Deep Purple is one of those bands that you kind of forget about sometimes, until you hear one of their songs and remember how much they rocked. The band was one of the pioneers of heavy metal, and a huge influence on the genre.
The most well-known member of the group was guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, who could play with the best of them. After Deep Purple, he went on to form hard rock group Rainbow, which, of course, was most of the world's introduction to Ronnie James Dio. Since 1997, he has played in Blackmore's Night (along with his wife), which, I kid you not, plays Renaissance folk music.
Lead singer Ian Gillan is an underrated metal vocalist. He was with Deep Purple during their "classic" years from 1969 to 1973 (and then later rejoined the band in 1984). When you listen to this album, you can understand why he was a huge influence on metal singers to come. An interesting tidbit: Gillan sings the part of Jesus on the original recording of Andrew Lloyd Weber's Jesus Christ Superstar.
The rest of the band is solid as well. John Lord provides the snarling organ that we've come to love. Roger Glover on bass and Ian Paice on drums provide a very solid rhythm section, often driving the songs with frenetic beats and bass lines.
Machine Head was the band's sixth studio album, which is insane if you consider the band released its debut album less than four years earlier. The album cover looks like it could have come out of the grunge era. The band had achieved decent success up to this point, with two Top 40 hits in the US in 1968 ("Hush" #4; "Kentucky Woman" #38) and three Top 15 hits in the UK in 1970 and 1971, but Machine Head really solidified them as hard rock gods. The album reached #1 in the UK and #7 in the US, making it Deep Purple's highest charting album in the U.S. ever and their second #1 album in their homeland. "Smoke on the Water" was a Top 10 hit in the U.S., reaching #4 in 1973.
Unfortunately, only three of the songs are on Playlist.com.
1. "Highway Star"
Like many people my age, I first heard this song while watching Dazed and Confused and subsequently listening to the soundtrack. It's a great hard rock song, and a great driving song. I especially enjoy Gillan's wail at the beginning of the song. Interestingly, Blackmore said that the chord progressions for the solos were inspired by Bach (long dead Johann Sebastian, not then-three-year-old Sebastian).
2. "Maybe I'm a Leo"
Unless you're a Scorpio, what does it matter? This one has a nice, plodding, bluesy riff.
3. "Pictures of Home"
This song rocks, plain and simple. It has a great beat, whirling organs, soaring guitars, and brooding vocals. You can hear a thousand bands after Deep Purple in this song.
4. "Never Before"
This was the only single released from the album, other than "Smoke on the Water." It reached #35 on the UK charts, but failed to chart in the US. It's a solid hard rock song, with a slowed-down, trippy bridge, followed by a patented Blackmore solo.
5. "Smoke on the Water"
In addition to having one of the most recognizable riffs of all-time, "Smoke on the Water" has one of the best back stories in rock history. The band was recording this album in Montreaux, Switzerland. The band was set to move into the Montreaux Casino to record the album, as the casino was set to close during the winter for renovations. The night before they were set to move in (and the last night the casino was going to be open), Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention played a show at the casino, during which an audience member shot off a flare gun and set the casino on fire. The casino was on the Lake Geneva shore line. Hence, Smoke on the Water. The band then moved into the Grand Hotel and recorded most of the album. All of this, of course, is discussed in the song, which made it all the way to #4 on the Billboard charts. Since then, it is widely considered one of the best hard rock songs ever. Some of its accolades include:
-#426 on Rolling Stone magazine's The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
-#37 in VH1's 40 Greatest Metal Songs
-#12 in Q magazine's 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks
-#11 in VH1's 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs
-#4 in the BBC's Top 20 Greatest Guitar Riffs Ever
6. "Lazy"
This one starts out with a wicked distorted organ solo. How often do you hear that description of a song? The song appears to be an instrumental, but then four and a half minutes in, Gillan starts singing. I guess that's the beauty about a seven-minute song. You can have a kickass organ-based instrumental and a kickass hard rock song all in the same song.
7. "Space Truckin'"
The album starts with a good driving song and ends with one – assuming you drive in space. This is a toe tapper with a great drum beat, raunchy organ and guitars, and some nice wailing from Gillan near the end that foreshadows Bruce Dickinson, as well as a host of hair band lead singers.
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