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An owl meeting a bumblebee in mid-flight
Guitar Player has an undated interview with Ritchie Blackmore, where he discusses searching for the perfect guitar tone back in the day.
“It’s interesting to note that Jim Marshall didn’t know much about amplifiers,” Ritchie Blackmore says. “And yet he knew how to design something that caught on like crazy. This is a similar situation with Leo Fender, who never played a guitar.”
Blackmore knows something about the gear created by Marshall and Fender. After all, he played Marshall amps throughout his tenures with Deep Purple and Rainbow, and he’s used Fender Stratocaster guitars for nearly his entire career, including today with Blackmore’s Night.
But he never thought either man built the perfect gear.
Continue reading in GuitarPlayer.com.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
A biological, yet non-sexist observation if I may (I did want to become a zoologist as a kid); Owls and bumblebees n’er do meet as one is nocturnal and the other diurnal (I know that sounds like something else, but it’s not related, I wanted to leak that info out of precaution!), midair collisions can thus be confidently ruled out.
Bees, bumblebees, wasps and hornets can all not navigate in the dark, they are lost.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2022/03/20/honey-and-bumble-bees-cant-fly-night-tiktok-has-shown-us-that/7042738001/
https://youtu.be/gY-E_no6vlw
https://youtu.be/3oksoSAxPIc
I wonder if Ritchie’s, i.e. the eternal practical joker’s insect knowledge did reach far enough for him to know that he was stating something that is quite impossible to ever occur, just as replication of his sound seems to be(e)! 🤣 He supposedly takes an interest in wildlife.
https://media.tenor.com/gAUyz11-mzwAAAAM/blinking-robert-e-fuller.gif
March 10th, 2026 at 03:54Unless you’re talking about the Northern Hawk-Owl and Northern Pygmy-Owl…
😉
March 10th, 2026 at 09:19@2
March 10th, 2026 at 10:23Or many other owl species. Most of the species found in the UK are often, even usually, out in daylight for example.
You guys sure do have weird owls! 😂
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/41/9c/39/419c392ff69dd5e092c780719e72566d.gif
But of course you’re right, there are a few species adapted to hunting at dawn/dusk (neither exactly bumblebee time) or even during daylight (chasing bumblebees is not part of their diet) though some of their typical specifications like feathers that enable silent flight to surprise-attack at night (most nocturnally active prey has very good hearing, so aerial stealth is important) or the large eyes to enable night vision don’t make much sense in broad daylight. But evolution is flexible.
I once saw an eagle-owl/Uhu swoop down on a forest path at night while I was riding my bike there – that is one hell of an impressive sight and an eerie feeling at the same time. They really are silent flyers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEVDZl5UvN4
March 10th, 2026 at 18:26@1 – oops. Those pesky night hunters, fancy them being out during daylight hours. Dracula they are NOT. Cheers
March 11th, 2026 at 00:34Keeping it musical, The Flight Of The Bumble Bee. Then the Owl song for all of us grown ups. Now that I have managed to get around the moderator here at THS, the invasive bumblebee in Tasmania is a rather big problem. The chance that they could bump into our native Owls during the day though would be rare, but NOT impossible either. I have noticed the occasional owl out and about during daylight in my time on planet earth, both on the mainland and down here in no man’s land Tasmania. I have also noticed quite often, bumble bees out at dawn and dusk when it is rather bleak, sunlight wise. Ritchie knows what he is talking about and we know he has a penchant or did have for living in castles, say no more. Same with Uwe, so he should know better, he he he. I suppose we should or could cut Uwe some slack here, but then again, why would we want to do that? Ritchie did say according to that article, “The combination of an owl meeting a bumblebee in mid-flight.”, not preying on. How is that for being pedantic. Cheers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYAJopwEYv8&t=19s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm-_w22kUQ0&t=39s
https://www.aussiebee.com.au/bumblebeeharm.html
March 11th, 2026 at 10:26Christ, you Aussies are a weird people, you’re the only country on Earth that considers a critter as thoroughly helpful as the bumblebee a problem! Ship them to us, we need (a lot) more of them.
PS: We most certainly cannot have mention of The Flight of the Bumblebee here without taking a bow to ole Joey of Manowar (@03:55): DEATH TO FALSE METAL (and bees)!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5G9OKrDI6g (video is safe for work, no assless chaps and cramped g-strings in sight)
Don’t try this at home kids, bass guitars weren’t made for this.
