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The missing D on a breakdown
Guitar World has an interview with the Swedish session man Tommy Denander, who has more than 3,500 albums to his credit — from Michael Jackson to Jeff Beck, to Alice Cooper. He is also one of the go-to session musicians for Bob Ezrin, so you might guess where this is going (and we’ve covered the story back in 2017).
What about your rather minimal appearance on Deep Purple’s Infinite (2017)?
“When Bob Ezrin invited me to help with Infinite it meant I’d completed a triple of posters from my wall in the ’70s! They were almost done with the album, but Ian Gillan wanted to re-record his vocals and Don Airey wanted to add a keyboard part.
“They were in Stockholm and I worked at the biggest studio in Sweden, so it was perfect. Roger Glover and I recorded Ian’s vocals; it was stunning how professional these guys were. Don came over and nailed his part in one take, too.
“Then Roger said, ‘We’re missing one chord on the guitar.’ I said, ‘Can we get Steve Morse over from the hotel?’ Roger said, ‘No – Bob says you’re a great guitarist, so you can do it.’ I was like, ‘Did Roger Glover just ask me to play on a Deep Purple album?’
“I grabbed my Kemper and my VGS guitar. I knew that Steve used ENGL amps, so I found a profile that matched the recording perfectly. Roger was impressed! He showed me the missing chord – a missing D on a breakdown – and I recorded three takes: two mono for left-right panning and a stereo one with a small chorus.
“It hit me that I’d just had my Spinal Tap moment. I’d been playing guitar full-time for 25 years at that point, and when I got to play on a Deep Purple album it was just one chord!”
Read more where it came from, although there’s nothing else Purple related.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
A one chord wonder. First time I think I have heard of that, in that sense. No credit though was there? It wasn’t a dream was it? Or a nightmare, depending on how one could look at such a thing. Cheers.
August 28th, 2025 at 00:08I always heard there was something wrong with that one D chord!
🤣
Do I now have to collect everything from Tommy Denander? 🙄
August 28th, 2025 at 00:18Tommy not doing Steve’s D, but Ritchie’s Støne Cøld with a special guest from Hackensack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsJWcpw7O7A
August 28th, 2025 at 00:42Oh mamma mia!! Aiutooo!! 😱
August 28th, 2025 at 06:11#3 Uwe:
August 28th, 2025 at 10:43Thanks for the video, I love the class with which Joe always sings Stone Cold, it’s a song tailored for him!
So now we know: Steve Morse had a ghost guitarist on Purple albums, that Florida six-string Milli Vanilli!
By rights, he should now return all those guitar awards he unjustly received. 😎
And I thought Jon Lord not playing the keyboards on Black & White but leaving it to Roger was bad …
August 28th, 2025 at 13:00@6 Wasn’t that on Fire, Ice and Dynamite?
August 28th, 2025 at 19:45It was there too, Max, but the original sin was on Black & White! Roger had demoed the keyboards via sampling of Jon’s original sounds and played it to him as a potential inspiration for Jon to develop, but Jon just shrugged and said it’s good, leave it as is, helpfully adding that he would like the credits on THOBL to then read “Jon Lord’s keyboards played by Roger Glover”! 🤣
August 28th, 2025 at 20:09True, so the story goes. Havn’t read the booklet of HOTBL for some weeks now – always a bad mistake – and almost forgot about that ….thanks for reminding me. Great line by Jon.
August 29th, 2025 at 06:10#2 Uwe, I wonder how much stuff that you already have that you don’t know about? Care to Guess?
August 29th, 2025 at 18:54I don’t know all of my many thousand CDs by heart Jerry, but I know a lot and have listened to each one in my collection at least once, more often if they are Purple related. I have a pretty good music memory, no doubt schooled by listening to so much music in my life.
August 29th, 2025 at 23:47#3 Uwe:
September 1st, 2025 at 06:59Thanks for the video.
Keeping the Purple connection going, the drummer is Pontus Engborg who played for Glenn Hughes on the Classic Deep Purple Live tour Australia 2017.
Yeah, I remember Pontus well from the Hughes trio tour with Doug Aldrich (one of the best line-ups Glenn played in ever)
https://www.roppongirocks.com/archives/4341
and really liked him as a drummer, but he must have had some falling-out with Glenn because he was unceremoniously dumped during the following Burn tour and Ash Sheehan replaced him pretty much from one moment to the next.
https://youtu.be/TZskRElUaPs
If I’m honest, I preferred Pontus’ drumming to Ash’s more Bonzo style.
Meanwhile, Joe’s vocals have held up remarkably well and I really dig his bald look, it makes him a much better frontman.
https://youtu.be/ltg0PhYQV6A
September 1st, 2025 at 14:47