DEEP PURPLE IN ROCK

In 1968 and 1969, Deep Purple Mark I (Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Paice, Jon Lord, Nicky Semper, Rod Evans) released three albums, on the Tetragrammaton label (a label ran by famous comic Bill Cosby), that is Shades of Deep Purple, The Book of Taliesyn, and their self-entitled album. These albums also had British releases, the first being on Parlophone, the other two on Harvest (although released a few months later after the US releases, for some odd reason). The first two albums consisted of a bunch of covers of other people's songs, including "Hush" and Neil Diamond's "Kentucky Woman". The third album only had one cover, that is Donovan's "Lalena". These albums found the band performing psychedelia, prog rock, pop, and early hard rock, sometimes not always the most convincing, but they still made a lot of excellent material. It was with their third album that they hinted at a new, heavier direction they would be exploring in the new decade like "Bird Has Flown" and "Why Hasn't Rosemary?", but they still tended to be tame in comparison to the Mark II-lineup albums because Ritchie Blackmore was still playing psychedelic and prog rock styles on his guitar. After their third album came out, Nicky Semper and Rod Evans were out of the picture, in comes vocalist Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover. Because Tetragrammaton was going under by this point, the group sought a deal in the US with Warner Brothers (but stayed on Harvest in the UK). They first did an experiment with rock band and orchestra called Concerto For Group and Orchestra, which bewildered a few fans and was criticized for not having very much rock band and orchestra interaction (apparently even less band/orchestra interaction than the Moody Blues' Days of Future Passed, but I hadn't heard Concerto For Group and Orchestra, so I'm just taking their word for those who heard that album).

But then they returned to rock with In Rock, with a change in direction. Even before 1970, Led Zeppelin was riding high, as everyone knows, they already managed to release two albums in 1969. In 1970 comes Black Sabbath's debut album (and later that year, Paranoid). If anyone hadn't noticed by this point (1969/'70), music was getting heavier than ever before and it was these groups that were responsible for the evolution of heavy metal. Deep Purple were obviously wanting to get in the game, and new member Ian Gillan and Roger Glover were obviously made for this new, emerging heavy metal scene. Heavy guitar riffs from Blackmore and heavily fuzzed organ from Lord were now order of the day. Gone are the harpsichords, psychedelic gimmicks, and covers of other people's songs, with a much more raw, unbridled hard rock sound. A pop-oriented song like "Anthem" (which appeared on The Book of Taliesyn) would be something the Mark II lineup would never dream of doing. The band drives home this point right away with "Speed King", with Ian Gillan's wild voice and heavy guitar riffs. In the middle, the band gets jazzy, with some great organ and guitar solos. "Bloodsucker" continues on this same hard rock vein, as is most of the rest of the album. "Child in Time" starts off as a ballad, but then in the middle the band really gets rocking. This song caused some controversy with a San Francisco psychedelic band called It's a Beautiful Day (the band responsible for "White Bird") as Purple partially borrowed for IABD's "Bombay Calling" (but "Child in Time" has vocals while "Bombay Calling" doesn't). That caused It's a Beautiful Day to get back at Deep Purple by recording "Don and Dewey" off their next album, Marrying Maiden (1970) which beared more than a passing resemblance to Purple's "Wring That Neck" from The Book of Taliesyn album (in fact "Don and Dewey" sounds even more similar to "Wring that Neck" than "Child in Time" did "Bombay Calling", the only difference was that "Don and Dewey" featured violin, as it was a trademark of the It's a Beautiful Day sound). For all you hard rock/metal fans, if you had any doubts about Deep Purple with the Mark I lineup, all doubts were obviously thrown out the window with the Mark II lineup and In Rock. This album did not spawn any hits, unlike this lineup's best known song, "Smoke on the Water" off Machine Head. But then it don't matter as long as the music is great. All Deep Purple fans are going to need this album.

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