Deep Purple Part 2-The Screamer Years

While at that time, Rod Evans may have been the weakest link in Deep Purple as they were searching for a sound of their own and they tried many things on their first three albums, from hippy dippy pop to progressive rock.  They flirted with hard rock at times but Richie Blackmore thought that Evans was more suited for ballads than the screaming rock that he longed to make.  And he wanted Nick Simpler out as well. So while the original vocalist and bass player were mouthing off to prerecorded songs on the music shows at that time, Blackmore went out looking.  And found the perfect vocalist in one Ian Gillan.  Funny thing about that is the band he sang in Episode Six were even more pop sounding.

Episode Six made some collected singles via Warner Brothers and Elektra although if any albums were made they were imports only.  Collectibles Records licensed from Castle Records The Complete Episode Six and by all means it's all over the place, from tongue in cheek Beach Boy parodies (Mighty Morris Ten) to something that would fit on a Moody Blues album (Love Hate Revenge) and even featured a female singer at times (Sheila Carter). Gillan was the lead singer and most of the time didn't register much screaming till later songs (Mr. Universe) to which you can then hear traces of his trademark wailing. The main songwriter in the band was Roger Glover, who happened to be the bass player.  Listening to the best of it's easy to see why Gillan was plucked from this band, he was a much better vocalist than Evans. The Best Of Episode Six isn't rock and roll, in fact what Deep Purple MK 1 was doing was heavier than EP 6.  But the Gillan/Glover version would really changed the sound from here on out.

The final Tetragrammon single was the first to feature Gillan (Hallelujah) and I didn't think much of it myself and the first DP album after Evans was the Concerto For Group And Orchestra and it's worth a listen. By then Warner Brothers in the US picked them up and the  first full album Deep Purple In Rock was a complete 360 despite the meddling label chopping off the Jon Lord intro into Speed King and leaving the single Black Night off.  In Rock, the prog rock and the pop rock was left off and the band turn their amps up to 10 and went all out. Gillan wisecracked, sang, screamed and laughed his way through Speed King and early heavy metal rocker Bloodsucker before giving us the 11 minute epic Child In Time which may or may not be the best song ever.  This is where we all got to know the vocal range of Gillan up till the blood curdling screams for the coda.   Certainly the world had never heard such a thing before and would be a major part of Deep Purple's concerts before time and age pretty much leveled Gillan's screams more into a yelp.  Side 2 has lesser moments (Flight Of The Rat, Hard Lovin Man) but nevertheless Deep Purple In Rock is considered one of the first three truly album with the heavy metal tag, (the other two is Uriah Heep's S/T and of course Black Sabbath).  With this album Rod Evans becomes a footnote.

For a band that was recording for EMI, the albums are always sounded very boxy and poorly recorded despite having Martin Birch as the main recorder. With Derek Lawrence now gone (the band never had a good opinion of him) the band self produced themselves and Warner Brothers, the US label, left them alone to their own devices.  Fireball, the followup continued in the same way In Rock did and it was another classic, the metal thrash of the title track, the boogie blues of Strange Kind Of Woman, the country twanged Anyone's Daughter, the meandering Fools and the straight ahead rock of No One Came (which might have some of the funniest lines Ian Gillan ever wrote). Deep Purple was actually challenging Led Zeppelin in terms of heaviness.  They would actually get better.

Machine Head, best known for the chords of Smoke On The Water, a song anybody can play broke them big.  That song, based on a true story from Gillan about the infamous concert with the Mothers Of Invention and with "some stupid with a flare gun burn the place to the ground" was a FM classic back then (overplayed classic rock song now) but the perfect introduction was Highway Star to which the band jamming away has the trademark Gillan screams at the beginning and is a stoner rock classic.  But for myself the record is damn near perfect, the band never sounded better together, Martin Birch finally recorded the band just right and all the songs are winners.  No fewer than 4 of these songs would be used for the next live document and you could consider Space Truckin here to be a short version compared to the 20 minute one that would take up all of side four on Made In Japan.

