![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/mcbride3.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/paice.jpg)
He’s well sung here
An outfit called DRUM.DOG has posted earlier this year a mini-documentary hailing Paicey as “the unsung architect of hard rock drumming”.
Often overshadowed by his flashier peers, Deep Purple’s Ian Paice is one of the most influential and technically masterful rock drummers in music history. With a career spanning six decades, he helped shape the sound of heavy rock and proved that groove and precision can live inside blistering speed. In this video essay, we explore Ian Paice’s career, drumming style and legacy.
Thanks to Uwe for bringing this to your attention.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOPSETBUgvQ
Nuff said.
November 7th, 2025 at 00:45Ian Paice has never been underrated in what press I have read over the last 5 decades. Friends of mine and other musicians I have known have always praised his drumming and technique etc, just as much as other drummers from the rock bands of yore. A bit of media hype, these days on YouTube and the like anyone can waffle on it seems. Still, good to see a little coverage focusing on that ‘swing’ again, it has been a while since we talked about that hasn’t it? And if Ian keeps up that single stroke roll he may actually go somewhere. I hope he has a creative and successful career ahead of him. Good luck Ian. Cheers.
November 7th, 2025 at 09:25My favorite drummer. The best?
November 7th, 2025 at 13:10I hope he release a solo album in future. He is the only Purple from Mark II – Mark IX who doesn’t have a solo album.
“Ian Paice has never been underrated in what press I have read over the last 5 decades.”
I disagree, albeit with an utmost heavy heart, Herr MacGregor. Compared to how, yes him again, John Bonham, Keith Moon, Phil Collins, Neil Peart and Mike Portnoy were all at various points in time elevated to drummer deity status, Little Ian has had a lot less exposure. Undeservedly so.
I’ll give you an example: My son’s girlfriend is a professional drummer in California, she records and tours internationally, in her mid-twenties, originally from the Detroit area, Michigan, has been playing drums since she was a teen (she’s from a music family via her dad, her sister is a musician – singer – too). For fun, she regularly plays classic Bonzo rudiments (Fool In The Rain is her favorite) when playing her electronic drums (neighbors!, she has her real drums in storage) in her apartment. Until Leon brought it up with her (at his nasty dad’s instigation of course! 😈), she had never heard of Ian Paice nor was she acquainted with his style, her knowldge of DP is fleeting (SOTW). So Bonzo yes, Little Ian no. Of course it’s anecdotal evidence and she’s a young American, coming from a music culture where DP’s market leader role in 1973/74 is but a faint memory today and where the individuals within DP never achieved (and/or perhaps wanted) the fame of members of Led Zeppelin or The Who.
Another example, Zep’s notorious Band Aid USA gig. Who was invited as a second drummer? Phil Collins. Why not Ian Paice?
And while Herr MacGregor has chastized me for this observation in the past, I always remember what a drummer once told me re Bonham’s fame and Paicey’s comparably “only connoisseur”-status along the lines of:
“No one can play exactly like Bonham, but it’s relatively easy to cop something small off his style that will be recognizable to a lot of people. Like the drum break in In The Air Tonight which Collins borrowed from Bonham – that isn’t difficult to play, but it’s hugely effective and immediately recognizable. But if you want to copy something from Ian Paice, then it almost always requires some technique and sophistication to do it, and since he has that swing/jazz background it is a technique people are no longer that familiar with. He’s bloody hell difficult to copy!”
And the drummer in question told me this in the mid 90s!
I do see a growing reappreciation of Little Ian though since, say, the millenium, and that is a good thing, albeit belated.
I will now patiently await (and brace myself for) the usual pernicious admonishments from the Tasmanian timpanist! Hit me, Herr MacGregor, I am forever your submissive drum!!!
