Tony's Guitarist Picks - Stevie Ray Vaughan

Alpine Valley,
In the middle of the night,
Six strings down,
On the heaven-bound flight,
Got a pick, a strap, guitar on his back,
Ain’t gonna cut the angels no slack,
Heaven done called,
Another blues-stringer back home…

-          Jimmie Vaughan, Six Strings Down

Music in the early 1980s left a lot to be desired.  Led Zeppelin called it a day in 1980 after John Bonham died.  The Who were running out of gas after Keith Moon died.  The Allman Brothers Band broke up for the second time in 1982 after putting out two very shitty albums for Arista.  Synth pop from the likes of the Human League, Soft Cell, and A Flock of Seagulls dominated the airwaves.  Michael Jackson’s Thriller reigned supreme.  Lionel Richie’s solo career was in full flight.  Hall & Oates were very popular.  Hair metal was beginning to take off.  We were inundated with crappy music from the likes of Night Ranger, Motley Crüe, Quiet Riot, White Lion, and Poison.  If you turned on the radio, within 10 minutes Def Leppard would be on.  For people like me who like their blues-based music, the early 1980s was a musical wasteland.  Then, when all seemed lost, there was a ray of sunlight.

It all started with David Bowie.  In 1983 he released Let’s Dance.  KILO-94 in Colorado Springs played the hell out of the singles – Modern Love, China Girl, and Let’s Dance.  But one day they played a deep track – Cat People (Putting Out Fire).  That song had something I hadn’t heard from a Bowie song in a long time – raw, fiery guitar playing.  It quickly got my attention.  I had to find out who that guy was.   On the strength of that one song I bought an album, which I don’t usually do.  I found out who the guitar player was – a Texan named Stevie Ray Vaughan.  Shortly after Let’s Dance, SRV released his own album, Texas Flood.  Love Struck Baby and Pride and Joy got lots of much-welcomed airplay.  Blues-rock was going to make a comeback, and Stevie Ray Vaughan led the way.  I wasn’t alone in thinking that.  Dickey Betts once said this:  “Stevie Ray Vaughan singlehandedly brought guitar- and blues-oriented music back to the marketplace.  He was just so good and strong that he would not be denied.  When I heard Pride and Joy on the radio, I said ‘Hallelujah.’”

Couldn’t Stand the Weather came out in 1984, followed by Soul to Soul the following year.  Couldn’t Stand the Weather was almost a carbon copy of Texas Flood, but he did show the world that he was a devotee of Jimi Hendrix.  The title track, Cold Shot, and Voodoo Child [Slight Return] got a lot of airplay on KILO-94.  Keyboardist Reese Wynans joined Double Trouble for Soul to Soul and stayed until the end.  His Hammond B-3 gave Double Trouble a fuller sound, and his piano was another solo instrument added to the mix.  These albums saw more sides of SRV’s talent and taste – hard psychedelic rock and jazz were added to the hard-core Texas blues one would expect from SRV & Double Trouble.  While he recognized and honored those of who influenced him, he also began to write more original material.

Carol and I were fortunate enough to see SRV & Double Trouble in concert three days before we got married in 1987.  We saw him in Pueblo, Colorado at the Colorado State Fairgrounds.  Gregg Allman opened the show.  I’m No Angel was a hit at the time, and he played plenty of Allman Brothers tunes.  It was the first time of ten times that we saw Gregg, but the only time we got to see SRV.  SRV wasn’t a big guy, but that night he was a giant on-stage.  I don’t remember the exact setlist, but I do remember that I heard everything I wanted to hear.  That feat doesn’t happen very often, but since he had only four albums to his credit at the time, it was easier for him to do that than others who had been around a lot longer.  I thought there would be more chances to see SRV in the future, but it wasn’t to be.  About a week before I was to deploy to Saudi Arabia to support Operation Desert Shield, I got the word on the radio he had been killed in a helicopter crash in Wisconsin.  He had one album with his brother Jimmie in the can [Family Style] a copy of which Carol sent to me when I was in the desert.  I played the hell out of it and In Step when I was in the sandbox.

