1968 Conqueror of American Rock - Chapter 159



Only Noblemtl

159. Share Your Heart (9)

The three excited men approached the front of the stage.

“Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Summer, 3rd movement, Presto. At Woodstock, it was just Jake and I. After Angela joined, the trio was complete. Everyone, please give Angela a big round of applause.”

Angela! Angela!

As Angela came out in a pure white dress like a winter princess and greeted them, the dark men shouted her name in loud voices.

Angela waved back briefly and sat down at her white Yamaha Steinberg grand piano.

John Lord swallowed hard at the sight.

‘Two electric guitars and a grand piano. This is a first for me. It definitely doesn’t seem like a classical music major’s playing pattern······.’

The two tall guitarists sat side by side on chairs, their left feet resting on the footrests and their guitars resting on their legs.

Ritchie Blackmore glanced at their feet as he tipped his heel up.

‘Yeah, it’s the same yellow pedal. Gibson 57 Custom Black Beauty and Flying V. Let’s see how good your hand control is.’

He just stared at the two people’s hands.

As lightning struck the piano keys with a bang, the two guitarists simultaneously unleashed a storm of twin solos.

‘Wow, the sound pressure is as strong as I heard! It’s much stronger than the sound I tested! But the noise is noticeably lower. What the heck? Neither of them are even touching the volume knob, they’re just concentrating on playing!’

A cold sweat ran down Ritchie Blackmore’s back. He clenched his fists.

‘Wow. The powerful sound is just amazing. How can you pick like that? You both play at ridiculous speeds and it doesn’t look like you’re struggling at all.’

Still, he thought that now was his chance and continued to observe the picking form.

John Lord also had his eyes fixed on the pianist girl’s hands, as if fire was about to burst out of his eyes.

‘What the hell is that! There’s not a single correct play! Did you learn it? If you learned it from a real teacher, you would never be able to play like that! Either the teacher is a lonely genius who lives in seclusion in the countryside, or that girl is a genius!’

Only Tony Iommi seemed comfortable performing.

‘I think a booster is enough. Our band’s music doesn’t need such technical and fast playing, haha. Richie, this guy is completely out of his mind, tsk tsk.’

The heart-pounding, sweaty performance came to an end, but the two men still stood there like ice statues.

In the ‘Welcome To Black Festival’ that followed, when the audience took off their outerwear, the club was filled with people wearing only black. It was their protective color.

― Follow me!

(Follow me!)

― It’s our own festival!

(It’s our own festival!)

― You are not alone anymore!

(You are not alone anymore!)

― Let’s go together!

(Let’s go together!)

The three men were left breathless by the shocking experience of the band and the audience singing together as one.

“Rich, John, we should probably go now. Come to your senses.”

Tony Iommi brought the two out to the party.

* * *

We finished the parade on Friday and performed solo without an opening band.

I saw it clearly in the audience. Tony Iommi was in front, just like at the Pilton Festival, looking down at my feet, and next to him were Ritchie Blackmore and Jon Lord. No matter how many sunglasses he wore, he couldn’t hide the same hairstyle, fashion, and moustache.

If you got a booster pedal, it would definitely be a big help to both bands. I heard it’s currently sold out, but I wonder if you got one. If you didn’t get one, I’d like to give it to you as a gift. How should I send it to you? If I can see the show, I’ll be able to find out if you got one.

Deep Purple and Black Sabbath play fewer songs but play two days, Friday and Saturday.

Yes, the smell and the atmosphere are unbearable, but let’s go and take a look. I wondered when I would ever get to see my brothers on stage again in these times.

I prepared to go out with two ‘LA Metal V2’s’ that were not yet on sale. I wore the studded leather clothes that Rob and I bought together and accessorized them so that I would not feel awkward entering The Devil’s.

When I looked in the mirror, I saw that I looked completely delinquent, and it wouldn’t have been strange at all if I had gone into the Devil’s.

I tried to imitate the expression roughly. I was satisfied.

“Where are you going, why are you dressed like that?”

“Why is your expression like that?”

Oh, I guess I really have to go out and live independently. I just happened to get caught by Annie and Angela.

“Oh, I just wanted to find out something.”

“What is it? This, this is suspicious······.”

The lynx has triggered the trigger. Whatever I say will be 100% effective. In this case, it’s just the regular method.

“To go to The Devils.”

“Why is it there? It smells like cigarettes and is full of weird people.”

“Because I want to see Black Sabbath and Deep Purple perform.”

“Aren’t they pharmacists?”

I told him that Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore and Jon Lord came to see us play yesterday, and that they were all decent people who were serious about their music.

“Really? Then, we should go too, just out of courtesy.”

“No, it’s too rough for you guys to go there.”

“It’s okay. I went to see Janis Joplin perform before. I’m a rock band vocalist, but I still have to see Black Sabbath and Deep Purple.”

Phew, yeah. I lost.

“Then let’s disguise ourselves so they don’t know we’re us. And wear clothes that match the scene.”

“Don’t worry about that, hehe.”