PS: Sadly, my son’s GF remained devastatingly unimpressed when he played Burn (a song she didn’t know) to her, she frowned and uttered: Everything everywhere all at once! Diese Amerikaner … 🙄 They learn nothing over there …
November 7th, 2025 at 17:33https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBTc9kwHR80
November 7th, 2025 at 18:35@ 4 – bullshit competition crap, what we pick up when we are very young, competing, trying to make out we or another individual is better than someone else. It is pathetic, no one is better than anyone else. it is different, that is all it is. Perhaps if Ian Paice had died as a younger person he may have been elevated to a ‘deity’ status. Let’s face it, we know that is what happens, Moon, Bonham etc even Cozy, bless him. He died at the start of the internet, good timing, no pun intended. Let’s beat it all up folks, a charade is a charade. Media folly, we know the childish game they play and they always will. The wild men of rock music, if you act feral, Ginger Baker, Moon etc, you get elevated too. Some say it’s rock ‘n roll, alas that adolescence behaviour is evident in all of society. We are an animal after all I suppose, more is the pity in many aspects. It is what it is. Phil Collins drumming has been conveniently been forgotten actually Uwe, he is more known for his singing, songwriting hits etc. Many people don’t even know who Neil Peart is, he liked it that way. As for the joker Portnoy, how dare you mention him with the greats, a media ‘personality’ or ‘celebrity’, how convenient to lift the profile. We are stars everybody, Superstars. Pseudo false rubbish that is. We could go on, I will not though. What for? It is better all round that Ian isn’t mentioned in that way isn’t it? Cheers.
November 7th, 2025 at 20:18I forgot to mention this one from Uwe. “Another example, Zep’s notorious Band Aid USA gig. Who was invited as a second drummer? Phil Collins. Why not Ian Paice?” Easy that one, celebrity, celebrity, celebrity. Surely you wouldn’t put that one on Ian, forgetting whether or not that he may have been unavailable or more importantly, not interested, who can tell. Phil Collin’s ego was out of control back then, say no more. Although he got his comeuppance regarding playing in that situation. He loathed it and was a touch out of sync, wasn’t he? Anyway, don’t do those things to Ian, please. Cheers.
November 7th, 2025 at 22:27Of course, Little Ian has already received the ultimate accolade as a drummer …
https://youtu.be/LbC0evIHkDo
https://youtu.be/6ayH91JmW6c
https://youtu.be/0IQskeQftbg
You can’t ask for anything more.
November 8th, 2025 at 00:43@8
I saw him Uwe, with Perpendicular 🤩
He is amazing 💜
At the end he spoke a bit to us, said he was grateful that the guys in Perpendicular want him to play with them. And I thought: they are LUCKY he wanna be with them.
He seemed so gentle and nice, ohhh man I would have loved to thank him ☺️
November 8th, 2025 at 10:41Even the worst sappy excesses of Collins’ solo vocal career could never undo the excellence of his drumming with Genesis.
November 8th, 2025 at 14:11I can’t help it, but I sort of prefer Paul McCartmey over Robby Thomas Walsh’s Purpendicular! Worlds apart.
November 8th, 2025 at 15:45That is the hallmark of a great musician: putting the song first, before ego.
November 8th, 2025 at 15:50Being of the drummer fraternity and often looking at those sort of magazines and articles over the decades, that is why I have never thought of Paice as being ‘underrated’. He has always been well represented outside of the hyped up over the top broader ‘rock’ music paraphernalia, of which I ignore in most parts. After the local press article link below is a small example of Modern Drummers respect for all drummers over the years, Paice is in every one that I have linked and no doubt many more from other articles in other magazines. Cheers.
https://nottsmusicarchive.com/ian-paice/
https://www.moderndrummer.com/article/deep-purples-ian-paice/
November 8th, 2025 at 22:22https://www.moderndrummer.com/article/october-2014-issue-volume-39-number-10/
https://www.moderndrummer.com/article/july-2017-issue-volume-41-number-7/
https://www.moderndrummer.com/article/november-2018-issue-volume-42-number-11/
https://www.moderndrummer.com/article/october-2020-volume-44-number-10/
https://www.moderndrummer.com/article/december-1984-volume-8-number-12/
https://www.moderndrummer.com/article/december-1998-volume-22-number-12/
https://www.moderndrummer.com/article/march-2005-volume-29-number-3/
https://www.moderndrummer.com/article/november-2005-volume-29-number-11/
https://www.moderndrummer.com/article/december-2011-volume-35-number-12/
@9
“…ohhh man I would have loved to thank him”
So you’ve got a crush on both Ians now?