Made In Japan came out in 1973 and is regarded as their most best loved  classics.  I had this on 8 track and it was mixed to the point that the bass from the other channels would leaked into the channel I was listening to.  40 years after the fact it still shines fairly well but it also can be argued that it is their most pompous as well, with long long guitar solos, organ solos, drum solos and Gillan baiting up the Japanese crowd at the beginning of Lazy and providing counter point to Blackmore's solo on Strange Kind Of Woman.  You had to be there to hear it yourself and it's not a perfect live album, Gillan misses a few lines of Highway Star, Ian Paice excellent drummer gives the listener a pee break on the 11 minute drum solo on The Mule and the extensions of the songs tend to tire out as well.  All coming together on the 20 minute Space Truckin to which elements of Mandrake Root and Fools are thrown in and a free form freak out as well.  To which it all crashes down, leaving the audience wondering if they should clap or wait for more.  To which it finally ends.  For 9 songs totaling 2 and a half hours (Lucille and Black Night were later added on as bonus cuts as a bonus CD, the CD itself was 79 minutes)  Made In Japan is a classic but uneven affair due to monotonous long songs.  But it was the sign of the times back in the 70s, when 10 plus minute jamming songs were the norm and you had to be there.  But if you want more of this, all three Japan shows are now available on CD and LP.

You think with the fame and fortune and even having the loudest concert ever recorded back then. They would be happy but Richie Blackmore being the ego behind the band wasn't getting along with his new found vocalist and they begin to clash and clash more often.  But before that they put out yet another album of worthiness Who Do We Think We Are with a minor hit Woman From Tokyo.  Gillan was sarcastic as ever on Mary Long, Rat Bat Blue and Place In Line which continue the same formula that was featured on the other albums but the winning had to end.  Oh, this record is still good, it's enjoyable but the songs had a rushed out feeling.  With that Ian Gillan bowed out of the band, citing fatigue and needed time away from it all.  He may have been right, Deep Purple recorded 5 albums between 1970 and 1973. Roger Glover would soon depart  as well.

Blackmore continued Deep Purple by adding two new faces to the team.  One was Glenn Hughes from Trapeze on bass and higher octave vocals and a unknown David Coverdale a much more whiskey voiced singer.  Basically Burn should have not been as great when it came out but it beat people's expectations and it was better than Who Do We Think We Are, leading off with the searing Burn and minor single Might Just Take Your Life.  Lay Down Stay Down and Sail Away end the record nice and You Fool No One  leads off side 2 at full tilt. Mistreated would be a big part of Deep Purple's Mark 2 songs and later for both Blackmore's Rainbow and Coverdale's Whitesnake.   Alas, Stormbringer, despite the great title track, the album was fairly boring.  It's more of a soul blues record than rock although there's some attempts at that with Lady Double Dealer and The Gypsy.  But most of it was forgettable and Blackmore took his guitar and ego out of the band after that to form Rainbow.  Meanwhile, Deep Purple recruited the great Tommy Bolin to replace Blackmore and they rebounded a bit with Come Taste The Band.  Bolin, overdosed in 1976 and Deep Purple called it a day.  Warner Brothers threw out Made In Europe a so so collection of the Burn tour. And then issued the half assed When We Rock We Rock best of and later Deepest Purple a much better overview of the Gillan/Coverdale years but leaves Rod Evans and Tommy Bolin out in the cold.

With that Deep Purple members drifted into other projects. Roger Glover went into production (Nazareth, Rainbow) Ian Gillan went on a to a decent solo career, Richie Blackmore formed up Rainbow (later picking Glover back up), David Coverdale started a new band called Whitesnake, Jon Lord and later Ian Paice would join up for a few albums).  However in late 1979 a snake in a grass manager would lead Rod Evans back into a faux paus Deep Purple band that would not sit well with the other members and after an ill fated 1980 tour, sued Evans and put a stop to that.  But four years later, the Mark 2 lineup would reunite with Perfect Strangers and a new chapter would begin.

Albums:

Concerto For Group And Orchestra (WB 1969) C
Deep Purple In Rock (WB 1970) B+
Fire Ball (WB 1971) A-
Machine Head (WB 1972) A
Who Do We Think We Are! (WB 1973) B
Made In Japan (WB 1973) B
Burn (WB 1974) A-
Stormbringer (WB 1974) B-
Come Taste The Band (WB 1976) B
Made In Europe (WB 1977) C+
When We Rock We Rock....(WB 1978) C+
Deepest Purple (WB 1980) B+

Whitesnake albums (featuring both Jon Lord and Ian Paice)

Ready N Willing (Mirage 1980) B+
Live...In The Heart Of The City (Mirage 1981) B-
Come And Get It (Geffen 1981) B-
Saints And Sinners (Geffen 1982) B+