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ROCK AND ROLL! => Deep Purple => Mk II: Gillan & Glover => Topic started by: Zzzptm on August 13, 2020, 08:56:46 AM
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I'm listening to this just after bailing on the orchestra stuff at the end of the third album and the opening to "Speed King" positively melts the face and then Gillan's voice reaches down to the bottom of my pelvis and flips my skeleton inside-out HOLY HELL THIS IS NOT THE SAME BAND AT ALL!!!!
It's like they dug themselves out from under a pile of pop expectations from the former management/label and decided to have a go at some of the stuff those boys in Led Zeppelin were playing around with. The jams have jazz and blues in them, the classical stuff is on the bench. And then the chords have nothing at all to do with The Monkees! Oh -- parents -- HIDE YOUR CHILDRENS!!! GILLAN'S GONNA SCREAM AGAIN!!!
Good gosh, it's so over-the-top awesome, "Speed King". Not necessarily a song to whistle while walking down the hallway, but if you want to make a history of heavy metal, you gotta have this tune in the main exhibit hall.
"Bloodsucker" takes the tempo down a bit, but the intensity continues. No lengthy classical intro or stuff like that. It's just a big, sweaty, chugging crowd-pleasin' piece of screamy music. If you like this, you'll like stoner rock, for sure. I do and I do, so that's how I know.
"Child in Time"... not really a song you pop onto that mixtape for the road trip, is it? It's a difficult listen, but if you're dedicating a full album listen, you sit down, get comfortable, and take it in. It's a lot like the long tracks on Black Sabbath's Sabotage - you get the best effect from them as part of the whole experience. And that experience! I'll tell a secret - there is a classical *form* to this song in terms of its separate movements. That's why it has such variety, but is overall an unified piece. Blackmore's solo is absolute captured lightning. I'm thinking Blackmore decided that Zep's "Dazed and Confused" was the one to top, and this is the song they put together to do the job, and I have to say: point to Deep Purple!
Flip the record over and get into a major key with "Flight of the Rat". It's also got a sonata form to it, so there's that classical stuff peeking around the edges, but again with the band free to improvise within that framework. By now, it should be crystal clear that the chemistry missing in the Mk1 lineup is here, and it's explosive. By now, it should also be crystal that, for many, this one is the real first DP album - the others were practice albums, now they're ready to really REALLY rock. I'm a historian, so it's the fourth album in the lineup, but it's for sure the first that I get excited about listening to for this project. The Mk1 material is interesting, but In Rock is *compelling*.
"Into the Fire" goes slower on the tempo, but keeps the amps cranked up. Where Mk1 would be doing a Beatles cover, these guys are reaching for Janis Joplin's heavy blues, and it works all the better with this crew. Notice the similarities?
:janis: :gillan:
"Living Wreck" does the heavy blues thing again and if I have to pick a bone with this album, it's two mid-tempo heavy blues numbers back to back. As bones go, that's not a lot of bone and neither is it a lot of picking.
The guitar tone difference is also worth calling out on this album: we are hearing less of Blackmore's Gibson 335S and a whole lot more from his Fender Stratocaster. This is a big development for the band, as that Fender is where Blackmore shines. Interestingly enough, this is also around the time Iommi drops his Fender in favor of the Gibson, go figure, eh?
Speaking of Fenders and signature sounds, Blackmore's riff on "Hard Lovin' Man" is exactly that. Lord rocks the Hammond - literally - to produce the eruption sounds and Paice-Glover LTD are the firm to call upon for a solid rhythm line. Add in Gillan's screaming and you got the definitive MkII sound right here. This is another long song, but it's not because of the classical thing. It's because, apparently, the band can jam that hard for that long. Lord really shows his teeth with his soloing and Blackmore is there to match him as they duke it out, solo for solo.
You know how Zep's first album ends with "How Many More Times"? A long jam number where the band lays it all out? This is DP's answer to that track, and they clobber it. Where Page and Plant stitch together about 11 different blues and pop numbers from the 50s, Purple do their own thing and leave the listener devastated, yet asking for more. This is the musical ancestor of Motorhead's "Overkill", multiple endings and all.
You need to listen to this album again if you haven't done so recently. You owe it to yourself, seriously.
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Well stated indeed.
Child In Time to this day remains the band's absolute magnum opus and for a very good reason.
Flight Of The Rat is the only one I skip from this album...
Hard Loving Man is the first ever song to feature the Galloping riff that later on became the trademark of Iron Maiden.
I haven't listened to this album in a while...I think I'll take this as my workout music next week...if my back heals by then that is..
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Nice write up Z. In Rock has always been my favourite DP album. Was just always more up my alley with it’s rawness, heaviness and energy over Fireball & MH.
Only a few months old this cool write up on the making of In Rock.
https://www.loudersound.com/features/deep-purple-the-making-of-in-rock
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Great read, Jack, thanks for that share.
And I agree with Charger: Deep Purple laid down a lot of what Iron Maiden picked up. To call this album "influential" is an understatement.