When I was reading the Iron Maiden book I started wondering why I don't have any Deep Purple records. Bruce Dickinson was especially enthusiastic about Deep Purple and I kept thinking, "How have I missed Deep Purple? It's Deep Purple!" I have been aware of Deep Purple for over two decades and I still don't have any of their albums.
I'm not quite knocking on the door of Thirty, but I am standing on the porch hollering through the screen door that my hands are full so Thirty has to come let me in. I'm carrying a 12-pack of soda, a bag of Thai food, plus my phone and keys but I have no parcel containing In Rock or Made In Japan. No wonder Thirty is taking its sweet time to get to the door. My record collection has a great big gap between Sammy Davis, Jr. and the Del Vikings and Thirty isn't having it.
I do have a Deep Purple 8-track, but it's Deep Purple In Concert At The Royal Albert Hall with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It's a "concerto for group and orchestra" composed by Jon Lord. That item was purchased because I am a sucker for rock-classical crossover projects. I've also got the 8-track of Tommy by the London Symphony Orchestra and a couple of other LSO-playing-rock LPs. So the Deep Purple 8-track fit right in with the rest of the orchestral rock pieces. And it was fifty cents at Value Village.
But as far as Deep Purple The Important Rock Band goes, I come up nada. I don't even have a terrible greatest hits record which makes no sense because I love their greatest hits. I think the problem is a matter of timing. Actually, it's two or three matters of timing. First of all, the Deep Purple I knew growing up was very different than the Deep Purple young Bruce Dickinson knew. When Bruce Bruce was a youth Deep Purple was a progressive rock band. By the time I heard about Deep Purple they were old news. They were leftovers from the 1970s that wouldn't quite go away even though they weren't so fresh anymore.
When I was a teenager the only thing interesting about Deep Purple was the numerous lineup changes. As I read guitar magazines, various people (Tommy Bolin, David Coverdale, Ritchie Blackmore, etc.) would frequently be mentioned as a former member of Deep Purple. I used to wonder, exactly how many former members does Deep Purple have?
I always figured, enough that I can claim that I am a former member of Deep Purple. I said it to the Governor one time and he said, "Ah yes. The little known Coverdale-Dragon album right before Coverdale left for Whitesnake." "That's the one." I'm not the only one who noticed their revolving door policy. A few weeks ago one of LCG's friends told me that Deep Purple was coming to town and I asked him, "So who's in Deep Purple these days?" He didn't know but he knew exactly what I was talking about.
Actually, I just looked up the lineup from 1968-1993 (that's as far as the book covers) and the changes don't seem as excessive as they once did. It's a whole lot of people leaving and coming back. And most of these members were in some way guitar magazine worthy. It seemed like a high volume of Deep Purple traffic when I was a kid but I'm starting to think that Deep Purple just attracts people who are worth discussing.
But I still wasn't introduced to Deep Purple in their heyday so they never caught my attention. David Bryan (My member of Bon Jovi if you are keeping track. Those hair extensions were gross but I never had to fight with another seventh grader over Jon Bon Jovi.) claimed Jon Lord as one of his heroes and couldn't say enough about Made In Japan. I thought maybe I would like Made In Japan if David Bryan liked Made In Japan. I fell out of my Bon Jovi phase before I ever made the purchase. The timing was off.
The next time I thought about embracing Deep Purple would have been somewhere in 1990 or 1991. I bought a Deep Purple collection when I was starting to dabble in classic rock. It was the When We Rock, We Rock and When We Roll, We Roll album and it just didn't work out for me. I don't know why, I loved their version of Kentucky Woman and I am crazy about Smoke On The Water.
I know, Smoke On The Water is the most irritating song ever and why can't classic rock stations stop playing it once and for all? Blame the guitar teachers of the world. Like every other kid who ever took a single guitar lesson, the first thing I learned to play was the opening chord sequence of Smoke On The Water. I still recite the chords under my breath when I hear that song and I still love Smoke On The Water. I think it's pretty good.
And Hush? Duuuuuude. How long is the running time on Hush? Five minutes? Seven minutes? I can't look it up right now, I tried and All Music once again spit in my eye. I'm guessing it's about seven minutes but it feels like fifteen and that is why I like it. Okay, I found a non-All Music site that claims it is four minutes and twenty-one seconds long. That's it? I wish that song was sixty minutes long. Maybe that's why I didn't dig the Deep Purple collection. Hush was too short.
No, that can't be the reason. I could have been disappointed because nothing on that collection made me want to go out and buy a full album. I had great success with The Kinks using a similar technique. I had borrowed my uncle's copy of One For The Road, loved it and ended up buying Low Budget. They were touring behind Low Budget on One For The Road so when I found that I liked most of the songs from Low Budget I thought I might like all of the songs from Low Budget. That worked out beautifully but I had no such luck with Deep Purple. My timing was off once again.
When I grew up and was working as a vinyl buyer, I had my first glimpse of a different Deep Purple. While going through stacks of records I would find things like Shades of Deep Purple and Book of Taliesyn and think, "What's this? Psychedelic Deep Purple? This cover is downright flowery!" It made me realize that there was more to Deep Purple than just arena rock. I maybe should have figured that out when I got my 8-track, but I just assumed it was a pompous doing this because we can project.
Now I realize that they might have done the orchestral record because they could but that doesn't necessarily make them pompous. Maybe they could because they were talented. I think I'm going to have to take another look at Deep Purple. I know now that they have more to offer than I originally thought and Bruce Dickinson endorses them. On top of that, I have a feeling that Thirty is going to make fun of me if I show up without a copy of Machine Head.