The Ritchie Blackmore Story

Finally a long overdue documentary about guitar virtuoso Ritchie Blackmore, a treat to all guitar music lovers, this film does not disappoint.

Ritchie Blackmore has always been a bit of mystery, a sort of untamed guitar player with brilliant technique and feel. And even though he wrote some of the most famous guitar riffs and solos in the history of rock music, he is still not talked about enough in my opinion. For example, whenever you come across all those Top 10 guitar players of all time lists, his name is never included That is why it's great that we got this film.

Most true Deep Purple, Rainbow and Blackmore's Night fans will already be familiar with most things mentioned in the film but it's still great to see the man himself talking about them. Ian Gillan is not included in the interviews as you might have expected but it was nice to see Jon Lord, David Coverdale, Glenn Hughes and others talk about working with Ritchie.

I only wish the film was longer so we could maybe learn even more about the inspiration behind his brilliant music and where and when certain riffs and solos were written and maybe take more time to get through all the songs and albums, other than that, it's great.

If you admire Ritchie Blackmore, you just need to see this.

If you love Deep Purple or Rainbow. Or both. You will absolutely love this. Fantastic interviews with multiple rock n roll legends that are fun and informative. Great overall story of the Black Knight.

About the "caucasian Hendrix", Mister Ritchie Blackmore, with whose music I grew up and lived all my life, I know all over Deep Purple, Rainbow and Blackmore's Night. I finally learned from this movie what it was actually why he left Deep Purple, for the second time, because he can no longer supported Ian Gillan, as a man and as vocalist. The truth is that we think and feel the same, David Coverdale and Joe Lynn Turner, are far beyond Gillan's worth. I liked Deep Purple, with Gillan, when I was young and teen. As an adult, I prefer Blackmore's Night. And, I totally agree with what Gene Simmons, from Kiss, says at the end: all who enter and play in bands, they do it for fame, money and chicks, Ritchie Blackmore has entered into this, for the music!

Deep Purple and Rainbow made some legendary classic hardrock records. I love these songs till this very day. Unbreakable. Solid.

This is not a particularly groundbreaking documentary, because we mostly get to see Ritchie Blackmore talk and he is simply confirming that the guy was a pain in the 9ss and THE cause of many conflicts in whichever group he played. But this is still worth a watch!

Ritchie Blackmore was an absolute genius at guitar playing. Deep Purple could not live with or without Ritchie. The beautiful balad song that was never officially released called "When a blind man cries", was about the breakup and Ritchie didnt like it, so it never made the record...

What's most interesting about this documentary are Ritchie's earliest recollections about Deep Purple and how the many terrific classic rock songs come about. It's really amusing to hear about the origins of these classic songs, by the master himself!

Recommended for any Deep Purple or Rainbow fan!!!

Ritchie Blackmore ended up channeling David St. Hubbins (Michael Mckean) from SPINAL TAP... ruining his band because of a blonde trophy wife, who seems nice enough but probably hen-pecked him into basically becoming a has-been for the last thirty years...

After quitting Deep Purple twice, and Rainbow, twice, he and wifey wound up playing minstrel music, the kind of thing a musician can do with enough money... basically a novelty that doesn't cross over artistically or commercially...

Mind you, this is a good documentary as it showcases all of the eras of Blackmore's music, from Deep Purple Phase's 1, 2 and 3...

Of course 2 is the most famous, the Smoke on the Water/Machine Head era, but he really has nothing nice to say about Ian Gillan... it's as if the greatest aspect of his career were nothing more than an accident...

While it's interesting hearing Richie telling the truth aka being blunt... the George Costanza of rock... you don't get two sides of the story, from Gillin or anyone else here interviewed, like Jon Lord or Roger Glover sticking up for their lead singer...

The best stuff Blackmore did were the first three albums of Phase 2 (In Rock a particular favorite); and yet he seems the happiest with his wife playing music in their mansion...

Or crooning over his god-awful Top 40 version of Rainbow, after Ronnie James Dio left, which sounds like Foreigner if Foreigner didn't know how to write a catchy song...

But just seeing his fingers... playing a cross between classical, jazz, blues and proto-metal... is downright great enough...

We just needed more of the music, and less of the man: who doesn't seem to appreciate anything but his own self-inflicted obscurity.