Ritchie Blackmore - Interesting little interview

[Music Junkie]

I stumbled upon this clip while searching for something else. I have all of Ritchie's albums from his group Blackmore's Night, and they are quite interesting, if you like this kind of music. Anyway, I found this little interview and was surprised to find the source of the legendary riff for "Smoke on the Water". You never know where inspiration will come from.....

[hasben]

Thanks MJ! Another prime reason to be here.

[unclewalt]

Wow, that renaissance stuff might be great, I don't know, but it's weird.

Here's another take on the origins of the Smoke on the Water riff. Not saying Blackmore's not telling the truth, but maybe he had also heard this Astrud Gilberto bossa nova riff at some point, too.

http://www.thehighwaystar.com/thsblog/2 ... ious-ways/

[Music Junkie]

unclewalt wrote:

Wow, that renaissance stuff might be great, I don't know, but it's weird.

Here's another take on the origins of the Smoke on the Water riff. Not saying Blackmore's not telling the truth, but maybe he had also heard this Astrud Gilberto bossa nova riff at some point, too.

http://www.thehighwaystar.com/thsblog/2 ... ious-ways/

Walt:

That was a very interesting little article. Makes one wonder.......

Thanks for sharing that. I know that while learning a song, I like to mess around with the chords and do all sorts of weird things to see what I can come up with. There have been times that I do that and I come up with something very similar to other well known songs.

Thanks again,

J

[BobR]

MJ,
That was really interesting. I am going to go and try it backwards :woohoo: :woohoo:

Thanks
Bob

[Lavallee]

Thanks MJ that is very interesting. Also Walt your article with the video sure raise some questions.

Thanks for posting.

Marc

[unclewalt]

What Blackmore said is straight from the horse's mouth, while the guy who wrote that thing about Gilberto was just speculating. And after all, it's hardly the most complicated series of notes ever put together. Still, while it could easily just be coincidence, my bet would be that Blackmore had heard it, even if he didn't remember having done so.

[Lavallee]

I did not mean to say that it was suspicious but interesting.

Like they were saying in the article, music evolution is taking what you know and playing it your way. I was listening to Dream Theater (excellent by the way) which is a progressive heavy metal kinda group. I could hear some old Genesis sound and progressions, some Rick Wakeman from Yes keyboard sound, singing sound sometimes like Foreigner. There is a song that I play from Genesis (Horizon) and the beginning is the same as the Cello Suite from Bach with another portion taken from Minuet in G from Bach. When a kid is born, he is a mixture of his family, music works the same way. Many musician like Jimmy Page have been criticized because of what he took from others (but he made it better, go Jimmy, go)), it is bound to happen it is part of the experience.

Marc

[michelew]

Agreed - very interesting - one of the best and most recognised rock riffs based on Bach. Will wouldn't that put the wind up some rockers skirts?

[Music Junkie]

Lavallee wrote:

I did not mean to say that it was suspicious but interesting.

Like they were saying in the article, music evolution is taking what you know and playing it your way. I was listening to Dream Theater (excellent by the way) which is a progressive heavy metal kinda group. I could hear some old Genesis sound and progressions, some Rick Wakeman from Yes keyboard sound, singing sound sometimes like Foreigner. There is a song that I play from Genesis (Horizon) and the beginning is the same as the Cello Suite from Bach with another portion taken from Minuet in G from Bach. When a kid is born, he is a mixture of his family, music works the same way. Many musician like Jimmy Page have been criticized because of what he took from others (but he made it better, go Jimmy, go)), it is bound to happen it is part of the experience.

Marc

Great point Marc. I would think that most, if not all, are influenced by what they listen to growing up. It seems logical that they would work with what drew them to the music in the first place. Most will come up with original stuff as well, but there is a lot of stuff that is either slightly rearranged, or embellished a bit. I for one, think that is just fine. Sometimes messing with someone else's work, can lead you to an epiphany.....