Some interesting snippets from an old interview with Ritchie. His opinion on Tele's, influenced by Hank Marvin, wants a Gretch, and likes Steve Morse.....who woulda thunk!
I talked to Steve Morse when he was here last year with Purple, he had a lot of nice things to say about your playing. - He's a great guitar player himself - people often say, "Oh, they've got this guy in Deep Purple now..." and I just say, look, you know, I left - that's nothing to do with me, the guy is a brilliant player. I'm surprised - he's a really good guy, I'm surprised that he can take the nonsense that goes on in the band. But maybe he's the man for it... It's like a marriage - if you're with a band for seven years, you can get to despise them, you know! All their little habits just get blown out of proportion.
Did you ever consciously think about putting like Bach scales in what you did, or did it just happen?
- I think it was a bit of both - I mean, I listened to Bach all the time, so I suppose subconsciously it was there. I love that minor, dramatic, majestic feel that he gets on a lot of his stuff. For instance, like "Toccata and Fugue", that's very intense, and I think that in a way reflects rock'n'roll - he was a rock'n'roller of his time.
Another thing I liked was that thing you did on the "Tribute To Hank Marvin" - I guess you enjoyed doing that one? - Well, he's always been a hero of mine, back when I was 12 or 13 I used to copy all his stuff - but we got in the studio, and funnily enough, we thought we'd just knock it off, cause I knew the tune, I thought, this is going to take five minutes. Of course, that's the famous last words - "This is a five minute job..." We got in the studio, and it took like 24 hours, in this really awful studio that had this horrendous buzz, and we couldn't get rid of this buzz - and I had to play in such a way that every time I stopped playing I had to turn the volume down, cause there was just so much noise going on.
Oh, what a drag.
- Yeah - and we couldn't believe that this guy had a professional studio - we had like a day booked in there, and we were kind of lumbered, it was like well, "What are you going to do about it?" And this guy is going, "Oh, well, we have all sorts of people here", and we were like, "How can you have professional people here with this racket you've got?" God knows what it was. We tried everything we could to get around it, but we couldn't, so in the end, I said, you know what, f*** it, I'll just play. And I played it, I was like gritting my teeth, and I was really pissed off, trying to coax out this melodic little number... But I was pissed off. And I think back, after hearing back, I thought, God, I could have done this so much f***ing better. But it was - at that point, it was, "Let's just do anything, and get the hell out of here."
I think it comes out pretty well anyway. - Yeah, it wasn't bad, but it's just one of those numbers I know I could have done so much better. Great, great song.
What's your position on vintage guitars, compared to new ones? - I love the look of vintage guitars. I have a vintage guitar book open in front of me. I love the Gretsch DuoJet, and I love the old black Les Pauls from the 50's. But to me, I think they're fantastic looking, but I don't see any difference in playing. I tend to go with the 70's Fenders, they're just as good. I would go into guitar shops and people would say, "Oh, this is a 1958 Telecaster", and I'd go, "How much is it?", and they'd say three or four grand, and I'd play it, and say - "This is awful! Dreadful piece of s***!" But because it was so old, they'd want the world for it, and I didn't get that. It was like a form of snobbery, you get that musical snobbery. I love the look of this DuoJet, and I'm thinking I'd love to have one of those, but I know if I bought one, I'd be looking at it going, "What the hell did I ever see in this, other than the way it looked in the shop window?"
You've always been famous for playing Strats - what about soundwise, do you think there's any difference with the old ones? Personally I think a new Strat is much nicer to play than one of the 58's... - Yeah, I know, that's what I think. I don't agree with this myth that the old ones sound better. I think it's all in the hands and the head, it's not really in the guitar. I think guitars have got better - but like I say, I love the look of the old ones, I remember when I was a kid, and I'd look in the shop windows at a Gretsch Anniversary, or a Tennessean, they just looked amazing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQp0lCSY--Q
Topic: Blackmore interview for Silvergun and Doug (Read 5272 times)