Brian May vs Ritchie Blackmore

Undoubtedly Ritchie Blackmore is better guitarist than Brian May. Both in technique in studio, and in live performances. Brian is only better in relationship with people ... He's very kind person.

[QUOTE] [b]georgs1963 wrote:[/b]
(...) Of course May is better than Blackmore. First of all listen to Good Company, that is his masterpiece not Brighton Rock. May succeeded in many genres , his solos are very well known not just one.
(...)

Wasnt it Stevie Ray Vaughn who once said not sure about the wording " i can copy the style of any guitar player but Brian May, thats how good he is " Heck even i can play Smoke on the Water, nuff said about this nonsense. [/QUOTE]

Why do people insist in compare such a different guitar players?
Good Company its the best example: Blackmore never played anything like that because its not the kind of music he plays. In the same way, if a Blackmore fan claims that Ritchie is better than Brian because Brian never played something like Gates of Babylon they would be wrong cause its not the kind of music Brian plays. It would be like comparing Frank Zappa and BB King.
And about guitar solos, Blackmore is well known for lots of solos (and riffs) not "just one": Lazy, Highway Star, Stargazer, Gates of Babylon come to my mind immediately.

It was Steve Vai who said that, not SRV, but it doesnt matter if it was Vai or SRV, the fact that he cant "imitate" somebody doesnt mean anything. You know, Vai cant copy Michael Angelo Batio and it wouldnt mean that Batio is "better"

And yes, its easy to play Smoke on the Water, so what? I can play Tie your mother down, AOBTD, IWTBF (among other Queen songs) those songs are really easy too, and if you are able to play Smoke on the Water, then you are able to play those and lots of other Brian/Queen songs too, which makes your last point invalid...

I hate the internet for 2 reasons:

i) arguments about what is 'funny' and what isn't

ii) Fucking guitarist comparison 'debates'

Is it 1999 or something?

[QUOTE] [b]waunakonor wrote:[/b]

[QUOTE] [b]winterspelt wrote:[/b]
Brian and Roger's cover of Smoke on the water is a proof that they are different and should not be compared.
[/QUOTE]
Oh, I love that cover (though it's more than just Brian and Roger. Ritchie was also involved). Brian's guitar solo starting at about 2:26 is superb, my favorite solo of the five on the track. Looooove that Red Special tone.

[QUOTE] [b]brENsKi wrote:[/b]
brian's playing always sounded a little too "clean"...
[/QUOTE]
There's some dirty-sounding stuff on the debut album, though that's probably just a result of rawer production more than anything.

Anyway, um, in general I prefer Brian May, although I pretty much agree with all of brENsKi's points.[/QUOTE]

wow. thanks.

also quite refreshing to note that on a queen board...people are so objective as as many for brian as for ritchie....that makes ritchie and even bigger rock guitar god in my book

[QUOTE] [b]winterspelt wrote:[/b]

Why do people insist in compare such a different guitar players?
Good Company its the best example: Blackmore never played anything like that because its not the kind of music he plays. In the same way, if a Blackmore fan claims that Ritchie is better than Brian because Brian never played something like Gates of Babylon they would be wrong cause its not the kind of music Brian plays. It would be like comparing Frank Zappa and BB King.
And about guitar solos, Blackmore is well known for lots of solos (and riffs) not "just one": Lazy, Highway Star, Stargazer, Gates of Babylon come to my mind immediately.
.[/QUOTE]
have to disagree with this. you need to listen to mkII purple - there's plenty of variance in what blackers plays...and also many rainbow tracks..and laterly blackmore's night songs - show the depth and versatility of ritchie's playing

winterspelt, I think you're kind of missing the point of discussing people's opinions.

If Brian and Ritchie played the exact same styles, then it would be fairly clear which one is better at that style because there's little variation. It would be kind of like saying one number is bigger than another number. There's very little to discuss; everyone knows that two is bigger than four, so trying to discuss that would be pointless. Since Brian and Ritchie play different styles, that's what makes them interesting to discuss. If they were the same, they would be boring to discuss; since they're not the same, they're interesting to discuss.

People have these things called opinions.

As much as I want to be able to contribute to this, I really can't, having hardly ever listened to Deep Purple or Blackmore outside of that. Shows how knowledgeable I am, I guess. It's nice that people are being objective about it though, rather than completely shunning the prospect of anyone being possibly better than Brian.

