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Mahavishnu Orchestra with vocals
Guitar World has a short piece based around an interview with Clem Clemson about his experience of auditioning with Deep Purple as Ritchie Blackmore’s replacement for a nascent Mark 4.
Although I think everyone enjoyed the playing we did together, it was clear that they didn’t just need a guitar player to replace Ritchie; they needed someone who could also fill Ritchie’s role as the main songwriter in the group. I definitely didn’t see myself as being the right man for the job in that respect.
I believe Tommy [Bolin] had lots of songs which were exactly what the band needed. And his style was more akin to Ritchie’s than mine. I was never into heavy rock as such. For me, there’s a subtle difference between Humble Pie and bands like Zeppelin, Purple, and Black Sabbath.
One of the highlights was spending a very late night with Glenn Hughes and David Bowie. We wrote a song based on a riff I had, and made plans for a new band, the idea was to be Mahavishnu Orchestra with vocals.
Read more in Guitar World.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
I politely disagree with Clem’s inherent modesty!
Much as I love Tommy and his work with the band, I think Clempson might have worked well and for a longer time in Mk IV. Of course he wouldn’t have been a firebrand like Ritchie or the flamboyant and exotically beautiful creature Tommy was, he had more of a Mick Taylor (a guitarist greatly rated by Ritchie which Mick Jagger never wanted to let go) vibe going and would have likely assumed a more introverted role in Mk IV, but I believe his guitar playing would have gelled with DP and created interesting records (and maybe more than just one too!).
He’s downplaying his songwriter abilities as well. If you look at what he did only shortly after with David Byron in Rough Diamond – a situation not so far removed from joining DP – , I hear musical ideas that would have worked with Purple too:
https://youtu.be/Dg9hvA_H2bk
You tell me that something like ‘Scared’ at 16:10 wouldn’t have had the hearts of DP fans melt. Jon Lord did say about the sessions with Clem that “he played beautifully”, but Blackmore’s enigmatic superstar image must have loomed (too) large. They felt they needed “star factor”, Clem is ‘just’ a musician much like Bernie Marsden and Micky Moody were years later.
Energetic music was certainly no stranger to him, I mean he played with Humble Pie, the epitome of getting asses off seats in US stadiums!!!
https://youtu.be/-gWqrP30YXQ
That said, Clem’s true love was always Colosseum, no two ways about it:
https://youtu.be/_uqT9rMZOB4
He didn’t even want to join Humble Pie as replacement for Peter Frampton, but was lured by Steve Marriott (who was sceptic at first, having only heard Clem in jazzy-proggy Colosseum) to play guitar on some Marriott demos and then talked into joining by motormouth Steve who broke the news to journalists before Clem had even said yes!!! 😂
Shortly before Cozy joined Rainbows, he had a power trio with Clem and Humble Pie bassist Greg Ridley called Strange Brew. They rehearsed, but no recording contract materialized.
May 16th, 2025 at 22:40I hear what Clem is thinking when talking about the ‘prolific’ co-songwriter situation. I agree with your comments Uwe in regards to his work with David Byron, there are a few good songs on that album. However that word ‘prolific’ springs to mind again. Did Clem really want that sort of input, or as you say pressure when playing in a very high profile band. He is a superb guitarist and a rather humble individual, so yes the Purple behemoth may have been too daunting for him. The other factor may have been the funk and soul element in DP, possibly. If he couldn’t feel as though he could have had an influence as a composer of sorts, would he have to play music he wasn’t into, be overshadowed perhaps. He does sound like a rather shy person too. A musicians musician, if that is the way to put it. Cheers.
May 17th, 2025 at 00:35