March 11th, 2026 at 18:18A very interesting ‘bass’ guitar solo Uwe, thanks for that. He would have to be influenced by Entwistle no doubt and is he also a frustrated ‘guitarist’ as such. Either way, impressive it is. Cheers.
March 11th, 2026 at 22:33Well Uwe, a flamenco-style bass solo was certainly not what I expected. I found it quite enjoyable.
As a rule I don’t like 5-6 minute-long bass solos… there are a couple exceptions, like these:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTBb3Y5r5tw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6HgBh0rPys
If you feel inclined to opine on them I would not mind.
March 12th, 2026 at 09:32@7
Oops… I just realized that I left out a chunk of my reply to you when I was editing it.
This was supposed to be in the middle:
As far as his interpretation of FOTBB, it wasn’t the best I’ve heard but then I’m used to it being played more like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eanxgdGTPHU
or this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRwTaZMTP9I
March 12th, 2026 at 10:22I detect a distinct lack of knowledge with you guys re Manowar, tsk, tsk, tsk, maledetto! Allora, you really didn’t know that
– Joey DeMaio is a proficient bass player (who’s been doing that bumble bee bass solo for decades) who was once the bass tech of Geezer Butler,
– that he plays these ultra thin-necked “basses” reminiscent of a Rickenbacker shape
– which he actually strings with almost guitar strings tuned down (enabling him to do all these acrobatics with them),
– relying mostly then on his bass amp armada to deliver a fat sound his skimpy basses and strings really cannot give?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1G9D8A4Fiw
People make fun of Manowar (deservedly so, their image is hilarious), but no one has ever said they can’t play.
Or sing for that matter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMDM0byqPO8
Eric Adams, the Manowar singer, won the audition with them at the time by faultlessly reaching the high parts in a jam version of Child in Time. That is part of Manowar folklore.
Eric Adams can hold high note screams for 30 seconds[4] at Manowar shows. Adams’s main vocal influence is Ian Gillan. Adams declared in an interview that he used to go to every Deep Purple show as a young man because he loved Gillan’s voice.[5] However, he also worked to create his own, personal style. In his prime, his voice covered more than four octaves, from bass G1 to the soprano C6.[6] As Adams has aged, his vocal high end has decreased, so recent Manowar albums are tuned lower than earlier albums. from WIKIPDIA
And actually their music isn’t THAT far removed from Dio or Dio era Sabbath more exactly (which they will readily admit), Joey DeMaio was after all with the Sabbath roadcrew in the Dio years. In fact it was Ronnie who introduced Ross the Boss (ex-Dictators), the first Manowar guitarist, to Joey DeMaio when Ross the Boss was opening with French band Shaking Street in Paris for Sabbath.
And of course they’re all Italian too, not just Joey DeMaio and Ronald Padavona. Eric Adams is a stage name, his real name is Louis Marullo and he’s from Auburn, NY, where more than one fifth of the population gets out the (tasty!) panettone at Christmas time.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Panettone_-_Nicolettone_2017_-_IMG_7085_%2831752542285%29.jpg
March 13th, 2026 at 03:34@11
“People make fun of Manowar (deservedly so, their image is hilarious), but no one has ever said they can’t play.”
– well, I need to point out a little something here Uwe!
Somehow certain people’s looks can be so disturbing that it takes away all the attention from the music. And sadly that is how Manowar (I mean: the name alone 😁) have the effect on me..
Had you never linked to a video without them in, just the tune, I might have liked them, but their appearances are forever buried deep in my mind and I cannot un-see them 😃
These fine gentlemen however, well they are not exactly bad looking, but more importantly they don’t disturb me so I hope you’ll take a listen to this, all too rare, protest song (btw: where have all the protest songs gone to? Do we really only have Bob Dylan for that? And well, also Extreme..)
https://youtu.be/FS_rgTWkf94?is=e8STRrFS_pHMcRZ_
And yes, I hope you’ll link some protest singers/bands now, because I’m really in the mood for that kind of yelling 😃
March 13th, 2026 at 09:55But Karin and Beate, you two resident metal maidens, are you really sure you wouldn’t want a lifesize poster like this?
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/fvbXbVznHRLxp79rXxXKqm-970-80.jpg.webp
Ironically, as metal bands go, Manowar actually have more women than usual in their audience – I guess it’s the most fun you can have on a chicks’ night out if a mix of the Chippendales and epic melodic metal is your thing! 😂
Alas!, I accept the criticism that Manowar’s picture of wimmin might be just a tad bit tradtional, even tribal, hastening to add that I do in no way share it … 😇
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOvDwdgLumk
But Eric Adams does at times sound like a mix between Dio and Gillan, the above track is very a good example, just listen to the screams at the end.
