Which song sealed the deal?

[Zzzptm]

"Smoke on the Water" and "Highway Star" got me started into Deep Purple, so it was natural that I started with the Deepest Purple collection. 12 hits, 4 of which I recognized from radio airplay - "Space Truckin'" and "Woman From Tokyo" being the other two. I got this after I'd bought all the Zeppelin records, felt kinda burned by ZZ Top's El Loco and wanted something heavier.

I didn't even have my own turntable back then, I had to use my mom's system in the den. The rule was, if they were home, I had to put on headphones. Thankfully, she had these DJ-quality over-ear headphones that delivered amazing sound. So, if I could put up with two hot ears for a while, I could jam out to whatever music I wanted to.

So I kick off with side one. "Black Night." Good track, lots of fun, me like. Next up, "Speed King". 

DUDE! That's what I'm looking for! Yeah! Got any more? "Fireball"? Sure, let's have it! "Strange Kind of Woman" OK, a little less of what I was looking for... and then came...

CHILD IN TIME

Quiet start, but then it built up like Ravel's "Bolero" to that screaming, agonized climax and YEAH MAN THAT'S THE STUFF! The monster solos, the pile-driving bass line, the sonic chaos and then- that recap of the opening, telling me we got one more turn on this wild ride.

It may not be a song that one just hums along while walking down the hall, but that song, "Child in Time", made me want to have everything that band ever recorded.

What Deep Purple song made you where you had to have it all and couldn't turn back?

[Billy Underdog]

Ofcourse it was Smoke On The Water for me to, but what really sealed the deal was the 30: Very Best of Deep Purple compilation. Hard to pick one tune, it was more the whole of it, and how different they sounded in the different eras. The first album was actually Stormbringer, but didn't go long until the Gillan classics took over as faves.

Child In Time is an epic on the same level as Stairway To Heaven.

[Zzzptm]

"Drifter" was the song that re-introduced me to the Mk4 version of the band, when I revisited it in the late 90s.

As a kid, I got Come Taste the Band and pretty much played it a few times and let it collect dust. I liked "Comin' Home", but could let the rest of the album pass, rating it the poorest of the efforts of the 1968-1976 era.

But, when I started the Deep Purple Digest in 1998 or so, I took it on myself to review all the DP records and I started with Come Taste the Band, thinking it would be the baseline that all other records would beat handily. I was surprised when I listened to it again after all those years at how Bolin's guitar work was so brilliant. How did I miss that? Maybe it was because I was just a kid when I first got it and I wasn't listening with the right ears. Who knows?

But I listened and when I got to "Drifter", I found my theme music. The guitar intro is perfect in my opinion. It's a song I want at the start of a movie of my life, as I get into a car and back it out into the road to go somewhere. Helicopter shot of my car as the opening credits roll as the first verse starts, stuff like that.

After that, I saw CTTB in a new light and that led me to the two excellent Bolin solo works, Teaser and Private Eyes. 

[Billy Underdog]

As great a guitarist Bolin was, and all the great stuff he was involved with, Deep Purple for me is the 70's albums with Gillan and Coverdale/Hughes before Blackmore left. Plus a few songs here and there from the Rod Evans era (love their Help, and i'm strict when it comes to Beatles covers) and some from after the '84 reunion (Perfect Strangers (the tune) Battle Rages On (the album) Ted The Mechanic and Any Fule Kno That being some.
Hearing great stuff about Now What!? and Infinite though, but haven't gotten around to check 'em out yet.
Saw them live with Dio as special guest back in... 00/01? when they were doing Concerto for group and orchestra again, but Steve Morse bringing Annebjørg Lien on stage to play Fanitullen put me off... Great Hardingfiddler, great slått (trad. Norwegian folk tune), but not what i was there to see...

[Zzzptm]

Well, Morse does like that folk music. One can hear it in his playing style.

[Billy Underdog]

Well, Morse does like that folk music. One can hear it in his playing style.

I do too, so no fault in that. It just wasn't what i was there to see Deep Purple for...

[Charger]

Good lord....I can't even remember....Smoke On The Water probably was the first one I heard but that wasn't the one that turned me into the band though....

Perfect Strangers I believe was my first DP album...bought it from a second hand store back in 97 maybe...bit after I got into Sabbath with Dehumanizer...also bought from the same second hand store.

[nutzrocker]

"Black Night" On Top Of The Pops was the first Purple song I heard but one day I was at a friends house and he put some headphones on me and blasted me with "Flight Of The Rat" from the IN Rock Album. That did it, I was a fan from that moment on.

Never could understand why they never played "Flight Of The Rat" Live, one of the best tracks they ever recorded

[Zzzptm]

Never could understand why they never played "Flight Of The Rat" Live, one of the best tracks they ever recorded

Hear, hear, well spoken! 

[Thelemech]

It was definitely Speed King! Such an incredible song and way ahead for its time. I of course bought Deepest Purple soon after I heard SK and I still to this day listen to that particular compilation. One of the most memorable greatest hits.

[Zzzptm]

It was definitely Speed King! Such an incredible song and way ahead for its time. I of course bought Deepest Purple soon after I heard SK and I still to this day listen to that particular compilation. One of the most memorable greatest hits.

It truly is. That was my first DP disc, and I'm glad it was!

[discman69]

My first Deep Purple album was Deepest Purple: The Very best of Deep Purple. Much like everyone I would say Smoke on the Water got me started and the reason I bought that album. After that came Highway Star, Child In Time and Stormbringer. I was so glad that the Mk II re-grouped and made Perfect Strangers. Saw them twice on that tour and probably for that reason Perfect Strangers is my favorite DP song

[Zzzptm]

I think "Perfect Strangers" is the only song from the Mk2 Reunion that they still play live.