November 8th, 2025 at 22:53I will always cherish the drum stick which Little Ian tossed my way after Smoke on the Water in Sapporo, Japan in 2016.
November 9th, 2025 at 03:18Well it wasn’t about comparing Macca to Robby, was it? And IP may play just as good with Robby – if not better due to more personal freedom, more demanding songs and he being the prime mover in that band anyway. Watching Ian play with them from a very short distance sure is a treat.
November 9th, 2025 at 13:56I share your deep concern and anxiety, Russ, is Karin heading towards a love triangle with DP and what can we do to stop such potentially self-destructive behavior? Karin is like our baby sister – she needs protection from willfully doing damage to herself!
https://youtu.be/rZe9f6JVbwc
Good Herr MacGregor, great thanks – but: What the hell took you so long?! 😂 – for the link to that 2020 Modern Drummer interview with Paicey, a treasure trove re his style and insights:
MD: Regarding your beat placement or emphasis, is it ahead of the beat, dead center, or behind the beat?
Ian: Any great rhythmic feel is a combination of push and pull. My bass drum is on the beat, or maybe even slightly ahead (Uwe’s edit: so that is why it sounds so “bouncey”), but my backbeat—the snare drum—is behind it. And it’s that magic combination of something that shouldn’t work that makes it happen. It’s a push-and-pull thing, and there’s an inherent tension in that.
The problem we have today as drummers is that nearly everything we do in the studio, especially in rock and very modern music, is all click-track determined. Now, you can love or hate click tracks, but they’re here to stay. The art is to make the click sound like you’re not playing to a click. You want to recreate that same idea of push and pull with the click track playing in your headphones, which is difficult. But once you find it, treat it as something you must deal with, then you’ll find a way of making it work. The click is all about precision; there’s no swing in it. It’s that absolute precision that gets inside your head and makes it work. But for those great feels, there must be a tension, and that to me is push and pull.
Re our subject on Ian’s fame or non-fame: I never said he wasn’t rated by his peers, any drummer saying that Paicey is not good is a risible figure to me. It’s his under-perception in the general public that bothers me. Little Ian is not so much underrated (once you listen to him, you turn into a convert) as he is under-exposed. Edith by the way thinks that Paicey is the best thing DP has to offer, she loves the way he drums.
November 9th, 2025 at 14:02@14
🤣
What world do you live in where the urge to thank someone equals having a crush 😄
No Sir, I wanted to thank Ian P because of his brilliant work throughout the years!
November 9th, 2025 at 18:01And no, for the thousands time: I have no crush on Ian G either.
@15
You have a drumstick from Ian P?
I’m happy for you of course, but man I’m green from envy!
November 9th, 2025 at 18:04“You have a drumstick from Ian P?”
https://media4.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExc2YwbHRxcXp6bWlpYnNuNXJraXkxejZyaDMyOG9xeDV6emd0MjlpMSZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/DYerUxZa9k568/200w.webp
Yes, he does, and Little Ian has suffered from a bad limp ever since – not to mention the double bass drum impediment it constitutes.
PS: I have one too! A drumstick I mean. Even from a Purpendicular gig, my first one I think!
***************************************************************************
I do have to come up to the defense of Russ @14, who just knows how easily wimmin – in their constant upheaval of emotions that mangle all thought – get caught up in such things …
https://shaldenandneatham.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/img_0294.jpg?w=3136
https://novelia.app/web/blog/the-irresistible-allure-of-rockstar-romance-your-complete-guide-to-musics-hottest-love-stories/
We only have your best interests and general wellbeing in mind, Karin!
November 9th, 2025 at 22:15@ 17 – “Edith by the way thinks that Paicey is the best thing DP has to offer, she loves the way he drums.” Poor Cozy and Bonzo, a double whammy from the Hornung household, sheesh no wonder those two drummers left the building (ouch). Seriously Uwe, I know what you mean and the above article too, in that sense. I look at all the unnecessary hype around some of the other drummers regularly mentioned in the media and that does get in the way of other drummers getting the light shown on them. Professionally of course there are many peers that have always recognised Ian Paice, Simon Phillips and many others. Even Bill Bruford probably has had a little more exposure than Ian Paice over the years. It depends on the article and printed media and what their aim is. Certain media outlets have their ‘darlings’ to accommodate, regularly for that attention grabbing sensationalism etc. Cheers.