I remember my son once listening to me playing a Manowar CD in the car (out of curiosity, I only own one!) and after a while he quipped: “These guy are the Disney version of heavy metal, it’s like the Gargoyles formed a band together …” 🤣
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xGeSso_45Y
And he loved the Gargoyles as a kid, it was right up his alley along with Lord of the Rings (the movies).
March 13th, 2026 at 16:18@ 13 – is that what Valhalla is like, that Manowar image Uwe, if so count me in and I cannot wait one moment longer. Although that means I have to shed my mortal coil first, hmmmmmmmmmmm, I think I will wait a little longer and hope that certain things change a little. Something a bit more ‘realistic’ perhaps. Unless that was a ‘teaser’ of sorts for the ladies here, their ‘ultimate’ fantasy perhaps. I am getting confused again. Cheers.
March 14th, 2026 at 00:51@13
Normally when a man asks a question like that, he’ll be fishing for compliments! So I guess you’re doing that on behalf of that band, as your son so nicely put it:
“These guy are the Disney version of heavy metal, it’s like the Gargoyles formed a band together” ☺️😉
Have you ever seen Castle? With Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic?
Very funny and in some places a bit dramatic series, well I’ve seen it a couple of times, and I distinctly remember one episode where this male stripper, Hans Von Mannschaft (with a thick, phoney German accent) is accused of murder…
Here he is in all his blonde glory 😁
https://youtu.be/S_SWJKAZtTM?is=cTakDHNXDNQPmfYH
And here:
https://youtu.be/lV4TGF5dcYA?is=3s2JcPz7U-nNL-2z
(That scene wasn’t in the final episode, because there Castle said something like: be careful your Jersey accent is showing ☺️
Well, that, and then add tons of even worse posing, appearance and whatnot, then you have your Manowar 😆
And then you say this, oh can I call it click bait?, by implying EA sounds like a mix between Dio and Ian! 😁😆
I couldn’t listen Uwe…. My eyes were burnt by the rolling abdominal muscles 😵💫
Never mind how they look at women, I’ve seen worse, but their overall appearances are making it impossible to listen to them 🫣😝😂
If I may link to some guys who are way, waaaay, more manly than Manowar:
March 14th, 2026 at 07:15https://youtu.be/HI0x0KYChq4?feature=shared
And they sing better too 😍
The ultimate “Snow White + coal smudged dwarves sporting well-oiled muscular male bodies”-video has of course already been filmed, Dearest!
https://youtu.be/StZcUAPRRac
True fun fact: Joey DeMaio, even as a middle-aged man, lived unmarried with his mum in her house (until she passed away). 😂
https://youtu.be/PDBDtIOxUsI
March 14th, 2026 at 18:22@16
Oh but if I need me a little Rammstein I just go to my local gym….
However, I don’t ☺️
Before autotune there was Ian:
https://youtube.com/shorts/xRgAEs98OHU?is=vvmZ6zRVQukL3EAy
Do you know the working title to Strange kind of Woman?
March 15th, 2026 at 06:15I have no idea, maybe “We need another shuffle similar to Black Night to follow it as a single!”?
March 15th, 2026 at 17:33@18
That’s it? Highly disappointed! Have expected some very humorous title I could go on giggling my way the rest of the day!
March 16th, 2026 at 07:28@17 ” Do you know the working title to Strange kind of Woman?” Most probably the story (someone’s story) of a down trodden hooker or groupie perhaps. Cheers.
March 16th, 2026 at 10:22@20
Really MacGregor? Oh that’s a bit disappointing.
I honestly always thought that song was about the first woman Ian married, when he was very young, but I might be wrong 😊
March 16th, 2026 at 18:52@21 Karin – seem to recall the “Fireball” 25th anniversary edition liner notes saying that the working title to “Strange kind of Woman” was “Prostitute”.
Don’t have the CD handy, but if you do, you could verify or disprove.
