Ians

Now for something more abstract.  A name.  Ian.  I like it.  It’s the Scottish/Gaelic equivalent of “John”. 

Most of the Ians I know of are musicians who I don’t know personally; and oddly, of all the Ians listed on Wikipedia as famous ones, the only ones I recognized were these musicians.

Ian Gillan.  Best known as the singer for Deep Purple Mark II, but he was also in Black Sabbath for one album and tour, Born Again.  Nowadays his hair is cut short, but back then it was extremely long.  Between Ozzy, Robert Plant, and Gillan, I like Gillan’s voice the most, and it’s held up the best among the three.  He has a better sense of humor than Plant yet is more intelligible than Ozzy.  He’s one of my favorite singers, period.

Ian Paice.  Deep Purple had not one but TWO Ians.  With Jon Lord’s recent retirement, replaced by Don Airey, drummer Ian Paice is now the only member of the band in literally every line-up.  His long hair is long gone, but he still wears his trademark purple shaded glasses.

Ian Anderson.  The man IS Jethro Tull; they are inseparable.  Nowadays his hair is cut short and beard trimmed; no longer the wild, unkempt savage flutist, but he is still very spry on stage and very witty between songs.  Look for a sequel to Thick As A Brick.  My favorite remains Aqualung, with Crest of a Knave being my favorite late model 'Tull.  

Ian Astbury.  The singer for The Cult.  For awhile there he did have long, straight black hair.  He also has an impressive voice.  In fact, for awhile he was singing with Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger in a Doors revival.  Now he’s back with the Cult again, with a new album: Choice of Weapon.  I like how he describes one song as being “like Hawkwind with Jim Morrison singing.”

Ian Hill.  With first guitarist K.K. Downing out of the band - he quit - and second guitarist Glenn Tipton - sidelined by Parkinson's Disease - also gone, albeit involuntarily, this makes bassist Ian Hill the only member of Judas Priest from start to finish.  As vocalist Rob Halford describes in Confess, Halford's sister was dating a bassist in a band, and suggested he audition for that band - and the rest is history.  Hill keeps it down and has been cool from day one.  

We knew an Ian in the US, son of one of my father’s co-workers.  We may have met him once or twice at most, so I can’t say more than that.  There was an Ian at our high school; I don’t know much more about him than that he was left handed.

Ian (nephew).  Of all the Ians, this is the one I know best personally, my brother’s only son.  He’s 9 years old and very bright.  I’m very proud of him.  However, he has an impressive name to live up to…we’ll see how he does.  Sadly, he has no brothers, and since I have no children and my sister's two kids are both girls, that makes Ian the only male child of his generation from my parents' branch of the family.  

Deep Purple 1984-Present

[Originally posted 12/13/07.  Edited 6/30/2020.]

This could be called “Deep Purple Marks II, V, VI, and VII”. I love those Roman numerals.

Background. Deep Purple, as most people know it, is best known in its Mark II lineup: Ian Paice (drums), Jon Lord (keyboards), Ritchie Blackmore (guitar), Roger Glover (bass), and Ian Gillan (vocals). It originally disbanded in 1976 with the so-called Mark IV lineup: Ian Paice (drums), Jon Lord (keyboards), David Coverdale (vocals), Glenn Hughes (bass), and American guitarist Tommy Bolin. Their sole album, Come Taste The Band, wasn’t bad, but live the band started off OK but descended into mediocrity when they toured overseas and Bolin couldn't sustain his heroin habit.

Coverdale went off to form Whitesnake, Blackmore had already formed Rainbow, and the other members frequently jumped from one to the other. In 1980 Mark I & Captain Beyond vocalist Rod Evans was lured into a shady promoter’s scheme to resurrect “Deep Purple” (for which Evans was the only person with any connection to the band – Mark I bassist Nick Simper wisely refused to take the bait) which backfired badly.

