DEEP PURPLE

Given the length of time Deep Purple have been together it has become common practice to divide the band into three different, distinct entities. The three ages of Deep Purple, if you will. There was Deep Purple mk I, a somewhat unsuccessful sixties hippy band; Deep Purple mk II, an innovative and influential hard rock band; and Deep Purple mk III, a derivative and wholly uninteresting hard rock band. I'll give you four guesses to work out which era I've concentrated on. Yep, Deep Purple mk II, but then you knew that anyway, didn't you?

So along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, Deep Purple are regarded as the pioneers of hard rock and/or heavy metal. Thankfully they put a different enough spin on it to differentiate themselves from the heavy metal gloom of Sabbath or the guitar wizardry of Zeppelin. This is mainly achieved through a reliance on organ as the secondary lead instrument and a interesting foray into early funk-rock. Problem is, though, Deep Purple are definitely the weakest of the three groups. Not miles worse than Sabbath but certainly a proverbial furlong behind Led Zeppelin (but then what rock band isn't?). Although they have some classic songs to their credit, and a couple of great albums, they just don't do it for me. I can't really put my finger on it but I guess their songs aren't as memorable (although song-writing wasn't the key issue for any of the three hard rock legends) and the arrangements aren't as varied. They also have the most God-awful, typical seventies obsession with dragging each and every song out to about six or seven minutes. It drives me mad. But more on that later.

The band, of course, were divided into factions (well, Blackmore against the rest, I guess) which meant they only lasted about two or three years as Deep Purple mk II before some members going their separate ways, Coverdale coming in and generally degenerating into the derivative cock rock band I made reference to in the first paragraph; I quite like "Burn", though. Anyhow, musically all five members were at the very least competent and some technically excellent. Particularly vocalist Ian Gillan and, of course, guitar maestro Ritchie Blackmore. So at least when they go on these endless jams they do it properly. They still needed more great songs, though.

From: stratovariusUK@blueyonder.co.uk

Deep Purple miles behind Led Zepp have you been on mushrooms latley?How many fillers did Led Zepp put on thei first 4 albums quite a lot most of even the die hard fans that i know who are honest.

From: Gregg Kihlström

Howcome you missed the Who Do We Think We Are? album?
Thats the best MK2 album!!

I would have liked to have given this 10*, marking it out as Deep Purple's classic, but unfortunately it just ain't good enough. Still, it probably is Deep Purple's classic, nonetheless. It certainly came out early enough to be considered a pioneering hard rock album. And it was thus the album that marked the arrival of Deep Purple in their second incarnation. I always think it is a bit odd when a band reinvents itself as something completely different. It hardly happens that often. I mean, how did Blackmore go from "Hush" to the distorted, screaming intro to this album. Actually the intro to the album, and to "Speed King" I guess, is probably the most spectacular moment on the album. It certainly sets the stall out early on, to use a football cliche. Ingeniously the album also ends the same way with the dying strains of "Hard Lovin' Man" turning into a final distorted cacophony. Unfortunately, what comes in between isn't quite as dramatic. It is in parts, though. The key song on the album and, quelle surprise, the best is the epic "Child in Time". Certainly Ozzy Osbourne and Robbie Plant never matched Gillan's histrionics on that number. A gradual organ tinkers about with Gillan in a seemingly restrained mood. Gradually, though, the song builds up with Gillan affecting a climatic wail. The third time marks the crescendo with his screams unparalleled (something he attributes to wearing tight trousers, in the sleeve-notes). The song then turns into a lengthy but dazzling solo by Blackmore before Lord returns the favour on his organ. The whole process is then gone through again. But this time I think I can excuse them a moment of self-indulgence as "Child in Time" is a song you never want to end. Brilliant. On the other hand, "Flight of the Rat" are where their faults are really exposed. An utterly unspectacular track is dragged on. And on. And on. f. o. r. a. n. e. t. e. r. n. i. t.....y. There's even a false ending after about five minutes. Why couldn't they have ended it there? Really, why not? Why do we have to hear the whole fucking song again for a further three or four minutes? I rarely say it, but thank God for punk. What goes through your mind when you try and extend one of your most ordinary songs for so long? Utterly pointless. It is, thankfully, easily the worst song on the album. The three tracks preceding it, on the first half, make up the high point of the album. "Child in Time" I've already mentioned and then there is "Bloodsucker" and album opener "Speed King". "Bloodsucker" is one of my favourite Deep Purple songs (from mk II) with a wonderfully driving riff and a good performance from Gillan. "Speed King" is privy to another great riff and a memorable chorus. Not as good as "Highway Star" but then let's not get ahead of ourselves. Other than the first three, the album closer, the wonderfully titled "Hard Lovin' Man" is the pick of the bunch. Again, one of the fastest numbers and although still pretty lengthy it doesn't drag anywhere near as excruciatingly as "Flight of the Rat". "Into the Fire" and "Livin' Wreck" are both early signs of an experimentation with funk with "Into the Fire", in particular, driven by a funky riff and some tape flanging. The Deep Purple mk II releases are also beneficiaries of one of the most enthusiastic remasters I've come across with this and Fireball containing a clutch of bonus tracks. "Black Night" is, of course, included and is a great song. If they'd put it on instead of "Flight of the Rat" just perhaps I could have squeezed out 10* but, alas, no. "Cry Free" is the only other new bonus track and is pretty good, again perhaps it should have been included instead of "Flight of the Rat". The rest of the bonus tracks are remixes by Roger Glover of tracks already on the album. Incredibly this means "Speed King" is on the CD three times. That's sixteen minutes of the same song. I really don't see the point. Horrifically, Glover also remixes "Flight of the Rat" giving us sixteen minutes of that an' all. Shite. The "Black Night" remix is probably the only bonus track worth bothering with, although the general remastering of the album is excellent. Well it appears this review has been the "I hate 'Flight of the Rat' lecture" but I must stress the rest of the album is really good. A seminal hard rock classic, no less.

