Popular Culture (Music) 20110304. Deep Purple Mark I

(10 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

There are bands and there are bands.  This band has gone through so many transitions that even I, The Geek, can not keep up with all of them, but I do know that in their original lineup that they were close to, if not actually, great.

Deep Purple were a sort of late on the invasion set band from England, only releasing their first record in 1968.  They did some original material, but their first hit was a cover of Hush, by Joe South, written for Billy Joe Royal, and it was an OK hit.

I only intend to treat the Mark I lineup, because I personally found their material to deteriorate quickly after the band were realigned, although their big hits were later.  Please come with me and explore what was to later become one of the first big hair bands, and one of the loudest in concert.

Deep Purple were composed of five members (somehow, five tends to be an unlucky number for British Invasion bands), although the Rolling Stones were the exception to the rule.

Jon Lord on Hammond keyboard (and other keyboards), who wrote lots of their original material.

Richie Blackmore on guitar, who also wrote material.  He was from the Jimi Hendrix school of guitar, and had connexions with The Who, as did Hendrix.

Ian Paice, one of the fastest drummers that I have ever heard.  He did not have the sense of music that Keith had, but his technical ability was just awesome.

Nickey Simper, the bass player, who was underrated.  He actually was quite good, but never got any traction.

Rod Evans, the lead singer, who was entirely underrated.  After his stint with Deep Purple he went on to form Captain Beyond, about which I have written before.  Although his vocal range was not outstanding, his creativity was wonderful, and some of the songs both for Deep Purple and Captain Beyond, were in some cases just outstanding.

Except for covers of other songs, Deep Purple Mark I all took writing credits.  Jon Lord wrote much of the material, but in the early days Evans was likely the largest contributor.  You can tell the change when they went to Mark II, and I hope that a fellow reader and contributor would take on that challenge in this place, a few weeks from now.

Jon Lord, aka Jon Douglas Lord, was probably the leader of the band.  Born 19410609, he is still with us.  During his time with Mark I, he played a very good Hammond organ, usually a model B-2 or B-3, either with its onboard loudspeakers or the Leslie speaker that was an option for that instrument.  I wrote about Hammond organs here many years ago.  They are outstanding.  Lord is a follower of Bach.

Ritchie Blackmore, aka Richard Hugh Blackmore, was the guitarist for the band.  Born 19450414, he is also still with us.  He is extremely talented at wringing out sounds from a Fender that few others could make so.  The most charming part of his stage persona remains the scowl.  Like Entwistle, he rarely recognized the audience, but just did what he did, and well. Blackmore is also a follower of Bach.

Ian Paice, aka Ian Anderson Paice born 19480629, is, as I said previously, the fastest drummer that I have ever heard.  He is a great talent, and also is still with us.  Those of you who read this post regularly already know that I believe that Keith Moon was the greatest rock drummer, EVER, but he would not have fit into this band well.  Nor would Paice had fit into The Who very well.  They had very different styles, and Paice was perfect for Deep Purple.  Sometimes circumstances overcome raw talent, but please know that my vote for best drummer will always be for Keith, although Ian is very, very good IN HIS own tradition.

Nickey Simper, aka Nicholas John Simper born 19451103 was an OK bass player.  By the time that Deep Purple had formed, Entwistle was already headed towards becoming known as one of the three or four best rock bass players ever known, and Simper was no where near his class.  The left handed Paul McCartney also played bass, but both of the aforementioned ones were technically much better at it.  Nickey is still with us, and John is not.

Finally, Rod Evans, born 19470119,  is probably the most talented of the bunch, and also the one who had to give up music because of lawsuits.  He is still with us, and I wonder how much better music could have been if the attorneys had not choked him.  He was also the steering influence of Captain Beyond, and I THINK that I have written about that band here before.  If not, just jog my stupid mind and I shall.

