As I’m listening to KAYBD from Nobody’s Perfect I find myself wondering what it is that separates Ritchie from the rest.
He can be so very sloppy but still the center of the attention, whereas someone like Jimmy Page is just sloppy.
This version of KAYBD makes it obvious to me why Mk 2 is such a hard act to follow. They simply found the right recipe. You take 3/4 of the instrumentalists being highly reliable and mix it up with 1/4 being totally unpredictable. That created a tension and it’s hard to not get drawn into the music as a result: What’s going to happen next.
Time for the guitar solo. Ritchie plays something that almost goes against the band. Awkward and without any sense of direction, yet it works. That suspense thing.
Of course, it is tempting to hear what the result would be if the chosen guitarist for the gig (currently McBride) was told “can you try to play as if you are quite drunk?”.
But I don’t think these things can be learned. Ritchie was blessed with the ability to play as if someone else pulled the strings, and that he was merely a vessel for it.
Are there any other guitarists you can think of who share this same trait? I would be curious to listen to them.
Jimi Hendrix was all over the shop at times, but also rather masterful too. Could we put it down to a few things. Being bored with playing the same thing over and over. Being an improvisor which is the first and foremost thing at their mind, Trying something new to the take it somewhere else, same as being bored I suppose. Also, they are rather moody characters these sort of people, (aren’t we all) and the mood over takes them at times and off they go…Drugs perhaps in some of Hendrix’ live performances could have been an issue. With Blackers, maybe a drink or two too many before the gig. Hasn’t he often stated that he needed to calm a few nerves before he went on stage each night. Cheers.
Jon Lord was the master of artful sloppiness - and I mean that as a compliment, it sets him apart from many other keyboarders though Rick Wakeman wasn’t Mr Accurate live either.
Blackers was often impatient with himself, I believe he would have preferred to be more accurate most of the time except when he went on one of his show effect noise vendettas.
Yes indeed good ole Jon on the keyboards. Rick too and at times even Keith Emerson was known to throw it all on the line. Have to love that era, again. Maybe Don back in the Colosseum II days perhaps, live in concert. Cheers.
No one is sloppier than Keith Richards, who uses different tuning so that he can do whatever he wants with minimum effort.
One of my best laughs was when I learned to play Jumpin’ Jack Flash and Honky Tonk Woman with the proper tuning. It’s easier than it should, and that’s all because of the tuning.
That’s the main difference between him and Don, I think. It’s difficult to pin down what is their difference, but if there is a distinction it’s the artful sloppiness.
Don does everything properly, he is a skilled master of the instrument. Jon could do that too, except he could often be artfully sloppy.
I once analyzed on THS Ritchie’s final solo of I Surrender from Boston, May 1981 and it’s just the same - starts with the man sloppily lost in the woods completely, with phrases eluding him, but once he clicks into gear - in a two bars he’s on a bong and heading instantly into the stratosphere, ripping out one of his timeless flights. The same is with Le Gipsy from his last MkIII concert, in both solos he starts like an utter sleaze, only to get out of slouch within a finger snap and go above and beyond again. The closure of the final solo with the ever ascending blaring scorch of notes, whacked out with a pick stroke down whole of the neck to signal the band "hey goo’s, the coke line snort is concluded" - gives me goosebumps and artful arm hair standing MOST EVERY TIME I blast it out. And that is one of the main factors of my love and gratitude for Ritchie for being the badass that he can be when the moment of genius finds him. Sloppiness turned into silver and gold, on level completely unrivalled by his peers.
Don has become a lot looser over the two decades with DP, you have to give him that. He‘s also quick on the ball in musical situations. But despite all that he will always sound stiffer than Jon who in his micro-timing played behind the beat while Don is straining at the leash.
Jon could have played with the Stones, Don wouldn‘t make it past the first audition.
I find it remarkable how sloppy and wild he is as an electric guitarist and how neat and disciplined when he plays acoustic, live the change is often from song to song, depending on what he plays. But an electric guitar in his hands seems to definitely trigger something in him.
Not to the same degree, I’m afraid. There’s talent, which both have in spades, but then there’s the training. Don was trained by a teacher whose pedigree can be traced back to, afair, Tchaikovsky, Rubinstein, and Taneyev. Jon had some private lessons early on, but in his own admission, learned by listening to Jimmy Smith, Dave Brubeck, and Oscar Peterson.
