Posted by Nick on Thursday, December 4th, 2025,
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So Ritchie had an early on “Road to Damascus” experience about string gauges, string pull and how they affect the tuning stability of his (then probably) Gibson ES-335. Note: You can bend a string and you can put skimpy banjo strings (made for an instrument with a much longer neck and therefore higher string pull, a banjo scale neck is about 1,5 inches longer than a standard Gibson guitar one) on a guitar, but you cannot bend the laws of physics. 🤣
His Nashville role models using banjo strings likely played Fender Telecasters which have a longer scale than Gibsons so the tuning issue wasn’t as pronounced.
Jon must have been a joy for the lead guitarist to play with. He had great ears and also a very good sense on how to compliment their playing, when to stay on the side, when to fill the background and when to come in to complete something.
From the first days I saw the magic of the two of them, the competition,” The Wars guitar and keyboard for the fans’ affection… both in the studio of song ” The Painter “or the concert performance of “Wring That Neck”…..to the last their communications on stage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqQ6ntrUEQI
Yes, Wring That Neck was my earliest experience with the ‘Gorgan‘ and the improvisational dueling as well. It was the first thing that attracted me about DP.
I really do enjoy these shorts, very cool stories from Ritchie!
@4 When it comes to TBRO -Ritchie rehashed several riffs from other songs quite shamelessly, which is why I never really took to a song like Anya – (Stranded) it’s just too obvious. Same with The Battle Rages On which is a riff from Firedance on Rainbow’s “Bent Out of Shape” and One Mans Meat – which is more or less L.A. Connection, all of this on the same album, someone (Roger) should have put their foot down. 🙂 He also nicked these riffs from the weakest Rainbow album ever IMHO. We all have our favorite periods of DP and their offshoots, and for me, the last Rainbow album feels like a contractual obligation 🙂
MK44… absolutley true what you say about the riffs on TBRO – even for Ritchie’s standards that is a bit much of recycling his old ideas. He always did. Burn, Man on the Siver Mountain, All Night Long …same riff, different tempo more or less…and many more examples.
But I disagree regarding Bent Out of Shape. A huge improvement compared to DTC and Straight Between the Eyes me thinks
I thought the two lead singles off BOOS, namely SOD and CLYG, sounded incredibly calculated and over-embellished. Not terrible songs per se, but labored. When Ritchie gets too melodic, he ends up sounding twee and a little stiff, a symptom Blackmore’s Night has also suffered from.
The gestation of TBRO had so many twists and turns – three different singers alone – that it can have hardly let the creative process unscathed. And by that time Ritchie’s ideas for rock were waning as his next and last rock album (SIUA with Rainbow) showed. Most people will agree that TBRO was not In Rock, Machine Head or Burn and that SIUA was no Rising or Down To Earth.
I understand your point about the TBRO album and the songs. But there is a big difference when Joe Lynn Turner, David Rosenthal and Chuck Burgi on one side play and create a musical story and Ian Gillan, Jon Lord and Ian Paice on the other + Ritchie and Roger . Guys (from Britain)together have gone from jewelry to gold…pack nicely..we love them
Ritchie was obviously not inspired for RnR and satisfied enough with the return of his old friend singer … but that TBRO album is getting better and better as time goes by, it’s a beautiful oldie .. two classics song … title track and” Anya” , 2 very good songs “Time to Kill” (“Hammer To Fall” by Queen ?, phenomenal ending solo by Jon Lord) and “Ramshackle Man” (Green Onions ? )
@ 6 – show me a guitarist with a plethora of riffs and songs from their past that doesn’t do that. By the time of Purpendicular, we could hear the odd riff etc from Steve Morse that had been before, if you know what I mean. It happens all the time after years of creating music and not just with guitarists either. Cheers.
You’re right about Ritchie’s riffs in TBRO, but you have to put it in context: Ritchie didn’t care about Purple anymore on that album with Gillan’s return, he wanted to leave and made the album and the start of the tour only out of contractual obligations until he tore up his passport in the faces of journalists before the Japanese tour saying “the Japanese tour is cancelled!”
It must also be said that Ritchie’s recycled riffs in TBRO are gold, you don’t hear riffs like that anymore these days!
The other point to consider regarding ‘recycled’ riffs is that it is often deemed a good thing to bring that idea into a better arrangement, a better song. So there could be no doubt as to why some riffs from so many guitarists and keyboard players are ‘recycled’ as such. And bass guitarists don’t get off the hook either, they are well aware of that scenario. I don’t mind that if it turns out for the better, although it does depend on how often we hear similar riffs etc. Cheers.
May I reveal that I consider the “chorus” – if you want to call it that – of Time To Kill as one of the all time lows of Big Ian’s vocal melody songwriting, that song is as irrelevant as the similarly musically destitute Long Gone of GILLAN, just terrible. In an audition, I would have sent a singer coming up with such a skeleton “melody” hardly removed from the underlying riff home with the comment to my band mates “this guy is obviously not creative and cannot develop a melody”. Status Quo could have done better on one of their B-sides.
It’s a case where Ozzy might have come up with something original but IG could obviously not be arsed because he found the backing track so uninspiring. (It was not only Ritchie who was subpar on TBRO!) Ritchie was reputedly a great friend of JLT’s original melody to the chorus riff, I really would have liked to have heard that instead.
Ritchie always purloined other people’s ideas to elegantly make them his own and that’s ok, but he was better at it as a young than as a middle-aged man.
The older TBRO gets, the more difficult a listen I find it – worst DP album ever, by a stretch. Solitaire and Anya cannot save it from ignominy.
Let’s not forget vocalists either. They only have a certain amount of melodies, phrases and their own idiosyncratic way of singing. Everyone is human after all and robots they are not. Well, at least last time we looked they weren’t. And unfortunately that is already well on the way. Can we imagine how many recycled musical pieces are going to be used over and over and over. Next thing we will have android figures of renowned artists. They may not have emotions and feeling, but everything else is going to be emulated. They will even look the same. Better not go any further with that. Cheers.
Coronarias Redig / Catch the Rainbow (both inspired by Hendrix’ Little Wing) is another example for early riff-cycling, also Do You Close Your Eyes / Power. Stranger in Us All had those vocal melodies which feel familiar (Silence/ You Fool No One, Cold Hearted Woman/Sail Away).
As we all know Richtie never was too shy to recycle other people’s riffs as well -> Spotlight Kid (- Gallagher’s Moonchild), Mandrake Root (- Hendrix’ Foxy Lady),
Have to say I love TBRO. Title track and Anya are in my view both standout and the wider record is more than decent. It is actually one of the DP records I listen to the most. Though I could also say that about Abandon, Machine Head and =1. Though isn’t that the great thing about Purple, I have followed them for decades, seen them all across Europe, yet none of us can agree on what we like record to record, or track to track! Though I’m not sure big Ian can either 🤷🏼♂️
The recycling doesnt bother me too much, as long as there isn’t just a plain cover with new lyrics. I’ve never thought of the similarities between Anya and Stranded, but I guess they are alike in a way. But Anya is in that case a huge improvement of Stranded, so what’s to be upset about?
