Ritchie Blackmore wrote rock’s most familiarriff for “Smoke on the Water” during the recording of Deep Purple’s 1972 album,Machine Head. The inspiration came in the moment while the band gazed acrossLake Geneva at the plume of smoke rising from where they had intended to makethe record. As heard repeatedly in the documentary The Ritchie Blackmore Story(out on DVD and Blu-ray), Blackmore’s playing was often like that—drawingspontaneously from some deep inner well.
Blackmore’s father forced him to takeclassical music lessons and the instruction stuck. After wading into the musicbusiness backing proto-shock rocker Screaming Lord Sutch and aging rockabillystar Gene Vincent, Blackmore formed the original Deep Purple lineup in 1968with organist Jon Lord and drummer Ian Paice. They scored a hit from theirfirst album, Shades of Deep Purple (1968) with a cover of American songwriterJoe South’s “Hush.” Traces of Blackmore’s emerging style were audible on thatalbum, yet Shades and its follow-up, The Book of Taliesyn (1968), soundeddirectionless. Their third album, a recording of Lord’s Concerto for Group andOrchestra (1970), was an interesting experiment in classical rock but barelyhinted at things to come.
By this time Deep Purple’s classic lineup wasin place with Roger Glover on bass and singer Ian Gillan, who set the bar forheavy metal vocalists with a shriek derived from Arthur Brown. They became oneof the world’s leading hard rock bands with Deep Purple in Rock (1970),Fireball (1971) and Machine Head (1972). Their sound was led by Blackmore, whoplayed guitar with thrilling intensity and forceful restraint, achievingbreakneck speed while allowing for space between notes. His solos on “BlackNight” and “Highway Star” owed more to classical music than blues, which theband had largely expunged as an influence.
Conflict between Blackmore and Gillan led tothe latter’s departure from the band in 1973 to start a solo career. DavidCoverdale filled his spot. Glover soon left to pursue session work andproduction. The rancor continued. After Blackmore left in 1975, Deep Purplemade one more album with Tommy Bolin on guitar before quitting in 1976. As hasoften been the case, the band continued to regroup with various lineups inlater years.
The Ritchie Blackmore Story includes vintageTV and concert footage plus original interviews with the guitarist and severalof his band mates as well as some of the guitar players he inspired, includingSteve Vai, Joe Satriani and Lars Ulrich. He had the most meaningful career ofDeep Purple’s members outside the band, pursuing metallic hard rock withRitchie Blackmore’s Rainbow and, finally, teaming up with Candice Night for Blackmore’sNight, a medieval and largely acoustic rock band. The latter departure shouldbe no surprise. As mentioned in the documentary, some have heard medieval modesin “Smoke on the Water.”