By 1984 the various Mark II members were ready for a reunion, and came out with a new album, Perfect Strangers. When I first saw the album in the stores, I ignored it, assuming it was another compilation album. I got it for Christmas in 1984, and was pleasantly surprised to learn it was a reunion album for the Mark II lineup. We saw them at the Palais Omnisports Bercy the following summer, opened by Mountain (Leslie West forgot the words when singing).

They followed this up with House of Blue Light (which I listened to exactly ONCE), and then a live album, Nobody’s Perfect, featuring “Hush” brought back into the set.

Mark V. Thanks to Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan was fired and Joe Lynn Turner (Rainbow) was brought in for Slaves & Masters, another remarkably mediocre album. I suppose you could call this lineup (Turner in place of Gillan) as Mark V.

Mark II returns. For 1993, this was the 25^th anniversary, so the rest of the band felt Gillan should come back. They recorded The Battle Rages On, and went on a remarkable tour before Blackmore quit in the middle of the tour. This time Tommy Bolin was not available to take his place.  Famous guitarist Joe Satriani filled in for the remainder of the tour but declined to join the band permanently.

Note:  some people are classifying the Satriani touring lineup, 12/2/93 Nagoya through 7/6/94 Bayreuth, as "Mark VI".  Others are classifying the reunited Mark II lineups for Perfect Strangers/House of Blue Light and The Battle Rages On as separate marks.  Both are, of course, utter nonsense.  Satriani's lineup simply finished the Battle Rages On tour and did not record any new material, not even releasing a live album from that leg of the tour.  And the same five members who gave us Machine Head also recorded Perfect Strangers and The Battle Rages On.  Enjoy the band, but don't be stupid.  Please.  

Mark VI. With Satriani refusing to join the band, they brought in Steve Morse, an American from the Dixie Dregs (a band I’ve listened to none of) to take over, and he’s been in ever since. This should be referred to as Mark VI. They released Purpendicular and Abandon, both produced by Roger Glover, the bassist.

Mark VII. Eventually Jon Lord decided it was time to retire, and Don Airey took over on keyboards, resulting in DP Mark VII. This lineup recorded Bananas and Rapture of the Deep, produced by Michael Bradford, followed by Now What ?! and Infinite, produced by Bob Ezrin, with another album due out in August 2020, Whoosh!. With Lord gone, this means that Ian Paice is the only DP member in all seven lineups.  

Quality. I suppose many bands like Deep Purple could rest on their laurels and cynically release regurgitated crap year after year, assuming the fans will buy whatever they put out. But Deep Purple make a sincere effort at making quality material. I can’t say it compares favorably to In Rock, Fireball or Machine Head (the classic three original Mark II albums) but it certainly doesn’t suck.

Of the post 1984 material, I'd say Now What ?! and Infinite are the strongest.  The key is producer Bob Ezrin, veteran of Alice Cooper, KISS and Pink Floyd.  

Live. This is up and down. On one hand, Marks VI and VII play a lot of the lesser known (but no less quality) Mark II tracks such as “Pictures of Home”, “Maybe I’m a Leo”, “Woman From Tokyo”, “No One Came”, “Bloodsucker”, etc. Part of the problem with bands which have been around for some time is that get into a fixed pattern of certain classics which MUST be played. Iron Maiden did a recent tour in which they claimed to only play songs from the first 4 albums (which must have kept Janick Gers busy) yet such was the setlist that the only song we hadn’t heard in some time was “Phantom of the Opera”. Blue Oyster Cult seem to have ONE slot (song) per set which is some random variable, with the rest of the set being pretty much what we heard on the last tour. Granted, we know Purple will play “Smoke on the Water” – in the encore – but these other songs really make a difference.

On the other hand, they hardly tour nearly as much as they used to – especially here in the US.  When I originally wrote this blog, I hadn't seen them since the Bercy show in Paris in 1985.  Since then I've seen them at Bergen PAC (8/25/14) (Englewood, NJ), NYCB Westbury (7/26/15) (Long Island, NY), and the Warner Theater in DC (10/2/19).  They seem to release live material fairly often.