Their first record album was called Shades of Deep Purple, on Tetragrammaton Records in the US, and EMI Harvest in the UK.  It was unlike anything else, and actually wonderful.  Here is there first big hit, Hush.  Note that their producer liked sound effects.  There is something interesting about Tetragrammaton Records:  it was founded by Roy Silver, Marvin Deane, and Bill Cosby!  Yes, that Bill Cosby.  Deep Purple were not the only acts that they carried, either.  Two obscure artists, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, turned to Tetragrammaton when Capitol declined to distribute Two Virgins, and the American release for that was originally on that label.  However, by around 1971 Tetragrammaton went bankrupt and Warner Brothers became their distributor.

The opening piece on the initial album was entirely instrumental, and I like it very much.  It is called And the Address.  Rod Evans sort of banged the cowbell.  Here you go.

Hammond organ is one of favorite instruments.  I wrote about them a long time ago here.  Just listen to how Lord plays it, and how Blackmore wrings the neck of his Fender.  Paice was not too shabby, either.

Now here is an interesting piece, from Playboy after Dark, many years ago.  An extremely young Hugh Hefner introduces the band, and I think that this is live, from 1968 or early 1969.  Tell me if you think that it is lipsynched in the comments.  I think that Richard Pryor was one of the attendees.  Hugh Hefner is still with us, at around 83 years.  Good on him!  Note that he introduced them as “The Deep Purple”.

They did a cover of Hey Joe, and it was OK.  I bring it to you for a sense of being complete.  Here it is.

By far their best number on the record was Mandrake Root.  That is sort of a joke, as the pharmaceutical drug in the UK at the time was what we here in the US would be called Quaalude!   In the UK it was called Mandrax.  However, the term Mandrake is very, very old and has to do with a magical root, Mandragora officinarum in Europe, and transferred to another toxic root, Podophyllum peltatum here in the US.  Both of them have to do with being aphrodisiacs, but neither of them really are.  Remember that the producer liked sound effects, but this is really a good number.   If you did not think that Paice was a good drummer, you never heard this.  I think that it might their greatest bit of work.  Here it is for your listening pleasure, so tell me what you think.

Was that good, or what?  Very unlike The Who, but still excellent!

They had another original song, I’m So Glad, that is interesting, but not great.  Some of the words are sort of poignant, such as, “…telephone rings, another weekend, tired of longing for you…”.  Only folks who have lost great loves of their lives will connect with that.  Here is a sample.  Note that the pictures from this video is not really connected.  I do not know about the origin of the pictures, and some of them might not even be Deep Purple, but the song is from the original record.  The interesting thing is that it is a cover!  The great composer, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was responsible for most of it, and Skip James, who mastered the D-minor tuning for a guitar, was also partially responsible.

This number gets to be somewhat repetitious at times, but overall is OK.  Parts of it are quite good indeed.

One of the numbers that I really liked was an original composition, One More Rainy Day.  The Hammond is just nothing less than excellent on this one.  What do you think?  Most of the pictures in this one are authentic, and I have not seen the ones with Lord and Blackmore with their mates until I did the research for this piece.  Yes, dear readers, I do a lot of research before I post, even at Popular Culture.  Imagine the research that I must do for Pique the Geek!

One of the better works on this record was I Need Love, Love Help Me.  Paice and Blackmore were at their best on this one.  Please listen and comment.  Note that the picture of the band here is for Deep Purple Mark II:  Roger Glover (center) had replaced Simper on base, and Ian Gillian (just the right of Glover) had replaced Evans on vocals.  The music is, however, from the original Mark I studio material.

For the sake of being complete, I shall include Help! as the final entry here.  I think that The Beatles did a better job, but I really like Rod’s voice in this cover.  Please tell me what you say.

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Wow!  This is really live, and much better than I had expected.  Here is the studio version.

I hope that everyone likes this.  There are two more Mark I albums to cover.  Please let me know in comments if there is enough interest.  If so, next time we shall examine The Book of Taliesyn.    If there is enough interest, I shall also report some of the connexions that they had with other bands.  I think that Mark I was excellent.

Warmest regards,

Doc

Featured at TheStarsHollowGazette.com.  Crossposted at Antemedius.com, Dailykos.com, and FireflyDreaming.com