Well one area where Deep Purple are at least superior to Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath is in their keenness to experiment musically. Unfortunately, expanding your musical horizons and being a hard rock band rarely complement each other so we're left with moments of dazzling hard rock but stretches of tedious experimentation . Even worse, the band have become even keener on extending average songs for an age longer than they should be. I guess it means you don't have to write as many songs as you only need seven to make up a forty minute album but it really makes the album drag in parts. Even a hard rockin' and fast lovin' track like "Fools" is two or three minutes longer than it needs to be. Thankfully, one song is satisfyingly brief, namely the title track which opens the album. I can't remember off the top of my head but it's only three or four minutes long and is a refreshing blast of rock action. If they had condensed more songs into that sort of structure I'd probably be a lot keener on the band. If you think of Led Zeppelin the only tracks they drag on are the epics which need to be that long. Songs like "Immigrant Song" and "Rock and Roll" are kept short and sweet and are thus blasts of pure rock. But then long songs are hardly the biggest crime in the world. Just a very annoying one. There are two tracks that most depart from typical Deep Purple so I might as well have a crack at them. "Anyone's Daughter" is supposed to be a county and western style number with Blackmore using a subtle slide-technique rather than crunching riffs. It's not actually a terrible song but you can no doubt guess my main criticism of it. No, it's not too short, it's too...wait for it...long. Yeah, for a novelty track it should have been no more than three minutes long and it would have made a decent excursion but it takes up too much time so the joke soon wears thin. It is followed by the most outlandishly experimental track on the album, "The Mule", which seems to consist of a brilliant drum pattern supporting all manner of effects and experimentation by Blackmore. Again, maybe if it was restricted to a few minutes it might have worked but dragging it out for about eight minutes ain't gonna impress anyone, not least the new Jack "I love punk rock" Feeny. To be honest, I doubt think it is that great regardless of length. I haven't even got to the worse track yet, both in terms of quality and inordinate length. I am, of course, referring to "No No No" which goes on forever and is crap. Well not awful but one of Deep Purple's worst songs from this era. It is barely worth me restating the point but it goes on far too long. About seven minutes or so and for such a mediocre song it just seems like eternity. Seven minutes simply should not be the average length of a sub-standard hard rock song. So that's one poor song and two half-failed experiments (out of seven), how can I possibly justify awarding this album such a strong rating? Well, my son, the other four songs are all really, really good. Probably superior to most of the efforts on In Rock. Probably. "Fireball", I've already mentioned and "Demon's Eye" is almost as good. Longer but still fantastic, with a gorgeous lazy riff. If a contemporary stoner rock band name-checks Deep Purple as an influence this song will almost certainly by the primary template. It is so lazy and laid-back. Brilliant, though, regardless of length. The album finishes on its highest note with the double bill of "Fools" and "No One Came"; both hard rock classics. They both have stupendous riffs, "Fools" probably having the heaviest riff in DP's catalogue, and Gillan really lets his hair down (out of his stupid ponytail) with some voice-raising vocals. "Fools" is probably the best of the two, and on the album, although both the length and their experimentation let it down a little bit. I think it lasts about eight minutes, which is too long even for a song of that calibre, and it starts with and has a middle section of an eerie organ, preceding the crashing riff. To begin with it works excellently, heightening the heavy rock crash of the main song but the bit in the middle is about three minutes long and drags it out too much. Maybe a break of about thirty seconds would have had the maximum effect. Perhaps I should have remixed the bonus tracks instead of Glover given I've such a strong opinion of it. Look out for Fireball: The Feeny Remixes in the shops in the not-so-near future. This review has gone on a bit so I won't give much notice to the bonus tracks. Obviously the best song is the excellent "Strange Kind of Woman", one of their greatest, if not the greatest, tracks. There is a b-side and two original album outtakes none of which are that brilliant, although all three are better than "No No No"; and short too. So this could have been Deep Purple's finest hour but they fucked it up with ill-advised experimentation and self-indulgent arrangements. The fools.

