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

Rainbow - Difficult To Cure (1981)

Following the departure of Graham Bonnet after one album, Down To Earth, Rainbow further pursued a more commercial sound with Difficult To Cure. With the extremely capable Joe Lynn Turner on vocals, the band further developed a more mainstream, chart-friendly approach which paid dividends with I Surrender achieving Rainbow’s highest-ever UK chart position at number 3.

Whilst I harbour a strong leaning towards the Dio-era Rainbow, Difficult To Cure is nevertheless a strong album and the last before the commercialism went too far. There is a good blend here of all-out rock riffing with Richie Blackmore in fine-form on Spotlight Kid and the track Magic is a real highlight. Joe Lynn Turner’s vocals are strong and soaring throughout the album and the band really were riding the crest of a wave. New boy Bobby Rondinelli ably steps into Cozy Powell’s shoes too providing the blunt, thundering style eschewed by Mr Powell.

The album also gives vent to Riche Blackmore to explore his classical roots once more with Vielleicht Das Nachste Mal and the title track (based around Beethoven’s Ninth) in which Don Airey performs a section in a very much Keith Emerson mould!

Chart success and a new vocalist who also would prove to be one of the greatest in rock – could it get any better? Well, no really and the band gradually slid into decline but for fans of classic melodic rock – and/or Richie Blackmore – this album should definitely be added to the collection.

• Joe Lynn Turner – Vocals
• Ritchie Blackmore – Guitar
• Don Airey – Keyboard
• Roger Glover – Bass
• Bobby Rondinelli – Drums

Deep Purple - Machine Head (1972)

As seminal albums go, Deep Purple’s 1972 Machine Head has to be near the top of the heap. I stumbled across this gem purely by accident at about 14 after seeing Ian Paice, then drummer with the Gary Moore band, on BBC2’s Rockschool programme and – as a budding drummer myself – wanted to hear more of his playing. A friend mentioned that he thought Paice used to be in Deep Purple, of whom I’d not heard, but trundled I off to the nearest record shop and randomly picked Machine Head . . . purely a stroke of luck that went a large way to shaping my musical tastes for many years to come.

Featuring the Mark II Gillan-Glover lineup of Purple, the album really captures Purple at the peak of their powers. I’m sure most people are aware of the drama around its recording where the venue in Montreaux to be used burnt down during a Frank Zappa gig leading to Purple being offered the use of a closed for off-season hotel to lay down the tracks . . . providing inspiration for one of the band’s most famous compositions, Smoke On The Water, which is featured here.

The impromptu venue change certainly helped Purple focus their minds as Machine Head is a belter from start to finish, a real career defining moment. From the driving Highway Star to the blues stylings of Lazy, all members of the band were firing on all cylinders with Paice, in particular, at the top of his game with an endless supply of rapid fire rolls.

Whilst Smoke On The Water is possibly the most famous track from Machine Head, there’s no fillers here, and Pictures From Home also conjures up the mindset of the band recording in a freezing hotel in the Alps “with emptiness, eagles and snow, Unfriendliness chilling my body. And whispering pictures of home”.

For the 25th anniversary of the album a Special Edition has also been released featuring alternate versions of a handful of the tracks and the excellent When A Blind Man Cries which was recorded at the sessions but didn’t make the final cut of the original album and is well worth purchasing.

If you only buy one Deep Purple album, I would recommend that Machine Head is the one: hear the band at their best before Gillan – Blackmore bickering led to the demise of their greatest lineup after the band’s follow-up release.

• Ian Gillan – Vocals
• Ian Paice – Drums
• Richie Blackmore – Guitar
• Jon Lord – Keyboards
• Roger Glover – Bass

Deep Purple - Slaves And Masters (1990)

I have to say that a glimpse of the cover alone should be reason enough to give this Deep Purple album a wide birth! However, before die-hard Purple fans feel too aggrieved, I too am a long-time Purple fan and as such soooo wanted to play this album and feel the same excitement I did when I first put Machine Head on the turntable some 25 years ago, but alas, it was not to be.

The album features the ‘classic’ Mark II lineup minus Ian Gillan with extremely able ex-Rainbow vocalist Joe Lynn turner providing the vocals. As a concept, that sounds quite good but when put into practice what was actually achieved was a dismal affair indeed.

The band sounds like they were merely going through the motions – Lynn Turner himself admits that the band were under pressure to update their sound and be more ‘commercial’ and so we don’t get any of the distinctive halcyon days Purple sound here, rather a bland and uninspiring AOR album. Jon Lord’s grinding Hammond and Ian Paice’s quick-fire rolls are sadly absent throughout – as are apparently a lack of ideas.

Never has the old adage ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ been ignored more completely than in their post comeback output with this being a prime example.

• Ritchie Blackmore – Guitar
• Roger Glover – Bass
• Jon Lord – Keyboards
• Ian Paice – Drums
• Joe Lynn Turner – Vocals

Rainbow - Long Live Rock And Roll (1978)

One of the finest proponents of blues-based hard rock during the latter half of the 1970s, Long Live Rock marked the end of the Ronnie Dio era of the group which, including this one, spawned three powerful studio albums.

Despite internal turmoil within the group which would lead to Dio, Bob Daisley (bass) and Dave Stone (keyboards) departing from the group shortly afterwards, the album itself is a classic of its day that still sounds good when cranked up on the stereo!

Kicking off with Cozy Powell’s pounding intro to the title track (Cozy being the only member other than Mr Rainbow Himself, Richie Blackmore, to make it to another Rainbow album) the album thunders along with the trademark guitar/Hammond sound developed in Deep Purple giving a thick and heavy sound to the tracks with Dio’s powerful voice belting out the lyrics with his usual gusto.

Personal standout tracks are the title number and Kill The King which was an earlier Rainbow track that appears on the live ‘On Stage’ album a year prior to this release.

Whilst Rainbow progressively became more and more commercial following Dio’s departure – the three albums with Ronnie Dio were consistently prime examples of 1970s rock at its best and perhaps if Blackmore had been a little less irascible maybe this album wouldn’t have been the swansong of the group’s strongest lineup!

• Ronnie James Dio – Vocals
• Ritchie Blackmore – Guitar
• David Stone – Keyboards
• Bob Daisley – Bass
• Cozy Powell – Drums