SRV’s Heroes.  Albert King, Buddy Guy, Lonnie Mack, Albert Collins, big brother Jimmie Vaughan, Eric Clapton, BB King, Howlin’ Wolf, Hubert Sumlin, Muddy Waters, Freddie King, Kenny Burrell, Jimi Hendrix.

Hendrix.  Texas Flood was all about the blues.  In 1984 the follow-up, Couldn’t Stand the Weather, came out.  This album had a surprise – an astounding cover of Jimi Hendrix’s Voodoo Child [Slight Return].  Hendrix was [and still is] the gold standard for guitar players.  SRV had the stones to tackle Hendrix, and it didn’t suck.  Not only did it not suck, I’ll make a bold statement and say SRV’s version is as good as the original.  On Soul to Soul, SRV covered Hendrix again.  Actually, the song in question, Come On [Part III], was an Earl King song covered by Hendrix on Electric Ladyland.  SRV’s version has the same arrangement as Hendrix, and SRV’s version is better than Hendrix’s.   On the posthumous release The Sky Is Crying, there is a version of Little Wing that SRV recorded during the Couldn’t Stand the Weather sessions.  The expanded Soul to Soul has a live version of Little Wing coupled with Third Stone From the Sun.  Where Jimi Hendrix was concerned, SRV was most definitely “dialed in.”

Take the Voodoo Child [Slight Return] taste challenge…

Voodoo Child [Slight Return] – SRV & Double Trouble

Voodoo Child [Slight Return] - The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Lonnie Mack.  SRV once said that Lonnie Mack’s Wham! was the first record he ever owned.  A wonderful version of the song Wham! can be found on The Sky Is Crying.  Scuttle Buttin’, which is the lead track from Couldn’t Stand the Weather, is SRV’s instrumental homage to Lonnie Mack’s Chicken Pickin’.  SRV produced Lonnie Mack’s 1985 blues-rock comeback for Alligator Records, Strike Like Lightning.  It was Lonnie Mack’s first album in seven years. Not only does SRV produce, he also plays second guitar throughout the album.  For getting Lonnie Mack back into a recording studio, that fact alone should get SRV enshrined in some kind of Hall of Fame.

Live at Carnegie Hall.  This is another posthumous release.  Unlike most things released after a musician’s death, this one did not scream “cash in.”  This live document could easily have been released during SRV’s lifetime.  It is a much better live album than Live Alive.  The concert was recorded at Carnegie Hall on October 4^th, 1984 – the day after SRV turned 30.  The show was a benefit for the T.J Martell Foundation that funds medical research focused on finding cures for leukemia, cancer, and AIDS.  In addition to SRV and his band Double Trouble, other musicians played as well, including Dr. John, Jimmie Vaughan, Angela Strehli, and the Roomful of Blues horns.  These were no mere guest appearances – the additional musicians augmented SRV & Double Trouble throughout most of the set.  The set included songs from Texas Flood and Couldn’t Stand the Weather, but there were some songs in the set that SRV hadn’t recorded.  I can think of only one adjective to describe the show – blistering.  It’s one of the best live CDs I own.

The set:

Scuttle Buttin’ / Testifyin’ / Love Struck Baby / Honey bee / Cold Shot / Letter to My Girlfriend / Dirty Pool / Pride and Joy / The Things That I Used to Do / C.O.D. / Iced Over / Lenny / Rude Mood

Songs recorded for [but not included on the CD]: Voodoo Child [Slight Return], The Sky Is Crying.  They later appeared on the SRV box set.

Life By the Drop.   Sometimes the quietest thing can make the biggest statement.  SRV didn’t play the acoustic guitar much.  For Life By the Drop, SRV played an acoustic 12-string guitar.  Written by songwriting partner Doyle Bramhall, it’s about the friendship between two recovering addicts [Bramhall and SRV].  Recorded after completion of the In Step album for some future release, Life By the Drop is the last song on The Sky Is Crying.  Of all the songs in SRV’s catalog, this one has perhaps the most emotional impact on any listener.