Everybody else hit it on the head. They're drastically different playing styles, you'd have to be crazy or seriously naïve to think that they were somehow similar.

Brian favors G and Open A, D with an ocassional Bm7. (Ala Brian may's initials)

Ritchie was studiously in his own world re disgesting old school technique and probably baroque music.

I chimed in the bit about their hair cause this is a QUEEN fansite... And also cause I haven't loved nearly as many Deep Purple albums as I have had Queen albums (yes I'm aware he left long ago to do his medieval thing- god allah buddha, trog bless him)

The point is there is no point in comparing them. Its ridiculous.
Each was/is an ARTIST and not a chart-reading session musician...

If they were both the latter and RE DIGESTING OLD SHIT AND OTHER PEOPLE'S MUSIC.... THEN you would know the "greater" player.

But since they are both ARTISTS they are different. Therefore NO COMPARISON...


IF YOU HAD SAID RITCHIE BLACKMORE OR BILLY JOE (GREEN DAY)... Then(!) You might be onto something because the latter can hardly play (but Does "write" effectual songs)

brian and ritchie are my favourite guitarists of all time

so to me, a comparison is almost pointless.
I will say this though;

brian is the father of guitar orchestration and harmony
blackmore brought classical influences to rock

what's not to like?

I don't see why one can't compare techniques. At least to some degree isn't technique independent of style?

Brian's better than 99% of guitarists. Ritchie's on the remaining 1% IMO.

what he said ^^^
thing that sets brian apart is his "fireplace"....once you listen to him playing on "brand name" electrics...he could be anyone....
ritchie could not be anyone

[QUOTE] [b]waunakonor wrote:[/b]

winterspelt, I think you're kind of missing the point of discussing people's opinions.

If Brian and Ritchie played the exact same styles, then it would be fairly clear which one is better at that style because there's little variation. It would be kind of like saying one number is bigger than another number. There's very little to discuss; everyone knows that two is bigger than four, so trying to discuss that would be pointless. [/QUOTE]

A number its just a number unless you place them in a context: If you talk about how much you need to pay for something, a lower number would be better than a bigger number. If you talk about how much money you have, a higher number will be better. If you are doing benchmarks for a computer, sometime a higher number will be better, sometimes lower will be better. Bigger doesnt mean better.

[QUOTE] [b]waunakonor wrote:[/b]
Since Brian and Ritchie play different styles, that's what makes them interesting to discuss. If they were the same, they would be boring to discuss; since they're not the same, they're interesting to discuss.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, different styles which place them in different points of music that cant be compared.
Rembrandt cant be compared to Picasso, a Freightliner to a Ferrari, a Boeing 747 to an Eurofighter Typhoon etc: None of them are better than the other.

[QUOTE] [b]waunakonor wrote:[/b]
People have these things called opinions.[/QUOTE]
And I respect people's opinions.
Sadly an opinion its subjective and both Brian and Ritchie are totally different, that's a fact that even you accepted in the first quote of this post.

No doubt Ritchie has better chops. Both are brilliant composers, but I give Brian a slight edge in that department.

Brian beat out Ritchie and Les Paul, but lost to Eddie van Halen in the final.

It's criminal that Les Paul lost to anyone except Hendrix, Chet Atkins or Scotty Moore.

Scotty Moore is often cited as a bit of a hero to the 60s and 70s generation of guitar players. Jimmy Page was a big fan but there's not much evidence of that in his playing i Led Zep. All 3 you mentioned have their own very distinctive styles. But then again, so do Blackmore and May. All of them are easily recognisable in that you can hear a song on the radio and immediately know who's playing guitar. You might add Billy Gibbons, Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler and even Stuart Adamson to that list (and many more, of course). Much preferable to the generic guitar shredders of the 1980s who nearly killed off rock music, but even those guys have their moments. Then there are unheralded guitarists who produce moments of genius, for instance, Berton Averre's amazingly melodic solo on The Knack's "My Sharona". Steve Jones' playing on Never Mind the Bollocks sounds great -- raw and energetic and somehow new, even though it was anything but. Simple stuff like The Ramones also sounds great (if a little repetitive). In other words, if you love the sound of a guitar, it's all good :)