Deep Purple

Given Deep Purple's (and especially Gillan's) legendary sense of humour, I was just wondering whether Bananas was called as such just because Jon Lord... erm... split.
 
Black Bart said:
Given Deep Purple's (and especially Gillan's) legendary sense of humour, I was just wondering whether Bananas was called as such just because Jon Lord... erm... split.
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It seems you may be right about one thing and that is that it might have come from Gillan's legendary humour :D At least according to this blabbermouth article which says that Gillan called something the other guys were playing "bananas" and it made everyone laugh and stuck with em'...

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/deep-purple-fans-going-bananas-over-new-album-title/

There's another story in that same article that says it was just a picture that Gillan saw in National Geographic and really liked...another story that backs that up is from an interview with Glover which I haven't been able to find the source to:

Q: The name Bananas, is that because things are going bananas?

A: It came from a photograph I saw in a newspaper in Australia about three years ago. It was in the travel section and it was Vietnam and there was this guy pushing a bike with a bunch of bananas in front and I turned to Ian who was sitting next to me and I said this is our next album cover - we'll call it bananas. And he thought it was a brilliant idea. I was in India - Bombay about a year later, stuck in a traffic jam behind a lorry full of bananas. There were two old guys sitting there and we took a photograph of that. And it became the stronger image to be on the album. It's nice starting an album with a name already in place. It kind of gives you focus. We thought, can we actually call an album bananas. Then we say, dare we? And then we thought we can, so let's do it. Let's be bold.
 
I really like Ian, he writes some really good lyrics. His website is really interesting http://www.gillan.com/ ..

I read through most of the Q&A and some of his postings, I don't agree with everything he says, but he is obviously a pretty sharp guy who knows how to write.
 
I've never visited his site before I think so thanks for that bearfan!

He is a sharp guy for sure. I'm afraid though that some of the meaning behind his lyrics are missed in the way he writes. He is very self-referential and uses a lot of humor...so unless you sit down and try to make order out of some of his lyrics you'd think he was just talking gibberish...Funny for Deep Purple fans but also sorta off-putting in other instances..

I hope my point makes sense? :)
 
SixesAlltheway said:
I've never visited his site before I think so thanks for that bearfan!

He is a sharp guy for sure. I'm afraid though that some of the meaning behind his lyrics are missed in the way he writes. He is very self-referential and uses a lot of humor...so unless you sit down and try to make order out of some of his lyrics you'd think he was just talking gibberish...Funny for Deep Purple fans but also sorta off-putting in other instances..

I hope my point makes sense? :)
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I get that, I like that he really seems to put thought into every single word. The songs that are basically about sex, do not come across as really sleazy ala 80s I wanna bang some chick in the back of my car songs (not that there is really anything wrong with that), but you can spend some time really trying to get the meaning out of the lyrics and often come up with many possible meanings.

One nice thing on his site are some lyrics and he writes a little about how he came up with the song and/or the theme of the song. Interesting to read

http://www.gillan.com/wordography-dex.html
 
Yup. I totally get what you mean. The lyrics may seem completely jumbled and careless until you try and get into the words and also try and pay attention to the stops and the momentum in the way the lines are song by Gillan in the actual song...:) it's not an easy task though by far, but his way of writing goes back like since he joined the band really :)

I'm sure I've said a few times already during the discography discussions that a song might feat "the usual Gillan gibberish lyrics" :D
 
bearfan said:
The songs that are basically about sex, do not come across as really sleazy ala 80s I wanna bang some chick in the back of my car songs (not that there is really anything wrong with that), but you can spend some time really trying to get the meaning out of the lyrics and often come up with many possible meanings.
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Right, and that's why "Mitzi Dupree" must be about a table tennis tournament indeed! ;)
 
SixesAlltheway said:
Yup. I totally get what you mean. The lyrics may seem completely jumbled and careless until you try and get into the words and also try and pay attention to the stops and the momentum in the way the lines are song by Gillan in the actual song...:) it's not an easy task though by far, but his way of writing goes back like since he joined the band really :)

I'm sure I've said a few times already during the discography discussions that a song might feat "the usual Gillan gibberish lyrics" :D
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It interesting, you have someone like Gillan who really draws on personal experience/emotions with a twist of some fantasy/a dream like quality for lyrics ... then you have Maiden who rarely bring in their songs from personal experience and they both really work well.
 
bearfan said:
It interesting, you have someone like Gillan who really draws on personal experience/emotions with a twist of some fantasy/a dream like quality for lyrics ..
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Yeah. that's it really. Stream of consciousness lyrics with a big paint stroke of lyrical imagery as well....