Life By the Drop

The gear:

SRV’s main guitar was a beat-up ’62 Stratocaster he called ‘Number One.”  He liked big necks on his guitars.  Fender made necks in terms of size A, B, C, and D, D being the biggest.  SRV had “D” necks with jumbo Gibson frets.  Some used to say the frets were bass frets, but according to his guitar tech Rene Martinez that wasn’t the case.  With the big necks, SRV also liked to used heavy strings.  The string gauges from high to low were .013, .015, .019, .028, .038, and .058.  His strings had high action and tuned down half a step, and given how heavy they were he must have had superhuman strength in those hands to do the stringbendng he liked to do.  “Lenny” was a brown-stain ’65 Strat that SRV found in an Austin pawn shop.  Not only would SRV record his instrumental “Lenny” [song and guitar named for his wife] for Texas Flood, he also used the instrument to record my favorite SRV instrumental, Riviera Paradise [from In Step]. If you want a ‘Lenny’ replica, be prepared to part with $13,500.  He had a ’62 Strat which he called ‘Red,” a single pickup yellow Strat, and a white Strat with lipstick pickups [like you’d find on a Danelectro] that was modified by luthier Charlie Wirz, for whom SRV wrote Life Without You for Soul to Soul.  If he played anything other than a Stratocaster, I never saw it.

For amps, two Fender Super Reverbs; a 150-watt Dumble Steel String Singer with a 4x12 Dumble bottom; a 250-watt Marshall Major head with a 4x12 Dumble bottom; a Fender Vibroverb with one 15” speaker that was used to power a Leslie-type Fender Vibrophone with a rotating speaker.

For pedals, he used vintage ‘60s wah-wahs, a vintage Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Face, a ‘60s Tycobrahe Octavia, and Ibanez Tube Screamers.

His playing:

I can describe his playing in one word – intense.  Not only intense, but LOUD.  He did the multi-step bends Albert King; the jazzy leanings of Kenny Burrell, and the chord-melodies of Hendrix.  That’s quite a musical stew.  Of SRV’s last performance, Eric Clapton had this to say – “Stevie Ray had been sober for three years and was at his peak. When he played that night, he had all of us standing there with our jaws dropped. I mean, Robert Cray and Jimmie Vaughan and Buddy Guy were just watching in awe. There was no one better than him on this planet. Really unbelievable…”

The iPod list:

Texas Flood

Love Struck Baby / Pride and Joy / Texas Flood / Testify / Rude Mood / Mary Had a Little Lamb / Dirty Pool / Lenny

Couldn’t Stand the Weather

Scuttle Buttin’ / Couldn’t Stand the Weather / The Things That I Used to Do / Voodoo Child [Slight Return] / Cold Shot

Soul to Soul

Say What! / Lookin’ Out the Window / Look at Little Sister / Ain’t Gone ‘n’ Give Up on Love / Change It / Come On [Part III] / Life Without You / Little Wing-Third Stone From the Sun

Live Alive

Superstition / Willie the Wimp

In Step

The House Is Rockin’ / Crossfire / Tightrope / Let Me Love You Baby / Leave My Girl Alone / Travis Walk / Wall of Denial / Scratch-n-Sniff / Riviera Paradise

Family Style

Hard to Be / Hillbillies From Outerspace / Long Way From Home / Telephone Song

The Sky Is Crying

Boot Hill / The Sky Is Crying / Little Wing / Wham! / May I Have a Talk With You / Life By the Drop

SRV [Box Set]

If You Have To Know / I'm Leavin' You (Commit A Crime) (Live) / Rude Mood/Pipeline (Live) / The Sky Is Crying (Live) / Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) (Live) / Crossfire (Live)

Live at Carnegie Hall – the whole thing!

Stevie Ray Vaughan was great.  I try to visit him whenever I’m in Dallas.  I still miss him…

Rainbow Rising

It all started when Ritchie Blackmore wanted Deep Purple to record a song from a band called Quatermass.  The song’s name – Black Sheep in the Family.  Deep Purple took a pass on the song, so Ritchie recorded it with another band.  In 1974, Deep Purple recorded the Stormbringer album.  He had no use for the funk and soul music favored by David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes [who replaced Ian Gillan and Roger Glover in 1973, respectively].  Having expressed his distaste for what he called “shoeshine music,” Ritchie left Deep Purple in 1975 to form Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow.  Blackmore’s band was Elf [minus their guitar player] and included singer Ronnie James Dio.  This band recorded Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, which included the aforementioned Black Sheep in the Family.  It also included the AOR classic Man on the Silver Mountain and the moody ballad Catch a Rainbow.  

