D is for…Deep Purple! ‘In Rock’

Having ousted original vocalist Rod Evans and bassist Nick Simper from the band, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, keyboard player Jon Lord and drummer Ian Paice formed Deep Purple ‘Mark II’ with newcomers, vocalist Ian Gillan and bass player Roger Glover. Inspired by the power of Led Zeppelin’s debut album, released in 1969, Blackmore and Lord were looking for a new heavier rock sound and convinced Paice that this should be a new direction for the group. Gillan and Glover were bandmates in London outfit Episode Six before joining Purple, gigging constantly and knocking on the door of mainstream success, achieving airplay on national radio. Little did they know it at the time, but stratospheric success and an explosive new sound were just around the corner for the ‘Mark II’ line-up…

The band had recently signed a new record deal with iconic label Harvest and found themselves in the bizarre situation of having LPs released on the new label by a band line-up that no longer existed! The first was ‘The Book Of Taliesyn’ and the second the eponymously-titled ‘Deep Purple’, both hitting the shelves in 1969. Even more confusing for fans was the release of ‘Concerto For Group And Orchestra with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’ in January 1970. Brainchild of Jon Lord, this experiment in fusion of classical and rock music famously resulted in DJ John Peel refusing to play any more Deep Purple on his BBC radio show ‘Top Gear’.

in rock: Gillan, Blackmore, Lord, Glover  and Paice vs Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln…

The ’Deep Purple In Rock’ album cover is  a gatefold sleeve, the outer depicting the heads of Ian Gillan, Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord, Roger Glover and Ian Paice carved into the face of a mountain…Not just any mountain though…Superimposed on the memorial to celebrate four Presidents of the USA, on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, Purple’s choice of graphic has a hint of megalomania (and maybe even blasphemy) about it!…According to the US National Park Service, Gutzon Borglum, sculptor, selected these four presidents because, “from his perspective, they represented the most important events in the history of the United States” (Many in the US will debate these choices!) From left to right, the Presidents are: George Washington, first President of the United States (from 1789-97), the most prominent figure on the mountain, representing the birth of the country; Thomas Jefferson, third President (from 1801-09) and primary author of the Declaration of Independence; Theodore Roosevelt (from 1901-09), twenty-sixth President, representing the growth of the country; Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth President (from 1861 until his assassination in 1865), representing unity, having held the country together during the Civil War. It’s hard to compete with the historical significance of these four, but Purple certainly deserve their place carved into rock history. There is also some irony in the placement of ‘new boy’ (at the time) Gillan as the most prominent figure, just edging out the tempestuous Blackmore…

Gutzon Borglum’s choice of presidents at Mount Rushmore – inspiration for ‘In Rock’

Album opener ‘Speed King’ was allegedly born of a riff developed by Blackmore after being inspired by Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Fire’ and survived name changes ‘Kneel And Pray’ (a paeon to oral sex) and ‘Ricochet’, before reaching its regal conclusion. In the sleeve notes to the anniversary edition of the CD, Roger Glover lays claim to the original riff for ‘Speed King’:
”Ritchie had mentioned that he liked Hendrix’s ‘Fire’. I stood there in the huge echoey gym and apprehensively started playing the first thing that came into my head that would convey a similar feeling…I just made it up on the spot…They all joined in, making it sound great, and a jam ensued which would set the course of the song. It was exhilarating.”

Ian Gillan reports on the song in his autobiography:
”’Speed King’ began in a smaller room at Hanwell and was called ‘Kneel And Pray’ for some time. It was performed at early shows, including one for the BBC…”
A squall of distorted guitar noise and feedback over a freeform band backing heralds a new beginning and a new decade. This gives way to a short Hammond organ piece by Lord, transporting the listener from chaos into religious order, the pious calm before the stormy rock’n’roll sermon, delivered by Gillan after a single drum beat by Paice launches the band’s explosion…

In his autobiography, Gillan remembers: ”Now we didn’t have to be nice to people any more; We could just stick two fingers in the air and go for it, and I think this is what Purple had been looking for. You could feel it in the music, the way the band played, and its why songs like ‘Speed King’ took off. Now my entire music background – Little Richard, Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry – had meaning and focus…I could put into practice what I had learned.”

