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Making of a true classic
The latest issue (#312) of the Classic Rock magazine has making of Machine Head as the cover story.
How many times does a freak accident change the course of hard rock history? Not all that often, we’d wager. But had a suspended ceiling in a Swiss casino not caught fire, then Deep Purple’s sixth studio album would have been a very different beast altogether.
I’m referring, of course, to Machine Head, and its signature song Smoke On The Water. In the new issue of Classic Rock we discover the inside story on the making of a true classic, in the band’s own words.
Individual issues can be ordered in both digital and dead tree format via MagazinesDirect.
Thanks to Reinhard Lackner for the info.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Have to love Blackmore’s outfit, wonderful. Jon Lord look’s like he is still in the late 60’s era. The Moody Blues etc & the others guys early 70’s. I used to have a poster of that similar Purple era. They look tired though & no doubt they were. Look who’s mentioned at the top of the page, Bowie & Zeppelin, oh dear! Cheers.
March 3rd, 2023 at 22:20Machine Head again, yaaawn … What really triggered me is the “dead tree format”. Never heard that, but it’s really funny. If one can use the word “funny”, when talking about the climate catastrophe. But do you know how many trees die because of all the severs, that have to be used to publish websites? …
March 3rd, 2023 at 22:46It’s always nice to see covers and features for DP in magazines, but how many times and in how many different ways can the story of Machine Head/SOTW be told?
March 4th, 2023 at 00:30Yo,
We have to remember that the album is now 50-years old ( & counting ), & that there’s always a new generation of listeners going back through the decades to listen to “quality” music, with quality musicians…And not only that, the music when played live delivered the goods without the pyrotechnics, hydraulics, lighting-systems, front-end monitoring systems etc etc.
I see this as an encouraging sign, that a new generation of musicians may make a new industry for themselves, based on the proven fact that music itself can sell itself, & appeal to people, without the “clouds & fairy-floss” of the Katy Perry industry lol !
Bubble-gum & forgetful lolly-pop music of today may be on the way out at last ! And if Machine Head helps that cycle, I hope there’s another 50 articles written lol !
Peace !
March 4th, 2023 at 01:11I think what many of us die hard fans don’t realise is that this is a story possibly never told before. After all the headline says : “In the new issue of Classic Rock we discover the inside story on the making of a true classic, in the band’s own words’. An ‘inside’ story & possibly just ‘discovered’, so obviously it will be different. Hold on to your horses & save up your pennies & give them to Classic Rock as we are about to journey upon a different story. The other eye opener seems to be the uncanny ability of the press to latch upon a few of us here commemorating Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy album recently. That has to be a coincidence surely, unless someone here has a inside line to Classic Rock journalists? I sincerely hope it isn’t Uwe as he seems to be mentioning Zeppelin quite a bit here recently. Or maybe heaven forbid it is DeeperPurps as he has been a little quiet lately. And David Bowie is also mentioned, something isn’t quite right it seems. Cheers.
March 4th, 2023 at 05:28@3 As many times as it is possible really, does it matter now? This is good exposure for the band/brand name 🙂
March 4th, 2023 at 09:53@5 It matters little imo if the “filthy-press” are getting ideas for stories here. Should our discussions bring-on laughs & a history of may peoples experiences along side DP worthy of inspiring new articles, so-be-it.
As for new information about the albums making, it may be a collection of forgotten / lost articles, that didn’t make it to print at the time for whatever unknown reasons, possibly editorial &/or space needs. And perhaps some of the tapes of interviews at the time have been found / rediscovered, & re-listened to with more information worth printing up for today’s needs ? All the Mk-II members seem to recall the success of MIJ contributing to Machine Heads success, & Ian Gillan indicated 20-years ago however, that many memories are lost now in the mists-of-time…But we’ll see.
Machine Head is a great album, but so was every release by Mk-II, of that 5-odd-year working period. In fact, 1972-73 was a great couple-of-years for Rock in general. I’d love to see some articles written about “West, Bruce & Laing” to be quite honest, as all their albums & the bootlegs are still getting played around here every day of the week…In fact, the 2 x studio albums sound timeless & fresh to my ears today, as they must have 50-years ago. Go figure lol !
Peace !
March 4th, 2023 at 12:27As far as I recall Classic Rock is very LED ZEPPELIN minded, and a lot less DP minded, but maybe it shifted,I dont know.
I did cut down on spending money on anything musicrelated years ago because I had to frag myself out of a financial tragedy several times.
To succumb now and then to buying an autobiography or special edition done by a mag, just for good old times sake, though I ve a relative huge archive…….
I m not sure if the mag is still sold somewhere in Rotterdam, but I m kinda hestitant when it comes to ordering it from the UK, recently became kinda depressed after having to cough up all the extra costs.
March 4th, 2023 at 16:12BREXIT ok, but its 2023 for crying out loud. Its not gold I m buying people.
@8 Rock said…qt.” I’m not sure if the mag is still sold somewhere in Rotterdam, but I’m kinda hesitant when it comes to ordering it from the UK, as recently I became kinda depressed after having to cough up all the extra costs.
BREXIT ok, but its 2023 for crying out loud. It’s not gold I’m buying people”.
Well said ! Wait until you see the postage fees for anything coming out of the US-of-A that has to go through the USPS…
I prefer hard-copies of magazines if / when I grab them, but there is the digital version now-days I suppose.
Peace !