Totally different way of doing it but they both work like you say. Gillan also seems to fire out his lyrics like they were hip-hop lyrics sometimes..his delivery is very different than say Bruce's. Gillan is more to the point, short lines, sharp. I guess that's mostly on the later albums though...
 
bearfan said:
then you have Maiden who rarely bring in their songs from personal experience
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I'm not so sure that's a rule with Maiden. As discussed in the Maiden lyrics survivor, I think some of Steve's best lyrics moments have some degree of personal experience in them and are done in a train of thought style.
 
I think what's special to Gillan and the lyrics he writes opposed to Maiden is that he is a master at writing lyrics about ordinary (or odd) situations he's been in, parties he's been at or wacky/insightful moments...A lot of his lyrics, when you look at them deal with him just describing what went down at some place or event and his perception of things and people...he just does it in his own very picturesque way. Maiden don't really have many lyrics like that.
 
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Deep Purple - Rapture of The Deep (2005)

Rapture of the Deep. Deep Purple's 18th studio album was released in October of 2005 after the extensive "Bananas" tour" and saw Deep Purple pretty much hit the road again immediately after with the Rapture of the Deep tour lasting from 2006 until 2011 with a total of 385 shows played on 26 legs :eek:

The album starts out with Money Talks. One of the best DP openers since I can't remember when. Even though it's a fairly standard DP opening it just does everything right, and it's hard to resist the slow groove of the track and the organ riff that opens it all....The lyrics to this track are also quite interesting as it speaks about money and wealth in general. In the lyrics Gillan tells of a rather pretentious wealthy guy who gets what is coming to him at the end of the track when he realizes:

But then, oh no
Someone outbid me
I can't take it with me?
Then I will devour it
I can't go without it
It's simply a question of
Market forces

Don Airey won me over on the previous album but on Rapture of The Deep he really comes into his own. Him and Morse seems to connect in ways that their predecessors Lord And Blackmore did on those classic DP albums.Most notably on what has to be the standout track from the album the self titled "Rapture of The Deep". That middle eastern influence, the powerful riffing, all of the solo detours and a powerful performance by Gillan - Classic DP! All of course held down by the solid playing by Paice.

"Clearly Quite Absurd" shows that DP still knows how to lay down a classic ballad. It's mature, well played and just radiates the class that only DP can put into songs sometimes. "Back To Back" is a very entertaining song, although surprisingly heavy on the funk. Airey introduces us to some synth keyboards which are kind of unexpected - but nevertheless works out OK even if they sound very progressive.

Rapture of the Deep closes with another highlight in "Before Time Began". Great lyrics on this one too and a nice moody ending to the album overall.

Title track:


PS. If someone could explain the album cover to me that would be nice :cool:
 
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Apparently recorded in Germany as something that was meant to promote "Rapture of The Deep" Don't know if it ever did or if it got shelved perhaps...

 
I like Rapture quite a bit .. the title track is really one of my favorite songs of theirs. I agree that musically, this whole album is really cool, there are all kinds of layers that just fit so well together. Think I said it before, Blackmore and Lord are just legends ... but Morse and Airey are just fantastic additions to the band ... they could not have found anyone better ... they fit in with the classic Purple sound, but add to it as well in just the right amounts of both.

They do not fall into the trap that so many older bands to of trying to re-capture the past, but they move forward ... not many bands can do that or are willing to do it. Purple does it really well.
 
Black Bart said:
I haven't listened to the album for a while (doing it at the moment). In the meantime, here are a few videos from French TV, showing that the promotion period of Rapture of the Deep yielded quite a few tasty moments (especially the first one! :bigsurprise:)


http://mytaratata.com/taratata/202/deep-purple-smoke-on-the-water-2007
http://mytaratata.com/taratata/202/deep-purple-rapture-of-the-deep-2007
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As weird as that Jazz version sounds it just shows how professional, versatile and grounded on their instruments these guys are. You wouldn't be able to ask many bands to just transform their stuff into jazz and do it as well as this.....True musicians :)
 
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