Entertainment For Lively Minds
Sometimes I Feel Like Liking Deep Purple
I'm trying to catch up on my Deep Purple homework tonight. Rapture of The Deep is currently coming out of my Wharfedale speakers.
In a weeks time I'm due to see them at Manchester Apollo and need to know what to be listening too? Teacher has threatened to not let me into the gig, if I only know the lyrics to Smoke On The Water.I don't actually really like Smoke On The Water, like Bohemian Rhapsody, it has been overplayed to death over the years.
Where do you start with a band who seem to have had as nearly many line up changes as The Fall?
My friend, Mr Pete Purpendicular, has been of great assistance and I am now familar with the albums, Machine Head, Anthology 1,Ultimate Purple, Come Taste The Band,the one with David Coverdale on it, and Shades Of Purple. As you may have guessed, some of these aren't official releases.
On Saturday I dug deep into my purple velvet trousers and did buy Purpendicular. It contains one of my favourite Purple tracks; Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming. A live version is on the attached playlist for starters and if you have nothing better to do, please add your Purple recommendations. Thank the good Jon Lord for your help.
http://open.spotify.com/user/lordwright/playlist/1pj6wCtfCgaTZ8gwxmYTks
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Best Deep Purple riff...
Seconded
Burn is the best track from the Coverdale period.
You need to listen to In Rock, Machine Head and Live In Japan and that will do you!
Excellent
Great clip, I think they had had better riffs than Zepplin, but that's perhaps another thread. What is the classic Purple line up I wonder?
The reason Coverdale is grinning like a kid in a sweet shop...
in that clip is that it was his first gig with the band. From singing in pubs and clubs to going out in front of 200,000... he did well.
I know this was posted on here recently,
but it is worth re-watching...
Deep Fringe
Love the haircuts!
Have to say
think the Coverdale/Glen Hughes incarnation was the best. Burn the best album and "Might Just Take Your Life" a great track
(By the way - better riffs than Zep? For me - there is Zeppelin and then there is everybody else - for riffs or anything else in the rockular department)
oh good god no
you know that discussion a couple of weeks ago about whether punk really swept away a legion of rock monsters, as has become the accepted truth? It was this. This is the stuff that deservedly got clobbered.
Lumped riff, bored singer, bass player - bass player! - trying to run the band, Blackmore sulking and redundant... truly dreadful.
At least they had the good grace to split soon after.
But
....evidently they are on tour....some dinosaurs are hard to kill
Zeppelin Blues
I never really understood the Zeppelin Hype. Sure they're good at theatrical videos etc. but musically its just riff based 12 bar blues. Hey if that's your bag - great!
For me, Purple takes it to another level. Once you can get passed Gillian's screams, there are many moments of musical genius. Take the whole of the ‘Made In Japan' record - A Miracle.
Sure they're good at
eh? Is there a band with *less* video footage than LZ?
Agree
I like the In Rock/Japan lineup, but I agree Coverdale was a great vocalist and "Come taste the band" is a classic album - funnily enough I listened to it this morning on the train....Tommy Bolin was a fantastic player...on "Spectrum" too by Billy Cobham.
Riffs
Nice clip, musically and from what I've heard, I think Purple are better musicians than Zeppelin.
Mrs Coverdale
Here's a nice track from the Stormbringer album.
Strange fact
I was working in Malaysia for a few weeks and late in the evening in the hotel bar the band of acoustic based local musicians who had played exclusively Malyasian pop / folk stuff up to that point suddenly played "Soldier of fortune"! Apparently it was a massive hit there, and rather like "Stand by me" in France, it is gig law to play it at the end of the set regardless of venue, genre, format, lineup etc. Did it well, too.
The two essential Purple discs
Fireball - some strong songs along with loads of truly sublime instrumental passages.
Made in Japan - only the best live LP ever made and they improvise like a jazz combo, not bad for a hard rock band. You won't get any of that magic and edge in their present day live show, audiences won't go with it apparently....
They lost it all and became increasingly charmless after 1973 though and, like Bowie, it ain't gonna come back no matter how much you hang around.
Uriah Heep Live!
runs it a close second, or is that just me...
Hey David!
make your Purple list colaborative and we can add our faves, I have many and the first two DP albums are amongst them.
Not sure how you do this,
Not sure how you do this, feel free to start one cheers
here ye go
The Deep Purples: http://open.spotify.com/user/sunburst369/playlist/7L15rBbUWb5fYetnfWOAwe
I've put three faves from the mk1 period in
Ta
Thanks for that!