November 9th, 2025 at 22:47“I must find a way to get my green hands on that drumstick, it’s just not fair …”
https://64.media.tumblr.com/b74088ec8ea323fb52f818067efa8875/ddc9c1468ddd02cd-5e/s540x810/4449bd1611079e36fd4cf268b3ed10d1bf4a353e.gif
November 10th, 2025 at 03:24@20
Uwe! Being your babysis and everything, this:
“PS: I have one too! A drumstick I mean. Even from a Purpendicular gig, my first one I think!”
– calls for something! You ought to give this drumstick to me freely and sweetly 😁
REALLY! you ought to!
If this is true:
“ We only have your best interests and general wellbeing in mind, Karin!”
– you must know how my heart is in pain right now.
I wanted so much to shake his hand (also because you know, Ian P is the closest to Ian G I will ever be…..) so please Uwe!
You really ought to…🤩
And if you need a little Ermutigung, then listen to this:
https://youtube.com/shorts/YS3gyX0BWqo?si=bTBoto6UQZEbjVen
That’s how far he was from me 😭
Have a lovely day everybody 😙
November 10th, 2025 at 08:15@17
Had no idea Kojak could sing! 😂😂
And I never do any damage to myself 😁
I do have a tiny question for you, have posted it a couple of times in here, but somehow it doesn’t surface here, and it certainly isn’t more off-topic than the Kojak vid!
So I dare write it again:
Uwe, in this video:
https://youtu.be/Yw_sJifUYgM
Why is the bassist a doll? Had Mr Rossi another go at the poor Alan Lancaster?
And then you write this:
“Edith by the way thinks that Paicey is the best thing DP has to offer, she loves the way he drums.”
– What?? I mean: WHAT??
I was convinced that she also had a soft spot for the Everlasting current vocalist.
November 10th, 2025 at 11:22What happened Uwe? Did you taunt her in that merciless manner you also show me? 😃
Well, never mind, of you answer my answer re Alan Lancaster/doll you’re completely forgotten 😃
@11 + 16
“but I sort of prefer Paul McCartmey over Robby Thomas Walsh’s Purpendicular!”
– I don’t! Robby was very energetic and a great singer actually! And compared to Mr. McCartney, very humble 😄
“Watching Ian play with them from a very short distance sure is a treat.”
November 10th, 2025 at 13:44– it was indeed Max 😊
And this was wonderful (so sorry for me not being able to record properly 😄)
https://youtube.com/shorts/WOQbUXpO4W8?si=SO29yQJtJGxiq78-
@20Uwe
Thanks for stickin’ up for me.
I fail to see what she is upset about…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WGVgfjnLqc
November 10th, 2025 at 23:57I can’t help it, but Edith prefers Paul Rodgers to Ian Gillan. And likely Freddie Mercury. Not to forget David Gilmour’s voice. And the guy from Pear Jam, Eddie Vedder, she really loves him.
Re the Paicey drumstick: I’ll consider you in my will if you behave here!
Thanks for the nice drum solo clip, Frau Verndal!
The puppet Quo used to replace Alan Lancaster in a TV appearance? He was in Australia and attending to other things, couldn’t be bothered to appear just to mime (he preferred playing live), so they put up the puppet, knowing it would bother him. And it did, he wouldn’t skip any other TV appearances for the next few years. Until they played Marguerita Time, a song Alan viscerally hated, so he skipped again and they brought in Jim Lea from Slade to take his spot for the performance.
https://youtu.be/rtm2HOTNC6Y
November 11th, 2025 at 00:07If I was Sir Paul McCartney I sure wouldn’t be humble either.
https://youtu.be/dezX6pS31xk
November 11th, 2025 at 01:02@17
Sorry! Really don’t know what happened to the last sentence in @24 🤣🤣
I was in a hurry, but that is no excuse.
If the splendid gentlemen in admin will allow me, I’ll try writing the proper sentence here:
Well, never mind, if you answer my question re Alan Lancaster/doll you’re completely forgiven
😂😂 always so sad when bad things happen to good sentences 🤓
November 11th, 2025 at 06:16@26: Lancaster had moved to Australia then and couldn’t be in the shoot.