I guess I subscribe to the Frank Zappa philosophy that all of an artist’s output is just one long composition, with themes weaving in and out and coming back every now and then.
Of course Uwe needs to be corrected here. TBRO is by no means the worst DP album. It’s got a lot going for it and great songs to enjoy.
Talking of it the list my beloved son – let’s give him a hand for contributing here even on his birthday! – put on display here: Twist in the Tale isn’t that different from Dead or Alive. But aren”t the two of them kick arse rock’n’roll tracks? And Ritchie’s list of revisited ideas goes on of course. Long may the master recycle!
didn’t Ritchie ‘borrow’ that Mandrake Root riff off another guitarist he knew, in the English scene at the time? Or was it another riff. Anyway, they all borrowed at times, Hendrix included. Regarding TBRO, yes it has a few gems on it, firing on all cylinders indeed. The title track is a killer Deep Purple song, they haven’t done anything that profound since, that has all those classic DP elements within. Anya is still being performed by them as we know to this day, that says a lot. I never thought about the Stranded (a poor cliched song that is) and Anya similarity before. We all hear things a little different at times. Good comment about Frank Zappa’s take on it all. Cheers.
You can’t be serious, island drummer. The riff of Stranded and the middle riff of Anya are exactly the same, when I first heard Anya I laughed out loud when that bridge riff appeared, but I didn‘t mind Ritchie stealing from himself. Who‘d be better placed?
Tillythemax: Herzlichen Glückwunsch – mit 17 hat man noch Träume!
TBRO – is there really a worse DP album? If so which one? Let‘s see:
– Not the three Mk I albums, they were Sturm & Drang, the band was evolving from a 60s to a 70s act. All three showed development.
– I guess we can all agree that all 1970-73 albums by Mk II were better than TBRO. Come on.
– Moving on to Mk III: Burn is certainly a more vibrant album than TBRO and Stormbringer was at least versatile even though Ritchie had by then largely checked out (but other songwriters were coming to the fore in his place). I hear more ideas on Strombringer than on TBRO.
– CTTB? Tommy will have been dead for half a century next year, yet some people still cannot forgive him that he wasn‘t Blackers. Yet CTTB has aged well, sounds fresh and enthusiastic – big dif to TBRO where I hear no enthusiasm at all just hard labor and knuckling down to it.
– The two Mk II first reunion albums, PS and THOBL, I think they‘re both way better than TBRO, mainly because the first one sounds at least hesitantly enthusiastic (are we still popular?) and the second one sees Purple branching out (like they did on Fireball).
– Ah, Slaves & Masters, now that one must certainly be worse than TBRO, right? Wrong. What I hear on S&M is a a tranquil Ritchie who seems to be content, very melodic and happy to be a in a band venturing into AOR. S&M is a failed experiment, yes, but you can hear that care went into it. And it doesn‘t sound miserable.
– All Morse era albums surpass TBRO because even a Steve Morse at his most dejected musters more enthusiasm, creativity and last but not least an open mind for the music he plays than an irritated/frustrated Ritchie.
– =1 brims with virility and enthusiasm, no comparison to TBRO.
So now we‘ve gone through all DP studio albums and haven’t found a single one as desolate as TBRO. Mind you, it’s still a professionally executed album and contains some good ideas – it‘s DP after all who can regularly even if the mood among band members is strained to the max produce a semblance of the goods they are famous for. But overall TBRO suffers from a miserable cloud hovering over it and a fatalist commitment of the players in the face of overbearing odds that stifles all the life in it. Of course we were at the time all happy that it came out because it heralded Big I‘s second return, but as a musical document it is the Purple album that puts me in the most morose mood.
TBRO has sympathies among the fervent because it was Ritchie‘s last album with Purple and for a short while offered hope that Mk II might continue, but if you looked and listened closer at/to the album then all was revealed. And it wasn‘t a pretty sight or aural experience.
Some more details:
“In view of the extraordinary success of the fledgeling band, it was not surprising that word soon got back to Parkinson, and just as unsurprisingly he was not happy with regard to (what he saw as) the rip off of “Mandrake Root,” and turned up on Simper’s doorstep to complain. By this time, Simper had left the band, Parkinson threatened court action, he said, and Simper agreed with some reluctance to testify for him, but “…I never saw Bill again. Apparently they paid him off with about £600.”
In December 2008, Bill Parkinson confirmed the above facts in a telephone interview with this website, as far as he recalled he’d settled for £500…
“Parkinson said too that when at last he’d run into Blackmore some time later, his fellow axeman had complimented him on “Lost Soul” and asked “Have you got any more like that?” Needless to say, he was not amused.” https://www.songfacts.com/facts/deep-purple/mandrake-root
Yes ….and song Solitaire is a good song. (How did I forget it!?)
After The House of Blue Light (an album that didn’t give a great song classic , no classic for the first time in the history of Mk II.On the The Battle Rages On tour with Ritchie and Satraini in 1993, DP are no songs play from the THOBL album on the setlist . I think in the Steve Morse era as well…) and Deep Rainbow album Slaves and Masters which caused many DP fans mental pain .TBRO .. DP is back with 2 classics songs The Battle Rages On and Anya after 9 years after Perfect Strangers, Knocking at Your Back Door, A Gipsy’s Kiss, Wasted Sunsets.TBRO not at the level of DP’s best (first 12-15 ) albums, but it’s better than some that came before it and will follow, ……my opinion of course.
THOBL is indeed not a very immediately accessible album, Ivica, it takes some listening to get into, but it is varied and interesting. Strangeways is for me one of the strongest Mk II cuts penned outside of the 70s and the album it stems from is eclectic and a much less “playing it safe“ affair than Perfect Strangers. To me, Mk II recorded one very good (THOBL), one average (PS) and one disappointing album (TBRO) during their second and third go at it from 1984 to 1993.
But I agree, even an album like TBRO is better than no Purple album at all. And the album is also historically interesting as it documents the band falling apart/not gelling anymore. It‘s just an unpleasant/unhappy listen to me. But isn‘t that a nice case of dialectical materialism that in my school of thought Mk II are both responsible for the best (Machine Head) and the worst DP album?! Marx would rejoice.
Mandrake Root … now that is a song I never liked, very lumbering and 60s archaic with that endless two chord improvisational part, a bit Stoner Rock even. I hear Iron Butterfly looming around the corner … I was glad when it was retired from the set. And while IG was of course the better equipped singer for DP’s future, I think I preferred Rod Evans’ version (yes, Karin, I cannot help it!) though that is not saying much.
