Ripping off of others generally has a negative connotation attached to it. Is it a rip-off, or are guitarists getting practice and starting to emulate licks that they vibe with? It depends where you land on this debate, whether you see it as stealing or you believe there may be truth to the cliche ‘good artists copy; great artists steal.’ Well, let’s see Ritchie Blackmore’s take on it.
From the creators’ perspective, no matter how much another musician tries to rip off their tune or emulate it into their tracks, it will never be hundred percent like the original. Sure, it will sound very similar, and most will go, ‘Oh, it sounds just like so and so,’ but it can’t have the same effect as the actual version.
On the flip side, the guitarists who rip off others usually don’t have ill intent. Most are just trying to learn and are on the journey of figuring out the essence and soul of what these admired guitarists are trying to portray with their licks. It’s mostly a guitarist nitpicking from various guitarists who have unique tricks and implement what they like into their sound.
So when it comes to Blackmore, the musician is ready to give away his secrets. In his interview with the Guardian in 2015, he revealed, “Everybody steals. It’s healthy to steal. The thing is to disguise who you’re stealing from. I used to steal a lot from Jimi Hendrix.”
He continued to describe one song in particular that is so much like Hendrix. Ritchie admitted, “‘Rainbow Eyes,’ on the new album, sounds especially like Jimi. What it is, is the inflection of playing in fourths. Jimi used to play a lot of fourths. Several single notes he’d play a fourth above, and that gave him the effect. On ‘Axis: Bold As Love’ it’s all fourths.”
If you were not in the know of Blackmore’s rip-offs and have just learned about them, it means that the guitarist has been able to implement what he likes into his sound without anyone noticing his influences. However, if you already had inklings about it, well, you were right on the money but did his ‘stealing’ make the track ‘Rainbow Eyes’ less praise-worthy or valuable? That is the million-dollar question, isn’t it? Well, it boils down to how you approach the matter.
