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To burn or not to burn
A piece in Ultimate Guitar goes all drooling over this guitarist’s take on Blackmore’s solo in Burn:
Here’s How Ritchie Blackmore’s ‘Burn’ Solo Should Sound in 2025
Now, I know what you’re thinking: “What do you mean it ‘should’ sound like anything?” Of course, you’re right, Ritchie Blackmore’s solo section in “Burn” is the stuff of legends. Just listen to it, he really did a number on that guitar, definitely made it scream like never before (possibly). “Burn” simply stands out among Deep Purple’s songs because of how well the solo complements the energy of the other sections.
But, if for a second, we tried to imagine this solo in a new context, modernized to meet the standards of rock and metal music in 2025, we’d really have to open up our minds to the possibilities. Let’s not go too far and imagine some kind of proggy, techno-industrial nightmare spin. We could just imagine a shredder taking the solo to the next level.
Feel free to discuss. 😉
Credits:
Andre Nieri — guitar
Levi Clay — transcription
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Not bad. But the feeling is somehow lacking. It’s just much pyrotechnics. I appreciate the skill though. Who wouldn’t? It just doesn’t beat the original no matter how modernized you may say it is.
February 18th, 2025 at 20:31Sounds like, or taken from Whitesnake’s Purple album. Both are big whiffs on the original.
February 18th, 2025 at 20:31It’s actually nice 👍🏼
What’s hilarious is the t-shirt 🤣
February 18th, 2025 at 20:41The shredder’s playing is okay. His t-shirt is not. It’s a mauvais ton of the worst kind wearing the t-shirt of that other band while playing DP.
February 18th, 2025 at 21:03well, there are many parts of this solo that don’t convince me, if I have to hear a faster shredder version I’ll go for sure: Malmsteen
in any case the solo of Burn and the one of Highway by Blackmore are the best solos in the history of hard rock, and they are perfect just the way they are!
February 18th, 2025 at 21:33Done in a Led Zep t-shirt?!?! Ffs
February 18th, 2025 at 21:42This guy’s got a prolapsed sense of taste.
February 18th, 2025 at 23:29I could do with slightly less pyrotechnics and a couple more nods to the original – the phrasing and tone reminds me very much of Guthrie Govan, who I adore. Nicely done, although, yes, that shirt is in terribly bad taste, I agree. What the hell dude?! lmao
February 19th, 2025 at 04:05This just goes to show what the unsupervised wearing of Led Zep T-shirts for prolonged periods of time can do to the innocent mind of an otherwise likely healthy young man. There should be laws against it. If you tolerate this, your children will be next.
As necessary and valuable as a colorized, overdubbed and CGI-enhanced new cut of Friedrich Murnau’s Nosferatu. GRAUENHAFT enough to make even a centuries old vampyre seek the sunlight and just disappear.
https://giffiles.alphacoders.com/229/22953.gif
February 19th, 2025 at 04:31It’s not a crime to admit that RB guitar parts in THWS, SOTW, CIT, Burn and so on is unmatched by anyone one else either in improvisational element or copying note for note.
February 19th, 2025 at 09:02There is no doubt that there is an element of enjoyment from hearing these musicians having fun but let’s keep things in perspective and not to lose sight of the purity of the original.
Peace ✌️
Marvelous use of the language Uwe. I concur.
February 19th, 2025 at 10:26If you want to hear a really good shredder take on this song, check out Richie Kotzen’s version with Mr.Big. You cannot beat that. I like Hoekstra’s version and the one from Glenn Hughes From Now On album but Richie’s version takes the prize in my oppinion.
February 19th, 2025 at 11:13it is a simple and banal interpretation. It felt like listening to Tony Mc Alpine… who I love.
February 19th, 2025 at 11:15How boring is that? Made in a contemporary way where guitarists have no character. Trivial approach. Simon MB could sound the same, ex-tribute man Frank Pane even better. Their stile just doesn’t fit the integrity of this song. You just can’t fix perfection!
February 19th, 2025 at 11:47Tumeni notes ;)…and with no feeling. Hard pass.
February 19th, 2025 at 13:47Some pertinent comments in current social media would be:
1.Wasn’t Blackmore in Led Zeppelin too? Always liked that one song of theirs, “Smoke on the Stairway” I think it was.
2. What’s the best guitar and amp to play a solo as fast as this?
3. Pah, I could do that.
4. Sounds just like the original, only better.
5. Where can I order the T-shirt please? I don‘t have the money though, can you crowdfund me?
6. My older brother’s friend has a cousin who is even faster.
7. “What is and what should never be.“ 😑 (Robert A. Plant)
8. I saw Led Zep way back. That is NOT one of their songs.
9. I prefer girls in cropped string tops sitting cross-legged on tables replicating classic rock solos. They smile more too.
February 19th, 2025 at 14:18Fretboard wankery,2025.
February 19th, 2025 at 14:3945 years ago,this might have impressed me,
Today, I couldn’t make it thru the whole clip.There are acoustic versions on YT which are far more emotive & expressive.