Abandoned is the least of the DP records since the re-formed in the ‘80s. I bought it, listened and listened and almost never play it. The playing is right up there but the songs lack hooks. TBRO has some top flight DP tunes.
Not that hooky chorus parts were ever high on DP‘s inventory list. Rudolf Schenker summed it up nicely when he heard DP in a blind test, namely Nobody’s Home and observed: “Oh, that’s of course Deep Purple, great band, strong verse, but then it is like with a lot of their songs, you wait for a chorus to take things to the top and they just don’t play it! Still, great band and great guys.”
And ze Scörps, for all their failings, knew a lot about strong hooks …
I prefer to not hear a proverbial chorus. A tired cliche and that is an understatement. Same as the proverbial guitar solo, leave them out occasionally, I have stated this before a few times. There is nothing worse than repetitive cliche’s, in anything. The so called ‘power ballad’ has greatly helped in doing this to my ears. I cannot help it, that same old same old, oh here we go again………..Change the record…………..The needle is stuck in the same groove…….
@23 Very nice summing them up Uwe – if not 100% agreeable.
S&M holds the top – or should that be bottom -spot, followed by the first 3 records that would have made one great album. And Now What is much worse than TBRO too for my liking. Infinite too I’m afraid.
I haven’t hear that Stranded song since the mid 80’s, never like it then and I didn’t hardly play it at all. There were a few really poor songs on the second and third JLT Rainbow albums. Thankfully there are a few songs that stand out and BOOS has those two superb instrumentals on it. I would need to put myself through that Stranded song again to listen to that riff, however I will take people’s word for it being similar or recycled, at least some of it perhaps. Anya is a vast improvement and a much better home for that music from a forgotten song best left where it is. Cheers.
Mandrake Root was the song that got me hooked on Mk I, after Hush and Help which I already liked before. After I told dad what a great song I thought Mandrake Root was he brought news to me that there were live versions with Gillan (of course my DP admiration had started with Mk II) and played one for me (that is the first 3-4 minutes of it) in our kitchen. Loved it right away and the Stockholm ’70 and Long Beach ’71 recordings quickly became essential to 13/14 yo me. Even to this day I think I listened more often to those than to MiJ.
Mandrake Root live – there are some differnt versions that have one thing in common: those are of course classics, old son.
But let’s give Uwe a break here. He just misses the Francis Rossi treatment. Though the Italian stallion sure could have made a fine boogie out of it. You can sing it in your head to the rolling rhythm of Whatever You Want to get an idea. Ok, stretching that to some 20+ minutes might take things a bit far but than again …
Bits and pieces of Mandrake Root survived in the set as they had crept into Space Trucking to great effect and I always thought it was a highlight of their live oeuvre. I was a bit disappointed when I found out about the origin of the riff (this is not just “inspiration”) but it was only some time ago and I had decades to get used to the fact that my heros stole their way around through the history of music from Susato to It’s a Beautiful Day and back.
@ 34- that is the one Uwe, something ‘different’, so to speak. There have been many grand songs with the proverbial verse, maybe a second or third verse then a chorus or even a middle eight before a chorus, or whatever arrangement. The predictable nature of humans leads us down a familiar path, always. The old ‘monkey see, monkey do’ scenario. It is what it is. The proverbial ‘we have to have a guitar solo’ is another one. We don’t have to have one really, and I enjoy it when there isn’t one, especially when they are usually placed in a song. Ending a song with a guitar solo is good, always enjoy that, well most of the time. Even starting a song with one, why not. Let’s break it up a little. Cheers.
@40 But Uwe you’re still confusing things here although I did put them right before now, didn’t I.
Repeat after me:
TBRO is NOT the worst Blackmore era album. By far not.
When it comes to Now What?! …Now what should I say? I know a lot of folks celebrated that one big time but I didn’t. There are some nice songs on it. But it starts with what I would call the worst DP song ever … Simple song … and that really pissed me off big time first time I heard it. In fact I was so shocked I would not put that album on another couple of days, afraid it might contnue like that. Well it did not but there was very little reason to be over enthusiastic. Prog (sigh, it crept in due to Don I guess) with silly b-horror-movie sound fanfares, a pointless redo of It’ll be me, some lengthy tracks that are hard to tell apart … and some decent stuff. It’s a disappointment.
“But let’s give Uwe a break here. He just misses the Francis Rossi treatment. Though the Italian stallion sure could have made a fine boogie out of it. You can sing it in your head to the rolling rhythm of Whatever You Want to get an idea. Ok, stretching that to some 20+ minutes might take things a bit far but than again …”
Ah, how you know me, Max! But would my hero Alan Lancaster
@ 43 – Or you could go back to that 1966 Blues Magoos song Uwe, that the early ‘Quo’ covered the following year. The similar riff from the early 60’s where Ritchie apparently heard it no doubt. The ‘walking’ bass line that many used, possibly from the 1950’s even. Cheers.
Max I agree regarding TBRO album, it has four or five wonderful DP songs on it and that is enough for me, classic DP. However in regard to Uwe’s never changing mind, well we know how stubborn he can be and only Edith, his long suffering wife at home would know the way to truly disarm him. We must persevere though and NEVER give in to his ways and even then, he will no doubt still live to fight another day. The battle rages on…….Cheers.
#38 Max:
I agree with everything, mandrake root was FUNDAMENTAL for the development of the mkII and may all the versions that the guys played different every night be blessed!
#32 MacGregor:
Even omitting musical clichés has become a cliché itself, so I think anything is fine, as long as it is objectively beautiful and effective.
#35 MacGregor:
BOOS is for me the best Rainbow album post-Dio, there are more interesting singles than the other albums (including Stranded & Fire dance) and above all the production and the sound are sensational
#29 Bigbass:
If the songs on Abandon lack grit, everything Purple have done since Bananas is total lethargy then!!
Maybe you need to listen to Abandon again many times after all these years…
#31 Uwe:
It’s curious that for me Abandon is actually the album that contains the most choruses, so in addition to being the hardest rock of the Morse era, the most technical, the heaviest, it is also at the same time the most melodic, the most commercial, the one with the most appeal of the Morse era.
I think Now What?! to be a brilliant Alterwerk of profound musicality, Max! It’s not quite in my basket of MH, Burn & CTTB as my alltime favorites from the Purple cannon, but very close. I might even prefer it to Purpendicular, but just ever so barely.
A Simple Song as the intro number was nothing short of stunning! Moody, somber, sparse, melodic (Jeff Beck reminiscent) + tender at first, but with a surprising musical twist in the second and third parts plus some HUGE organ playing from Don, too bad they never did it live.
When the Tasmanian (rightfully) bemoans that too many songs stick to the verse-bridge-chorus-solo script, then A Simple Song breaks the mold right there before him. (Tasmanian, say something supportive for chrissakes!)
