Earth curvature has been measured by ancient Greeks in something-BC (and pretty accurately, too). Since there’s no measure for such ephemeral things as “energy” and “fluidity”, then yes – it’s all a matter of opinion.
Speaking as a solipsist, I’m not even sure you guys exist, so how can your opinions be of relevance to my singular mind?
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If fluidity can neither be measured nor observed, I think Ritchie really was at his best on the Memories in Rock tours.
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Why is everyone always harping on about those gigs? I think MMEB played fine and the guitarist was as fluid and energetic as ever!
Especially compared to the hapless outfit that followed them where the guitarist was only a year older than the sublime Mick Rogers, yet sounded hüftsteif and eingerostet throughout. What a difference. 
You’d be certainly entitled to think so. Just don’t confuse opinion with fact.
To try to open the discussion a little, it is possible to measure a singer’s range by the notes they are able to hit (fact, not opinion), surely we can conclude, as fact, that RB was not the guitarist he once was on the Memories in Rock tours? I understand Ritchie’s guitar playing cannot be measured per se, but just from sheer observation.
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Yes but Ritchie in the 70s was not living with arthritis and other permanent disabilities that often come with age - to say he is not the guitarist he once was is both true and unfair to him.
I think Ritchie’s done an admirable job adapting to his body’s limitations, as has Steve.
To compare either men with their younger able bodied selves is both unfair, unrealistic and unjust, as it’s simply harmful to hold disabled people to able bodied standards that they can never meet, guitar players included.
This is a bit of a pet peeve of mine, being a permanently disabled guitar player myself, so when I see it, I point it out - it’s a nasty double standard and it’s everywhere, especially in the music world.
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I also think Ritchie was at his best during the Memories in Rock tours. just as LittleIan’s performances today are better than those on Made in Japan 
What would a 30-year-old Ritchie have said about his own standard of performance in a rock gig forty years later? I doubt he would have shown the same compassion and euphemistic delicacy people are willing to afford him here. I fear he would have been rather scathing.
Having gone through various live recordings of 69 to 72, then the Rainbow offering in 95 and 2016/17 it is clear that Ritchie was the prototype of hard rock guitar in his 20ies, could maintain most of his brilliance and technical abilities till the mid90ies and declined from then on…quite natural
More hypothetical hogwash from Uwe’s world of hindsight, all made up from nothing that exists. A totally pointless exercise to only put someone down for the sake of it. Get a life in the real world Uwe. Cheers.
But I have a life, it’s annoying the hell out of you, Herr MacGrumper!
The alternative word for hindsight is history, but I’ve noticed before that you don’t really care much for it as a well of elucidation, ole frontiersman!
When did you decide to defend everything connected with “Ritchie the Grey”? Shouldn’t that be my job, conjoined as I am with him according to your pet theory?
I can name you a dozen guitarists the age and former ability of Ritchie that have not declined like he has. Of course it wasn’t his choice and everyone ages differently and has health issues of their own, but Ritchie’s decline in the last 15 years or so (he did fine until the late Noughties, a detiorstion in his playing with BN already showed a coupled years before the Reunionbow gigs), tragic as it is, is not “normal”.
And I’m not talking about speed, that is mostly unimportant to me, his whole timing is off. He sounds feeble by now and has lost certainty in his playing. It’s hard for me to listen to him now as he used to commandeer all of even Deep Purple (and Rainbow in any case) with his Strat. If he had gained something in exchange (like IG has with his voice and narration), it wouldn’t be so disheartening, but I’m not hearing that, there is simply (a lot) less of him than what used to be.
I often defend anyone who I think is being ridiculously ‘targeted’. No problem with hindsight in itself, just when it is used to create a false situation to attempt to make a point. That is a totally false narrative. Ritchie from 30 years ago or at 30 years of age, looking forward, yeah good one. No doubt if he only could have done that, just like anyone else in their life eh? Cheers.
In an attempt to get back to the subject, the art of being sloppy, I miss the time when the energy simply took over. Mostly evident live but also on record. The remix of Comin’ Home. The whole of the PS record. TBRO.
But I understand it’s unrealistic and unfair to expect the same results from a band with the guys now in their 80s.
DP is now missing a lead guitar player and they were always a very guitar driven band. A strange thing to say really, considering McBride has all the technical skills in the world and would do a fine job fronting a Gary Moore tribute band. But on Splat it sounds like he has the same role as on a Don Airey band record. Ie, supporting the organ player and his ideas rather than driving the band himself, the way Ritchie always did with his riffs. Not easy to write riffs that are immediately catchy.
Daniel I’m fascinated by your perspective, as I have not heard Don’s Solo albums, or Simon within that context.
I’m choosing to remain wilfully ignorant and not listen to them, on purpose, because I actually hear the reverse of what you do: to me, Simon is driving the band and Don is taking a back seat.
To me as someone who can listen to the last two records without Don’s Solo records influencing how I hear the music, the guitar and the riffs and the lead guitar is very much up front.
Don’s tone sounds thinner and weaker to me. If anything, he could do with a heavier tone and be more up front, because to my ears he’s drowned out by Simon!
Amazing that what we do or don’t listen to alters our perception and how we hear the music. Your perspective has been eye opening for me, thank you for sharing!
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I’m with Daniel, Don Airey, though he doesn’t like to admit it, has become the lead instrumentalist of DP, I’d say it’s 60:40 between him and Simon, with Jon and Ritchie it was the other way around.
But I don’t mind Don’s (not yet overbearing) dominance, he’s a good player and has ideas, he also pushes Purple live.
Dare I say that the music DP are creating now is quite a bit more cerebral than their 70s output (which wasn’t dumb, but less sophisticated than what they present today). Some people appreciate just that (I do, it befits my age), others long for the more immediate go-for-the-throat days of yore. But those aren’t coming back.
How is their current music more “sophisticated” than what they achieved on Stormbringer eg?
It’s hard to know what Uwe means by “more sophisticated” - Uwe, do you mean “more refined” “more thought out”, “more complex” or something else entirely when you say the band’s current music is “more sophisticated” ? Your meaning is a bit vague to me.
Comparing Come Taste The Band with Splat is…possible but not useful.
CTB is the statement of three young men alongside two elder statesman of Rock, it is wild, gutsy and uncensored.
SPLAT is the statement of four old statesmen plus one middleaged hired guitarist who tries to fill Ritchie’s shoes.
The lyrics of Splat are sophisticated, the lyrics of CTB were…good adolescent fun
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