Well then, maybe this is Deep Purple's finest hour. It is certainly their most famous album and deservedly so. It is, of course, most famous not just for being a great hard rock album (which it is) but also for containing some throwaway number about smoke and a body of H20. That was just my awkward way of telling you the legendary "Smoke on the Water" is on this album. To break from this inevitable flow, though, I need a provisional word about the remastered package for this album. As the excruciatingly dull sleeve-notes tell me, they destroyed the original session tapes for this album (people were so stupid in the seventies) so instead of chucking on loadsa crappy bonus songs Roger Glover has very kindly remixed the entire album so there are two CDs, one with a simple remastering and the other with the remixes. The (good) b-side "When a Blind Man Cries" is included on both and there are quadrophonic mixes for "Maybe I'm a Leo" and "Lazy" on one, for the benefit of the handful of ostentatious yuppies who have four speakers for their sound system. I actually tend to listen to the remixes more often, probably because it is the first CD that comes to hand, but the difference ain't really noticeable apart from a bit of studio chat beforehand to make it seem like a rehearsal. So, the album then. Almost certainly the most consistent of the three with only one mediocre-ish song ("Lazy") and even excessive length fails to really mar the songs on here. The album begins and ends with two short-ish rock 'n' roll songs and maybe the two best songs on the album. The opening "Highway Star" lyrically continues where "Speed King" left off (yes, about cars) but is even better mainly on account of its pace; only natural given it is about cars in the first place. A great song. Similarly "Space Truckin'" is nonsensical lyrically but as a song it is a wonderful hard rock adaptation of rock 'n' roll with a wonderfully energetic chorus. It's only about four minutes as well. I think it is the only Deep Purple song in the whole wide world that ends a bit soon. The rest of the songs are, give or take, about the same as each other. "Maybe I'm a Leo" is a superior cut with its brilliant funk edged opening ("creeping round your door...") but is pretty hard to separate in terms of quality from something like "Pictures of Home" which moves a lot faster and with a good driving riff. The album is certainly a lot more consistent than Fireball, at least, and probably more so than In Rock. It is really tough to call between the pair of them but I think I edge towards this album. Certainly there's no "Flight of the fucking Rat" on here. That said, there is "Lazy" which ain't a great song. Well it's barely a good song. It builds up for ages before it turns 180 degrees and morphs into a completely different song about being lazy. I'm all for being lazy but the song fails to win me over. "Long" would have been a more apt title 'cause it is long. Very long. Thankfully "Space Truckin'" rescues the situation so you don't end the listening experience disappointed. It is certainly the only song on here I don't like. "Never Before" strays again towards funk territory although this ain't really Sly and the Family Stone and is probably the second weakest track but still a good distance ahead of "Lazy". I guess I should articulate my feelings towards "Smoke on the Water" as I'm sure you're just dying to hear them. Firstly I don't think it is a great song (riff apart) but it is a very good one. No matter how many times you hear it the opening riff still sends a shiver down the spine. It does seem a bit reminiscent of "Paranoid" in that it obviously wasn't intended as a massive hit yet it still turned out that way. I think it might be ironic that the lyrics are actually about writing the song. The last line is certainly prophetic: "no matter what we get out of this I know I'll never forget..." A good guitar solo to boot; most of which I can play. Therefore I'd say this album doesn't deserve its reputation on the basis of "Smoke on the Water" it deserves it on the basis of being a great hard rock album. And there is no greater accolade than that.