How on earth can an intelligent and balanced man like you, lieber Max, who spawned such adorable offspring from his mighty loins not prefer this album over the neurotic mess that is TBRO?!
Now What?! grew on me over the years. There might be two or three worse albums in the Morse-era. I maybe agree with dad on S&M as the worst overall DP-album; for the Morse-era that title might go to Whoosh
I’m a card-carrying Ezrinista ever since I heard Auntie Alice’s School’s Out.
TBRO should have been called ‘(Nasty) Piece of Work’, I don’t hear anyone battling on it, just five guys doggedly doing what they have always done – sans the magic or mutual appreciation.
Bodyline isn’t a strike of genius either, that’s true. But it at least grooves along nicely whereas Simple Song is dumb and annoying to these ears.
When it comes to Bowie – hey Uwe, that might explain it all! I always stuck with IP here who said something to the effect of ‘I didn’t find the time to listen to Bowie, I was too busy…’ I’ve been much too busy too. But I really adore All the Young Dudes – as long as it is sung by Ian Hunter or Bruce Dickinson or whoever…
The remixed version of Rapture of the Deep … a dream really and miles ahead of Now What!? as far as I’m concerned. And not one song on Now What!?.has the wit and life of those on Purpendicular or Bananas. It’s just lame.
What’s wrong with you?! 😵💫 Ostfront would have beckoned in the dark old times for lesser crimes. 😂
I’m shaken, not stirred.
And I thought that the – due to COVID and Steve’s subsequent departure live sadly underpromoted – Whoosh! album was a respectable way for Steve to go out (TTC is for me a novelty release). I think it stronger than Infinite.
@ 48 – Uwe, I have stated years ago that Now What starts superbly with A Simple Song. Ian Gillan’s vocal delivery is sublime and melancholic too (I hope I am not sounding too gushy here, although Karin will be impressed, hopefully). It does the job big time as an opening song should do and there isn’t a ‘proverbial’ guitar solo either. Hey, hey, how’s that for a double winner. Cheers.
Bloody line, besides having the same drum attack as Any fool, for me is weak both in terms of singing and drums, melodic line without appeal and very weak guitar riff
Yes, Bodyline absolutely grooves (and I had to laugh when I listened to Infinite the first time an instantly recognized that intro of Get Me Outta Here). There’s better grooving songs of Purple though and they don’t have that kind of fundamentaly annoying chorus to them. Lame lyrics of IG as well, on an album which otoh provides some great lyrical pieces of the man.
Silhouette / Pirouette // my-oh-my / so devine ? Cringe, as us youngsters say.
Oh yes, and of course her legs go on forever. Thats possibly the one time where Ol’ Coverdale heard a new DP song and thought “Damn, why didn’t I think of this!”
“her legs went on forever” I know that lyric from a Jethro Tull album, Crest of a Knave 1987, the song Budapest. These ageing men, I don’t know what is wrong with them. Cheers.
@59 …whereas the legs that go on forever in another Ian’s Budapest are not cringe worthy at all… a great track – and never have you been closer to there…
Yeah, Bodyline is more of a c-side. As are Apres vouz, Vincent Price and some others. Woosh on the other hand I like a lot, with the exception of Man Alive.
Maybe it is men with the name Ian that have the ‘problem’ Uwe. I don’t see anyone here complaining though……..It was a hot night in Budapest……………Max, that lyric has always stuck with me from that Tull song, along with the rest of the story of course, he he he. Cheers.
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Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
So Ritchie had an early on “Road to Damascus” experience about string gauges, string pull and how they affect the tuning stability of his (then probably) Gibson ES-335. Note: You can bend a string and you can put skimpy banjo strings (made for an instrument with a much longer neck and therefore higher string pull, a banjo scale neck is about 1,5 inches longer than a standard Gibson guitar one) on a guitar, but you cannot bend the laws of physics. 🤣
His Nashville role models using banjo strings likely played Fender Telecasters which have a longer scale than Gibsons so the tuning issue wasn’t as pronounced.
December 5th, 2025 at 00:49Jon Lord could listen to any tune and play it back instantly, note for note. Absolutely astonishing music recall.
December 5th, 2025 at 02:33Jon must have been a joy for the lead guitarist to play with. He had great ears and also a very good sense on how to compliment their playing, when to stay on the side, when to fill the background and when to come in to complete something.
One example, listen how he follows-up Steve’s fast lick at around 1:50 here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr4I4ZFqx8g
I think (one cannot know) this was not rehearsed, it is a great interplay if it was spontaneous
December 5th, 2025 at 07:54From the first days I saw the magic of the two of them, the competition,” The Wars guitar and keyboard for the fans’ affection… both in the studio of song ” The Painter “or the concert performance of “Wring That Neck”…..to the last their communications on stage
December 5th, 2025 at 12:04https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqQ6ntrUEQI
Yes, Wring That Neck was my earliest experience with the ‘Gorgan‘ and the improvisational dueling as well. It was the first thing that attracted me about DP.
December 5th, 2025 at 12:38I really do enjoy these shorts, very cool stories from Ritchie!
@4 When it comes to TBRO -Ritchie rehashed several riffs from other songs quite shamelessly, which is why I never really took to a song like Anya – (Stranded) it’s just too obvious. Same with The Battle Rages On which is a riff from Firedance on Rainbow’s “Bent Out of Shape” and One Mans Meat – which is more or less L.A. Connection, all of this on the same album, someone (Roger) should have put their foot down. 🙂 He also nicked these riffs from the weakest Rainbow album ever IMHO. We all have our favorite periods of DP and their offshoots, and for me, the last Rainbow album feels like a contractual obligation 🙂
December 6th, 2025 at 11:04Blackmore and Lord are the most powerful Guitar/Keyboard combo of all time!! They made the best and most exciting music I’ve ever heard!!!!
December 6th, 2025 at 11:37MK44… absolutley true what you say about the riffs on TBRO – even for Ritchie’s standards that is a bit much of recycling his old ideas. He always did. Burn, Man on the Siver Mountain, All Night Long …same riff, different tempo more or less…and many more examples.
But I disagree regarding Bent Out of Shape. A huge improvement compared to DTC and Straight Between the Eyes me thinks
December 6th, 2025 at 14:19I thought the two lead singles off BOOS, namely SOD and CLYG, sounded incredibly calculated and over-embellished. Not terrible songs per se, but labored. When Ritchie gets too melodic, he ends up sounding twee and a little stiff, a symptom Blackmore’s Night has also suffered from.
The gestation of TBRO had so many twists and turns – three different singers alone – that it can have hardly let the creative process unscathed. And by that time Ritchie’s ideas for rock were waning as his next and last rock album (SIUA with Rainbow) showed. Most people will agree that TBRO was not In Rock, Machine Head or Burn and that SIUA was no Rising or Down To Earth.
