Deep Purple

Zare said:
Agreed.
But. Absence of Blackmore is the key. He's playing the real heavy metal riff, real fast heavy metal rhythm guitar. Beneath one of Lord's finest solos, this thing delivers as much as energy, punch and technique as any modern metal track!

Fireball solo, play on full volume
Click to expand...

Yeah, this is also absolutely one of my favorite things about Purple in general. All those little intricate yet fiery things that every member contributes with. There's a cool bit in the Classic albums DVD where Lord explains that once Blackmore started playing heavier on the In Rock album his organ all of the sudden just wasn't heavy enough. Until he invented "the beast", as you'll see in the video, which basically made it possible to play the organ with as much energy and effect as a guitar, so Blackmore didn't ALWAYS have to take center stage, the organ could as well, evident in Fireball like you say :)

Martin Birch also features in this DVD, I'll post a link to the full thing when we get to the Machine Head album next :)

Watch:

 
For a start, that's just wrong. Beyond "Smoke on the Water" being famous for the riff, "Hush" and "Woman from Tokyo" were big hits. If people aren't aware of the hits, that's on them.
 
I have heard all Purple albums up til Burn and I don't think I can mention more than 10 memorable songs in total. Purple are not a one-hit wonder band, but definitely not a band that enthralls me either. A lot of it comes down to simple rock songs. Sometimes they go funkier or more soul, but that's not really what gets me going.

Yes, the solos are nice, yes the material is performed with energy, but the songs are not as exciting, not as adventurous, not as heavy, not as great with melodies as other bands. Compared to Tull, Sabbath, Rush, Priest, Wishbone Ash, Genesis, Pink Floyd and Golden Earring, Purple are a bland and simple band.

Deep Purple is blessed with a great musicians, but they are not blessed with a large portion of great music.

Yes they are exciting, they are adventurous, they are heavy, yes they have nice melodies. But: only in a relatively small number of songs.

I am still curious about Stormbringer (I heard it's one of Dave Murray's favourite albums), Come Taste the Band (yaaiks) and their later output.
 
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We're still far away but I'm really looking forward to the late 80s and 90s albums. Some of them I've never heard and some of them maybe only once or twice (Like Purpendicular, which i borrowed from my local library sometime around 99/2001 perhaps :D) My general expectation is that those late 80s albums are very characteristic of 80's hard rock ...And how did Purple deal with the grungy 90s, knowing that so many metal and rock bands were having a hard time during this period (like Maiden)?
 
The documentary ("The History of Iron Maiden" - Part 3) coming with the Maiden England DVD. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son was recorded in the same studio in Munich as this album and one other that was mentioned. It was mentioned in a text, and then Dave continues talking about how thrilling it was to record in that place (or words in that vein).

More happened there:
The Musicland Studios was used extensively throughout the 1970s and the 1980s by many artists, including Led Zeppelin, Queen, The Rolling Stones, the Electric Light Orchestra, The Three Degrees, Marc Bolan & T.Rex, Donna Summer, Deep Purple, Amanda Lear, Freddie Mercury, Sweet and Elton John.

List of albums, also note the Ian Gillan Band, Paice Ashton Lord and Glover albums!
In den Musicland Studios aufgenommene Alben

Queen recording One Vision:
13306492853575_f.jpg

250px-Arabella-Haus_Muenchen-1.jpg
 
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Exciter wouldn't have existed without Fireball. Not just the double bass. Also the vocal lines (timing).
 
I really like Deep Purple, but you gotta love their plagiarism.

These days with the internet, I don't think you could rip off songs as brazenly as they did in the 60s and 70s!

 
Thanks Welsh, now we get a completer picture.

Man.... :eek:

Even Fireball.
@Zare

I find that a terrible rip off, even if it's not the whole song. Overrated is a term that's harder to get out of my head now. The maker of this vid tries to make it good with that comparison with Zeppelin (it really begins to make sense why I don't care about Zeppelin as well), but that doesn't clean away this stain, for me at least.

And this just screams for adjustment:

I have heard all Purple albums up til Burn and I don't think I can mention more than 10 memorable songs in total. Purple are not a one-hit wonder band, but definitely not a band that enthralls me either. A lot of it comes down to simple rock songs. Sometimes they go funkier or more soul, but that's not really what gets me going.

Yes, the solos are nice, yes the material is performed with energy, but the songs are not as exciting, not as adventurous, not as heavy, not as great with melodies AND NOT AS ORIGINAL as other bands. Compared to Tull, Sabbath, Rush, Priest, Wishbone Ash, Genesis, Pink Floyd and Golden Earring, Purple are a bland and simple band.