The two women appeared wearing leather clothes studded with studs and with their hair disheveled, making their faces difficult to recognize.

It looked pretty bad.

Pass.

* * *

The Devil’s, which I visited after a long time, was even more smokey than before. The drunk people were so drunk that no one recognized us.

Angela covered her mouth and coughed repeatedly as she experienced the pungent smoke and damp air for the first time. The cat, accustomed to this kind of environment since childhood, did not budge.

This song starts with a flashy Hammond organ solo and a Fender Stratocaster playing back and forth, and it’s Deep Purple’s ‘Speed ​​King’. The club gets heated up as the tall vocalist with his thick hair starts to hit high notes.

It was so moving to hear Ian Gillan’s voice live in his 20s.

The gain is higher than Ritchie Blackmore’s usual tone. I saw a yellow pedal under his feet. It was a tone that used a booster. He also controlled the noise exquisitely by frequently turning the volume and tone knobs very busily during the performance.

He eschewed the bluesy improvisation that was popular among guitarists at the time, and pursued short, powerful, and precisely calculated aggressive guitar solos influenced by classical music.

I also copied a lot of his songs when I was young, but in the 90s, the paradigm of speed picking began to change with the emergence of Yngwie Malmsteen and Paul Gilbert. And in the 2000s, the technique evolved to the next level with monster guitarists like Guthrie Govan at the center.

You could say that Ritchie Blackmore and Jimmy Page wrote the textbook for rock guitar, but to me, who had already mastered all the future guitar techniques, it sounded like just a simple repetition of the same patterns.

But isn’t that the charm of classic rock?

― Speed ​​King!

“James, the song is called Speed ​​King, but isn’t our ‘We Are Sparkling Ripple’ even faster?”

“Be quiet. Who will hear you?”

Deep purple! Deep purple!

When Ritchie Blackmore performed a performance where he flipped his guitar over and spun it around, the audience cheered and screamed.

Although he was said to have a rough personality, I respected Ritchie Blackmore’s musical philosophy. Unlike Jimmy Page, who would get on stage drunk and play whatever he wanted, or play staggeringly after blowing whiskey from a bottle, he always devoted himself to practicing to play perfectly. He also hurled insults at the members, but only in the musical aspect.

He always emphasized planning and repetitive training over improvisation and flexibility. That’s why he didn’t know how to bend. It must have been a great decision for him to come see my performance.

I was fiddling with the pedals in my pocket while watching a Deep Purple concert during their active days.

“Huh? Are you Annie Kim?”

Someone recognized Annie. It was an unfamiliar face.

“Oh, who are you?”

Instead of answering, he stuck out his tongue. It was long enough for the tip to touch his chin.

“Eww! It’s gross!”

“Hahaha, I’m Jim Simmons from KISS. I met you at the parade yesterday.”

With his bare face and casual clothes on, he looked like a completely different person. Judging from his shorter height, the heels of his boots must have been really high.

Annie’s screaming made people around us start to notice us.

“Oh, it’s Sparkling Ripple! James, Annie, and Angela are here at Devil’s!”

A crowd of drunk people gathered.

“Annie, Angela, let’s get out of here before it gets too noisy.”

I hurriedly picked them up and left the club. I wanted to see more of the show, but that tongue-tied guy ruined it.

* * *

“Ah, Tongue! It’s so annoying to see it up close! I’m never going back there, slurp!”

Annie spat south as she crossed the street.

“Thank you, James. I didn’t know it would be that bad. I just wanted to get out.”

Angela seemed shocked. That’s why I was going to come alone······. Anyway, I confirmed that he was using the booster pedal well. It was definitely more powerful than the sound I’d heard in the past. With his quick hand control, there was almost no noise.

We took off our outerwear and waved it in the wind to get rid of some of the smell of cigarettes.

“This is totally awesome. I can’t wash this leather jacket, so I guess I’ll just have to throw it away.”

“No, Annie. Leather smells can be removed, although it takes time. Leave it to me. James’s too.”

“Really? It’s Angela, haha.”

We took off our coats and walked towards The Age of Rock. The street was bathed in light from the bright lights surrounding the building.

“Wow, it’s really pretty.”

“I think Wisconsin Christmas Village is much prettier. There’s no snow here. It’s in the middle of the city.”

“Annie, I lived in a place where it snowed for almost five months, from November to April, until last winter. This is the first time I’ve spent the end of the year in a place where it’s not cold even though it’s winter. It’s so exciting, hahaha.”

Angela spun around with her arms outstretched, her golden hair sparkling in the white light.

“I like snow too, but I hate the cold. When I went to Korea last time, it was so cold that I almost swore, hahaha.”

Annie followed suit and spun around.

The two were indeed similar yet different.

When I arrived at the club, there was a particularly large crowd of people gathered in the small empty lot next to the building.

“I can hear the sound of a piano?”

Angela heard the sound of a piano among the crowd. After a while, a rough, phlegmy voice came out from the crowd.

― Waltzing Mathilda, Waltzing Mathilda.