December 6th, 2025 at 15:36@6
I understand your point about the TBRO album and the songs. But there is a big difference when Joe Lynn Turner, David Rosenthal and Chuck Burgi on one side play and create a musical story and Ian Gillan, Jon Lord and Ian Paice on the other + Ritchie and Roger . Guys (from Britain)together have gone from jewelry to gold…pack nicely..we love them
December 6th, 2025 at 18:13Ritchie was obviously not inspired for RnR and satisfied enough with the return of his old friend singer … but that TBRO album is getting better and better as time goes by, it’s a beautiful oldie .. two classics song … title track and” Anya” , 2 very good songs “Time to Kill” (“Hammer To Fall” by Queen ?, phenomenal ending solo by Jon Lord) and “Ramshackle Man” (Green Onions ? )
@ 6 – show me a guitarist with a plethora of riffs and songs from their past that doesn’t do that. By the time of Purpendicular, we could hear the odd riff etc from Steve Morse that had been before, if you know what I mean. It happens all the time after years of creating music and not just with guitarists either. Cheers.
December 6th, 2025 at 20:49#6 MK44:
You’re right about Ritchie’s riffs in TBRO, but you have to put it in context: Ritchie didn’t care about Purple anymore on that album with Gillan’s return, he wanted to leave and made the album and the start of the tour only out of contractual obligations until he tore up his passport in the faces of journalists before the Japanese tour saying “the Japanese tour is cancelled!”
It must also be said that Ritchie’s recycled riffs in TBRO are gold, you don’t hear riffs like that anymore these days!
December 6th, 2025 at 20:49The other point to consider regarding ‘recycled’ riffs is that it is often deemed a good thing to bring that idea into a better arrangement, a better song. So there could be no doubt as to why some riffs from so many guitarists and keyboard players are ‘recycled’ as such. And bass guitarists don’t get off the hook either, they are well aware of that scenario. I don’t mind that if it turns out for the better, although it does depend on how often we hear similar riffs etc. Cheers.
December 6th, 2025 at 22:04May I reveal that I consider the “chorus” – if you want to call it that – of Time To Kill as one of the all time lows of Big Ian’s vocal melody songwriting, that song is as irrelevant as the similarly musically destitute Long Gone of GILLAN, just terrible. In an audition, I would have sent a singer coming up with such a skeleton “melody” hardly removed from the underlying riff home with the comment to my band mates “this guy is obviously not creative and cannot develop a melody”. Status Quo could have done better on one of their B-sides.
It’s a case where Ozzy might have come up with something original but IG could obviously not be arsed because he found the backing track so uninspiring. (It was not only Ritchie who was subpar on TBRO!) Ritchie was reputedly a great friend of JLT’s original melody to the chorus riff, I really would have liked to have heard that instead.
Ritchie always purloined other people’s ideas to elegantly make them his own and that’s ok, but he was better at it as a young than as a middle-aged man.
The older TBRO gets, the more difficult a listen I find it – worst DP album ever, by a stretch. Solitaire and Anya cannot save it from ignominy.
December 7th, 2025 at 00:50Let’s not forget vocalists either. They only have a certain amount of melodies, phrases and their own idiosyncratic way of singing. Everyone is human after all and robots they are not. Well, at least last time we looked they weren’t. And unfortunately that is already well on the way. Can we imagine how many recycled musical pieces are going to be used over and over and over. Next thing we will have android figures of renowned artists. They may not have emotions and feeling, but everything else is going to be emulated. They will even look the same. Better not go any further with that. Cheers.
December 7th, 2025 at 01:08Coronarias Redig / Catch the Rainbow (both inspired by Hendrix’ Little Wing) is another example for early riff-cycling, also Do You Close Your Eyes / Power. Stranger in Us All had those vocal melodies which feel familiar (Silence/ You Fool No One, Cold Hearted Woman/Sail Away).
As we all know Richtie never was too shy to recycle other people’s riffs as well -> Spotlight Kid (- Gallagher’s Moonchild), Mandrake Root (- Hendrix’ Foxy Lady),
December 7th, 2025 at 06:52Have to say I love TBRO. Title track and Anya are in my view both standout and the wider record is more than decent. It is actually one of the DP records I listen to the most. Though I could also say that about Abandon, Machine Head and =1. Though isn’t that the great thing about Purple, I have followed them for decades, seen them all across Europe, yet none of us can agree on what we like record to record, or track to track! Though I’m not sure big Ian can either 🤷🏼♂️
December 7th, 2025 at 09:09The recycling doesnt bother me too much, as long as there isn’t just a plain cover with new lyrics. I’ve never thought of the similarities between Anya and Stranded, but I guess they are alike in a way. But Anya is in that case a huge improvement of Stranded, so what’s to be upset about?
I guess I subscribe to the Frank Zappa philosophy that all of an artist’s output is just one long composition, with themes weaving in and out and coming back every now and then.
December 7th, 2025 at 11:02Of course Uwe needs to be corrected here. TBRO is by no means the worst DP album. It’s got a lot going for it and great songs to enjoy.
Talking of it the list my beloved son – let’s give him a hand for contributing here even on his birthday! – put on display here: Twist in the Tale isn’t that different from Dead or Alive. But aren”t the two of them kick arse rock’n’roll tracks? And Ritchie’s list of revisited ideas goes on of course. Long may the master recycle!
December 7th, 2025 at 18:51https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NY06fHNUlBU
Fantastic!
Peace,
December 7th, 2025 at 19:37Ted
didn’t Ritchie ‘borrow’ that Mandrake Root riff off another guitarist he knew, in the English scene at the time? Or was it another riff. Anyway, they all borrowed at times, Hendrix included. Regarding TBRO, yes it has a few gems on it, firing on all cylinders indeed. The title track is a killer Deep Purple song, they haven’t done anything that profound since, that has all those classic DP elements within. Anya is still being performed by them as we know to this day, that says a lot. I never thought about the Stranded (a poor cliched song that is) and Anya similarity before. We all hear things a little different at times. Good comment about Frank Zappa’s take on it all. Cheers.
December 7th, 2025 at 21:20Bill Parkinson and that Mandrake Root riff.
https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/articles/features/ritchie_blackmore_the_great_thief-78760
December 8th, 2025 at 00:42You can’t be serious, island drummer. The riff of Stranded and the middle riff of Anya are exactly the same, when I first heard Anya I laughed out loud when that bridge riff appeared, but I didn‘t mind Ritchie stealing from himself. Who‘d be better placed?
Tillythemax: Herzlichen Glückwunsch – mit 17 hat man noch Träume!
https://youtu.be/yYsOucFRrDI
TBRO – is there really a worse DP album? If so which one? Let‘s see:
– Not the three Mk I albums, they were Sturm & Drang, the band was evolving from a 60s to a 70s act. All three showed development.
