I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: September 6, 2018] Deep Purple

My friend Al told me he was going to this double bill of Deep Purple and Judas Priest.  He and I went to my first ever concert back in 1985–Deep Purple at the Meadowlands.  It seemed like a fun idea to see Deep Purple again 33 years later.

Turned out he had a work thing and couldn’t go.  So that sucked.  But I scored great seats for $28 so that’s cool.

I was surprised that Deep Purple was going on after Judas Priest–I was sure that Judas Priest would be a bigger draw.  I wasn’t all that excited to see Deep Purple, but I was certainly curious.

And that’s when I realized that Ian Paice is the only person who has been with Deep Purple in all of their hundreds of lineups.  But, Ian Gillan and Roger Glover were from the first major lineup (the Mk II version of the band). 

So Deep Purple actually had more classic members in its lineup than Judas Priest did.  Weird.

They opened with “Highway Star” which is one of my favorite Deep Purple songs.  It sounded amazing. The keyboards sounded perfect.  Aside: Jon Lord quit the band in 2002–he was the only other guy who had been in every lineup.  The departure was amicable and he left his Hammond organ to Don Airey.  (Lord died in 2012).  So Don was playing Jon’s old Hammond.  And when he did

Back in 1993, after a 25th anniversary tour that featured with Ian Gillan and Ritchie Blackmore, Blackmore became his cantankerous self and quit.  Steve Morse replaced him in 1994 and has been with them sever since.  So he’s been with the band for nearly 25 years (!)

I don’t entirely get the pairing of Judas Priest and Deep Purple.  Deep Purple is not really heavy metal, although they are certainly tangential to heavy metal with members of the band playing in Black Sabbath and with Ozzy and various other bands.

They are totally a psychedelic jam band as was clear once Don Airey started playing that Hammond organ.  It sounded fantastic and he did some lengthy soloing just like Lord used to do

The set was composed primarily of songs from their album Machine Head (5 of the 13 songs played).  I recognized “Pictures of Home,” but not all that well.  It’s possible I’m not as big a Deep Purple fans as I assumed I was.

Then came a song I should have recognized but didn’t, “Bloodsucker ” from Deep Purple In Rock–an album I own, but apparently never listen to.  It rocked along and there was extensive soloing from Morse and Airey.

Up next came “Strange Kind of Woman” which I did know and was fun to hear.   Although it was all kind of weird to see Ian Gillan, who is aged 73 singing songs of wooing young women.  Unlike Rob Halford who at 67 sounds good, Ian Gillan sounded “good for 73,” a subtle difference, but true.  He couldn’t really hit the high notes during “Highway Star” although he did hit some other ones.   He seemed rather fragile up there, too.  Although when he spoke, he sounded robust and good (even if his accent was impenetrable).

Then came the part where every one in the audience sat down.  They played a song from 1996’s Purpendicular.  The last Deep Purple album I bought was in 1987 The House of Blue Light.  I didn’t even know that the had been making albums since then.

And yet:

Slaves and Masters with Joe Lynn Turner on voc (1990)
The Battle Rages On with Ian Gillan and Ritchie Blackmore–the whole Mk 2 lineup (1993)
Purpendicular with Steve Morse (1996)
Abandon same as above (1998)
Bananas with Don Airey (2003)
Rapture of the Deep same as above lineup (2005)
Now What?! (2013)
Infinite (2017)

Wow.  I didn’t these albums existed.  So they played “Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming” from Purpendicular and “Uncommon Man” from Now What?!  We were told this song was a tribute to Jon Lord, which received justifiable applause.

Then came a riff I knew–after some suitable jamming on the keyboard of course.  It was “Lazy,” a song I;’d forgotten but which I remembered really digging back in the day.  The lyrics are noting special but he guitar riff is pretty great and Morse is a pro, for sure.

Then came the song that revitalized Deep Purple back in 1985, from the Perfect Strangers album–the tour that I saw.  It was “Knocking at Your Back Door,” a song I probably haven’t thought about in 30 years.  And man, is it a crazily inappropriate song  Certainly for a 73-year-old man to sing but really for anyone to be singing in 218.  Sounded great though.

Don Airey took a lengthy keyboard solo and then came the title song from Perfect Strangers.  I don’t know if this song was ever released to radio but man is it good.  Such a great heavy riff in the middle.  It was awesome to hear this live again.

I had forgotten all about “Space Trucking” so when they started that heavy riff I was pretty excited and it was great to hear that song jammed out.   Come on!

Roger Glover on bass was having a lot of fun.  I was glad we were on his side.  And Ian Paice was a monster behind the kit.  He played some great fills, some little solo and was pounding the hell out of the drums all night.

33 years ago Ritchie Blackmore was in the band and you never knew if you were going to hear “Smoke on he Water.” He was/is a curmudgeon and it was entirely up to him (I assume) whether you’d hear it or not.  When we saw them, they played it; when they came back a few weeks later (which is weird) they didn’t.  People were PISSED.

There was no doubt in my mind that we would hear it on this tour, I mean really, that’s probably why 45% of the people hung around.  So yes they played “Smoke on the Water” and while I didn’t reallly care before the show if they did or not, I have to admit is was really cool to hear it live.  They projected a lyric sheet on the screen behind them and I finally got to clear up that the official lyric is “with the Rolling thing Stone truck just outside.”  What the heck?

They left for an encore and some people started to leave.

They came out to do “Hush,” a fun song but one that can;t possibly be what people were waiting to hear.  Whatever the case it sounded great.  The band jammed it, the fans were into it, and that was that.

They did not play “Child in Time” my absolute favorite DP song, but realistically there’s no way that Gillan could sing it any more.  It’s good he didn’t even try,

The show was good, mostly enjoyable.  I do love a Hammond organ solo.

But for me the best part was that the show ended just before 11, I got to my car by 11:11 and there was no line to get out of the parking lot, I guess people were drifting out throughout the night (on a random Thursday night in Sept). So I was out on the way home within 15 minutes of the show.

Awesome.

1. Highway Star
2. Pictures of Home
3. Bloodsucker
4. Strange Kind of Woman
5. Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming
6. Uncommon Man
7. Lazy
8. Knocking at Your Back Door
9. Keyboard Solo
10. Perfect Strangers
11. Space Truckin’
12. Smoke on the Water
13. encore
14. Hush