Many strong personalities emerged throughout the classic rock era. This is only reasonable given that it was a period of enormous cultural shift in which the younger generation broke free from the restraints of the past and ushered in a future dominated by individualism. Ritchie Blackmore, the guitarist for Deep Purple, is one of the most outspoken icons of his generation.
Despite his generally outspoken personality, Blackmore is one of the most skilled guitarists of his generation, giving him more authority than most to comment on the story of popular music. He has delivered numerous famous hot takes in his time, ranging from labeling his contemporary guitar idol, The Who’s Pete Townshend, “overrated” to confessing that he never understood the hype around Eric Clapton.
However, Blackmore’s criticisms have not only been addressed by other musicians. He doesn’t shy away from acknowledging what he can’t do, even criticizing some iconic Deep Purple songs throughout his career. For example, he once acknowledged despising the song ‘Space Truckin” from the band’s critically praised album Machine Head. It is not only highly embarrassing for the Lononder but also absolutely “awful“.
No one would argue that Blackmore’s criticisms of other artists aren’t the most fascinating component of his personality. He penned a particularly brilliant review of John Lennon’s iconic second solo album, Imagine. It includes the title track and classics such as ‘How Do You Sleep?’, which comprises personal assaults on his ex-songwriting partner Paul McCartney, and ‘Jealous Guy‘.
In October 1971, Blackmore appeared on Melody Maker’s Blind Date section to review the month’s music and discussed Imagine and the song ‘Gimme Some Truth‘. While he stated that he enjoyed the new album and planned to purchase it, he did not enjoy ‘Gimme Some Truth’ and described it as “very average” since it sounded “semi-pro”.
He went on to say, “If it didn’t have so many negative connotations, it would be an excellent record. I didn’t enjoy this music so much. It seemed like a semi-professional bunch to begin with. It was extremely average. “The musicianship isn’t great, but that’s not where John Lennon is.”
Listen to ‘Gimme Some Truth‘ below.