November 11th, 2025 at 06:57@27
“Re the Paicey drumstick: I’ll consider you in my will if you behave here!“
– I am nothing but kind and very sweet! And if I now and then aren’t, well then think of the pressure I live under in here: all you very clever and highly intelligent people in here…. I am humble and very little and try the best I can to measure up, but fail again and again!
(Your will you say! When can I expect it to be implemented?)😄
“Thanks for the nice drum solo clip, Frau Verndal!”
– you’re welcome! (And please, Frau Verndal was my mum!)
“so they put up the puppet, knowing it would bother him. And it did, he wouldn’t skip any other TV appearances for the next few years.”
– and in my naive mind I thought band member always were so incredible nice to each other, you know just like what happened with this band:
https://youtu.be/eDwi-8n054s
(As the cute nose-wrinkler said: you can almost feel her spitting the words out)
(Wonder if it was Christine McVie who glued them all together in peace and when she died, everything exploded)
November 11th, 2025 at 07:36@28
Thank you for the link!
Is he a brilliant bassist?
November 11th, 2025 at 08:16There was a bit of a tug of war going on. Alan had fallen both in love with an Australian woman and – understandably so – the country itself. Quo were also a big draw there (unlike in the US which they necer conquered). So in his mind, Alan would have liked Status Quo to relocate and make Australia their future center of operations. But Francis Rossi, a son of Italian immigrants, yet quintessentially English, did not want any of that. So it went back and forth a bit and Alan’s geographical distance contributed to his alienation from both Rossi (as children and youths they were best friends with Rossi spending much time in the Lancaster family) and the band. It was another schism to the musical one where Alan wanted Quo to become more of a hard rock band and Rossi wanted his love for country, folk and pop more represented in their music.
November 11th, 2025 at 11:53Yes, Macca is a brilliant bassist both in his groove and his choice of notes. He introduced the art of playing thirds on bass into rock and pop music, a lot of his bass lines were like melodic tuba lines.
https://youtu.be/Vg8J25vCHX0
Very little of what he plays is technically difficult to replicate, but he comes up with it first and it is oh so musically apt! The bopping bass line on a even a “banal” song like Silly Love Songs is sheer natural musicality.
https://youtu.be/PjkHuaG7HIQ
Paul is in the same way musical as Mozart was, a playful embellisher. You’ll have a hard time finding a bassist who doesn’t rate him – people like Geezer Butler, Roger Glover, John Deacon, Glenn Hughes and John McVie are among his fans.
When George Harrison heard what Paul played to George’s “Something” composition, he was initially miffed, complaining that Paul was “overplaying” and”making fun” of his song. But once he heard it in the context of the finished song, he took a bow, and recognized that bass track’s utter brilliance.
https://youtu.be/tIoqyGkMHKw
November 11th, 2025 at 22:29Re Fleetwood Mac’s ruptured romances: I believe both Stevie and Lindsey could be and actually were in their own way equally incredibly difficult, high maintenance and tasking on each other (and everyone around them!).
But Fleetwood Mac without Lindsey, high-strung and restless as he is (he prowls the stage and is easily irritable), is a joke – and Stevie knows it.
November 11th, 2025 at 22:55@34
“Yes, Macca is a brilliant bassist both in his groove and his choice of notes.”
– it’s funny though, because only when it’s completely off I notice the bassist is no good ☺️
When the bassist is perfectly playing, everything just fall into place 😊
“people like Geezer Butler, Roger Glover, John Deacon, Glenn Hughes and John McVie are among his fans.”
Roger Glover is my hero, maybe because I’ve listened more to him than anyone else.
– this is adorable:
https://youtu.be/IxS7DtM1TZU
Thinking of 2:45
“he was initially miffed,”
– George wasn’t a bassist!
“Paul is in the same way musical as Mozart was, a playful embellisher.”
– wasn’t Mozart a bit to the side? 😄 (just like Lindsey Buckingham!)
Thanks for the links, I do have a little extra question:
November 13th, 2025 at 06:44When playing the bass you use the fingertips and not the plektre, doesn’t it ruin your fingertips? Wonder if that way of playing makes them numb? Eventually even remove the fingerprints?
