‘He Couldn’t Stand It’: Ian Paice Says Ritchie Blackmore Didn’t Want to Sound Like Chuck Berry on This Deep Purple Song
Certainly, Ritchie Blackmore is responsible for penning some of rock’s all-time great riffs, as evidenced by “Smoke on the Water,” “Black Night,” and “Burn” with Deep Purple, and “Man on the Silver Mountain,” “Stargazer,” and “Kill the King” with Rainbow.
And during a recent chat with Ultimate Classic Rock, two of Blackmore’s ex-bandmates in Purple, bassist Roger Glover and drummer Ian Paice, discussed what made “the man in black” such a special guitarist.
However, while penning a certain Deep Purple classic, Blackmore had some ground rules. But as Paice explained, he eventually agreed to play ball.
“Do you remember when we were doing ‘Space Truckin’,’ he was vehemently opposed to playing anything that sounded like Chuck Berry. He wouldn’t do it. Couldn’t stand it. But we got him to compromise and he played four to the bar [Paice imitates the rhythm]. That’s as far as he would go. But because he did that, it became so much heavier. When he simplified it down again, it suddenly took on a power all of its own.”
Glover also added some interesting viewpoints about Blackmore’s playing, including a gift for realizing when a riff was getting too elaborate.
“Well, it’s a guitar-based band, I mean, let’s face it. It’s very difficult for anyone to write guitar riffs. If you’re a keyboard player, bass player, or drummer, it’s impossible. It has to be led by him. He’s the sort of focal point of most of the songs. He was brilliant. Totally off-the-cuff.”
“He could never play the same thing twice because he’s that much of a musician — he’s always exploring things. So to actually capture him doing a simple riff, he realized a long time ago that simplicity pays. You can be as complicated as you like, but it’s going to go right over people’s heads.”
Blackmore and his ex-Purple mates can be heard in all their rockin’ glory on the recently released “super deluxe” edition of their 1972 classic album, “Machine Head.”
