Def Leppard on Deep Purple

Damian Phelan was doing a bit of surfing and turned up a ‘my favourite guitar solos’ feature by Phil Collen from Def Leppard. Both Blackmore and Bolin made his top ten, as Phil explained:
“(Highway Star) had a huge impact on me, and it was very instrumental in my wanting to pursue the guitar. Actually, it was the first proper solo I learned how to play. Listening to it now, the tone is a little too clean for my taste – I prefer a much dirtier sound – but I’m still very impressed by Ritchie Blackmore’s choice of notes. He doesn’t do anything obvious, nor does he play what a lot of guitarists did back then – all those Jimmy Page blues-rock patterns. Of course, I love Jimmy Page, so I’m not knocking him. I’m just saying that Blackmore took things ‘outside’. A very unconventional guitarist.
Blackmore picks each note with total precision, but he plays with unbelievable fire. The man’s rippin’! Even on some of the stuff that’s sort of classical, he’s going for it.”
“Billy Cobham’s Spectrum is one of the first jazz-rock fusion records. It totally turned people’s heads around. And Tommy Bolin, who had replaced Ritchie Blackmore in Deep Purple, is an absolute monster on it. On the song Quadrant 4, he’s going nuts with the wah-wah, the Echoplex, the whammy bar. God, he’s just making the guitar scream! But what’s super-impressive is how he keeps his licks right in place and never loses the rest of the band.
The great thing about Tommy Bolin is that he had a wonderful ‘fuck-off-ness’ to his playing. But it wasn’t for the sake of being arrogant; he was just being himself, being free. The guy lived and breathed music, and it’s really sad he died so young. He would have evolved and contributed so much.”
You can read the full feature at the Music Radar site. I’ll have to check with my brother, he jammed with them once at some scout hut or other in their very early days (but didn’t think they’d make it!).

Tags: Def Leppard, ritchie blackmore, tommy bolin