After recording the album, Ritchie sacked the entire band [except Dio].  In their places, Blackmore hired Cozy Powell [drums], Jimmy Bain [bass], and Tony Carey [keyboards].  The new Rainbow toured, and then they recorded an album – Rainbow Rising.  Rainbow Rising is a short record – six songs at just over 33 minutes.  But the elements of the Rainbow sound – Ritchie Blackmore’s classically-tinged lead guitar, Cozy Powell’s relentless drumming, Ronnie James Dio’s superhuman vocals – they’re all here.  The first four songs are just that – songs that have nothing to do with each other.  But the final two songs, which occupy all of what used to be Side 2 – Stargazer and A Light in the Black – tell a story.  Musically the songs take on a bit of a baroque character.  This can be attributed to Ritchie Blackmore having taken up learning the cello.  He wrote some of the songs using a cello – he wanted to try a new, unfamiliar tool for songwriting.

The songs:

Tarot Woman – Tony Carey starts things with a spacey 1:15-long synthesizer opening, after which Ritchie Blackmore starts playing a riff for about 20 seconds, when Cozy Powell comes storming in.  Ritchie and the Bain/Powell rhythm section gallop along while Dio sings about a mysterious woman he doesn’t want anything to do with.  At 3:20 Ritchie starts a jaw-dropping minute-long solo that’s equal to anything he did with Deep Purple.

Run With the Wolf – Werewolves!  Dio felt the need to write a song about werewolves.  This song and Starstruck are short, catchy tunes which would have been at home on a Deep Purple album.  Perhaps rocking songs like these would have made Stormbringer easier to listen to.

Starstruck – Here’s the story of RJD [or perhaps Ritchie Blackmore] being unable to shake off a stalking groupie who “wants a souvenir.”  No matter where he goes, there she is [If I'm away from home and think I'm all alone, she's there, somewhere… I could fly to the moon, but she'd soon find a way to be there…].

Do You Close Your Eyes – This is the only real clunker on Rainbow Rising.  Luckily for us, it’s also the shortest song [3:02].  The tune is good, but the lyrics are just plain bad.  For years, Ronnie James Dio said he wouldn’t write songs along the line of “hey baby, let’s make love under a tree.”  And yet, here’s a song the expresses almost that exact sentiment – Do you close your eyes when you making love, yeah, yeah /Making sweet love to me, yeah… Please…I expect much better from RJD. 

Stargazer – The story of an evil wizard who enslaves those around him.  For nine years this evil wizard forces his people to build him a tower made of stone so that he can watch the stars and so that he can fly [High noon, oh I'd sell my soul for water/Nine years' worth of breakin' my back].  This wizard is omnipresent - There's no sun in the shadow of the wizard… The task of building the wizard’s tower is all-consuming [In the heat and the rain with whips and chains, just to see him fly, so many die/We built a tower of stone with our flesh and bone just to see him fly/Don't know why, now where do we go?] When all is done, the wizard climbs the completed tower.  Ritchie’s solo is like listening to the guy climb to ever-increasing heights until the wizard gets to the top.  But when he tries to fly, he falls to his death instead.  Ritchie’s slide down the neck of his guitar is the wizard falling to his death.  When he was in Deep Purple, Ritchie was wary of playing with orchestras, but on Stargazer Rainbow is accompanied by the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.  Their arrangement gives the song a bit of a haunting, Eastern character.  The Rainbow/orchestra combination works very well.  Without a doubt, Stargazer is Rainbow’s crowning achievement.