Deep Purple is blessed with a great musicians, but they are not blessed with a large portion of great music.

Yes they are exciting, they are adventurous, they are heavy, yes they have nice melodies. But: only in a relatively small number of songs.

I am still curious about Stormbringer (I heard it's one of Dave Murray's favourite albums), Come Taste the Band (yaaiks) and their later output.[/QUOTE]
 
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Heard it before, doesn't hold a handle to Fireball.
Btw, Blackmore was always completely open on 'plagiarism'. They would jam over a riff they heard and make their song if something came up. There's a video on YT (fairly recently recorded) where Blackmore is revisiting Purple riffs and openly, without any hesitation saying where the riff came from.
 
Zare said:
Heard it before, doesn't hold a handle to Fireball.
Btw, Blackmore was always completely open on 'plagiarism'. They would jam over a riff they heard and make their song if something came up. There's a video on YT (fairly recently recorded) where Blackmore is revisiting Purple riffs and openly, without any hesitation saying where the riff came from.
Click to expand...

Yeah, they also expanded upon dozens of classical themes on the earlier more progressive albums, that we talked about earlier in this thread. There's so much music out there anyways it's easy to find something that sorta sounds like something else...The Wicker Man riff by Maiden sounded like the opening riff to 10 other songs. Black Sabbath supposedly also stole the riff to Paranoid etc etc etc

 
Zare said:
Btw, Blackmore was always completely open on 'plagiarism'. They would jam over a riff they heard and make their song if something came up. There's a video on YT (fairly recently recorded) where Blackmore is revisiting Purple riffs and openly, without any hesitation saying where the riff came from.
Click to expand...
Good he admitted that. At some point someone has to. But what a terribly dumb, unimaginative process.
SixesAlltheway said:
There's so much music out there anyways it's easy to find something that sorta sounds like something else...The Wicker Man riff by Maiden sounded like the opening riff to 10 other songs. Black Sabbath supposedly also stole the riff to Paranoid etc etc etc
Click to expand...
Sure, let's downplay all this. All bands borrowed as much as any other band. Sure. No way man. No way. No No No.
 
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Machine Head (1972)

Machine Head. Do I need to say more about this album? Released in 1972 and by far the most popular and commercially successful album Purple ever made.

Highway Star is a screaming hell ride through some of the finest early speed metal available. Musically and lyrically it's like Speed King's older brother. Blackmore himself said that the chord progressions in the solos were inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach and it's quite easy to see in the trade offs between Blackmore and Lord during the middle section. One of my favorites on this album and a track that I don't think I'll ever get tired of. Pictures of Home is another favorite. This track demonstrates the virtuosity and the creativity of each member in Purple, basically everyone gets their time to shine on this one. Paice's drum rolls at the start, the little bass solo by Glover, Blackmore's great main riff and even better solo..Pictures of Home is a very thought-out and well arranged track that doesn't lack in atmosphere or head banging either. Pay attention to the ending bass notes by Glover, really some cool stuff, cementing that underneath the surface, the far from simple rhythmic section of Paice and Glover kept coming up with great ideas, which they did throughout this album...The lyrics to Pictures of Home worthy of a mention too:

Somebody's shouting
Up at a mountain
Only my own words return
Nobody's out there
It's a deception
When will I ever learn?

I'm alone here
With emptiness eagles and snow
Unfriendliness chilling my body
And whispering pictures of home

Wondering blindly
How can they find me
Maybe they don't even know
My body is shaking
Anticipating
The call of the black footed crow

Smoke on the Water is one of those songs that only comes a long every 10 years or so, a song that manages to become an anthem for a whole decade and tap straight into the subconscious heart and mind of the listener. Well overplayed by now and the story of the track must have been explained by Deep Purple in interviews about a million times....Still, even if it has become sort of a "joke", I still get a kick out of hearing this song from time to time, and the influence it had can not be denied. Lazy, another highlight, starting out with the screeching organ by Lord before settling into a bluesy up-tempo track with some amazing Blackmore playing. I also really like the harmonica section in this and the organ playing, just a song that really shows the great ideas of the band.

Space Truckin' is just a great straight up heavy metal song. Well-arranged with lots of power and energy, also in the performance by Gillian who provides more of that electrical screaming that we heard on track like Bloodsucker....Definitely a highlight here and closes the album on a high note.

Overall an essential album that showcases the band, perhaps at their pinnacle when it comes to shaping their ideas..In all of the previous albums Purple were still searching for an overall direction. On Machine Head they've found it, and are leading the way.....
 
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Oh and the complete Machine Head - Classic Albums DVD here. Very interesting video with some great insight and featuring Martin Birch on the controls :)

 
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