Deep Purple: In Rock/Fireball

Deep Purple: In Rock

1970

Warner Bros

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Speed King  2. Bloodsucker  3. Child in Time  4. Flight of the Rat  5. Into the Fire  6. Living Wreck  7. Hard Lovin' Man


Alright, throw this one on the top of the pile...One of my all-time favorite album covers! When you're thumbing through the used records bin, you can't not buy it... It's so awe-inspiring and majestic...I think my favorite thing about it is the supremely stoned and serene look on Roger Glover's face...

 I'm pretty confident in saying that if you only pick one Deep Purple album, this is a pretty solid pick....I know "Machine Head" is the obvious choice, but I think classic rock radio has already beaten that particular horse, and I also feel that "In Rock" is more pure...This is the point where Deep Purple really comes together...Technically,  "Concerto for Blah Blah Blah" was the premier of Mark II Purple, but that album was a lark...This is where they get down to business...

I wasn't around then, but I'm betting that when this came out, this was just the most hard-rocking shit out there...When "Speed King" peels out at the start of this record, with its heavy hot-rod guitar and souped-up rhythm section it's hard not to get caught up in the rush...

And it never really lets up (except for one exception, which we'll get to later)...I don't know if I talked about Ritchie's guitar style on the last post, so I'll do it here....He's much less bluesy than the other players of his era...He had a more composed, classical soloing style that eventually became synonymous with heavy metal guitar playing, but as far as I know he invented this style...I'm having a hard time thinking of someone else who did it first (send me a comment if you can think of one)...The only time it feels like he's cutting loose is on the guitar meltdown at the end of "Hard Lovin' Man" (oh my god, they have a song called "Hard Lovin' Man...)...

Now for the big exception...There is exactly one song on that album that does not do everything in its power to rock your ugly face off...Taking up half of side one, we have the 10-minute monster "Child in Time" (and I can totally picture them stretching this out for a good half hour in a live setting, although there's no historical data to back up that suspicion)...It's a long, atmospheric, organ driven mood-piece that periodically erupts into a towering mountain of rock...Two points of interest here...

1. The slow guitar solo that eventually builds into a frenzy and then eventually joins forces with Jon Lord's organ to lay down a glorious harmonized lead...

2.  Ian Gillam's "ahhh ahh ahhh's" that gradually get a little louder and more wailing until you're convinced that his full-lunged screaming is going to destroy your cheapo Best Buy speakers...It's simultaneously  ridiculous and  mind-blowing...

So next time you're thumbing through the bargain bins and you inevitably run across a copy of "In Rock," I say give it a try if you're into hairy-chested, 70's proto-metal...

Here's "Speed King" by Deep Purple...Enjoy...

 

 

Deep Purple:Fireball

1971

Warner Bros Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Fireball  2. No No No  3. Strange Kind of Woman  4. Anyone's Daughter  5. The Mule  6. Fools  7. No One Came

Another great album cover!  My favorite thing about this particular cover is how big and bulging they had to make Ritchie's neck in order to give the fireball a rounded appearance...

I like "Fireball" alright...No doubt about it, it's a step down from "In Rock," but I get what they were trying to do....They were trying to diversify, stretch out their sound, making sure no two songs sounded the same, but Deep Purple is one of those bands that are at their best when they stick to their signature sound...

The title track is the perfect example of this...It's possibly their coolest, most ass-kicking song they'd ever recorded...Faster, heavier and more fire-breathing than anything on "In Rock," sporting the coolest organ solo I've ever heard...They basically took the standard Deep Purple sound and shined it up and put a cape on it and that approach suits them perfectly...

"No No No" slows things down, taking a more anthemic Who-like approach, and it rules too, despite being a bit repetitive...But the blues vamp "Strange Kind of Woman" comes on with its chest-pounding "woman" lyrics and it's just kind of bleh...But even that song is a masterpiece compared to "Anyone's Daughter" which is a...gulp...country song?! And trust me, Deep Purple doing a country song is just as bizarre as you're imagining it...It's kind of like one of those weird galloping western things where a ghost cowboy is riding his invisible horse across a lone prairie or whatever...

...and maybe if the lyrics dealt with that theme I'd have a different opinion of it, but instead they go for the macho "laying the farmer's daughter" trope that makes the whole thing embarrassing...You can't skip this song fast enough...Don't even put yourself through it...When you see track four coming on, just lift the needle, flip over the record and dig into side two...There's some cool stuff there...

Now, "The Mule" is where they get the whole experimental thing down cold...They go for a sort of middle Eastern psychedelia thing but add their trademark 70's heaviness to it and it works like crazy...Haters of studio drum solos might have a bone to pick, however, but no bone-picking here! I like studio drum solos! 

Ba-dum, ba-dum...siss..siss...siss..Boom boom ba-boom ba-boom ba=boom boom boom...siss..siss...siss...

(that was my onomatopoeia solo....)

"Fools" is a good heavy number too, but again, it's a case where their experimental streak works against them somewhat...The song is pretty bangin' up until the violin comes in and then it just kind of drones on forever...However, I think a non-masterpiece or two is a necessity in any great band's discography...It keeps you interested, and I can tell you, when I got to the Deep Purple section of the blog, I was more excited to revisit this than, say, "Machine Head" which I could basically recite in my sleep...

So here's to Deep Purple, who as soon as they figured out what they were good at, took a sharp left turn into the unknown before reaching their highest height (which we'll get to in a day or so)...Wait, what do you drink when you're listening to Deep Purple? 

I know!...

...Purple Drank!!

So let's sip on some sizzurp and listnen to "Fireball" by Deep Purple...I think I'm gonna be sick...