STEVE MORSE BROUGHT OUT THE DEEPEST PURPLE
Deep Purple, no matter which lineup you are talking about, I think there must have been 30 members in the band over the years at various times, to me are a band that almost had it but never quite made a definitive artistic statement which immortalised them as a classic rock band, even when taking the timeless `Smoke on the Water` into consideration.
Personally, I was never a big fan of Richie Blackmore`s style of guitar playing, he was always unconvincingly caught somewhere between heavy metal, blues and rock `n`roll and he just never quite nailed either one of them, with the exception of ten or so songs which either came off the two best albums from the Mark 2 line up of the band, which were `In Rock` and `Machine Head` from the early 70`s.
By 1973, the Mark 2 line up had disintegrated and a virtual unknown soul covers singer by the name of David Coverdale, who would one day go on to form Whitesnake in the late 70`s, after his short lived tenure with Deep Purple in the mid 70`s, replaced the `mumbling` Ian Gillan.
Richie Blackmore soldiered on in the Mark 3 version of the band, but for the most part Coverdale`s more bluesey approach never quite gelled with Blackmore`s liking for neo-classical guitar, which was anything but rawkish english blues.
Blackmore never had a singer to take him to the next level, you have to say that much, and he just didn`t have the firepower of Jimmy Page or Peter Green or someone like
that.
that.
By 1975, Blackmore had finally quit the band that he had co-formed back in the late 60`s as a then psychedelic pop rock band.
Coverdale, drummer Ian Paice, keyboardist Jon Lord and bassist Glen Hughes decided to carry on with Tommy Bolin filling in for the absent Blackmore, and the album which resulted `Come Taste the Band`, despite its more laid back R&B feel, is probably much better for the fact that Blackmore`s repetitious guitar tones were absent and replaced by the more improvised ones of Bolin.
By the end of `76, Bolin was dead from a drug overdose and Deep Purple finally packed it in after four failed line-ups and the
personnel to boot.
personnel to boot.
The Mark 2 line-up reformed in the 80`s with Richie Blackmore back at the lead guitarist helm, the two albums which come out in the 80`s weren`t too bad for a bunch of old lugheads, by now Blackmore had adopted the workmanlike big chorus approach to writing songs, although not to the extent of AOR bands like Foreigner or Toto.
Just enough to make Deep Purple sound a bit more commercial, but the slightly more sophisticated approach didn`t do the band much good in the albums chart.
After a couple more albums in the early 90`s, maybe one, I`d have to check to make sure, Blackmore finally conceded that he was a right royal pain in the arse to deal with and he quit Deep Purple a second time to give his long suffering band mates the opportunity to keep going without him and without their artistic hands tied behind their backs.
In came Steve Morse, a legendary US axeman who is arguably the best guitarist in the history of rock. If not the best to listen to the best in terms of technical ability.
Deep Purple Mark 5 has recorded a few albums featuring Steve Morse, who played in a band bearing his own name and with a slick AOR outfit in the late 70`s and early 80`s called Kansas.
The former was an experimental mostly instrumental dixie rock band, take a listen
to a song called `Icecakes` by the Steve Morse Band. Really out there wacko kind of stuff.
The albums I have which have Steve Morse playing on them are `Purpendicular` and `Abandon`. I know they released another one later on in the early 2000`s or mid 2000`s called `Bananas` and there might be another one featuring Morse as well, not including a live one, yes, I just remembered that one.
They are the first two with Morse, and to me it is the best Deep Purple ever sounded. It was a revelation for this old bunch of prototype metal heads from Britain to have a younger more adventurous and hugely talented American guitarist going for it and putting a new edge on Blackmore`s old grooves, as well as inventing ones of his own effortlessly.
I wont bother breaking down all the track listings of `Purpendicular` and `Abandon`, Deep Purple always was an album band so I say just go and order the bloody things in and get a taste of a band that took over 20 years to find its groove but got it thanks to Steve Morse.
I'm a fan of Blackmore's playing, he is definitely not a blues player and has never even tried to be and as you say his classic roots show his love of more medievil type harpsichord lines that he learned as a piano student. Still despite your lack of enthusiasm over Blackmores style some of his solo's are the most well known and the most played in any genre of music (the solo from Highway star for instance)
ReplyDeleteSteve Morse is the musicians musician, he still hold clinics and is ready to impart technical and playing tips to all comers who need a bit of help with technique or style, I think he blew everyone away at the last world tour with his genius, in particular "sometimes I feel like screaming" wher he blends chordal notes with arpregios to create a complex yet simple riff for the main structure of the song with is duplicated in beautiful. technically brilliant solo's throughout the song using all the frills and including harminics and tapping throughout.
Getting back to Blackmore, I think he found his niche after the second break up with Purple when he formed Rainbow,with Dio and members of his band Elf, after the first recording he fired all but Dio and made "Rising" with Cozy Powell on drums, Jimmy Bain on Bass, Tony Carey on Keys and the legendary (and sadly now deceased) Ronnie James Dio on vocals, a line up which toured the world, for me Rainbow Rising was Blackmore at his best, in fact this still remainsd one of my desert Island recordings.