A Light in the Black – The wizard from Stargazer is dead, but those whom he enslaved can’t believe their sudden emancipation [All my life it seems, just a crazy dream, reaching for somebody's star/ Can’t believe it all, did he really fall? What to do now I don’t know…].  The only thing to do is to go home, wherever “home” is.  They’ve been at the task of building the wizard’s tower for so long they don’t know what to do or how to feel [Breathed the air before, heard the thunder roar, never knew it was for me /Always looking down, lost and never found, eyes that looked but not to see…] Instrumentally, this song is like a Deep Purple song.  Tony Carey takes a one-minute mind-bending synth solo, Ritchie matches him note-for-note for about 30 seconds, then takes his own solo [4:06 – 5:43], then Tony Carey matches Ritchie note-for-note until Dio’s vocals come back.  The Blackmore/Carey interplay is like a lot what Ritchie did with Jon Lord in Deep Purple.  While Tony Carey and Ritchie are performing their musical gymnastics, Cozy Powell is hammering away while his double-bass drums sound like Rommel’s Panzers rolling across Africa.

Rainbow Rising was released in May 1976.  Rainbow would tour the rest of 1976 with the line-up that created Rainbow Rising.  But after 1976 turned to 1977, Jimmy Bain and Tony Carey would be out of the Rainbow picture.  The core of Ritchie Blackmore, Cozy Powell, and Ronnie James Dio would record one more album together – Long Live Rock and Roll [1978].  Afterwards, Ritchie decided he wanted Rainbow to sound like Foreigner.  When that happened, Dio split.  But Dio wouldn’t be unemployed for long.  He soon joined Black Sabbath and made Heaven and Hell [1980], but that’s another story.  Rainbow Rising is an essential part of any Ritchie Blackmore or Ronnie James Dio collection.  It is good enough to be mentioned in the same breath as Deep Purple In Rock, Machine Head, and Burn.

Tony's Picks 2012 - The Albums

I didn't buy very much "new" music in 2012.  Like last year, there wasn't very much that screamed at me and said "buy me."  When I did buy music in 2012, it was mostly to complete collections I had already started [Grateful Dead, old Rush, etc].  I find that the new music I buy is from old folks who I've been listening to for many years.  Some of the usual suspects have already been reviewed in these spaces

 

Soundgarden - King Animal  This is Soundgarden's first album of completely new material since 1996's Down on the Upside.  The good news:  King Animal is better than Down on the Upside.  The bad news:  it isn't as good as Superunknown, but then not many albums are.  The best songs are on the first half of the album.  Favorite songs:  A Thousand Days Before, By Crooked Steps, Non-State Actor.

Dwight Yoakam - 3 Pears  After being apart for 11 years, Dwight Yoakam comes home to Warner Brothers and releases his first album since his 2007 tribute to Buck Owens [Dwight Sings Buck].  3 Pears has lots of LOUD guitars, standard weepers, and a song with goofy-assed lyrics about jellyfish, peanut butter kisses and giraffes.  Favorite songs:  Take Hold of My Hand, It's Never Alright, A Heart Like Mine, Long Way to Go.

Mumford & Sons - Babel  The wait between 2009's Sigh No More and Babel has been worth it. Who knew that I would like a group of English folk revivalists?  These guys are loud, fiery, ballsy, and full of energy.  One thing they are NOT is "boring" [Fleet Foxes, call your office...].

Spectrum Road - Spectrum Road  This is probably as close to jazz that I will get. One hesitates to use the term "supergroup," but this one is close.  Jack Bruce [Cream], Vernon Reid [Living Color], John Medeski [Medeski, Martin & Wood], and Cindy Blackman-Santana come together to pay tribute to end expand on the music of Tony Williams' Lifetime.  The bulk of the material presented here is from Lifetime's catalog, with a couple of originals and one Scottish traditional song thrown in for good measure.  These guys are no mere tribute band.

Ian Anderson - Thick as a Brick 2 Ian Anderson [Jethro Tull's guiding light] answers the musical question that nobody but a hardcore Tull fan would ask - whatever happened to Gerald Bostock?  For those who don't know, "Gerald Bostock" was a 8-year old boy who wrote an epic poem about the trials of growing up that became the lyrics to Jethro Tull's 1972 concept album Thick as a Brick.  Well, not really...Gerald Bostock was really Ian Anderson, and TAAB was a parody of concept albums then en vogue in the early 1970s.  Unlike the 1972 work, TAAB 2 wasn't recorded as a single, 40-minute song.  The arrangements are leaner, less cluttered, but still well-executed.  TAAB 2 shows five different things that could have happened to Gerald Bostock - he could have been a greedy banker, a soldier fighting in Afghanistan, a shopkeeper, a homeless man, or a preacher.