From: Carlo Manfredi

Hi, probably I'm too straightforward... but your review of Machine Head seems sheer nonsense to me. Regards, Carlo

Hurrah, a live album! As I discussed in my dull essay about ratings I tend to purchase a live album for each band to complement their studio output and given the high regard this album is held in it seemed the perfect purchase. And it was. All in all, a very good live album. Amazingly it contains only seven songs yet goes on for 76 minutes. I don't know how your maths is but mine reckons that makes an average of eleven minutes a song. Yowser. Perhaps my criticism of Deep Purple making their songs too long was unfounded... (that was sarcastic). Thankfully they pick a decent selection of tracks from the three albums meaning only a couple let the side down. I don't think any track on here improves on the studio original but no songs are ruined. There are, though, two songs on here that I don't like. Firstly there's "Lazy" which goes on for ten minutes and, lo and behold, is far too long. Well I just don't like that song but carrying on for an extra three minutes fails to impress me. Secondly, and even worse, there is "The Mule". Even worse than that, they abandon Blackmore's pseudo-psychedelic effects for an extended drum solo. Rock music must have done something pretty fucking evil in the late sixties for God to curse seventies rock to the eternal damnation of the extended drum solo. I mean, why do they also have to go on for so long? You can't just do a three minute rat-a-tat-tat but you have to drag it on for upwards of ten minutes. Who on earth enjoys a ten minute drum solo? I just can't believe anyone does. I was listening to this album before and I went off to the toilet, got myself a snack, read an article in the paper, came back and it was STILL the drum solo. If no-one hears the drum solo does it still exist? One for Berkeley there. Let's hope not, anyway. That's the bad points out the way, though. The album begins, as it very well should, with "Highway Star". Extended for a few more minutes but it still rocks solidly through-out. A great version of a great song. Similarly "Child in Time" has a longer instrumental passage in the middle but that ain't much of a problem. My only minor complaint is that the running order is switched so Lord solos away first before Blackmore's distinctive guitar weaves its magic. Glover's bass really thumps away in the background during the climatic sequences, which is a good thing. The band certainly sound fantastic, maybe because of the remastering, with Blackmore in particular a leading light. The effects him and Lord come up with are dazzling at times. None more so than the final, ridiculous "Space Truckin'" which begins fairly innocuously before stretching out for almost twenty minutes with all manner of weird noises being made. An attempt, I guess, to mimic the sort of space rock early Pink Floyd played and with a certain degree of success. The way Blackmore makes his guitar sound like a de-tuned radio is (genuinely) fantastic. Similarly, he messes with the opening riff of "Smoke on the Water" although, somewhat surprisingly, this doesn't ruin it and all but improves it. I love the dive with the whammy bar he throws in to make it all seem like an aborted attempt. This album is almost certainly the finest hour of Deep Purple mk II as musicians. I guess I may as well give "Strange Kind of Woman" an honourably mention as, although stretched out to ten minutes with another quiet passage in the middle, it still comes across as a great song. There is even a bonus CD with the remaster which represents an encore. It is certainly a nice touch as I imagine the performances were drawn from a real-life encore. "Black Night" and "Speed King" are given versions in line with the rest of the album whilst the second CD finishes with a cover of the old rock 'n' roll classic "Lucille". It's still eight minutes long, though. Chuck Berry would be turning in his home for perverted sex offenders or where-ever the wrinkly nut-job is locked up. Is he even dead? I dunno. I believe Rufus Thomas died yesterday. For what it's worth. I guess I might delete that sentence when it gets too out-of-date. Anyhow, to business: this ain't the best live album ever but it is certainly the best by Deep Purple called Made in Japan and released in 1972. And that is praise enough.

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Email me at: jackfeeny@yahoo.co.uk