Deep Purple Mark I

 

My journey into the Deep world of Purple began approximately 1984, when living in Paris, France.  Seeking to start off on the band, I went to Bazar Hotel de Ville (aka “BHV”, pronounced “bay osh vay”), a department store in eastern Paris near the town hall – the same town hall which had Louis Napoleon’s map of Paris and went up in flames during the Paris Commune in 1871.  The store itself became BHV the same year, 1871.  In any case, this store had a music section, and that section had these 12” black vinyl platters, including quite a few by Deep Purple.  Not knowing which album to start off with, I tried Deepest Purple, a compilation album.  All but two of its 12 songs, “Burn” and “Stormbringer”, were Mark II songs, the exceptions being the title tracks of the two Mark III albums.

 As you might expect, we’re mostly familiar with the classic lineup, known as the Mark II, which recorded In Rock (6/70), Fireball (7/71), Machine Head (3/72), Who Do We Think We Are (1/73), the classic live album Made In Japan, and three reunion albums, Perfect Strangers (10/84), The House of Blue Light (1/87), and The Battle Rages On (7/93).  For those of you wanting to collect literally ALL of the band’s recorded material, there’s Jon Lord’s Concerto For Group and Orchestra performed at the Royal Albert Hall in fall of 1969 – essentially an original classical music piece with the band adding its own contribution.  Most of us listen to it once and never again.  But before that, beginning in spring of 1968, was this one. 

 In 1968, Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord, and Nick Simper had been playing in various bands with less success and recognition than they would have liked.  They agreed to form a band together, and recruited Evans and Paice (from The Maze/MI6) to fill out the ranks.  This lineup was more commercial than later ones, but only scored some success with “Hush”, itself a cover.  Aside from “And the Address”, redone on the latest album, “Hush” is the only Mark I song the band still plays.  Before Mark II had a substantial array of its own material, it was playing “Mandrake Root” and “Wring That Neck” in concert.

 At this stage they were an opening act, mainly for Cream and Vanilla Fudge.  Blackmore pissed off Eric Clapton by inserting non-rock material into his solos as a lark.  The first name was Roundabout, then changed to Deep Purple.  Their first gig was on April 20, 1968.  Their material sold far better in the US than the UK, where crowds dismissed them as an American bubble gum pop band.  In the US they appeared on Playboy After Dark.  They spent so much time in the US, and were so much more popular there, that they considered moving there permanently, but abandoned that idea when they learned that doing so would make Ian Paice, the youngest member of the band, liable to being drafted and sent to fight in Vietnam (male permanent resident aliens are required to register with the Selective Service – and thus are subject to being drafted).

 Band Members.

 Ritchie Blackmore (Guitarist).  He continued on to Mark II & III, leaving in 1975 to form Rainbow.  He came back later in 1984 for the reunion and left in 1993 on the Battle Rages On Tour.  Since then he has been playing renaissance music with his current wife Candice – and apparently they live on Long Island, of all places.   Generally he favors Stratocasters with 70s headstocks and scalloped fretboards, played through Marshall stacks.  Blackmore is notorious for being difficult to deal with and Rainbow went through various lineups as bassist Jimmy Bain said, “our banjo player kept firing musicians.”

 Jon Lord (Keyboardist).  He continued through Marks III-V and remained in the band for two albums with Mark VI, after Steve Morse replaced Blackmore on guitar.  He retired from Deep Purple in 2002, and died in 2012.  Easily recognizable by his mustache.  He added a fair amount of classical music to the mix.

 Ian Paice (Drummer).  By now he’s the only member who has been with band with literally every lineup.  I can’t say I know enough about drummers to comment on his style.  He does seem shy and least likely to cause any problems.  He’s left handed but plays a right handed kit, though with drum kits – as opposed to guitars and basses – I can’t tell the difference.  Same with left-handed amps, left-handed keyboards, or left-handed microphones.

 Rod Evans (Singer).  After being let go in 1969 he eventually formed Captain Beyond in the early 70s with former members of Iron Butterfly; he’s on the self-titled debut and Sufficiently Breathless.  In 1980 he joined an ersatz Deep Purple scam in which he was the only member remotely connected with the band.  The band’s management sued him, got a judgment of $400k, and he disappeared into obscurity.  Ironically he’s probably better esteemed these days for Captain Beyond than DP Mark I.  He has a deep, rich voice and not prone to shrieks, putting him in a completely different class than Ian Gillan or David Coverdale.  

 Nick Simper (Bassist).  He wasn’t too happy when they let him go in 1969 along with Evans.  He formed a band named Warhorse in the 70s and declined to be invited to the scam band in 1980.  He still shows up from time to time, but hasn’t done anything high profile since Deep Purple. 

 Albums.

 Shades of Deep Purple.  (7/68).  Debut album.  Track listing:  And The Address; Hush; One More Rainy Day; Prelude: Happiness; I’m So Glad; Mandrake Root; Help [Beatles cover]; Love Help Me; Hey Joe [Billy Roberts cover, though Hendrix’ seems to be the definitive version].  Bonus tracks on remastered CD: Shadows; Love Help Me (instrumental); Help (alternate version); Hey Joe (BBC recording); Hush (Live on US TV).

