Mk2 Studio Album Mis-steps

[Zzzptm]

Off of In Rock, Fireball, Machine Head, and Who Do We Think We Are!, there are some amazing openers, closers, and stuff in between. But are there any songs that are just average or worse? Instead of ranking songs against each other, assume each is a homework assignment. You take off points for things you don't like... full marks if the song doesn't have anything you don't like... are there any failing grades? Any grades in the middle of the rock and roll pack? Or is each song truly a gem?

[Zzzptm]

OK, so for me, the assignments I'd hand back to Deep Purple to do-over would be:

"Living Wreck" - I think this would be a great song for Janis Joplin, but...

does not equal

Try again, lads.

"The Mule" and "Fools": keep one, rework the other. If you leave it up to me, take "The Mule" and make it more upbeat. "Fools" can then chill out nicely and we segue into "No One Came" just fine.

"Mary Long" - this song just goes everywhere. I like the lyrics, but the instrumental passages leave me wondering if they're the same song or just spliced in.

"Place in Line" - too long and Gillan's vocal is too goofy.

But all the above are only average songs, not bad ones. I'd want them to be better so that each album would be as completely great as Machine Head, which has no songs I'd consider less than excellent.

[Charger]

Well I LOOOOOOOOVE FOOOOOOOOOLS! One of my favourite Purple songs...I think it's one of Purple's doomiest songs. The verse riff is heavy as hell!


But Living Wreck I can agree with...also Never Before from Machine head seems bit out of place as it is bit poppier that the rest of the tracks...

From Who Do We Think We Are I only like Woman From Tokyo and Mary Long (go figure always thought the lyrics were beyond funny! and it's musically really quirky too) the rest are pretty much mediocre for me...

[Ted Sallis]

From DPIR: None.

From Fireball: No One Came - I just don't like the overall sound of this track.

From Machine Head: None.  Even though I like the Fireball album more than MH, I can't find any songs I really don't like on this album.  If I had to pick 1, it would be Never Before.

From WDWTWA: Smooth Dancer - although the verses are okay, the chorus really ruins this track for me.
Place in Line - as another poster stated above, IG's vocals are too goofy on this track.  Musically mediocre too.

Also, I should add that I consider 2 other tracks from the last 70's Mark II studio album to be at best average: Super Trouper and Our Lady.  The former also has a flawed chorus and there's nothing special about the latter.

Ted

[Zzzptm]

Overall, it looks like the Mk2 boys did some really amazing work.