I do know some potters, after working with clay for years and years their fingerprints are actually altered!
die website drum.dog is AI generated crap
November 13th, 2025 at 12:18A lot of crap floats around there these days.
November 13th, 2025 at 23:21“When playing the bass you use the fingertips and not the plektre, doesn’t it ruin your fingertips? Wonder if that way of playing makes them numb? Eventually even remove the fingerprints?
I do know some potters, after working with clay for years and years their fingerprints are actually altered!”
Neither Edith nor my first wife have ever complained about the callouses on my left (the fretting hand builds callouses too) or right hand if that is what you mean, Karin, but thanks for worrying. I did not have to decide between bass and babes.
I can’t rule out that those callouses might at one point affect legibility/identification of fingerprints, but in general they are not that extreme. You need a lot less force and pressure to play electric than acoustic double bass (that is an instrument where you really need to train your manual strength regularly by staying in practice). And it is in general good advice to use a lighter touch on electric instruments than a heavier one which leaves you little room to go should you wish to increase dynamics. Too much force can kill tone or make it very samey too.
Pottery you say? Lovely, I’m personally a great fan of handicrafts!
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RI5aESStMbk
November 14th, 2025 at 17:25@ 39- I don’t think there would be too many males worried about that pottery ladies ‘callouses’ Uwe. Regarding Stacia in Hawkwind, I think she stayed in the upright position from images and videos I have witnessed. Not prone to ‘prostate thyself before thee’ as that lady in the Deep Purple photo appears to be doing. Maybe she just ‘worships’ the lead singer? I think this Stacia comment should be somewhere else? Oh well, that pottery video distracted me. Cheers.
November 15th, 2025 at 22:12#39
‘You need a lot less force and pressure to play electric than acoustic double bass (that is an instrument where you really need to train your manual strength regularly by staying in practice). And it is in general good advice to use a lighter touch on electric instruments than a heavier one which leaves you little room to go should you wish to increase dynamics. Too much force can kill tone or make it very samey too.’
– thank you!
I have always wondered the same with Lindsey Buckingham, since he also plays ‘barefingers’ 😊
Btw: find him amazing here:
November 16th, 2025 at 06:25https://youtu.be/jdhoIKZMOwg
Uwe, I had a really hard time viewing that pottery video… thanks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugZP7OynEz8
November 16th, 2025 at 07:35Guys, I’ll always do my very best to corrupt your innocent minds! 😈
https://youtu.be/aArkIaPqV3c
Karin, your untarnished virgin soul can of course never be corrupted, but, yes, Lindsey Buckingham is a force of nature in his guitar playing. Criminally underrated. But he’s not the only one eschewing a pick when playing electric guitar. So do Mark Knopfler, Jeff Beck and in the last 35 years or so increasingly even Ritchie Blackmore. The riff of King of Dreams for instance was written while Ritchie was doodling on his guitar without a pick while watching TV and cannot be replicated with a pick.
November 16th, 2025 at 20:46Yes there are plenty of finger pickers about on the electric six string guitar and also bass guitar too. Not to mention Flamenco and classical music and its superb guitarists. With ‘rock music’ Jeff Beck use to be a plectrum player and then threw it away sometime in the 1970’s I think. The more melodically sensitive guitarists can do it. No way a shredder could, they wouldn’t have any fingers left would they? Uwe, in regard to your ‘mind’ and the internet, well at least Karin gave me a little warning not that long ago. I know that is asking too much from you as you do like to throw innocent people in at the deep end. Not to worry, we have survived so far. Cheers.
November 17th, 2025 at 01:01A couple of former DP guitarists even says SOTW should be played without a pick:
https://youtube.com/shorts/Y50IdJfJ4a4?si=NXplQGYuYLaEkGp-
https://youtu.be/0-DjZXOSUuc?si=bZvRSTAEkBuHlQUu
November 17th, 2025 at 07:23Sure, the SOTW riff the way Blackmore played it is plucked with fingers, not stroked with a pick because only that way you can get the two notes of the parallel fourths it consists of to ring out at the same time and not slightly delayed one after another. The difference isn’t huge, but it is noticeable.
