Deep Purple - Shades Of Deep Purple (1968)

Deep Purple’s debut release in 1968, whilst not of the level of their early 70’s albums, contains some very strong material and good performance from all of the members and gets the band’s career off to a great start. Hard rock was in its infancy in 1968, with Cream and Hendrix at the forefront of the scene at that time, but the bands sound here is already pioneering with a strong emphasis on instrumental passages and the embryonic relationship between Jon Lord’s Hammond lines and Richie Blackmore’s riffs and melodic soloing. A 19 year-old Ian Paice also shows no fear, throwing himself into each track with great flair and technical ability – something that was lacking from many drummers of that era but was, largely because of Paice (and Led Zepellin’s John Bonham) to become a major ingredient of rock music during the 1970s.

Opening with the instrumental And The Address you can almost trick yourself into thinking you’re listening to one of the bands later albums as the track features a heavy guitar part from Blackmore interspersed with Hammond breaks and frantic drumming.

The Joe South cover, and ’surprise’ hit single, Hush is up next and is a very well known track from the group, again featuring some stunning playing from Paice and a chugging Hammond/guitar riff to underpin the track. If you’ve only heard Kula Shaker’s rather limp version in the 1990s – or indeed the version released by Purple in 1988 which was dreadful – you really should check this out.

One More Rainy Day follows which is mainstream semi-psychedelia 60’s fayre which is followed by the instrumental Prelude: Happiness, a Purple take on a Rimsky-Korsakov piece, which again displays the musical dexterity of the band’s members and signals an approach the band would take as they really got into their career. I’m So Glad follows the Prelude – a cover and not overly inspiring, albeit containing some nice flourishes from Lord.

Mandrake Root is a track that was to become a staple of Purple’s live set and really shows the direction in which the band would head with the latter part of the track being a lengthy Hammond solo and Blackmore piece, accompanied by frantic drumming from Paice.

The band then turn their attention to covering the Beatles’ Help! Never really a good move to cover a Beatles tune – and here the band really attempt to give it a strong reworking with the verse sung gently by Rod Evans to a picked acoustic guitar and organ backing. The charm, and urgency, of the Beatles’s number is lost here – and the Hammond histrionics from Lord are misplaced. Blackmore however, turns-in a decent solo towards the close of the song but this choice of cover was sadly misguided, but hey it’s Deep Purple so we can forgive them such a faux pas!

Love Help Me opens with a crashing set of chords from Blackmore/Lord and leads into a short wah-wah solo from Blackmore before a fairly traditional 60’s pop song ensues which is only rescued by Blackmore’s soloing later in the track.

Another no-no is up next, a cover of Hey Joe – and yes, Hey Joe wasn’t written by Hendrix but he recorded the definitive version. Here Purple manage to convert it into a lengthy bolero intro over which Lord solos! Rather clumsily this then switches to the familiar verse of Hey Joe which the band play fairly straight before returning to the bolero again briefly and then into a Blackmore solo . . . it nearly works too, nearly.

It’s a really interesting album is Shades Of Deep Purple. You get the impression the band really want to let rip with endless instrumental passages but hold back as it wasn’t really done at that time – they’d yet to ‘invent’ it – so what you get is a pleasant psychedelia-era pop album with numerous outbursts of ripping Hammond and guitar soloing with Paice frantically filling every conceivable gap throughout. Nicky Simper ably backs things up on bass and Rod Evans does what he does well enough . . . but if we’re honest, we all prefer Gillan don’t we?

For those interested in the development of the rock genre, and in Purple, pretty much a compulsory purchase.

• Rod Evans – Vocals
• Ritchie Blackmore – Guitar
• Nick Simper – Bass
• Jon Lord – Keyboards
• Ian Paice – Drums