Deep Purple Revisited

Of the British heavy groups of the late 60s and early 70s, I've always had the most difficult relationship with Deep Purple. I've never liked Uriah Heep, mostly liked Black Sabbath and have always been fond of Led Zeppelin. With Deep purple there has always been an ambivalence.

My introduction to the band was with “Smoke on the Water” on the radio. The first Purple album I ever owned and listened to, was Made in Japan, the double live album that followed Machine Head (1972), and a year or two later I bought another double album called Deep Purple Mark I & II, a compilation of the best tracks from the first four or five albums.

As a rule, I preferred guitar heavy hard rock and not so much the keyboard embellished, and often overblown, music of Deep Purple or Uriah Heep. The lyrics seemed less poetic then pretentious.

Due to lack of money and interest, I never bought any of the Deep Purple studio albums. I sold Made in Japan and Deep Purple Mark I & II, while I was in high school for money for other records I wanted at the time.  Many years later I bought another greatest hits collection called Deepest Purple, and then an album of the live recordings that were outtakes from the Concerto for Band and Orchestra album (1970). Even  later, I bought a CD called 24 Carat Purple, yet another best of compilation.

In all this time I never thought to buy the studio albums until I found Deep Purple In Rock as a low budget release. I bought it because it was cheap and not so much because I placed any significance on it. It was only much later when I read more of the history of the band that I came to know that Deep Purple In Rock was the breakthrough album of the second lineup that lead to the glorious in the Mark II version of the band.

Even when CDs replaced records and many old albums from so-called classic rock bands became available again, I wasn't disposed to buy any Deep Purple product.

Up to early 2019 I'd never heard Shades of Deep Purple and Book of Taliesyn in full, only hearing some of the best tracks. This early version of the band was heavy progressive pop rather than hard rock and featured Rod Evans and Nick Simper as respectively vocalist and bass player. For the Mark II version of the band they were replaced by Ian Gillan and Roger Glover.

Having listened do the first two albums, I prefer the later albums that are tighter, tougher, heavier, and this pompous.

Deep Purple In Rock is OK but it is difficult for me 50 years after the event to see how it was a ground-breaking or breakthrough album for the band except in contrast to the earlier efforts. It is high-energy and tough, but the songs aren't that great. My favourites I've always been “Speed King” and “A Child in Time.”  in the latter case, I liked the dynamics and tension of the music and the slow building links of the song to those extraordinary shrieks at the end. In Deep Purple terms, I've always seen it as their “Stairway to Heaven.”

I've recently watched a documentary on the band, focusing on the first two lineups and the records they made. I've also only recently listened to Machine Head in its entirety for the first time and was extremely pleasantly surprised, and now I realize why it was such a big record for them and why so many of the tracks became concert staples and or amongst the best-known Purple songs. “Smoke on the Water” is the centre piece now, although it wasn't seen as that at the time until it became a monster hit and probably the most quintessential purple hit of all. The music and the playing on the album seems livelier and looser then on Deep Purple In Rock and more listenable. This album has legs.

I don't know any tracks off Fireball except for the title track, and the same goes for the first couple of records after Machine Head, especially the ones no longer featuring Ian Gillan as vocalist. These albums seemed to be best represented by their best tracks compiled on a single record so that one has a seamless display of good songs without the duds or filler tracks on the parent album.

Deep Purple Mark III featured not only a new vocalist but also a new bassist and eventually even Ritchie Blackmore left the band and was replaced by Tommy Bolin, who tragically died after recording Come Taste the Band in 1976.

(An aside: Deep Purple album covers are among the worst ever.)

Purple is still going, or at least, carried on for many years throughout the 80s. 90s and early years of the 21^st century. I don't think Richie Blackmore ever returned but Ian Gillan did, and they had a couple of other lead guitarists. Jon Lord has died, which means that the classic Deep Purple line up can no longer perform but in these days where a band name is a brand that can keep going regardless of the musicians, I would imagine that Deep Purple could record and release records and keep touring even if only a few of the original band members are still alive.

The discography of the band does show that it has been a recording band during its entire lifetime but, for example, like the Rolling Stones, the lighter albums or not as highly regarded as the classic albums from which the best known songs come and or probably hardly known except to die-hard Deep Purple fans.

The musicians in Deep Purple have always prided themselves on their technical proficiency and this was part of the success. They were experienced, worked hard at their craft and were always professional. This works well in the studio and especially when the band performs live. Deep Purple arose in an era where virtuosity was prized by audiences who liked lengthy guitar solos, extravagant keyboard solos and extended drum solos, none of which could be done or would sound as good if the musicians weren’t at the top of their game.

The sad fact is that songwriting doesn't only require technical proficiency but does require some genius or flash of brilliance to make the lyrics Intriguing and the tune memorable. The older a musician gets, the more proficient he or she might be at writing lyrics, providing the chords for a song, working out a tune from those chords and arranging the track. These proficiencies do not a brilliant song make, and this type of composition is hardly ever viscerally exciting. When you listen to songs by older musicians you can appreciate the craft and the workmanship, but you’re hardly ever moved emotionally. As soon as you’ve heard the track, it leaves your mind.

This applies to Deep Purple as much as it applies to any of their peers. The Deep Purple albums that will always sell, or Deep Purple In Rock, Machine Head and Made in Japan, and, of course, the compilations that focus on the best songs and they will mostly, if not entirely, be from the 70s output of the band.