November 17th, 2025 at 16:20Ritchie knows the way and the hat probably has a lot to do with it. You have to be wearing a similar hat. Seriously though, I remember telling a incredibly good guitarist that back in the early 90’s. He wasn’t playing it the original way. If looks could have killed, man he was pissed off. A drummer of all people telling him he wasn’t playing it correctly as in the picking technique. And he was a Blackmore acolyte too. I suppose it could have been worse for me, I could have been instructing a bass guitarist how to play something ‘correctly’. Oh how I yearn for that day, then I could go to heaven a happy chappy. Or should that be hell. Cheers.
November 17th, 2025 at 20:38It’s impossible to emulate Mark Knopfler while playing with a pick:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0ffIJ7ZO4U
Even his brother David played rhythm without a pick. Their finger playing was pivotal for that early Dire Straits trademark sound.
Tommy always played the SOTW riff with a pick and frankly it never bothered me that way, he gave it his own swagger and I loved the way he synched his twitching shoulder with Paicey’s snare in the intro, Tommy was a natural mover:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Omtg1e4x2Vk
Here, only Petrucci plays it “correctly” (but not all the time), while Vai and Satriani riff with their picks. I cannot get worked up about it either way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mlKrzoabzY
November 18th, 2025 at 02:00@48
Mark Knopfler! Uwe I have never seen he plays without a pick before!
How come it’s always Lindsey Buckingham who is mentioned as ‘the one’ playing without a pick?
BTW: I have confessed in here that I really, REALLY like David Coverdale’s voice, but I do need to say: that link with Bolin and DC playing and singing ‘Smoke on the Water’ sounds completely off to me….
Instead I prefer this ensemble ☺️:
https://youtu.be/nENrB7hvplY (Perfection!)
And this:
https://youtu.be/Rfirxs_NUcE (Of course!)
As you know Uwe, I have no musical knowledge whatsoever, but the version you linked to just sounded so wrong.
Even this:
https://youtu.be/y5y7vCTBrtc
I know some people finds it too speedy, but this is much better.
Maybe you had to experience the ordeal in order to play it like it really needs to be played!
November 18th, 2025 at 11:05Yes Uwe, I hear you: Steve never was there, but Ian was, and I guess he has conveyed the sentiments to the t-shirt wearing guitarist 😊
Karin, Coverdale doesn’t sing the same chorus notes Ian did/does in SOTW:
– Ian sings a major third (an E) to a C power chord Ritchie “thought” as minor (at the Stuttart ’93 gig he even turns the C into full minor by playing minor key single notes during the chorus part at 01:23, it sounds more dramatic that way), that gives the chorus a certain unusual quality.
– DC however sings more conventionally an (approximate) minor third (an Eb) to the C power chord. It maks one hell of a difference, but I don’t think it was a conscious move and I don’t believe that DC ever realized that he sang it “harmonically right, but ultimately wrong”. Nor did Ian likely realize when SOTW was written that he was singing an E in the chorus where most people would have deemed an Eb the more natural choice. 😎
SOTW is in G minor and E is (unlike Eb) not a part of that key.
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In guitar magazines, it was well-publicized in the late 70s and 80s that Mark Knopfler plays electric only with his fingers. Actually even earlier than the same thing was also noted about Lindsey Buckingham. Lindsey’s technique is perhaps more “artsy” than Mark’s though.
Even at a time when Dire Straits became too popular and ubiquitous for me in the 80s, I always rated Knopfler’s playing as remarkable though his left hand does nothing fancy.
Buckingham is of course in a “tortured artist”-league of his own. He belongs to those people “we are going to see less and less in the future” as John Kalodner (who spread his A&R wings over artists such as Fleetwood Mac, Cher, Aerosmith and Whitesnake) once remarked in an interview “because any ADHD kid is these days subdued with Ritalin and that kills his artistic drive too“. Sedation is the enemy of creativity.
November 20th, 2025 at 00:55@50
Thank you so much Uwe 😃
I had no idea to be honest that they sang in different keys.
Re guitar magazines: but Uwe, I never read those magazines! I hardly know which way should a guitar face to be played? 😉
November 20th, 2025 at 20:38