”Good Golly, said Little Miss Molly when she was rockin’ in the house of blue light
Tutti Frutti was oh so rooty when she was rockin’ to the east and west
Lucille was oh so real when she didn’t do her daddy’s will
Come on baby, drive me crazy, do it, do it…”

As the album sleeve modestly records, “Just a few roots, replanted…” Actually a lot more than just the sum of its rock’n’roll references and musical inspiration, so plenty cross fertilisation, and maybe even genetic modification, in there! The chemistry of the new line-up creates a strong bond and the music blows away the past two decades, creating a new seventies rock paradigm. Other long-haired rockers from England were on a similar path at the time, Black Sabbath and Judas Priest unleashing their factory-inspired industrial metal sounds from the Black Country on an unsuspecting world, but Purple’s classical element and direct referencing of rock’n’roll set them apart.

rock heaven – Harvest black vinyl and gatefold sleeve!

‘Bloodsucker’ is described on the album sleeve as ‘a particularly nasty sort of fellow, there are lots of us’ and packs a lot into its four minutes and ten seconds…A driving riff from Blackmore bursts the song into action, then Gillan delivers the somewhat cryptic lyrics – “Got a black breast Chinese eyes
Gotta an English brain that’s gonna make me wise…” – and ends the first verse with his soon-to-become famous screams…”Oh no, no , nooooo!”
After guitar breaks and organ solos, riffing takes us into the final verse, where Gillan doesn’t sing any actual words, more a frantic, broken, scat-on-steroids style of delivery with intermittent screams as the track fades out – Fantastic!

Martin Birch, sound engineer for the ‘In Rock’ sessions, in pensive mood…

To become a Purple classic and perennial live favourite, ‘Child In Time’ starts with soft bass and drums while Jon Lord plays with variations on the distinctive organ riff. The song has only eight lyric lines but, at ten minutes and fourteen seconds, is a long piece with strong dynamics and much opportunity for improvisation. Gillan’s vocals are soulful:
”Sweet child in time, you’ll see the line
The line that’s drawn between the good and the bad
See the blind man shooting at the world
Bullets flying taking toll
If you’ve been bad, oh Lord I bet you have
And you’ve not been hit oh by flying lead
You’d better close your eyes and bow your head
Wait for the ricochet…”

The band have said that ‘Child In Time’ was inspired by ‘Bombay Calling’, a song by San Francisco psychedelic band It’s A Beautiful Day, from their 1969 self-titled debut album, apparently one of the records listened to on a holiday boat trip down the Thames by Glover, Blackmore and Paice. Allegedly, Jon Lord started playing the song during a jam session, the band slowed it down, Gillan started singing over it and the rest, as they say, is history. On listening to ‘Bombay Calling’, you can pick up the similarity in the main riffs of both songs, but there the plagiarism ends – the It’s A Beautiful Day is a pleasant folky instrumental with fiddle parts, a long way from the progressive, in parts thunderous, rock cacophony of ‘Child In Time’…

’Child In Time’ was performed by the band live before the ‘In Rock’ recording, moulding and honing the track into the final version, a fantastic dynamic journey and vehicle for Ian Gillan’s extreme screaming. A press cutting in the CD booklet includes a question from ‘Melanie, Isle Of Wight’: “How does Ian Gillan produce the very effective screaming effect in ‘Child In Time’ from the LP ‘Deep Purple In Rock’?” Gillan’s answer is typically ‘tongue-in’cheek’:
”Thanks for the compliement, but I haven’t the faintest idea how I manage it, although lots of people regard it as incredible and ask me how it is done. It’s simply a vocal effect and I do it every night on stage, considerably endangering my health. I’ve never had any special training but I think it helps that I wear tight trousers!”

inner gatefold (from top): Blackmore,Gillan, Glover, Lord, Paice

’Flight Of The Rat’ kicks off Side Two and is quite a contrast to ‘Child In Time’, a mid-tempo, foot-tapping rocker, clocking in at seven minutes and fifty-one seconds, mainly due to a lengthy mid section jam, with Blackmore and Lord both taking long solos before the final verse, a drum break, more jamming on the riff and a drawn-out raaawwk ending – Gillan pleading “Please stay awayeeeeayeeeee…” – more drum fills and the eventual full-band full stop.

