The Community
ROCK AND ROLL! => Deep Purple => All other Eras => Topic started by: Zzzptm on August 05, 2020, 01:25:40 PM
-
The first Deep Purple album, full of jams and properly-credited cover versions. How does it stand up, now over 50 years after its release? Give it another listen and share your thoughts...
I'll say that the opening instrumental is good, but not electrifying. Nice groove and all, but is pretty much fluff, not a good way to start a disc, unless you're a prog band, which DP seems to have been at this time. "Hush", however, is still a treat of a tune. Much tighter sound on it and Rod Evans' vocals really do it justice. "One More Rainy Day" has some prog cheese at the start, but Jon Lord's keys are lovely nonetheless before the vocal cheese starts. Wow this is cheesy... it's like a Monkees song in terms of its pure poppery - could one argue that when Blackmore took Rainbow in a pop direction that he was just getting back to his roots? Maybe so...
Lord injects a bit of Rimsky-Korsakov into the next track pair, "Happiness/I'm So Glad". Very very prog, indeed, with Ian Paice doing some math rock drumming there and Nick Simper having a bit of a gas with his bass line. The transition into the second part is very lovely and Evans does another fine turn. It's less poppy than "One More Rainy Day", has a nice melancholy edge to it. Blackmore's distorted solo makes it even more so, puts a real mood on the tune. It's definitely pointing the way to goth rock, this song, with its atmospherics and delivery.
Side two opens up with "Mandrake Root" and this one is the gem of the album. The space-rock jam at the end became a staple of their stage show, even when "Space Truckin'" replaced the original vocal opener. Just as well, for a space-rock jam, I think.
At this point in the album, I'm also struck with just how much of the soloing went to Lord and not Blackmore. The trade-off between organ and guitar that became their trademark pretty much starts on "Mandrake Root" and proceeds from there.
And then we get to "Help". Oof. Back to the cheese, I see. Evans' vocal is pretty to listen to, no question, but this song isn't really going much of anywhere. As a reinterpretation, Joe Cocker's "Little Help From My Friends" it ain't. There's some pretty Ravel-influenced window dressing from John's Hammond, but the combination of all the elements on the song are disappointing - it's less than the sum of its parts.
"Love Help Me" steps up as the next track, with a much brisker pace than the previous tune. That I like, along with the harder edge from the the bass and drums. Blackmore steps out of the shadows and really gives the beans to his guitar. If only it wasn't such a pop tune of a lyric to go with the track... still, an overall fun tune even if it's like a heavy version of a Beach Boys song.
And that gets us to their cover of "Hey Joe". Hendrix' version is definitive, but I guess nobody knew it just yet in '68. It worked for him, so it would work for DP, right? Except they gotta shred some more of that prog-rock cheddar all over it and cheese it up. These extended, classically-influenced intro pieces REALLY have to go. Is this a band that reinterprets the classics, like a Hooked on Bach thing, or do they have their own material?
Once the song proper starts, it's fine. Evans does his job and Blackmore lets his Hendrix-worship loose. Lord uses his Hammond as rhythm guitar, and that's something Blackmore will let Lord do for the rest of his time in the band - even back in 1968, he didn't want to play rhythm guitar, lolz. His solo at the end of this track is another sign pointing the way forward for the band and is one of the treats I expected when I spun this album today. :yes:
Is this a bad album? No, even though there's filler and a cringe moment here and there. It's nostalgic for me to listen to, but I don't see myself going back to it again for a while. I wanted to look at all the DP albums in order, and this is just where I start. Once I get through the rest of the Mk I catalog, I'll be in much happier waters, at least until the storms of the reunion period...