DEEP PURPLE - How Deep are you?

Deep Purple is quite simply one of the best bands of all-time. I've been listening to these guys since I was about 4 years old, there was an old 45rpm single of HUSH that my Mother had and I drove her nuts with it day after day...

Anyway, I'll wax philosophic later, but in the interim...what do you guys think?

Deep Purple are one of my favorite bands of all time, and I love all the line ups of Deep Purple.

Ritchie Blackmore is one of my favorite guitarist of all time and Ian Gillan simply rules. Also as Deep Purple have gotten older, I like how their music has evolved and moved away but completely abandoned their heavy metal roots. They could serve as a lesson to lots of bands of how age gracefully.

Excellent post Manny!

DP has managed to slowly expand their sonic pallette (especially since Morse arrived) yet still sound like nobody else but Deep Purple.

Of course the Blackmore/Gillan lineup is my favorite, but there is really good material from all the different eras.

Ian Gillan is my favorite rock vocalist/lyricist of all-time.

I'm not Deep at all. Only have Machine Head and a Greatest Hits comp. I've been thinking about dumping the hits comp though. Once I got Machine Head, I rarely listen to the hits anymore. If money were no object, I'd have a bunch of their discs but as it stands, it'll be some time before I get Deeper.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I'm not Deep at all. Only have Machine Head and a Greatest Hits comp. I've been thinking about dumping the hits comp though. Once I got Machine Head, I rarely listen to the hits anymore. If money were no object, I'd have a bunch of their discs but as it stands, it'll be some time before I get Deeper.

You at least owe it to yourself to get In Rock, that album is just as much of a cornerstone metal album as Paranoid is.

I am a huge DP (deep purple and double penetration) fan. They have surpassed Cooper as my favorite of all time.

I honestly don't care much for the Morse years. I saw them live in 2007 and was not impressed with Morse live in the least. He's too technical for their sound, methinks. That being said, I still like their post '93 output, but you can't touch their earlier stuff with Blackmore and Bolin.

Very deep, my favorite is still the original Mark II albums, but theres plenty of other greatness in their catalogue. The only one I never really liked too much was Slaves & Masters

Purple runs deep in my veins, I gotta agree that Blackmore is one of my fave guitarist of all time but so is Tommy Bolin but I still don't know what I think of This Time Around: Live In Tokyo, Coverdale just didn't do it for me on that particular disc. I'm a huge Rod Evans fan especially with Captain Beyond and that is what got me into that era of DP now The Book Of Taliesyn is one of my faves along with DPIII, In Rock & Machine Head. I like the Steve Morse era too but what I'd like to find are some bootlegs of DP w/Satriani (another guitar hero of mine), but I've had no luck.

I was just listening to Stormbringer last night, I forgot how good of an album it is! There are a couple songs that are iffy, but IMO it's almost "not" a Purple record.

I used to citie 'Stormbringer' as the worst Deep Purple album, but detuned encouraged to relisten to the album with a fresh perspective and I have to reasses my view and agree it is a very strong album.

I also happen to be one of the only fans of Deep Purple who love 'Slaves and Masters' but I am personally glad this line up ended after only one album.

Yeah, I like it alot, granted, some of it DOES sound forced, but it's not as bad as I had written it off as at one point. It's just not very "purpleesque". Slaves and Masters is one I'll most likely never own, just couldn't get into that album.

I'm just getting reacquainted with Deep Purple, they got so much out there to jam, and thanks to the Tokesta I got a great collection of DP to check out now, I've been jamming some rare tracks from 1967-1991 stuff I've never heard, pretty interesting stuff.

Here's an interesting piece of trivia.

Steve Morse has been the guitarist for Deep Purple for 15 years, that's about 5 years longer than Blackmore's tenure if you add all of his different stints with the band together.

S.D. wrote:

Here's an interesting piece of trivia.

Steve Morse has been the guitarist for Deep Purple for 15 years, that's about 5 years longer than Blackmore's tenure if you add all of his different stints with the band together.

Yeah, but his impact doesn't match his tenure.

SpectreFate wrote:

S.D. wrote:

Here's an interesting piece of trivia.

Steve Morse has been the guitarist for Deep Purple for 15 years, that's about 5 years longer than Blackmore's tenure if you add all of his different stints with the band together.

Yeah, but his impact doesn't match his tenure.

That has to do more with time & circumstance than talent or music, IMO.

I only recently bought a copy of Machine Head and I like it quite a bit. I always liked DP's "hits" when I heard them, and I liked their influence on Power Metal (and when Metal band covered DP songs)...but never dug real deep into the band itself.

"length of time" is very different now. Record labels in the early 1970's demanded 2 albums per year from their artists. That pace is what led to the Mach II lineups demise, many bands burned out quickly when trying to maintain that lifestyle.

Purple is in a nice relaxed phase of their career, happy to put out albums every 5 years or so and they don't need to prove anything to anyone, as long as they enjoy what they're playing the honesty comes through.

From his stint in DP to his tenure in Captain Beyond, Rod Evans improved by leaps and bounds. IMO that S/T LP is better than anything DP ever done...I know I'm one of the few who thinks that.

Well, they went in different directions, that's all. The self titled LP is good, but I actually prefer "Shades Of Deep Purple" for the first lineup. Evans is a good vocalist, but honestly he's nothing "earth shattering", there were many other superior vocalists on the scene at that time.

Blackmore took control of the group after "Concerto" was finished and moved them in the heavier direction.

Fireball was the most progressive album they did with the Mark II lineup...and that is Gillan's favorite album, he wanted to continue in that direction.

But Blackmore was having none of it at the time.

I meant the S/T captain Beyond album is better than anything DP ever did, IMHO...

I don't understand how Gillan is the only one in DP who likes 'Fireball'. How do you feel about 'Come Taste The Band', SD?

I'm not that big into the Bolin era, it's fairly obvious to me that Tommy just needed a paycheck, he doesn't seem very interested in the music.

Captain Beyond is "okay", but they would be pretty far down my list of bands from that era.

I dig Bolin a lot but that album doesn't have the earmarks of a DP album, although I enjoy it from time to time it's clear they lost momentum.

I like the debut Captain Beyond album...

I like it, but there are many other albums from that particular era that I would pick before that one.

I just don't think it quite lives up to it's reputation.

Shawn wrote:

I like the debut Captain Beyond album...

That is one of my all-time faves, I have a lot of '70s Rock, Proto Metal and this is still tops for me.

Akeldama wrote:

Shawn wrote:

I like the debut Captain Beyond album...

That is one of my all-time faves, I have a lot of '70s Rock, Proto Metal and this is still tops for me.

It's way rockin' with a Southern Rock style to it.