– I guess we can all agree that all 1970-73 albums by Mk II were better than TBRO. Come on.
– Moving on to Mk III: Burn is certainly a more vibrant album than TBRO and Stormbringer was at least versatile even though Ritchie had by then largely checked out (but other songwriters were coming to the fore in his place). I hear more ideas on Strombringer than on TBRO.
– CTTB? Tommy will have been dead for half a century next year, yet some people still cannot forgive him that he wasn‘t Blackers. Yet CTTB has aged well, sounds fresh and enthusiastic – big dif to TBRO where I hear no enthusiasm at all just hard labor and knuckling down to it.
– The two Mk II first reunion albums, PS and THOBL, I think they‘re both way better than TBRO, mainly because the first one sounds at least hesitantly enthusiastic (are we still popular?) and the second one sees Purple branching out (like they did on Fireball).
– Ah, Slaves & Masters, now that one must certainly be worse than TBRO, right? Wrong. What I hear on S&M is a a tranquil Ritchie who seems to be content, very melodic and happy to be a in a band venturing into AOR. S&M is a failed experiment, yes, but you can hear that care went into it. And it doesn‘t sound miserable.
– All Morse era albums surpass TBRO because even a Steve Morse at his most dejected musters more enthusiasm, creativity and last but not least an open mind for the music he plays than an irritated/frustrated Ritchie.
– =1 brims with virility and enthusiasm, no comparison to TBRO.
So now we‘ve gone through all DP studio albums and haven’t found a single one as desolate as TBRO. Mind you, it’s still a professionally executed album and contains some good ideas – it‘s DP after all who can regularly even if the mood among band members is strained to the max produce a semblance of the goods they are famous for. But overall TBRO suffers from a miserable cloud hovering over it and a fatalist commitment of the players in the face of overbearing odds that stifles all the life in it. Of course we were at the time all happy that it came out because it heralded Big I‘s second return, but as a musical document it is the Purple album that puts me in the most morose mood.
TBRO has sympathies among the fervent because it was Ritchie‘s last album with Purple and for a short while offered hope that Mk II might continue, but if you looked and listened closer at/to the album then all was revealed. And it wasn‘t a pretty sight or aural experience.
December 8th, 2025 at 02:55@21 – agree that TBRO isn’t that bad. The title track blows away anything off HOBL.
This guy Bill Parkinson says he received a settlement from DPs management over the plagiarism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syM7ogDgiwU
Some more details:
“In view of the extraordinary success of the fledgeling band, it was not surprising that word soon got back to Parkinson, and just as unsurprisingly he was not happy with regard to (what he saw as) the rip off of “Mandrake Root,” and turned up on Simper’s doorstep to complain. By this time, Simper had left the band, Parkinson threatened court action, he said, and Simper agreed with some reluctance to testify for him, but “…I never saw Bill again. Apparently they paid him off with about £600.”
In December 2008, Bill Parkinson confirmed the above facts in a telephone interview with this website, as far as he recalled he’d settled for £500…
“Parkinson said too that when at last he’d run into Blackmore some time later, his fellow axeman had complimented him on “Lost Soul” and asked “Have you got any more like that?” Needless to say, he was not amused.”
December 8th, 2025 at 03:13https://www.songfacts.com/facts/deep-purple/mandrake-root
#14 Herr Uwe
Yes ….and song Solitaire is a good song. (How did I forget it!?)
December 8th, 2025 at 04:36After The House of Blue Light (an album that didn’t give a great song classic , no classic for the first time in the history of Mk II.On the The Battle Rages On tour with Ritchie and Satraini in 1993, DP are no songs play from the THOBL album on the setlist . I think in the Steve Morse era as well…) and Deep Rainbow album Slaves and Masters which caused many DP fans mental pain .TBRO .. DP is back with 2 classics songs The Battle Rages On and Anya after 9 years after Perfect Strangers, Knocking at Your Back Door, A Gipsy’s Kiss, Wasted Sunsets.TBRO not at the level of DP’s best (first 12-15 ) albums, but it’s better than some that came before it and will follow, ……my opinion of course.
There is no such thing as ‘worse DP album’, every album DP makes is better than everything else 😉
December 8th, 2025 at 09:46THOBL is indeed not a very immediately accessible album, Ivica, it takes some listening to get into, but it is varied and interesting. Strangeways is for me one of the strongest Mk II cuts penned outside of the 70s and the album it stems from is eclectic and a much less “playing it safe“ affair than Perfect Strangers. To me, Mk II recorded one very good (THOBL), one average (PS) and one disappointing album (TBRO) during their second and third go at it from 1984 to 1993.
But I agree, even an album like TBRO is better than no Purple album at all. And the album is also historically interesting as it documents the band falling apart/not gelling anymore. It‘s just an unpleasant/unhappy listen to me. But isn‘t that a nice case of dialectical materialism that in my school of thought Mk II are both responsible for the best (Machine Head) and the worst DP album?! Marx would rejoice.
December 8th, 2025 at 14:56Mandrake Root … now that is a song I never liked, very lumbering and 60s archaic with that endless two chord improvisational part, a bit Stoner Rock even. I hear Iron Butterfly looming around the corner … I was glad when it was retired from the set. And while IG was of course the better equipped singer for DP’s future, I think I preferred Rod Evans’ version (yes, Karin, I cannot help it!) though that is not saying much.
December 8th, 2025 at 15:04Abandoned is the least of the DP records since the re-formed in the ‘80s. I bought it, listened and listened and almost never play it. The playing is right up there but the songs lack hooks. TBRO has some top flight DP tunes.
December 8th, 2025 at 18:04@28
“I preferred Rod Evans’ version (yes, Karin, I cannot help it!) though that is not saying much.”
– Uwe it is alright 😄
I will till the day I don’t breath anymore, prefer Ian as the main vocalist 😃
December 8th, 2025 at 18:10On his own material always!
But as I said, I find Mandrake Root compositionally crude and slightly annoying in any case.
Bigbass, I agree that Abandon doesn’t feature hooks (I guess Fingers to the Bone is an exception), it’s a little proggy and mostly dark.
But you can’t listen to Sally Carr all the time, hook-intensive as her music is! 😂
https://youtu.be/BPPx55UxCUA
https://youtu.be/zjkyc3eWO_A
Not that hooky chorus parts were ever high on DP‘s inventory list. Rudolf Schenker summed it up nicely when he heard DP in a blind test, namely Nobody’s Home and observed: “Oh, that’s of course Deep Purple, great band, strong verse, but then it is like with a lot of their songs, you wait for a chorus to take things to the top and they just don’t play it! Still, great band and great guys.”