March 17th, 2026 at 03:48You mean Zoe (Dean), Karin? Ian and her were never married, but an item for almost 10 years.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQf9gSbM3MVbcKcUoiU5MMszadM1OCJ7t_7TA&s
Strange Kind of Woman wasn’t about her. Her brother Paul Dean played with Jerusalem and Pussy, both managed by Ian and Zoe for a while, Ian also produced Jerusalem’s first and only album.
https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2011/03/jerusalem-my-interview-with-paul-dean.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPIxB-RDanI&list=PLd_jD87UjntuiTcJtDM3qtOVJrrf0NqDk
PS: Weren’t you caterwauling in another thread of wanting to hear Burn sung by your honeybunch? This isn’t perfect, but it gives you an idea …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuHIUwzCaIY
March 17th, 2026 at 04:03@22
Thanks Skippy, I will look it up 😃🙏🏼
March 17th, 2026 at 12:43@23
No no, not Zoe. Woah she was beautiful btw! Saw some photos of her 😊
In his world famous autobiography he is mentioning this woman he kind of saved by marrying her, and then she was unfaithful to him. Actually he caught her, or as it is called: Deprehendere aliquem in adulterio.
And he left her.
I don’t think she died though, as the woman in the song does, but all the sentiments in the song suits that first lady love he had, very well.
Thank you for the links! 🤗
And I look forward to listen to my honeybunch squealing Burn 🤣
Ohhh I love that riff! Guess it is Ritchie playing!
Ian sounds wonderfully 😍
And THAT is what I mean: Ian sounds like he has so much extra to give when singing (I was comparing him to Dio..)
At the commentary box it says that Glenn Hughes was forbidden singing, but am I completely wrong that I can hear Glenn in the part he also sings with David? Or is it Ian all the way through? (Thinking of 1:49 – 2:04) however at 3:37 and forward it sounds more like Ian.
Well, thank you so much for this nice Tuesday’s special 😃🙏🏼
(Oh you ought to see me air-guitaring listening to this beautiful tune 😆)
Could you produce Ian singing Mistreated too? Then I will be forever in your debt ☺️😃
March 17th, 2026 at 13:11@23
Uwe I found it meself 😃
https://youtu.be/I1Hp6qmFvpY?is=lxcw8qw8OgxgbwJ3
And even though there is no other rock singer I appreciate as much as Ian, David sings it better, David sounds really hurt, Ian more like he is singing because he couldn’t find anything better to do 🤭
Or, is it AI all over again?
March 17th, 2026 at 13:35However the riff is to die for 😍
@23
Burn, with Ian is ai 😝
Man I’m so easily fooled!
I blame my parents, it’s their genes that produces such a nitwit!😁
However, we can hereby conclude: Ian has never sung Burn nor Mistreated..
Sadly I sink down in my no-good existence, only lit up now and then by the very good coffee I at least know how to produce…
And you knew it all along and I guess you had a little laugh over me 😁
March 17th, 2026 at 18:44It is only the purest of souls that can be as gullible as you, liebe Karin! 🤣😇
But whoever created that mock Gillan voice on Mistreated did a mighty fine job, compliments on that, thanks for digging it out.
Interesting fact: The riff to Mistreated already existed in the latter days of Mk II and when Big Ian heard it, he wanted to turn it into a song. But Blackmore refused, taunting Ian that he didn’t have the right Blues voice for it. To which the singer replied indignantly: “Sure I can sing the Blues!”, but Blackmore, the ole diva, wasn’t swayed.
March 17th, 2026 at 22:54The vocal coda of DC and GH doing “aaahs” together in Mistreated was originally intended to be much more prominent. They both worked on it for hours layering their joint vocals to make it really impressive – I guess they wanted their own little Child in Time with Glenn’s voice climbing higher and higher. Proud of their achievement, they played it to The Dark Lord (not: Jon Lord) upon his return to the studio …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2F91Up9fT8
– and he didn’t like it! Instead he admonished them that it was drowning out his outro guitar solo and that they should bloody well mix it down. Sheepishly, they did as they were told. 🤣
March 18th, 2026 at 01:33@28
🤣🤣
“It is only the purest of souls that can be as gullible as you, liebe Karin!”
– well thank you, I guess 😆
What I take from this is that someone in the world believes I have a pure soul….🤭 ☺️
It’s interesting though that Ritchie could turn down a song like this.
I know he ended up didn’t like Ian (weird…) and I found this, maybe you have seen it before:
https://youtube.com/shorts/fBTe02EJBbY?si=7on0FCr-RexJ_9wo
I guess Ritchie is talking about what happened in the 80s, and not ‘73.
