DEEP PURPLE , 43 ANNI DAL PRIMO DISCO BY THE EXAMINER

43 years after the release of Deep Purple’s first album, this week’s reissues of band’s first three albums by Eagle Rock Entertainment, respectively Shades of Deep Purple, The Book of Taliesyn and their 1969 self-titled disc, demonstrate the beginning of a long musical trail that would become a permanent fixture of hard rock.

Initially powered by guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, keyboardist Jon Lord, percussionist Ian Paice, bass player Nick Simpler and lead singer Rod Evans, on their debut album, the shades are opened, revealing a mix of Brit psychedelia mixed with other influences, while being experimental enough to influence others.

The instrumental introduction heard on Deep Purple’s debut album showed the strength of Lord’s keyboard that would mate power and melody, as rhythm further propelled the track. It is hard not to believe that Jimi Hendrix’s hypnotic rhythmic vamps did not lure the band into constructing the rhythmic moves on the album’s opener. Of all the songs on the album, this track pays the most detail to rhythm guitar grooves.

Their music was much harder than many rock groups that would arise in the ‘70’s with keyboards, and that would be labeled as prog rock.

The album’s first song is followed by the smash hit “Hush,” still played relentlessly on radio stations throughout the world. Taking on a the melody originally recorded by Billy Joe Royal, Purple’s version features Blackmore’s soloing through much of the song.

“One More Rainy Day” is a pleasant track, with more of a sentimental feel to it, with lighter guitar, more nonchalant feel to it.

“Happiness” shifts the focus to the keyboards, with its lofty rhythmic and tempo changes. Softer and airy moments set off the album’s track, “I’m So Glad” (not to be confused with the song of the same title by Chris Brown), with its own fluctuations in pulse, cadences and dynamics. The guitar gets heavier, revealing a melodically darker side of the band, particularly from Blackmore, who then makes a turn into softer and more pastel playing. Throughout all of these musical changes, the versatility of Paice’s drumming is exposed.

The guitar riff at the beginning of “Mandrake Root” has a strong similarity to the rhythmic hook of Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze,” which was released the year before “Shades.” Ironically, both songs were purportedly about drug use, although Hendrix denied that was what his track was about. None of the lyrics from “Mandrake Root” directly address drugs, with the exception of the title. A long instrumental jam lures within the song, slinking through its hooks.

The band’s remake of the Beatles’ single “Help,” the theme song from the Fab Four’s film, was translated by Deep Purple into a ballad. With studio added harmonies from Evans, and a brief, almost bluesy guitar solo, the song concludes with some brief, experimental soloing from Blackmore.

The resonance on the Brit Invasion rocker “Love Help Me” is the most uptempo track on the album, with its mods meets rockers-cum psychedelic patterns.

Among the bonus tracks on the reissue is an outtake, the demanding, keyboard heavy “Shadows.”

A version of “Hey Joe” is also among the extras, recorded at a BBC Top Gear session. The song had already been recorded by Hendrix in 1966, and the year before that, by the Los Angeles group, The Leaves. Given Hendrix’s proficiency, it was a brave move for Blackmore to take on the song. While Blackmore was certainly proficient, Hendrix could never be outdone. The song ends with a weighty keyboard line, with Deep Purple, emblazoning their unique stamp on another cover.

The bonus version of “Hush” that appears on the album is a lighter performance than their initial studio version, and it was recorded live for an American television appearance.

The band’s sophomore album, The Book of Taliesyn, ws released only four months after the band’s debut disc. Its onset reveals a harder sound with its track “Listen, Learn, Read On.” The slight echo with Rod Evans’ vocals make the British singer appear somewhat conscious of the Doors lead singer Jim Morrison, as Evans slows down his vocals, making them more deliberate than usual, and at times, close to spoken word. Perhaps it was the fact that both bands had keyboards that coaxed Evans into slightly switching up his style of delivery for this track.

In many ways, arguably the Deep Purple had more in common with Vanilla Fudge than the Doors, noting the choices of songs they covered and other considerations.

The instrumental “Wring That Neck” has Lord at the lead and center of the flow of this track, at least until Blackmore’s guitar solo. It should be noted that when it was first released, the American version of the album had the song labeled as “Hard Road.”

The ironic rendition of “Kentucky Woman” is set at an accelerated pace, resulting in an instrumentally hyper version of the Neil Diamond classic. The guitar solo is rock hard, but the rest of the song focuses largely on its rhythm. There is an extensive keyboard solo interjected into it, making it a far different work than Diamond’s recording

NOTA BENE
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