Seeing as I’ve not got much on at the moment, I’m having a bit of a practice-a-thon. I’m learning all kinds of stuff; going over pieces I know, learning new things. Anyhow, I was having a nostalgic look at ‘Fire’ by the splendid Mr. Malmsteen, which led to musing about Ritchie Blackmore (Since You’ve Been Gone is an all time favourite solo). I had a GREAT Rainbow compilation that I got when I was 11 that I used to jam to relentlessly :) Here’s a pic of the sleeve. It’s not on Spotify, but here are the tracks.
Anyhow, here’s the point!, over at Ritchie’s site, there was a nice bit about his favourite guitar solos (it’s no longer there now), However, they’re all fantastic and a shame to lose stuff like this, I think, so here’s his list:
- Believe What You Say – Ricky Nelson with James Burton on guitar
- Stone Free – Jimi Hendrix
- Shapes Of Things – Jeff Beck
- I’m So Glad – Eric Clapton
- I Feel Free – Eric Clapton
- Blue Jean Bop – Cliff Gallop
- Too Much – Elvis Presley with Scotty Moore on guitar
- It’s So Easy – Buddy Holly
- Bye Bye Blues -Les Paul
- Arkansas Traveller – Jimmy Bryant
- Owner of A Lonely Heart – Trevor Rabin
- Big Jim Sullivan- on PJ Proby’s “Hold Me”, “Together”
The Ricky Nelson track led me to a compilation by Keith Richards, which is similarly splendid.
Enjoy :)
Rainbow were the first album I got all ‘completist’ about – I had every album of theirs on vinyl when I was about 15. It was all about Ritchie’s guitar playing too. He has a very distinct intonation that makes everything he plays ‘mean’ more… hard to describe.
By the time I was 16, Rainbow weren’t prog enough for my then progtastic ears, and I sold my Rainbow vinyl to buy Yes albums, but when RJD died I went back and listened to a load of the albums on Spotify and felt that same guitar awesomeness. :)
Oh, and we have an album to release… ;)
Yes!!!!