}
In a book that deals a lot with depression and darkness, it's kind of inevitable that I talk about my darkest hour.
There were many nights like this but the events that led to this moment have remained with me forever. It was my blackest night.
I first heard Black Night when I was still in primary school and the live version from the Made In Japan recordings was released as a single in this country.
The song black night itself is a song about very little. The words appear to have been thrown together as part of a contractual obligation to make a single.
It owes much to the classic riff that Blackmore heavily "borrowed" from Ricky Nelson's walking bass line in the song Summertime. According to Blackmore, Hendrix stole the first three of four bars of the guitar line for Hey Joe, so, he figured, why not?
If Blackmore had kept quiet about it no-one would probably know. What he does though is add aggression and space. It is the space between the phrases that makes Black Night such a memorable riff, whereas the bass line in Summertime is catchy enough but doesn't have the same attitude.
Curiously I suspect Pink may have borrowed the Black Night Riff and added some passing notes in So What
Whatever ...my black night certainly was not right.
I've included the live version of Black Night from the Made In Japan recordings
and the original Summertime by Ricky Nelson
And Pink's So What
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