😉
Peace,
January 17th, 2024 at 17:48Ted
@ 163 – Ted I may have misread your post regarding Tolstoy’s War & Peace. I presumed you meant time meaning length etc & not the feuding battle aspect. As I thought time & length I instantly thought of Wagner & The Ring Cycle. Regarding Uwe & his new TS-UWE-NAMI title do you really think us innocent commenters here would be able to comprehend a concert review of a Wagner’s Ring Cycle performance from Uwe? Not to mention the moderators having to wade through it all. It is bad enough with a Deep Purple concert review & that is usually only about 90 minutes or so. This website would surely crash big time. Oh hang on, if that did occur at least we wouldn’t be subjected to a review of sorts. Send it in Uwe as we all wait with baited breath, firstly though do enjoy the concert, he he he! Cheers.
January 17th, 2024 at 21:39Ted, I know I’m defying beloved stereotypes here, but I’m not much of a Wagner fan at all! It’s all a bit too grandiose for me, the Manowar of classical music.
https://media.tenor.com/4-BjQ5lFF2oAAAAM/manowar-courage.gif
Ouch, I know that was mean.
Lightweight and superficial as I am, I prefer Italian Opera!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-KMZvy-JZg
So do Manowar btw.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMDM0byqPO8
And – to balance things out – also Big Ian.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4alxhP6xVQ
January 18th, 2024 at 00:02@ 159
Can I get a royalty out of this, inspiring your new name?
January 19th, 2024 at 00:31You darn holländischer Kaufmann, always monetizing things! 😂
January 19th, 2024 at 14:10@ Uwe
Thats racism! 🙂
Or stereotyping/framing my people.
I m not personally hurt or insulted,but of course it makes me think again.
In recent years our politicians seem to see us a product, a firm, not people.
Before I could not imagine that generalising statements in a negative sense really only applied to us.
I once brought up the question why in the English language, dont know about other languages, there are so many centuries old derogatory words in English, sayings about the Dutch.
It never got the attention I wanted for a discussion so I kinda hung on to my premisse :
We were at war with the English, we kicked their asses and for a short time we were real contenders.
But a lot of this still(…) used stuff is instilling in peoples minds over and over again.
Why dont the Dutch have, as far as I can tell, the same and mirroing things in Dutch vocabulary?
I cannot imagine we re worse or so different from other nations.
Personally, I know I made that joke, I m not someone who is great in commercial stuff, making money, and never exploit people.
IMHO the English were far worse in many ways exploiting this world, regarding slavery, colonising, etc.
Though being called an old Jew decades ago by a friend, allegedly with Jewish DNA and not very sympathetic in her view of her people(…)made me wonder .
It happened a long time ago.
I was wrestling myself from a financial swamp I created myself, starting as as a teenager spending way too much money on my love for music.
So the remark “the old Jew” confused me.
I knew it was a derogatory saying and widely used and again in recent days since oct the 7th.
I thought : WTF?!
I m working my ass off to get myself out of debts, trying different avenues, but never criminal or exploiting others.
It was really a humbling time where I went to citymarkets to pick up, at the end of the day, gathering left left over fruit or 2nd hand stuff that had not been sold.
It was a creative way but not very criminal.
One day , it was like now, winter and slippery because of the frost, I tried to cut my route short and walk past a stand that sold fish.
They used a lot of ice and it went wrong.
I collapsed, tried in a mini second to grab something, knowing this was going to hurt bigtime.
It had not been the first time in my life but I really feel hard on my knee.
Decades on its still a painful problem.
In western discussions people often talk of “Karma”. I once read its being used differently from the original meaning.
But its another example of a way of thinking that seems to have rooted deeply.
So extending it : If you experience nasty stuff, it might be possible that you re being punished for something in the past.
Usually its said Jews have been punished because they rejected “God”
I m agnostic with some years on Christian schools and stopped believing when I was 10.
But I m aware of the big impact religious thinking had/has on our world.
Another thing is : “Where there 2 parties involved both are to blame.”
Despite me having lost my religion I always felt vert angry when people said that, implying Holocausts, raping of children/women, and many other atrocities are an example of “both parties are to blame.”
In my case,even knowing Karma is misused as a word, it would have to lead to former lives which I never tried to explore.
When in debt, end 90 s I Also did humbling jobs that were heavy on my ego but also the body.
It was humbling but also gave me a sense of pride.
Me an old Jew? How?
If I really had been I d have acted morally worse.
I just made a stupid remark and now I m writing all this.
Funny man I am.
Cheers.
January 20th, 2024 at 17:15I really did not know the guy before this thread on THS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9PboTYmuQQ&ab_channel=RickBeato
Have not watched it yet.
First thought was : Is this true?
There s the same thing being said about X but I dont think thats true.
On the contrary.
Its still crowded there whereas alternative platforms remember me of half filled concertvenues.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9PboTYmuQQ&ab_channel=RickBeato
January 20th, 2024 at 17:19#152: Thanks for that well worded post, DeeperPurps, letting the facts speak for themselves.
January 21st, 2024 at 07:09RV, I wouldn’t dream of wanting to hurt you on the basis of ethnicity; racism is for idiots and I try not to be one.
The “holländische Kaufmann” (Dutch merchant) is of course a cliche/stereotype based on The Netherlands’ rich (and I don’t mean that in monetary, but in cultural terms) merchant history (with dark spots too, but every nation has them, look at who’s talking!). The German stereotype of the Dutch can probably be best summed up with: they’re smart, very honest to the point of being painfully blunt, know a thing or two about handling floods, flowers & greenhouse vegetables + are very good at trade (I could add jokingly: tend to stay on the left lane of the Autobahn with their trailers/Wohnwagen in tow and sometimes spit on our soccer players! :mrgreen:). They also have Golden Earring which is a major asset in their favor!!! (Yup, I have all their albums.)
As regards the “if evil hits you, it might have to do with something in your past” adage, applying that to the Holocaust is vulgar and vile. And nonsense. There was never any viable reason for the persecution of Jewish Germans, doing so constituted an absolute (and unseen before) unprovoked breakdown of ethics, morals and civilization aided and abetted by too many of my countrymen who stood by until it was too late even if they themselves might not have had an antisemitic bone to their body.
PS: My beloved daughter is marrying in six weeks from now my likewise beloved schoonzoon – he is Dutch and has Jewish ancestry, they met in Tel Aviv while both were studying there.
January 22nd, 2024 at 04:45Dear Uwe
No problemo here. No hurt feelings or puns intended felt.
I can handle a lot.
I might just have gone a bit on too long….
Its one of my habits. Often I tried to downsize me expressing thought.
Did you ever? 🙂
January 22nd, 2024 at 23:57Sparseness and general brevity are second nature to me, RV!
It’s only with Purple themes that I get this messianic fervor & zeal that carries me away at times!
January 23rd, 2024 at 14:39