Mark Knopfler - Privateering  After over thirty years in the business, Mark Knopfler released his first double album of studio material.  If you like what you've heard from MK since he gave up Dire Straits, you get more of the same here.  Oddly enough, this album was not released in the US.  I had to get it as an import.

ZZ Top - La Futura It's been a long time since ZZ Top released anything new.  La Futura has been heralded as ZZ Top's return to their roots.  That's a true statement - the synthesizers of the Eliminator years are gone, as are the beat-box, dub experiments that ruined XXX.  La Futura isn't Tres Hombres, but it's the best thing they've done since Rhythmeen.

Bob Dylan – Tempest It wasn't "the best Dylan release since Blood on the Tracks," but Tempest does continue the musical winning streak Dylan started in 1997 with Time Out of Mind.  Favorite songs:  Pay In Blood, Early Roman Kings, Narrow Way.

http://tonysmusicroom.blogspot.com/2012/10/bob-dylan-tempest.html

Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Psychedelic Pill He toured three times with Crosby, Stills & Nash [2000, 2002, 2006].  He made a sequel to an album he never released [Chrome Dreams II].  He made an album-long ode to cars [Fork in the Road].  He devoted an entire album to ranting against the Iraq War [Living With War].  Finally, he got around to making a great album [that I didn't think he had in him] with Crazy Horse, and it's about damn time.  Favorite songs:  Walk Like a Giant, Psychedelic Pill, Twisted Road, She's Always Dancing.

http://tonysmusicroom.blogspot.com/2012/11/neil-young-crazy-horse-psychedelic.html

Rush – Clockwork Angels A first in the history of Rush - a concept album.  IMHO, it is far and away the best thing they've done since 1981's Moving Pictures.  Some things do get better with age, like Rush.  Favorite songs:  Clockwork Angels, Seven Cities of Gold, The Wreckers, Headlong Flight.

http://tonysmusicroom.blogspot.com/2012/06/rush-clockwork-angels.html

Ry Cooder – Election Special  This is Ry Cooder's contribution in kind to Barack Obama's re-election campaign.  While I don't agree with the message, I do appreciate the art.

http://tonysmusicroom.blogspot.com/2012/08/ry-cooder-election-special.html

Things to look forward to in 2013 [assuming the Mayans are wrong]:

Black Sabbath - After 33 years, Black Sabbath are finally recording an album of new music with Ozzy Osbourne.   The original four members [Ozzy, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward] announced on 11/11/11 that they would reform, make an album and tour the world.  Things haven't quite turned out that way.  Tony Iommi was diagnosed with lymphoma at this time last year, so plans had to be put on hold for him to recover.  Bill Ward told the world he's having contractual problems with band management and hasn't gotten a contract he could sign.  In 2012, the rest of the band played three shows with Ozzy's drummer, and from what I've heard of the shows Bill Ward hasn't been missed.  Tony Iommi is recovering well and recording continues on the new Sabbath album.  As yet untitled, it'll probably be out in April 2013.

Alice In Chains - These guys took everybody by surprise and released Black Gives Way to Blue in 2009 to rave reviews [including mine].  I wondered why it's been taking awhile for a follow-up, and last week I found my answer.  Guitarist Jerry Cantrell had shoulder surgery and needed to recover.  They started recording in 2011 and just finished not too long ago.  I think it will be out before Spring 2013.

Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell - They have a new album, "Old Yellow Moon," due out on Feb 26th.

Deep Purple In Rock

When one hears the name Deep Purple the thing that immediately comes to mind is Smoke on the Water and the album from whence it came, Machine Head.  Machine Head is a great album, but it isn’t my favorite.  That honor goes to Deep Purple In Rock [1970].  For the longest time Fireball was my favorite because it is so much different than either In Rock or Machine Head.  But the more I listened to it, the more In Rock grew on me.  Deep Purple never thought of themselves as a “heavy metal” band.  They were a hard rock band that had influences ranging from jazz to classical, folk to 1950s rock and roll to the blues.