@2- Yes indeed,Martin. The Purple Album is filled with shredding,sweep picking and over the top electric noodling. Only Holy Man,Sail Away and Soldier Of Fortune rose above the metallic mess for me.
February 19th, 2025 at 16:22General comment: I think on Highway Star, Ritchie outshone Jon solo-wise even though the latter’s Bach’y excursion was excellent. On Burn it was the other way around to me, Ritchie’s solo was wonderful and nicely ferocious (but not quite as artful as Highway Star with its tension-creating harmonic dissonance in places and great double stop bends), but Jon’s was simply fucking breathtaking.
Jon all alone:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0_ibIPq1EY
Ritchie all alone:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADCOHQPkar0
But in both cases it’s a close call.
February 19th, 2025 at 16:42I’ll take Ritchies version over this every time. This reminds me too much of Yngwie Malmsteen. Play as fast as you can regardless of wether it sounds right or not.
February 19th, 2025 at 18:09Uwe @9….Agreed, but it could be worse! I’d really be concerned if that young fella was sporting his mother’s blouse.
February 19th, 2025 at 19:01Just horrible!
February 19th, 2025 at 19:10As Frank Zappa put it “Too much dweedle dweedle dweedle…” Fretboard wankery indeed.
February 19th, 2025 at 20:40Yngwie would have bent more notes, I actually prefer his style of playing to the LZ T-shirt guy‘s approach which sounds robotic to me.
Of course you can‘t really bend notes if you play that silly fast. Or show a decent finger vibrato. It becomes mechanical very quickly. You ask yourself what the point is if the guitar, an instrument where steel and flesh interact, is reduced to being played like a piano. It simply isn’t and loses a lot of its individuality if played that way. That is why all these lightning-fast guys sound so interchangeable.
February 19th, 2025 at 22:25See, you CAN smile playing that solo too, das Auge isst mit:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hyutsdUOQZ4
This guy does Jon & Ritchie at the same time (and thinks he’s really très hot):
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/u6OAGL4BsnU
It really is only child’s play, some Thai talent here …
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DJsgp4Dx4So
PS: Auntie Purplette, with some bands cross-dressing actually works!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvmvMFXWzc8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXks3Xjydh0
PPS: The WS version of the song is pretty horrid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2i9Jwt331k
but there is one scene that always draws a smile to my face and that is when Reb Beach first plays the classical part like Ritchie at 03:23 and then repeats it at twice the speed modern tapping style at 03:33, thus both tipping his hat to Ritchie and then showing off a little (not that Ritchie was above showing off with his guitar playing as a young man!).
February 19th, 2025 at 23:01Dead on right, Uwe @ 19. While there are similarities in the method as to how the Highway Star and Burn solos came about and were constructed, I agree – Ritchie’s HS solo is an absolute revelation, and takes precedence over Jon’s turn (even though Jon did come up with the idea for the Bach-like progression). But Jon’s take on Burn is perhaps his best solo ever (even though I still have a soft spot for Hard Lovin’ Man) and is clearly the (as you said) “breathtaking” highlight of the song. Well…except for maybe Paicey’s drumming – I’ve always felt that Burn represents Little Ian at the top of his game. See, this is why Purple is who they are – Ritchie writes a killer riff and gives a stunning guitar solo on one of their most iconic songs, and there are two other contributions to the song that (IMHO) supersede him. Pretty high standards all around, I’d say.
February 20th, 2025 at 02:37My oppinion – it´s simply excellent. With honour to Ritchie and to the song, which is precious treasure in whole history of rocknroll. It inspires new and new generation of musicians, orifinal is truly collossal tune, absolutelly stunning after all these years.
February 20th, 2025 at 11:55Ohio George: No contest from me that Burn is Paicey‘s Purple tour de force, he doesn‘t have “a” solo in the song, he basically solos throughout – and brilliantly so.
Good observation on how Ritchie’s idea were elevated by the executions and contributions of other Purple members and how that is part of the band’s magic. That mostly didn’t work with Rainbow though Carey’s intro to Tarot Woman and Stone’s off-tangent chords during Ritchie’s solo in Gates of Babylon were exceptions from the Rainbow rule.
February 20th, 2025 at 13:20I prefer the Organ Solo on Made in Europe.
February 20th, 2025 at 13:21Would you believe that Coverdian @27 just had me look up the word ‘orifinal’? 😂 I thought it had something to do with orifice and was wondering whether we were discussing the virtues of anal sex yet again. 😑
Well, anyway, good that at least SOMEONE likes that solo. It’s technically well-played, I’ll give it that.
Coronarias, the MIE Jon solo in Burn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt8h2iipU_M
is no doubt nice too (@ 05:17), the way is ascends to the climax, but it’s a live solo as opposed to what Jon worked out in studio. Different worlds, he was good at both.
And that’s my orifinal word on the matter! 😉
February 20th, 2025 at 16:14Nothing more than aural masturbation. I’ll stick with the original, thank you very much😉
February 20th, 2025 at 16:32