And ze Scörps, for all their failings, knew a lot about strong hooks …
https://youtu.be/pgORMg1ehPg
https://youtu.be/W7jwv7hUcUc
“Vee häff ze vvvays tö mäke ju zing ze chörüs wizz uzz, Himmel!”
December 8th, 2025 at 20:17I prefer to not hear a proverbial chorus. A tired cliche and that is an understatement. Same as the proverbial guitar solo, leave them out occasionally, I have stated this before a few times. There is nothing worse than repetitive cliche’s, in anything. The so called ‘power ballad’ has greatly helped in doing this to my ears. I cannot help it, that same old same old, oh here we go again………..Change the record…………..The needle is stuck in the same groove…….
December 8th, 2025 at 20:35@23 Very nice summing them up Uwe – if not 100% agreeable.
December 8th, 2025 at 21:27S&M holds the top – or should that be bottom -spot, followed by the first 3 records that would have made one great album. And Now What is much worse than TBRO too for my liking. Infinite too I’m afraid.
But then you don’t really care that much for accessible pop, am I right, Herr MacGregor?
And you probably dread songs that start with the chorus first thing off the bat! 🤣
https://youtu.be/P5ZJui3aPoQ
December 9th, 2025 at 00:04I haven’t hear that Stranded song since the mid 80’s, never like it then and I didn’t hardly play it at all. There were a few really poor songs on the second and third JLT Rainbow albums. Thankfully there are a few songs that stand out and BOOS has those two superb instrumentals on it. I would need to put myself through that Stranded song again to listen to that riff, however I will take people’s word for it being similar or recycled, at least some of it perhaps. Anya is a vast improvement and a much better home for that music from a forgotten song best left where it is. Cheers.
December 9th, 2025 at 05:17Mandrake Root was the song that got me hooked on Mk I, after Hush and Help which I already liked before. After I told dad what a great song I thought Mandrake Root was he brought news to me that there were live versions with Gillan (of course my DP admiration had started with Mk II) and played one for me (that is the first 3-4 minutes of it) in our kitchen. Loved it right away and the Stockholm ’70 and Long Beach ’71 recordings quickly became essential to 13/14 yo me. Even to this day I think I listened more often to those than to MiJ.
December 9th, 2025 at 11:43Tilly, what a fabulous boy you were, warming your old man’s heart!
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kZ9VSsLdnts
https://youtu.be/PydCGEXg1zk
December 9th, 2025 at 15:14Mandrake Root live – there are some differnt versions that have one thing in common: those are of course classics, old son.
But let’s give Uwe a break here. He just misses the Francis Rossi treatment. Though the Italian stallion sure could have made a fine boogie out of it. You can sing it in your head to the rolling rhythm of Whatever You Want to get an idea. Ok, stretching that to some 20+ minutes might take things a bit far but than again …
Bits and pieces of Mandrake Root survived in the set as they had crept into Space Trucking to great effect and I always thought it was a highlight of their live oeuvre. I was a bit disappointed when I found out about the origin of the riff (this is not just “inspiration”) but it was only some time ago and I had decades to get used to the fact that my heros stole their way around through the history of music from Susato to It’s a Beautiful Day and back.
December 9th, 2025 at 15:22Without the part of the songs “Mandrake Root” and “Fools” .. not even “Space Turckin” on Made in Japan would be as spectacular in concert
December 9th, 2025 at 18:11Max @33: TBRO better than Now What?! The worst Blackmore era album better than the second-best Morse era one? Das ist nicht dein friggin’ Ernst?!
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/fd/10/47/fd1047a2e5a01353e5f23ffe9d3e2513.gif
December 9th, 2025 at 19:14@ 34- that is the one Uwe, something ‘different’, so to speak. There have been many grand songs with the proverbial verse, maybe a second or third verse then a chorus or even a middle eight before a chorus, or whatever arrangement. The predictable nature of humans leads us down a familiar path, always. The old ‘monkey see, monkey do’ scenario. It is what it is. The proverbial ‘we have to have a guitar solo’ is another one. We don’t have to have one really, and I enjoy it when there isn’t one, especially when they are usually placed in a song. Ending a song with a guitar solo is good, always enjoy that, well most of the time. Even starting a song with one, why not. Let’s break it up a little. Cheers.
December 9th, 2025 at 21:10@40 But Uwe you’re still confusing things here although I did put them right before now, didn’t I.
Repeat after me:
TBRO is NOT the worst Blackmore era album. By far not.
When it comes to Now What?! …Now what should I say? I know a lot of folks celebrated that one big time but I didn’t. There are some nice songs on it. But it starts with what I would call the worst DP song ever … Simple song … and that really pissed me off big time first time I heard it. In fact I was so shocked I would not put that album on another couple of days, afraid it might contnue like that. Well it did not but there was very little reason to be over enthusiastic. Prog (sigh, it crept in due to Don I guess) with silly b-horror-movie sound fanfares, a pointless redo of It’ll be me, some lengthy tracks that are hard to tell apart … and some decent stuff. It’s a disappointment.
December 10th, 2025 at 14:09“But let’s give Uwe a break here. He just misses the Francis Rossi treatment. Though the Italian stallion sure could have made a fine boogie out of it. You can sing it in your head to the rolling rhythm of Whatever You Want to get an idea. Ok, stretching that to some 20+ minutes might take things a bit far but than again …”
Ah, how you know me, Max! But would my hero Alan Lancaster
https://img.discogs.com/sAolMBx4kL3bYkb4moxKuv9roWg=/600×826/smart/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/A-467614-1455915428-9524.jpeg.jpg
perhaps do as well? Released in February 1967, 15 months ahead of Black Night …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyuiAvSCD4c
December 10th, 2025 at 14:53@ 43 – Or you could go back to that 1966 Blues Magoos song Uwe, that the early ‘Quo’ covered the following year. The similar riff from the early 60’s where Ritchie apparently heard it no doubt. The ‘walking’ bass line that many used, possibly from the 1950’s even. Cheers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOWOdKs6KUo&t=18s
December 10th, 2025 at 20:27Re: Summertime by Ricky Nelson. George Gershwin again, even further back in time, depending on how one could look at it. Cheers
https://secondhandsongs.com/performance/31376/all
https://www.sessiondays.com/2021/10/1962-rick-nelson-summertime-us89/
December 10th, 2025 at 21:05Max I agree regarding TBRO album, it has four or five wonderful DP songs on it and that is enough for me, classic DP. However in regard to Uwe’s never changing mind, well we know how stubborn he can be and only Edith, his long suffering wife at home would know the way to truly disarm him. We must persevere though and NEVER give in to his ways and even then, he will no doubt still live to fight another day. The battle rages on…….Cheers.
https://au.pinterest.com/pin/monty-python–16044142418244217/
December 10th, 2025 at 22:22#42 Max:
applause for you!
#38 Max:
I agree with everything, mandrake root was FUNDAMENTAL for the development of the mkII and may all the versions that the guys played different every night be blessed!