Roger Glover. My favorite member has to be Glover, who only missed out at the very beginning, and has been the band’s most consistent bassist. He’s eternally optimistic, a great source of information on all the liner notes, and the helpful re-producer of all the remastered Mark II material – and the source, through a nightmare, of the title to their anthem, “Smoke on the Water.”

Sabbath After Ozzy

Tonight I’m going to see Heaven & Hell, which is better known as Black Sabbath – albeit with Ronnie James Dio on vocals and Vinnie Appice on drums.  In this case, unlike the prior Sabbath tours with Dio, there will be no Ozzy material sung.  We’ll see how well that works.

 After the 1978 Never Say Die tour, Black Sabbath reached a crossroads.  They could no longer continue with Ozzy Osbourne.  The stories conflict about whether he was fired or quit – depending on who was asked, at what time – but the undeniable truth is that he left the band at that time.  After spending some (low quality) time alone, he was “rescued” by Sharon Arden (now the infamous Sharon Osbourne) and began his solo career.

 What happened to Black Sabbath?  Many were quick to write them off.  Geezer Butler (bassist) and Bill Ward (drummer) were uncertain, for their part, whether they wanted to continue the band without Ozzy.  Tony Iommi, the guitarist, hooked up with Ronnie James Dio – formerly singer for Elf and Rainbow, the latter with Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore – and developed the album which became Heaven and Hell.  From then on, Sabbath has worked with various different singers with various degrees of success.  They even teamed up with Ozzy in 1985 (Live Aid), 1992 (a one-off reunion show), and 1997-01 for the Ozzfests. 

 As of right now, Black Sabbath, per se, is on hold.  Ozzy Osbourne’s own solo career is also on hold: the so-called Ozzfest, now FREE, doesn’t even feature his own solo band this summer, much less another Black Sabbath reunion.  Tony, Geezer, Dio, and drummer Vinnie Appice have reformed the early 80’s Sabbbath lineup and are touring as “Heaven & Hell”, obviously a tribute to the first non-Ozzy Sabbath album and by many fans’ standards – mine included – the best of them.  Here’s a brief review of the post-Ozzy sabbath, putting emphasis on the vocalists.

 Guitars.  Tony Iommi has always been Black Sabbath’s guitarist and its only consistent member.

 Bass.  Geezer Butler has always been the bassist when Ozzy was around.  The other bassists include Neil Murray (usually associated with Whitesnake) and Dave Spitz.  

Geezer remained a good friend of Ozzy, and even played in Ozzy’s solo band for awhile.

 Drums.  With the exception of the 1997 Ozzfest tour when Mike Bordin (Faith No More) played drums, Bill Ward has always been the drummer when Ozzy was in the band.  Vinnie Appice took over for “The Mob Rules” and the current “Heaven and Hell” tour and is the closest to a #2 drummer the band has ever had.  Bev Bevan (ELO) took over for Ward on the Born Again tour.  Cozy Powell, often associated with Rainbow, Whitesnake and even Emerson, Lake & Powell, stepped in for some time as well.  Bobby Rondinelli, also associated with Rainbow in the early 80s and Blue Oyster Cult in recent years, played with Sabbath on the Cross Purposes album and tour.  Ward’s health has been in decline throughout the 80s, 90s, and 00s, and he has a strong devotion to Ozzy, so his participation in the post-Ozzy era has been fairly limited.

 Vocals.  The first non-Ozzy vocalist, and who many consider the best, is Ronnie James Dio.  He was on Heaven & Hell (1980), The Mob Rules (1981) Live Evil (1981) and Dehumanizer (1992) and is currently singing with them as Heaven & Hell.  He’s got a decent voice and competent stage presence, but somehow I can’t seem to prefer him over Ozzy.  In addition to Elf and Rainbow, he had a modestly successful solo career throughout the 80s and 90s when he wasn’t in Sabbath.