At the end of the 1960s, there were three bands [very LOUD bands] that appeared as if from nowhere.  Led Zeppelin emerged from the ruins of the Yardbirds, and effortlessly incorporated British folk music and American blues into their sound.  Black Sabbath merely invented a genre – heavy metal.  With Geezer Butler’s lyrics of doom and Tony Iommi’s skull-crushing riffs, this was music for the apocalypse.  There was a third group began as a progressive rock band with classical influences – Deep Purple.  The instrumental focus of Zeppelin and Sabbath were their respective guitarists – Jimmy Page [Led Zeppelin] and Tony Iommi [Black Sabbath].  In my circle of friends, most liked either Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath.  I was the Deep Purple guy, because they had a two-headed monster in Ritchie Blackmore and Jon Lord.  Deep Purple’s sound had a lot to do with the sound of Jon Lord’s Hammond.  He fed his Hammond C-3 through a Marshall stack, which turned a piece of furniture into a smoke-belching beast.  As a guitarist, Ritchie Blackmore is a king among men. The combination of the two is just more interesting to me, musically.

The year was 1969 and Deep Purple was at a creative crossroads.  Both Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore wanted to take Deep Purple in a heavier direction.  Up until then, the band’s music was written mostly by Jon Lord and had touches of classical music thrown in the mix, but they knew they couldn’t carry on in that direction for very long.  They recorded covers from Joe South [Hush], Neil Diamond [Kentucky Woman] and the Beatles [Help!].  Jon Lord was the instrumental focal point for the band.  Ritchie wanted Deep Purple to go in the same musical direction as Led Zeppelin, a more riff-based approach.  Lord and Blackmore both concluded [along with drummer Ian Paice] that their then-current singer [Rod Evans] and bassist [Nick Simper] weren’t up to that challenge.  To solve their problem they recruited singer Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover from the band Episode Six.  Not only could Gillan go toe-to-toe with any rock vocalist of the day, as a bonus Gillan and Glover were also a songwriting team.  But before they could get into a studio to put something down, there is the not-so-small matter of the Concerto for Group and Orchestra. 

Apparently Jon Lord let slip that he wanted to do something like the Concerto sometime in the future.  Their managers overheard what he said, and before Jon Lord knew it the managers already had the Royal Albert Hall and the Royal Philharmonic booked.  Ian Gillan and Ritchie Blackmore weren’t thrilled about the project, but they did it anyway.  If nothing else, Concerto for Group and Orchestra got Deep Purple noticed.  But since classical music was something the band was trying to get away from, Ritchie was dying to try things his way.  He told Jon Lord that if his way didn’t work he’d be happy to play with orchestras the rest of his life.  Luckily for us, Jon Lord scratched his musical itch and Ritchie got his way.  Once the Concerto was done, they gigged like mad.  They’d play about five shows a week, then they would record whenever they got a spare moment.  Such was Deep Purple’s workload.  On their “off days” they were in the studio creating something new. This was how Deep Purple In Rock was born.  The pattern would repeat on the follow-up, Fireball.  Though the Concerto was the new group’s first recorded effort, Deep Purple In Rock was the group’s proper debut in their new riff-based heavy rock direction.  During the recording of the album, a phrase that illustrated the band’s mindset was born – “can we have everything louder than everything else?”  Ian Gillan can be heard saying it between songs on Made In Japan.  To set the mood for the album, Ritchie Blackmore decreed:  “If it’s not dramatic or exciting, it has no place on this album.”  The songs that became Deep Purple In Rock were dramatic, and they were exciting.

The songs -

Speed King – The chaotic beginning [which the band referred to as “Woffle” – recorded separately from Speed King] was an unusual way to begin an album.  I think it was the band’s way of breaking with their past.  Roger Glover came up with the riff after Ritchie Blackmore told him he really liked Jimi Hendrix’s Fire.  Ian Gillan strung together bits of lyrics from songs like Good Golly Miss Molly and Tutti Frutti.  The song is not a drug song – it’s just about singing fast [I’m a speed king, can’t you hear me sing it/I’m a speed king/ See me fly…].  The song started out with piano instead of organ and was once called Kneel and Pray.  That version is on the 25^th Anniversary Edition of Deep Purple In Rock.  They made the right choice in sticking with the organ.  After Gillan sang the first couple of verses we the listeners are treated to Lord and Blackmore trading solos back and forth while Glover and Paice are playing the groove.  In a live setting, the Blackmore/Lord duel became more intense – for proof listen to the 25^th Anniversary edition of Made In Japan.  This is what set Deep Purple apart from Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.