Gillan describes the birth of ‘Flight Of The Rat and the drug associations in the songs in his autobiography:
”’Flight Of The Rat’ began as a joke, when ‘Flight Of The Bumble Bee’ was mentioned, and once again Jon started doing variations around it, The ‘rat’ was, of course, a drug habit, and we’d often play with words that way. ‘Into The Fire’ was similarly drug associated and anti the habit – but with a collection of material like this, in addition to ‘Bloodsucker’, everybody presumed we did drugs. When we said we didn’t, the stock answer was ‘Well, you would say that, wouldn’t you!’ so we gave up arguing about it. We did dabble with substances – at least I did – but that would be much later.”

The compact ‘Into The Fire’ is one of the best tracks on the album, driven by a brilliant, bludgeoning chromatic riff, allegedly instigated by Roger Glover, and fantastic drumming by Paice. Roger Glover says: “I loved the song, it was so heavy. Lyrically it was a vague warning about drugs.”

”Turn on to the mandrake that was given to you
See if you can make it like the others do
Feel the blood a knockin’ when you’re finger-poppin’
Gonna make it hard for you, you’re gonna (cue riff) – into the fiiiiire!”

Maybe the song was partly inspired by IBC’s Studio A in Portland Place, London, described by Ian Paice in the CD sleeve notes as “…like somebody’s huge living room, there was a fireplace in the corner…”

Goddamn long hairs? Deep Purple ‘Mark II’ promo photo: Roger, Ritchie, Ian, Jon and Ian

‘Living Wreck’ fades in with a creative drum sound, described by Ian Paice as “One of my favourite drum sounds…really live and metallic and hard and nasty.” A squelchy, wild organ sound precedes the punchy guitar and bass riff. As the album sleeve says “It takes all sorts – support your local groupie” – The lyrics are the shameless denigration of an encounter that turned out to be something other than initially expected, sung by Gillan giving his all over a staccato guitar part by Blackmore:

”You came along for a weekend
But you o-o-only stayed for one night
You pulled out your hair
You took out your teeth
Oh I almost died of fright
You’d better do something for your o-o-own sake
Yes it’s a sha-e-ame
Ah you know you’re a living wreck…”

More wild organ parts by Lord lead into a tasteful spacey solo by Blackmore as Paice syncopates the heavy backing. Lord plays a frantic organ solo over the riff as the song fades out.

’Hard Lovin’ Man’ is a powerful album closer, the initial intro making may for bass riffing by Glover before Blackmore’s driving distorted gallup rhythm, anticipating many metal songs to come…The lyrics are quite macho, explicit (and, with hindsight, verging on cliché), but they suit the tune:

”Break my back with hard lovin’
Take my hand and keep movin’
Don’t slow down, we’re nearly there now
ow, ow, ow, ow, ow (scream!)
Can you feel the pain?
Oh how, I’m a hard lovin’ ma-aan (another scream!)”

The simplicity of the riffing is another chance for Purple to stretch out in the mid-section, Lord particularly making the most of it (along with Ken Hensley of Uriah Heep a master of rock/metal organ playing). Blackmore’s lead parts are a sign of things to come, with some of his development of Phrygian parts used to great affect in later songs, like Rainbow’s ‘Stargazer’. It’s Blackmore who has the last word on the album, his guitar ‘finale’ panning from left to right long after the band has left…

Deep Purple ‘Mark II’, although unfortunately short-lived, would go on to major success and released three more studio albums – ‘Fireball’, the blockbusting ‘Machine Head’ and ‘Who Do We Think We Are’ – falling apart in 1973 when animosity between Gillan and Blackmore boiled over, leading to the singer and bassist quitting. Paice, Lord and Blackmore went on to form Deep Purple ‘Mark III’ with vocalist David Coverdale and bass player/vocalist Glenn Hughes, forging another successful period in their history. An incarnation of Deep Purple are still playing today (with Ian Paice as the only original member and Gillan back as frontman) but the band never recreated the sheer power of ‘Deep Purple In Rock’, an absolute masterclass in rock music!

taking ‘In Rock’ to the masses – Deep Purple ‘Mark II’ live in 1971