 Ian Gillan.  The former Deep Purple Mark II vocalist came on for one album, Born Again (1983).  Apparently this DP-BS marriage didn’t work out, although on bootlegs the band plays “Smoke on the Water” live.  Gillan says he loved Born Again as it was originally recorded, hated the way it was mixed to the album, and also hated the album cover.  Shortly after the Born Again tour, Gillan rejoined the newly reformed Deep Purple and with the exception of a brief spell when Joe Lynn Turner (Rainbow) joined for one album (Slaves & Masters) has been with Deep Purple ever since.

 Glenn Hughes.  Another Deep Purple alumni, the frustrated bassist (Marks III and IV) who wanted to be a singer.  He got his wish, on Seventh Star (1986), an album which was supposed to be a Tony Iommi solo album, but which the record company thought would sell more as a Black Sabbath album.  Iommi is the only original member on that album.  Hughes didn’t pan out too well either, and left the band amidst the tour for this album, replaced mid-tour by Ray Gillen.  Oddly, Hughes did pair up again with Iommi for two other albums, both now labelled “Iommi”.  Hughes is actually a pretty good singer, and here he’s not trying to be James Brown.  He has a new solo album out, Music for the Divine, on which Chad Smith and John Fruciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers play.

 Ray Gillen.  Not to be confused with Ian Gillan, Ray Gillen came in to replace Hughes, worked briefly on the next album, Eternal Idol, before leaving the band.  Supposedly there is unreleased Eternal Idol material with Gillen singing, but what I have is a bootleg live album from the Seventh Star tour with his vocals on it.  After Sabbath, Gillen was in Badlands with former Ozzy guitarist Jake E. Lee, and died prematurely of AIDS in 1993.  Too bad, as he was another decent singer.

 Tony Martin.  Martin came in for Eternal Idol (1987), Headless Cross (1989), TYR (1990), Cross Purposes (1994), Cross Purposes Live (1995) and Forbidden (1995).  None of these albums are particularly special, and Tyr, a concept album about Norse mythology, is particularly unremarkable.  Although Martin has a great voice and a modest stage presence, he really doesn’t shine.  The only truly notable aspect of his tenure with the band was the reintroduction of several songs into the live set: “Symptom of the Universe” (with acoustic studio tail end put in, which I don’t hear on prior recordings including Ozzy-era live cuts), “Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath”, “The Wizard”, and “Into the Void”. 

 The ironic part about all this is that taken objectively, Ozzy Osbourne is probably the least talented vocalist the band has had.  Geezer Butler wrote most of the lyrics when Ozzy was in the band, and live material from his era shows him screwing up the lyrics fairly often.  These other singers frequently sing Ozzy’s material more faithfully than Ozzy himself.  Despite this, there is some undefinable, subjective quality he has which makes the band better with him than with any other singer, no matter how superior in singing or competence.  It’s like they were meant to be together, as overdramatic and irrational as it sounds. 

 PS – after concert review.   It was pretty damn good.  These days Ozzy’s performances take on the image of a drunken robot, seemingly confused about where he is and what he’s doing.  Is he singing?  Is he throwing buckets of water at the audience?  Is he clapping?  Dio always seems to be completely clear, hopping around, free arm swaying around, like he’s describing some magic story.  With Dio in command, the band gives the impression of a troupe of minstrels performing for a jaded, cynical king – the audience; maybe a super heavy, dark version of Jethro Tull.  Tony clearly enjoys himself, looking up and smiling periodically when he’s not focused on playing his SG without screwing up in front of everyone.  The three new songs are OK, but get caught in the “[XXXXXXX] of the [YYYYYYYYY]” format of chorus with a descending riff like a giant ogre going down a circular staircase.  They played my favorite songs from The Mob Rules, “Voodoo” and “The Sign of the Southern Cross”, two of the new songs, a few from Dehumanizer, and of course the usual slew from Heaven and Hell, including the title track but unfortunately not my favorite, “Lonely Is The Word.”   And there was much rejoicing....