Here We Go
Think I've mastered it now;
http://open.spotify.com/user/lordwright/playlist/1pj6wCtfCgaTZ8gwxmYTks
All shades are good - almost
My favourites in order, for what it's worth:
Fireball
Made in Japan
Machine Head
Live in London
Come Taste the Band
Burn
In Rock (but only really for Child in Time and Speed King)
The current line-up doesn't do it for me at all - the 'new' guitarist just leaves me cold - all technique and no feel. No light and shade. Gillan should have got one of Coverdale's discarded pre-hair-years guitarists in.
FACT!
on the guitarist front, Moody or Marsden woulda filled in nicely and added a bit of soul
Steve Morse
Technically one of the best around. Enjoyed his work with Dixie Dregs and Living Loud. But in Purple I think you are spot on - no feel, clinical and no soul.
I saw Purple live about 5 years ago, on what was supposed to be John Lord's last tour. Gillan couldn't hit the high notes, but they seemed to be really enjoying themselves, and it was a great night. At one point Morse led the band into "Won't Get Fooled Again". Fantastic I thought - this is what live music is all about. Trouble was, after 12 bars it was on to the Stones, then 8 bars of the Beatles and so on. Felt to me like the musical equivalent of pr*ck teasing.
And brought Purple family continuity
Mind you, Marsden would probably benefit from a bit of TLC from Gillian McKeith.
I hadn't realised, Bernie has in fact played with Purple recently. Sadly, both Marsden and the hair bloke both have their distortion pedals set to 11; one day someone will explain to this new fellow that the Purple sound is based on overdrive rather than metallic distortion.
I hadn't seen any footage of Ian Gillan for about 20 years...
and... he's... got short hair! Bloody hell... I never thought I'd see the day. Suits him actually.
This is a good tune too...
the audience are fully flying their freak flags...
I would say MKII is the best line up!
With the aid of spotify, its possible to pull together the ultimate DP album from across the years…
Here's a few of my fav tracks
Mitzee Dupree
Pictures of Home
Freedom (fireball outtake)
Gypsy
Child In Time (made in Japan version) In my option the best live guitar solo ever recorded
April
Hallelujah
Shield
The Battle Rages On….
I grew up on the Purps
among other "classic" rock bands (then just called Heavy Rock, or some such) and I'll offer my $0.02:
the Mk I stuff ("Hush" etc) is worth a listen although is more of a period curio than anything else: it sounds like they were trying to outdo the Vanilla Fudge whilst not really knowing where they were going;
the 1969 Orchestra stuff can be safely ignored;
almost all of the Mk II studio stuff is good, and some of it is very good indeed. I'm not so keen on the live DP experience: it veers too much into self-indulgence for me altho I expect that if one had been there at the gigs it would have been a lot more entertaining (duly armed with an escape route to the bar/lav during the 25-minute versions of Space Trucking etc). All the MkII studio LPs are worth having, and "BBC Stew/Live at the BBC" too, if you can find it - it's a b**tl*g of early DP BBC Radio sessions, a lot of which ab-sol-lutely cook, plus you get Brian Matthew introducing the band as only he can, pop-pickers. Some of the BBC stuff has since been released officially as bonus cuts on CD reissues, but on listening to this, one can see that on a good day, squabbling and rockstar behaviour aside, the Mk II lineup were a v.fine band. Fantastic rhythm section, especially - Paice and Glover - much under-rated.
One should also remember the rate at which the early-70s bands such as DP worked: three albums in two years, half a dozen tours etc ... a work rate unheard of today.
Oh and post Gillan, I personally don't rate them much, and I stopped paying attention when Coverdale left.
Rat Bat Blue
Ridiculous title. Magnificent riff.
As is the opening to 'You Fool No One' from Made in Europe.
Oh yes
Made in Europe. Brilliant. That's tonight's train journey sorted. That version of "Mistreated, interpolating Rock me Baby". Ace!
Another top tune...
Blackmore's riffs are so simple to play, but *he* plays them like no one else can. He has such wonderful touch as a musician and knows just how to phrase them to perfection.
Here's another tasty little freak out from Ritchie
Jammin - When its good, its really good!
and 34 seconds in who's in the audience?
but the mighty Georgie Best in a pink top. I'd no idea Georgie liked this sort of stuff when he wasnt quaffing down the champers, chasing skirt and putting six goals past Northampton Town.
all you really need
are the expanded version of 'made in japan' from the gillan era and 'burn' from the coverdale/hughes era.
if you want to try some later stuff, the 'perfect strangers' album with the reunion of the classic line up has some decent stuff on it, particularly the title track and 'knocking at your back door.'
Says who?
Wot no Fireball? No Come Taste the Band? Not sure re your definition of 'need' old stick.
four good albums and thats it!
