The Man In Black, TMIB, The Speed King, The Highway Star, he is known by many names, and is one of the greatest guitarists to ever play the legendary Stratocaster. On stage, there are few musicians who are as entertaining as Ritchie, he was also one of the first to set his guitar on fire, which is always a crowd pleaser. And his playing is pure heart and soul, a heavy metal sound with a shot of the blues. He was the driving force behind Deep Purple, and the creator of one of the most famous guitar riffs of all time, from the song Smoke On the Water. He was in Deep Purple from the late 60s to 1975, and from 1985 to 1994. The first run with Purple resulted in some of the most famous hard rock/metal songs released in the 70s. The Gillian material was played on the radio and gained more attention with the commercial music world. Such classics as Black Night, Child In Time, and Demon's Eye were released during Ritchie's first round with Purple with Gillian on vocals. These came from a variety of albums including "Machine Head", "In Rock", and "Who Do We Think We Are". After Gillan left in 1973, the band recruited David Coverdale to sing lead vocals, and it was a wise selection. The band went with his blues based howling vocals, and Ritchie cranked up that Strat and played some of his most soulful riffs ever. "Burn" was the first album to be released with Coverdale on board, and Mistreated just has to be the best of the bunch. Ritchie really shows off his amazing licks on that one, and David sounds like he really is being mistreated.

With the release of another album, Ritchie gets bored and decides to form another band, so he leaves Deep Purple in the hands of David and new guitarist Tommy Bolin, and calls up Ronnie James Dio, who had been a huge hit when his band, Elf, opened for Deep Purple. Together with Dio, they formed Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, and this is where the legacy of his guitar playing really began. It was the birth of a new era for heavy metal. Ronnie James Dio's mesmerizing, powerhouse vocals combined with Ritchie's killer guitar was a dream come true. They released three albums together in the period of four years, 75's self titled, 76's classic called Rising, and 78's Long Live Rock and Roll. Rising is one of the most influential metal albums of all time, and included the awesome song Stargazer, which is now a classic, and a favorite of all guitar lovers everywhere. The lyrics to this gem are really cool, and the song basically tells the story of a wizard who enchants the people and forces them to build him a tower of stone to take him to the top of the sky, so that he may reach the stars. After building the tower for years, it is finally completed, and the wizard climbs to the top, and jumps off, thinking he can fly, but as the song puts it "he falls, instead of rising, then there's blood on the sand...." I know anyone who reads this thinks I am crazy at this point, but it really is the coolest song. Dio left in 1978, he was basically sick of singing ballads like Rainbow Eyes and Catch the Rainbow, and wanted to do more stuff like Lady of the Lake, Tarot Woman, and Subtle the Shed, so he left and joined Black Sabbath.

Ritchie brought in Graham Bonnet, who did the job very nicely. They released an album called "Down To Earth", which reached the top ten of the UK charts, and they also had their first top 40 single off of this one, Since You've Been Gone. Graham didn't like Ritchie being in the spotlight, and this caused alot of turmoil in the band ( well, of course Ritchie is in the spotlight, its HIS band! ). Graham split in the middle of the Reading Festival, I believe. Next Joe Lynn Turner was called in, which was another great move on Ritchie's part. Joe Lynn has a much more commercial sounding voice, more suited to singing bluesy ballads than off-with-their-heads rockers, which was just fine. Roger Glover had joined the band as bassist, co-songwriter, and producer, at this time. He had been in the Purp band with Ritchie and the rest in the 70s. With the writing combination of mainly Turner, Glover, and Ritchie, they created three more excellent Rainbow albums, and many more classic songs. I believe the best of the songs is defintiely Stone Cold from 1982's "Straight Between the Eyes" which is my all time favorite song, and is a very bluesy ballad, and a heartbreaker. The other two albums were "Difficult To Cure" from 1981 and "Bent Out Of Shape" from 1983, which had Street of Dreams on it.

Ritchie broke up the band in 1984 to join the reformation of Purple, and a couple of albums were released with the most famous lineup of this legendary band, "Perfect Strangers" and "House of Blue Light". Some of the greatest songs with vocal hack Gillan as the frontman were from this era, including Bad Attitude and Knocking At Your Back Door". But Deep Purple did not reach its peak until 1990 when Gillan was gone again and Joe Lynn Turner entered the lead singer spotlight. The album Slaves and Masters was released and it was the BEST Deep Purple album ever. Don't believe what anyone else says, it really is great. Joe Lynn Turner sounds great on it, singing like an angel on songs like Fortuneteller, King Of Dreams and Love Conquers All. Ritchie sounded great as usual, with fiery guitar work, with a gentle quality. The musical depth of Rainbow entered into the Purple world for this one album, with layers of keyboards and vocals, and a multi track background of beautiful guitar work, the elements that made the Turner era of Rainbow so wonderful.

Well, they started writing more songs for another album, but the other band members decided they HAD to have their precious Ian Gillan back, and ganged up Ritchie and Joe Lynn, and had Joe removed from the band. Gillan could never really sing anyway, but he was back. "The Battle Rages On" was released in 1993, and sounded like, well, crap, and it was all because of Gillan's lack of singing talent, and his lack of vocal control with his half whine/scream that just simply ruined most of the songs on the album. They were not written for that kind of vocals, especially the gorgeous ballad Anya. The acoustic guitar in that song was really beautiful, and then Gillan starts up and it just completely kills the song. He sounds like he is dying through half of it, being tortured or something, and the background music and the lyrics are rather like a medieval ballad. That disgusted me, and Ritchie as well, because Ritchie left the next year, due to Gillan, and his lack of talent.

Thank goodness he decided to leave, because he reformed Rainbow, and recruited Londoner, Doogie White, a singer with a vocal sound that is a cross between Turner and Dio ( if that can be imagined, you probably would have to listen to all three to see what I mean ). "Stranger In Us All" was the result of this, and it picks up where "Bent Out Of Shape" left off in 1983. Ritchie once again proves just how great he really is with songs such as Black Masquerade and Ariel. Black Masquerade is really awesome, and features an acoustic solo to die for!!! It has to be heard to be believed, and the medieval other-worldly mood of the song is captured perfectly. Its one of those songs that just sound huge. Ariel is a mysterious sounding, unique ballad, that also captures that "other worldly" quality.

Rainbow has been put on hold until 1998, and Ritchie is currently promoting his latest release, "Shadows of The Moon" with Candice Night, his fiancee, on vocals. She also co-wrote some of the songs on "Stranger In Us All," and sang backup vocals on Ariel. Candice has a very sweet sounding voice, that mixes well with the music and Ritchie is one of few guitarists who can really play the acoustic like it is supposed to be played. It has an almost harp-like sound, and is simpy beautiful. On the electric, he can rip your heart out, and then turn it around and play one of those off-with-their-heads, kill the infidels riffs, the kind that would open up Kill the King or Sixteenth Century Greensleeves and anyone capable of doing that, is truly a master.

You are currently listening to a midi of Temple of the King by Rainbow.