Ritchie Blackmore or Tony Iommi

The thing which always drove me a bit crazy regarding Blackmore, was the fact that he would turn off his distortion at a gig and start to play jazzy and bluesy improv. It gave you the idea that he was more schooled in guitar playing then the presentation of what he did in a Deep Purple rock song. He studied classical guitar at a young age and would add in snippets using a clean tone. He was sort of fooling people in some way I suppose. It depended on if he was in the mood to play like that. He was very shifty in that way. Especially with D.P. He had an interest in witchcraft supposedly but, if he did for sure.....it would appear that his inner turmoil along with fights between him and Gillian, caused him to drift further and further away from society. This realization of him was what in fact caused him to change his approach on the guitar for every performance. He had  real dealings with how people related to him and their reaction. He carried that with him on stage. He was a strange rock guitarist to see live because you never knew what kind of a mood he would be in that night. If he was angry, he would display violence. He is the only rock guitarist I can think of that displayed a show out of pure personal anger. Townshend smashed many guitars as part of the act, where Blackmore was just being ignorant! 

Vibrationbaby wrote: Bitterblogger wrote: Has Iommi done blues so I can compare further? Listen to the first Sabbath album. Or listen to Live At Last. A lot of early Sabbath is blues based. Go on youtube and punch in Sabra Cadabra Pt 2  ( live )   8/15 and youl hear him get into some blues grooves halfway through  the solo. Even Ozzy gets into it!

Thanks, I'll check it out.

Both are riff masters, but personally i think Blackmore is much better.  I love Deep Purple and Black Sabbath, out of the two i prefer Sabbath, but Blackmores tone, ability, and performance overall are much more sophistocated and much more fluid than that of Tony.  I mean, Tony has done awesome riffs like "Black Sabbath" and "Fairies Wear Boots," but when you listen to tracks like "Corncupia" and "Supernaut," both off the volume 4 album, you would see that his riffs and playing are slightly disjointed while Blackmore as has a fluid feel, just take "Woman From Tokyo" for example.  It's a smooth riff, with the verses and chorses seem to flow well into each other.  But...thats just me haha.

I'm not a Sabbath fan so it has to be Blackmore

they were a match during their heyday, but blackmore has not produced one note of interest since 1978,
iommi however kept digging up gems from his bottomless riff treasure box

Blackmore since I think hes superb whereas I don't really like Iommi.

Iommi is God!

Tony by a mile.  From overcoming his early career fingertip accident to basically invent heavy metal, to giving lymphoma the big middle finger the past few years and continuing to tour and record anyway, I've always considered Tony the most inspirational guitarist ever.  Oh ya, and the first 5 Sabbath albums kill

I really love both, but Iommi is just greater to me. Sabbath rules! I go with my heart!

Ahahah so easy ! Iommi esp for his tone on Sabotage and several songs after like Over To You and Swingin' The Chain