In Rock, Machine Head, Made in Japan and Burn are all classics. Everything else they've done has been dull, repetitive and in places substandard (most of the latter output).
Live they are now going through the motions. Its mainly a showcase for Steve Morse's guitar talents mixed in with an Ian Gillan karaoke show. Gillan simply can't cut it anymore. I saw them three years ago at Milton Keynes and I was not impressed. IG sounded half pissed, inarticulate and plain boring.
I saw them when they reformed in the 1980s at the NEC and they blew me away. That was all down to Blackmore.
Deep Purple without Ritchie Blackmore is the Gillan/Morse band, a rather average band, now flogging a legend to death.
And to respond to another thread. Led Zeppelin were a better band overall partly because Purple were far too fragmented and inconsistent. But pound for pound Blackmore is a much more talented guitarist than Jimmy Page.
A handy visual aid
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/art/artist/simonpatterson/wu0791/
Lazy - stay in bed
The version of Lazy from Made in Japan does it for me. Sounds like they were all on top of their game and were just cutting loose. I popped in your playlist David.
Lovely
Thanks, will listen later.
Thanks
prompted me to download 24 Carat Purple--Child in Time stands up well, though the onset of the full tilt boogie is very Spinal Tap ...
many reminiscences ... strongest is the 1978 or 9 Friday Rock Show listeners Xmas list, which as far as I can recall involved:
Yes--Starship Trooper
Purple--Child in Time
Derek and the Dominos--Layla
Rush--2112 ?
Genesis--Supper's Ready
Skynyrd--Freebird
Floyd--Shine On
Yes--Awaken
Zep--Stairway
and one more
(if anyone knows the correct details please post)
I'm guessing
Would it have been Whole Lotta Rosie, or did that appear in the end-of-year lists later?
I'm almost sure it wasn't AC/DC
I think that must have been later on, as the show got more metallic and less proggy with time iirc.
I am pretty sure this was the first one that Vance did, and I know I taped it at the time---I have a vague feeling that maybe Rush or Purple also had two tracks rather than one, though I also have a nagging feeling that there was one other band represented--and something anthemic--but not ELP, Crimson, Hendrix or Free though, among the obvious possibilities. This was the edition I played to my poor father on a long car ride in late '79, I think, so my guess is it was the Xmas 78 list. I think it was 10 tracks, with quite a few chosen in live versions partly to make the 2hrs.
I do remember the moment when the show embraced NWOBHM, and Vance addressed the listeners in a rather Year Zero kind of way on the subject.
On balance
I reckon it must have been 2 Purple tracks, with Smoke as the other one. Clearly the Purple vote, like the Yes vote, was split.
What I liked about the early years of the rock show was its relatively broad range, you might hear DSOTM in full (the BBC's quad tape of the premiere), or Nantucket Sleighride, or Pat Metheny, or the Velvets, or, suddenly, Joan Armatrading 'cos his wife liked her ...I was just too young to have heard most of this music when it came out, or seen it on Whistle Test etc, so a show with a bit less attitude than Peel and a willingness to look back a few years was very welcome to me.
while the move to NWOBHM was faithfully serving a new audience, something was lost with it, imo.
Looked at the Wikipedia article and wonder if it was the 1st Anniversary show in 79 after all.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_Rock_Show
And no Paranoid?
Or did that gain popularity alongside NWOBHM because it was a bit more metal?
Indeed
I think that's exactly right--in 78 it was the "rock canon" (as in How Green was my Greatcoat, rather than The Rolling Stones at Earl's Court) and by 82 (?) it was the "metal canon" (ELP had a few of these on stage iirc ...).
Nowadays you get John Surman on the Radio 3 breakfast show ...funny old world etc.
PS If it was Rush rather than Purple with 2 tracks it would have been Cygnus X-1 ...
Wot - No Paranoid ?
imagine a little pair of eyes, pointy nose and squiggle of hair, looking down over Subject bar ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chad_(graffiti)
Actually, a little grey cell is tellig me the 10th track was Won't Get Fooled Again, which would be satisfying --wonder if its true ...
Interestingly, someone
Interestingly, someone remembers it thus:
http://forums.melodicrock.com/phorum33/read.php?f=1&i=323623&t=323623&v=...
and so has Xanadu not 2112. However I am 99% sure there was no Rainbow track there the first time.
Bit rot, eh ?
wot was meringue
with my Spotify™ playlist, I know it is David's thread but... well I wondered?
Deep Gratitude
Thanks for all the good Purple tips, I have been doing my Purple homework and am ready for tomorrow night's gig. I know it won't be the classic Purple lineup, but I hope to be pleasantly surprised. Manchester Apollo is one of my favourite venues. At the moment, Machine Head is my favourite Purple album.