 The Book of Taliesyn (10/68).  My own favorite, thanks to “Anthem” and “The Shield”.  I recall listening to this one when we were visiting London.   Track listing: Listen, Learn, Read On; Wring That Neck; Kentucky Woman [Neil Diamond cover]; Exposition; We Can Work It Out [Beatles cover]; Shield; Anthem; River Deep, Mountain High [Tina Turner cover].  Remastered CD bonus tracks:  Oh No No No (out-take); It’s All Over (out-take); Hey Bop A Re Bop (BBC live recording); Wring That Neck (BBC live recording); Playground (out-take).

My original copy purchased in Europe back in the day is fairly flimsy, but is stereo.  The 180 grain reissue I purchased is mono.   The CD version is stereo. 

 Deep Purple (self-titled) (6/69).  Track listing:  Chasing Shadows; Blind; Lalena; Fault Line; The Painter; Why Didn’t Rosemary; Bird Has Flown; April.  Remastered CD bonus tracks: The Bird Has Flown (alternate mix); Emmaretta (out-take); Emmaretta (BBC live recording); Lalena (BBC live recording); The Painter (BBC live recording).  Here, unlike the prior two albums, only one song, "Lalena", is a cover (Donovan).  So the band had progressed to mostly originals.

 Live at Inglewood.  October 18, 1968.  As an opening act, no one seemed to bother to record their shows, so to my knowledge this is the only surviving live recording (CD) of this lineup.  Set: Hush, Kentucky Woman, Mandrake Root, Help, Wring That Neck, River Deep Mountain High, Hey Joe.  Obviously it was the Book tour, opening for Cream, no material from the self-titled album which came out in 1969.  The CD itself now seems to be out of print.

 As hinted earlier, this material is considerably different than the Mark II and later albums.  It’s somewhat commercial and late ‘60s pop, with some extended instrumentals which approach prog in nature.  Usually you’d expect a commercial band to give us quick and simple 3 minute songs and not bother going off on guitar and keyboard solos.  Plus you’ve got all those covers, which Mark II and later lineups didn’t bother with – at least not on vinyl.  It’s definitely a very different flavor, though Blackmore’s guitar and Lord’s keyboards are still recognizable.  Harking back to last week’s blog, it’s “not as good” as later Purple but still well above a threshold of “good”. 

 In July 1969 the band decided to move in a heavier direction.  They fired Evans and Simper and recruited Ian Gillan and Roger Glover.  The two had earlier been approached about joining, but their band Episode Six was on its way up and they felt they owed the rest of E6 a duty to take it as far was it would go.  By July 1969 E6 had stagnated, so the time was right.  Evans had decided to marry an American girl and move to the US, so he wasn’t too upset, but Nick Simper wasn’t too happy.  In a recent interview, though, he concedes that the band made the right decision to replace him with Roger Glover. 

 Deep Purple Mark VI.  Just a little item I want to address here as I don’t believe it merits a whole blog entry on its own.  In 1973, Ian Gillan quit and Roger Glover was fired, the band replaced them with David Coverdale (vocals) and Glenn Hughes (bass & backup vocals). This was Mark III, which recorded two albums:  Burn (2/74) and Stormbringer (12/74).

After Stormbringer Ritchie Blackmore got fed up with the funk direction the band headed in (“shoeshine music”, as he referred to it), mainly thanks to Hughes, and left.  The band replaced him with Tommy Bolin (Mark IV) which lasted for one album, Come Taste The Band (10/75).  The album itself was fine, but on the tour it turned out that Bolin was a heroin addict and his performances overseas, strung out without heroin, were train wrecks.  As soon as the tour ended (last show at Liverpool on March 15, 1976), the band broke up and went their separate ways.  Bolin died of a heroin overdose a few months later, December 4, 1976.

The Mark II lineup reformed in 1984, as noted above.  After House of Blue Light, Blackmore arranged to have Gillan replaced with Rainbow singer Joe Lynn Turner for one album, Slaves & Masters, which is Mark V.  Then Gillan came back for The Battle Rages On, the last album with the Mark II lineup.     

In the middle of that tour, Blackmore quit abruptly, leaving the band to find another guitarist to cover the remaining tour dates.  They found Joe Satriani.   After the tour the band offered him a permanent job, but he refused.  One story is that he felt Blackmore was “the” guitarist; another is that he was under contract with another label which had exclusive rights to any original material he wrote.  For whatever reason, Satriani did not join the band as a permanent member and the band did not record any new material with him.  Any live recordings from this tour are bootlegs and not official releases, and given the circumstances will remain so indefinitely.   So there is NO official DP material with Satriani and no new studio material with him.  The next guitarist to remain with the band was Steve Morse, who is still with them.  When Jon Lord retired in 2002, the band replaced him with Don Airey. 

Despite this, some refer to the touring lineup with Satriani as “Mark VI”.   No, Mark VI is the lineup with Steve Morse on guitar and Jon Lord on keyboards, (Purpendicular (2/96) and Abandon (6/98)), and Mark VII is the lineup with Morse on guitar and Airey on keyboards – who are still making records (Bananas (9/03), Rapture of the Deep (11/05), Now What ?! (4/13), Infinite (4/17), and Whoosh! (8/20)) and – COVID permitting – touring.