This is not welding we’re talking about Listen to Jon’s solo in Lazy on Nobody’s Perfect (starts at 2:15). Hard to find a better example of Jon’s strengths as a soloist within DP and what he brought to the band. Don is great in his own right but does he have Jon’s swing? No.
The constant tug and pull between organ and guitar was a big part of the DP attraction for me at least.
There is nothing mean in admitting that Jon was the better all round Hammond player and Don is the better pianist. I think both would agree with that, Jon was always humble about his piano skills and inter alia wrote piano pieces (Boom of the Tingling Strings) he knew he wasn‘t adept enough to perform himself (no shame in that, it was what most classical composers did) and Roger has rightly said about Don that he remains a piano player at heart. Jon‘s dexterity on piano was never comparable to Emerson, Wakeman OR Alrey and there is no shame in that, piano wasn‘t a central instrument for DP.
Re Keith Richard‘s laziness in preferring alternative tunings: Yes, he was/is lazy, but it is also true that to get his sound you need his tunings. Brown Sugar played with regular tuning sounds nothing like with Keith‘s five-string set-up. And Bad Co‘s Can‘t Get Enough doesn‘t sound right either unless you use Mick Ralphs‘ alternative tuning for it. Finally, a lot of Status Quo songs are frankly unplayable without Parfitt‘s alternative tunings which he used very often for his parts.
As a piano player myself i know how different it is to play the same Song on a Hammond. Basical stuff like chord comping is quite easy to master but to lay down a proper solo is another Dimension.
I tried to study Keith Emerson for some time, very hard, even for my piano teacher who is a pro-jazz cat. Playing Jon Lord stuff was much easier.
And for Don i have to admit that i do like the way he plays but his solos do not evoke the same strong emotions like Jon’s did
was no doubt more Rock’n’Roll than Don and DP is a Rock’n’Roll band. People often focus on Jon’s virtuoso traits as the main thing he brought to Purple, but actually it was his overall musicality that deserves the most credit.
As for his piano playing, the fact that he left that in PAL to Tony (himself hardly a Keith Jarrett, but as Jon once said “the English Leon Russell”), relegating himself mostly to the Hammond and synths, says everything about where he saw himself as a musician within the context of rock.
That said, Don isn’t without standout traits either. He’s a much edgier player than Jon ever was, not quite Colin Towns territory, but certainly closer to Colin than to Jon.
I like both steak and lobster - both immensely satisfying, but in different ways. So any comparison of the two is not a “which one is better,” but “which one do I want right now.”
It’s sort of the same way for me regarding Jon and Don. Jon clearly was the Hammond master - soulful, emotionally engaging solos which incorporated sloppiness in the most appealing way. Don’s playing clearly shows his classical training - probably slightly technically superior, more flawless and very pianistic, if sometimes a bit less engaging in emotion. Sometimes I want to hear Jon, sometimes I want to hear Don - usually for different reasons and my mood at the time. Jon had the distinct advantage of playing with MK II and Ritchie, and he brought out Ritchie’s best moments. So much of Purple’s cred and emotional appeal comes from that era. But Don fits much more neatly with Purple as it has evolved in the last almost-twenty years. As a keyboard player of 70-plus years, I will always have a deeper emotional attachment to Jon, both as a player and as a person. But that does not lessen in any way my love of Don and his style of playing. They are both fabulous. As are steak and lobster.
Jon had a bright and warm sound on stage , not quite the furor that Don can emulate. I remember seing Don on stage with Purple first in 03 and i had to adapt a bit to his quite more agressive and yet thinner sound in comparison to Jon`s brighter overall sound. But yes , today i relistened Woosh as i was in for a more distinctive and proggy Purple hour.
That link you posted is the 1991 Wind in the Willows concert held in Freiburg—Donovan was there as a guest, too!
lawyer, you reminded me just you Germans have been the luckiest people when it comes to the countless live performances by Purple, and by Jon & Ritchie in particular!
Listen to Jon’s solo in Lazy on Nobody’s Perfect (starts at 2:15). Hard to find a better example of Jon’s strengths as a soloist within DP and what he brought to the band. Don is great in his own right but does he have Jon’s swing? No.