Ritchie Blackmore had better technique than Page in the early 70's. He is an excellent electric player when he is in a good mood. Again this dressing in hooded robes and black on stage for years along with his interest in witchcraft like Page and then it just goes on and on and I hate it. At Deep Purple and Rainbow gigs,  sometimes Blackmore would just stand on the stage banging his strings to make this awful noise that made no sense at all. When Hendrix did this sort of thing ....he had stops and versions of feedback memorized where you would hear trains, bombs, machine guns, sirens and one thing led to another. An improvised but pre-planned performance. Blackmore was just making noise. I used to think it was the influence of the darkside causing him to stand there for as long as he did producing noise. He was a fine guitarist on Machine Head and I especially enjoy his solo on "Pictures of Home". I thought he was really strange. I believe Page and Blackmore's flaws derive from their outside influences of the darkside. If you take on any religion while you are a full-time musician, it can have a deep affect on yout playing ability.

 

Love Zep and Purple, and Page is a great player, but Blackmore had such amazing style and ability to play flawlessly, and not just shredding a million iles an hour in Space Truckin', he's able to do so much with less, like in Mistreated. Dude is awesome.

 

I've always felt Page is kind of over rated.

 

Yep...that's how I feel. Blackmore is the better technical player but there's something about Page and the riffs and the whole Zep package that makes it more interesting. Page's style and hooks draw you in to the overall mystique that's Led Zep. I  liked the classic DP period but always felt there was something missing in the band overall. I felt that Blackmore could have done more/better songs with them....took them a level higher regarding the whole package. While that has nothing to do with Blackmore's ability on guitar it left me liking Page and Zep more.

The other night I put on some late Mark III - live in Europe or some such thing - and felt like I perceived a lack of depth in Blackmore's playing. Of course, this isn't his best playing - I'll have to put on some early Rainbow or something - his playing is kind of patchwork - lick after lick - I remember him saying that the only guitar solo he could remember was Highway Star - but solos can be constructed in a musical way - Jerry Garcia springs to mind, maybe Uli Jon Roth? Definitely Steve Howe. But of course these are all vastly different players. 

I think that Page was much more of a visionary, and I listened to Zep pretty intently for a year or two in high school. Actually neither band really draws me in right now, but even now if I had to choose one it would be Deep Purple. So I voted Blackers!

Looks like there will be court case for Stairway to Heaven rip off.

Good ole Jimmy. 

To be quite honest with you, I never see the point of these threads. Comparing one musician with another one is ... well, pretty pointless. 

The problem with "guitar idols" is that non musicians are told "this person is a good guitarist" by people who are trying to shift records. Non musicians don't actually know, and it's very difficult to convey to a fan that perhaps Slash et al are actually not good players and merely the tip of a marketing exercise. You will not convince a Led Zep or Deep Purple fan that their idols aren't very good, as they "know". Actually, they're confusing "opinion" with "knowledge", but there y'go. 

Before you, Dear Readers, read this and your hackles go up - "Do you actually play guitar to a high standard ??? " I'm not trying to stir anything here, I'm just giving you the musicians' perspective. 

From a musical point of view, Jimmy Page was, in the early days, good in a studio environment but absolutely horrendous live. His timing is atrocious and he chokes or misses notes. I wouldn't say "rubbish", but his reputation has been massively inflated. When the drugs kicked in, Page was worthless. There was apparently one particular gig where he was fretting chords on one neck of a double neck guitar, playing the other one, and either didn't notice or didn't care, he was so out of it. Some of his work is musically creative, but he's not particularly good, honestly. Massively overinflated reputation. 

Blackmore is several levels above Page and displays quite an amazing (for the time) level of musical creativity and concentration. He has a much wider range of influences to call on, he really was something special. And then, guess what ? He gets lazy and almost resentful of playing and being "a guitar hero" and it all goes sour. However, I rate Blackmore about ten levels higher than Jimmy Page. 

Of course, all the Zep fans will now be outraged, the Purple fans possibly as well, but..... the point I'm trying to make is "let's actually answer the question properly" rather than "what have I been told by marketing men and "best guitar player polls", written by people who don't actually play and are after your money or attention ? 

I work with someone who is possibly the worlds' worst guitar player - he likes drawing attention to himself, too. He went off to Ronnie Scotts' once and told me how I would have enjoyed it "as they had a very good sax player there."

I said "Do you play sax, Will ?"

"Er, no."

"Then how do you know ? "
"Oh, he sounded very good to me."

This from a man who thinks every sax solo he hears on the radio "sounds like Baker Street". 

Is the question here, really, "Who do you prefer, Blackmore or Page, or rather, Led Zep or Deep Purple" ??? 

I have always preferred Page and Zep's music  to Blackmore and DP's music. 

Blackmore's 'ability' aside I always felt they were a bit boring and had some real mediocre tracks compared to what Zep were doing on their albums.

Yep. Even in the studio Page would sometimes have questionable performances (solo of Heartbreaker for instance), but live it was worse. His main virtue was his ability to create riffs, only second to Keith Richards in rock probably.

 

Zep rules.....Plant used to say that Jimmy played guitar from somewhere left of Heaven.