Bloodsucker – A short song this one.  Not very memorable except for Gillan’s screaming – AAAAAGH NO NO NO!!!!  This was later recorded again with Steve Morse for Abandon [1998].  That version is titled Bludsucker.  I have no idea why they did that.

Child In Time – The masterpiece - this epic from Deep Purple is the band at its most intense.  According to the liner notes, Ian Gillan said “this is of a loser – it could be you.”  Jon Lord pinched the riff from a San Francisco group called It’s a Beautiful Day.  The song he borrowed it from was Bombay Calling.  Apparently It’s a Beautiful Day returned the favor by borrowing Wring That Neck for one of their songs.  This is Ian Gillan’s finest performance – ever.  He scaled three octaves up to a controlled scream.  How did he do that?  There is no way either Robert Plant or Ozzy Osbourne could do what Ian Gillan did on Child In Time - nor could anyone else for that matter.  While Jon Lord played the chords underneath, Ritchie played a 2:32 speed solo.  The longer the solo went, the faster it got.  With 21 seconds left Jon Lord joined him to finish the solo, almost as if they were racing each other to the finish.  That’s what I like about old Deep Purple – Jon Lord was able to match Ritchie Blackmore note for note.  After a couple of seconds of silence, Jon plays the organ riff again.  Then it was a race to the finish with Gillan screaming over all of it, then a thunderous crash to end it all.  Simply breathtaking…Luckily Gillan could still hit the high notes when I first saw Deep Purple in 1985.  He can’t hit them anymore.

Flight of the Rat – How does one follow Child In Time?  You follow it with eight minutes of hard-core riffage.  The riff has got Blackmore’s name all over it.  Powerful.  Relentless.  This would have been a great song to play live, but they never did.

Into the Fire – Roger Glover came up with this riff too.  He also said that lyrically it was a warning about drugs.  This is a good song, but not great.  Deep Purple wasn’t a “drug” band – they were a “drinking” band.  The hard drugs didn’t come into Deep Purple until Tommy Bolin and Glenn Hughes came along.

Living Wreck – This song is the quiet one from In Rock.  It would not have been out of place on Fireball.  I’m not sure how it made the cut, but it does serve as foreshadowing for Fireball.

Hard Lovin’ Man – Here is yet another riff from Roger Glover.  Jon Lord uncaged the Hammond beast on this one.  He fed his Hammond organ through Marshall amps instead of the usual Leslie speaker, giving the Hammond a more metallic, machine-like character.  This was Jon Lord’s live set-up, which accounts for his performance sounding as close to on stage performance as possible [though in the studio].  Not to be outdone, Ritchie Blackmore abused the hell out of his guitar.

Black Night – Recorded after the In Rock sessions were complete. It was an afterthought because the managers asked “where’s the single?” after they finished the album.  It wasn’t included on the album at the time, but later came out as part of the 25^th Anniversary disc.  After wracking their brains trying to come up with a song [they were NOT a singles band], they went to the pub and got pissed.  Afterward they came back to the studio and a song was born.  Ritchie Blackmore borrowed the riff from Ricky Nelson’s Summertime.  The words came about as the group sat around trying to come up with words that matched “black night.”  The band turned their noses up to singles, until this one became a Top 5 hit in the UK.

Cry Free – This outtake came out with the 25^th Anniversary disc.  Back in 1970 there were 20 minutes a side for a vinyl album.  This one didn’t make the cut, but it is no less urgent and aggressive than any of the other songs that made the album.

Jam Stew – an instrumental outtake that would be revived for a session album with Albert Lee called Green Bullfrog.

Also for the 25^th Anniversary disc, Roger Glover remixed three songs – Speed King, Black Night, and Flight of the Rat.  They sound as if the drums were cleaned up, and the vocals are clearer, but that’s about it.  Why he didn’t give the entire album the same treatment I haven’t a clue.