I do have a hard time believing that Ritchie calmly and collected said:
“I really rather not carry on this arrangement…”
What I easily could imagine is Ritchie throwing tantrums all the time 😝
Well never mind, everything went well at the end.
So funny! Because in my weird brain Ritchie is the embodiment of Darth Vader, and guess who Ian is? Yes Sir, correctly: a mix between Han Solo and Luke Skywalker 😄
“drowning out his outro guitar solo and that they should bloody well mix it down. Sheepishly, they did as they were told.”
– had DC and HG been more like Ian, they would have kicked his sorry behind out of the band!
Well, to be honest I’m pretty sad that AI has become so good.
For me it has removed some of the purity.
BTW: have you heard or seen this phenomenon:
https://youtu.be/zO8bt94-ybg?is=_rkCcWKEKXxr-s5u
It’s certainly not my taste, but they do have some freshness and moxie 😃
March 18th, 2026 at 09:18They are from Canada, and I guess/hope there will appear other similar groups like them, so the style can evolve a bit.
@ 28 & 29- thank god for Ritchie for both of those rollickings towards the singers. We cannot have lead singers taking over the place. The next thing they will be thinking is that they can have their own bands and then start telling everyone what to do. Cheers.
March 18th, 2026 at 09:42That “microtonal math band” you linked, Karin, is intellectually interesting. Sure it’s a task to listen to and takes some getting used to, but there is something fascinating there. It’s Primus carried a few generations forward. Thanks for bringing it up – and you thought IGB was difficult! 🤣
March 27th, 2026 at 16:30@32
Uwe I’m glad you gave it a listen! 😃
Yes, it is indeed intriguing and as I said: NOT my taste at all, but I always welcome new inspiration, however I do look forward to some evolution in that genre!
Actually I got an email the other day, the boxset with Ian Gillan Band is on its way!
March 28th, 2026 at 09:42So I’m sure I will get the house all to myself when I start to listen to it 😄
@ 30 and 32 – That Canadian ‘twosome’ or duo reminded me of Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew, even Fripp with Andy Summers. And of course Fripp by himself before he collaborated with those two with his ‘Frippertronics’ experiments in the 1970’s. Tape loops and intricate syncopated guitar lines in a ‘dance groove’ etc etc. And some punters there commenting are suggesting Frank Zappa with Captain Beefheart. And even early avant-garde French music. Interesting all the same. Their outfits would scare little children at shopping malls I would think. Good to see Karin listening to different and ‘strange’ music, thanks for the link Karin. Although I missed it initially and when Uwe commented on it and mentioned Primus I then decided to have a look. Uwe and his progressive avant-garde approach to popular music, it never ends it seems, he he he. Now we can add Karin to the list just in time for the IGB as Uwe suggests. I am also hoping my IGB box set will arrive this week, so look out Uwe, a few strict and rather disciplined clinical reviews are heading your way. Cheers.
March 29th, 2026 at 10:31Yes, there is definitely a King Crimson/Robert Fripp influence too, intriguingly and refreshingly weird:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci2HmuN9fZI
And their further tonal subdivision of the traditional Western 12-tone scale gives their music a North African/Mideasterm notes flair too, I am reminded of that Tuareg band Tinariwen albeit run through a mad computer …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vACZA9dGvV4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Snu2cGohYC4
And of course the loopy stop & start stuff also owes a bit to these guys:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JNmz17gnMw
March 30th, 2026 at 15:07@ 35 – interesting music clips Uwe, many thanks. That Tinariwen band are good to hear. So much unheard music out there in the lesser known parts of this world. Also the band that Steve Vai appeared with, good to see a different intricate approach to some instrumental guitar music. Cheers.
March 31st, 2026 at 10:20I got hooked on Tinariwen (they’re from Mali) during a vacation in Morocco, we took a daytrip to the Atlas Mountains and our driver listened to a Tinariwen CD. He initially wanted to change it for something more Western for us, but I said, no please leave it, it sounds good, what is it? A year or two later I actually saw them live in Brussels, they are hugely popular in the Maghreb community in Europe and widely viewed as progenitors of Sahara (or Desert) Blues. They’re the forefathers, bands like Songhoy Blues (also from Mali) followed in their wake:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p-Zta6QLms
April 1st, 2026 at 07:29@35 – hi McGregor. after talking about it with Uwe, I think you could be interested in a new book on Purple saga that’s on planning phase right now. please, contact me at dp586@hotmail.com so I can explain a little more.
April 1st, 2026 at 11:07Thanks, Jose