#32 MacGregor:
Even omitting musical clichés has become a cliché itself, so I think anything is fine, as long as it is objectively beautiful and effective.
#35 MacGregor:
BOOS is for me the best Rainbow album post-Dio, there are more interesting singles than the other albums (including Stranded & Fire dance) and above all the production and the sound are sensational
#29 Bigbass:
If the songs on Abandon lack grit, everything Purple have done since Bananas is total lethargy then!!
Maybe you need to listen to Abandon again many times after all these years…
#31 Uwe:
December 10th, 2025 at 23:30It’s curious that for me Abandon is actually the album that contains the most choruses, so in addition to being the hardest rock of the Morse era, the most technical, the heaviest, it is also at the same time the most melodic, the most commercial, the one with the most appeal of the Morse era.
I think Now What?! to be a brilliant Alterwerk of profound musicality, Max! It’s not quite in my basket of MH, Burn & CTTB as my alltime favorites from the Purple cannon, but very close. I might even prefer it to Purpendicular, but just ever so barely.
A Simple Song as the intro number was nothing short of stunning! Moody, somber, sparse, melodic (Jeff Beck reminiscent) + tender at first, but with a surprising musical twist in the second and third parts plus some HUGE organ playing from Don, too bad they never did it live.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7oxAt6XXBs
It’s a rock song in “movements” as great as Bowie’s Station to Station.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpIhsGg2SJ0
When the Tasmanian (rightfully) bemoans that too many songs stick to the verse-bridge-chorus-solo script, then A Simple Song breaks the mold right there before him. (Tasmanian, say something supportive for chrissakes!)
How on earth can an intelligent and balanced man like you, lieber Max, who spawned such adorable offspring from his mighty loins not prefer this album over the neurotic mess that is TBRO?!
https://static.spektrum.de/fm/912/f1920x1080/Sigmund_Freud_1926_quer.jpg
Je suis aghast, wirklich.
December 11th, 2025 at 00:34Now What?! grew on me over the years. There might be two or three worse albums in the Morse-era. I maybe agree with dad on S&M as the worst overall DP-album; for the Morse-era that title might go to Whoosh
December 11th, 2025 at 09:27@42 …but I agree on the worst purple song being on Now What?!. Although I don’t think its A Simple Song but Bodyline.
December 11th, 2025 at 09:32I’m a card-carrying Ezrinista ever since I heard Auntie Alice’s School’s Out.
TBRO should have been called ‘(Nasty) Piece of Work’, I don’t hear anyone battling on it, just five guys doggedly doing what they have always done – sans the magic or mutual appreciation.
December 11th, 2025 at 15:11Bodyline isn’t a strike of genius either, that’s true. But it at least grooves along nicely whereas Simple Song is dumb and annoying to these ears.
When it comes to Bowie – hey Uwe, that might explain it all! I always stuck with IP here who said something to the effect of ‘I didn’t find the time to listen to Bowie, I was too busy…’ I’ve been much too busy too. But I really adore All the Young Dudes – as long as it is sung by Ian Hunter or Bruce Dickinson or whoever…
No, Now What?! Isn’t up there with the goods.
December 11th, 2025 at 15:25The remixed version of Rapture of the Deep … a dream really and miles ahead of Now What!? as far as I’m concerned. And not one song on Now What!?.has the wit and life of those on Purpendicular or Bananas. It’s just lame.
December 11th, 2025 at 15:29You guys don’t like this absolute groove monster of a song? It even has a middle eight!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQN3BG1504s
What’s wrong with you?! 😵💫 Ostfront would have beckoned in the dark old times for lesser crimes. 😂
I’m shaken, not stirred.
And I thought that the – due to COVID and Steve’s subsequent departure live sadly underpromoted – Whoosh! album was a respectable way for Steve to go out (TTC is for me a novelty release). I think it stronger than Infinite.
December 11th, 2025 at 18:34@ 48 – Uwe, I have stated years ago that Now What starts superbly with A Simple Song. Ian Gillan’s vocal delivery is sublime and melancholic too (I hope I am not sounding too gushy here, although Karin will be impressed, hopefully). It does the job big time as an opening song should do and there isn’t a ‘proverbial’ guitar solo either. Hey, hey, how’s that for a double winner. Cheers.
December 11th, 2025 at 20:51Thank you, Herr MacGregor.
As for that Max Clan, they hold the most dangerous views …
December 12th, 2025 at 02:46@55
VERY impressed MacGregor!
No one can ever praise Ian’s voice enough…😊
December 12th, 2025 at 03:28#54 Uwe:
Bloody line, besides having the same drum attack as Any fool, for me is weak both in terms of singing and drums, melodic line without appeal and very weak guitar riff
December 12th, 2025 at 07:49Yes, Bodyline absolutely grooves (and I had to laugh when I listened to Infinite the first time an instantly recognized that intro of Get Me Outta Here). There’s better grooving songs of Purple though and they don’t have that kind of fundamentaly annoying chorus to them. Lame lyrics of IG as well, on an album which otoh provides some great lyrical pieces of the man.
December 12th, 2025 at 09:24Silhouette / Pirouette // my-oh-my / so devine ? Cringe, as us youngsters say.
Oh yes, and of course her legs go on forever. Thats possibly the one time where Ol’ Coverdale heard a new DP song and thought “Damn, why didn’t I think of this!”
“her legs went on forever” I know that lyric from a Jethro Tull album, Crest of a Knave 1987, the song Budapest. These ageing men, I don’t know what is wrong with them. Cheers.
December 12th, 2025 at 10:17@59 …whereas the legs that go on forever in another Ian’s Budapest are not cringe worthy at all… a great track – and never have you been closer to there…
December 12th, 2025 at 13:18Yeah, Bodyline is more of a c-side. As are Apres vouz, Vincent Price and some others. Woosh on the other hand I like a lot, with the exception of Man Alive.
@60 😄…and some people say they don’t care for the lyrics … we did our homework, Mr. MacGregor!
December 12th, 2025 at 15:08What’s wrong with female legs that go on forever?! You guys are outright weird.
https://c8.alamy.com/compde/b43728/auermann-nadja-1931971-deutsches-modell-volle-lange-auf-laufsteg-kleid-wahrend-der-modenschau-trager-sommercollecgion-fruhling-von-christian-dior-paris-oktober-1994-b43728.jpg
December 12th, 2025 at 16:47Maybe it is men with the name Ian that have the ‘problem’ Uwe. I don’t see anyone here complaining though……..It was a hot night in Budapest……………Max, that lyric has always stuck with me from that Tull song, along with the rest of the story of course, he he he. Cheers.
December 12th, 2025 at 21:50Yes, great storytelling on that album, MacGregor. Farm on the Free way another fave of mine.
December 15th, 2025 at 15:15