March 4th, 2023 at 22:48Talking of the press here is a classic British comedy scene from 1987 with Rik Mayall & Adrian Edmonson. Midge Ure making an appearance as the rock star being framed & the blow up doll of Mrs Thatcher. Also a few musical references to songs Midge didn’t do but the press are quiet happy to say he did. Cheers.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Midge+ure+framed+by+rik+%26+Ade&oq=Midge+ure+framed+by+rik+%26+Ade&aqs=chrome..69i57.9341j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:851a018f,vid:5W4YT3CcoWU
March 4th, 2023 at 23:31I still think ‘In Rock’ sits at the top of the pile.
March 5th, 2023 at 09:37For me it’s just a crazy fun album full of explosive talented ideas.
Peace ✌️
That pic on Classic Rock is a typical Bravo/Didi Zill shot from the early 70ies when Purple was practically featured every week there. Bravo was a German teen mag that pushed Purple hard (they had regularly good placings in the Bravo readers’ polls) who did after all retain some teeny bopper appeal because their music was always accessible. So stories (real or made up) on DP could be found among those on David Cassidy/Partridge Family, Sweet, Osmonds and T. Rex plus, of course, Bravo’s idiosyncratic features mixing somewhat stiff (no pun intended) sex education and visual soft (focus) porn. There was really no other print media in Germany that could give you info on the favorite foods of Purple members and at the same time relieve you of nagging concerns whether French kisses and petting could get you or your girl friend pregnant.
Mind you, Bravo was also the first German magazine to report on the Sex Pistols in 1976 – they had their nose in the air when ‘serious’ rock journos in Germany were still asleep at the wheel about what was happening in the UK.
Classic Rock (the UK mag) are a bunch of Led Zep acolytes, yes, but they are even worse Guns & Roses floozies!
March 5th, 2023 at 17:51Flash thought: Any magazine cover printing ‘Deep Purple’ three times as large as the (nonsensical and also misspelled) moniker of ‘that other band’ has a fine layout in my book!
March 5th, 2023 at 18:25@ 13 – Uwe if you are referring to the ‘Lead’ or ‘Led’ word that would depend on present or past tense, would it not?. As we have ‘read’ & ‘heard’ over the years ‘it will go down like a lead balloon’ was a possible reference to the origins of the name LZ. However it could mean, ‘the Zeppelin was Led to the higher echelons of rock music immortality & therefore looked down upon all & sundry below attempting to reach a similar height of attainment’. How is that for a load of bull dust. Anyway forgetting the waffling on about ascending to a higher whatever, it isn’t misspelled at all. It depends on how we interpret it. It is a double entendre. That is how I have ‘read’ it for many decades, I could be wrong though. It could be a typo which would bring us back to where we were in the first place. I had better get out of here, I am starting to lose it me thinks. Cheers.
March 7th, 2023 at 06:36I was aware of the lead balloon origin. And also of the spelling issues certain parts of the populace of the greater Birmingham area have always faced under the class-oriented British education system – hey, I’m also a Slade fan, Wolverhampton roolz and that’s orlright!
I’m just happy that those other Midlands/Wolverhampton heroes stuck to the correct spelling and we didn’t end up with Jewduhs Preest.
Def Leppard (ok, not Midlands, but Sheffield is close enough …) was always a silly name too.
I’ve always loved ‘Deep Purple’ as a name – even when I didn’t yet know the music behind it (I also like the color). It sounded nice and flowed well/had an elegant, swinging rhythm to it (the name ‘Iron Maiden’ has that too). Though the fact that the first part of the name ends with the same letter as the second part of the name starts with has inevitably led (no pun intended!) to almost everyone pronouncing it ‘Dee-Purple’ and not ‘Dee-p Purple’.
Thank God, we got spared from a spelling abomination such as ‘Deeperple’!
March 8th, 2023 at 16:18Herr MacGregor: I think they chose “Led” rather than “Lead Zeppelin” to insure it was pronounced from day one the way they wanted to hear it, i.e. “lead” as in “head” and not as in “lead guitar”. Ironically, only Toni Iommi plays led guitar, led lead guitar to be exact.
What I didn’t know until recently was that the guys in Thin Lizzy with Irish background would all pronounce it as Tin Lizzy, in line with their Irish dialect skipping the “th”. Also, writing it as Tin Lizzy had been the original plan, but then they thought writing it “thin”, yet pronouncing it “tin” among themselves was more fun. That band pronunciation was probably lost over time as Scotsmen (Brian Robertson and Midge Ure), Yanks (Scott Gorham and Mark Nauseef) as well as Englishmen (Snowy White, Darren Wharton and John Sykes) all came and went – Gary Moore was the last Irishman to join the Lizzy ranks, though he was from Northern Ireland, not the Republic.
March 8th, 2023 at 19:49I thought you would be up on the slang & abbreviations of words. When I was a nipper & hadn’t delved into rock music yet & then started to I thought it (Led) was a spelling mistake. Shorthand I suppose could be another way of looking at it. With todays ‘shorthand’ people on texting etc, it still relevant I suppose. Rock band names, yes some are quite naff & some very simplistic. Yes & The Who etc. I do like a more thought out name. Iron Butterfly, Black Sabbath & even that poor old agriculturist chap Jethro Tull, not to mention that other old guy Uriah Heep. Status Quo is a good name. Deep Purple is fine with me although some people don’t like the flower power naming of artists, the colouring in thing. The ones I don’t like are the biological names, The Beatles, The Turtles etc. Then there is The Rolling Stones, names taken from a song or poem etc. What about that aussie band Caligula’s Horse. I like that for a name. Then the ‘business’ names Emerson, Lake & Palmer & Crosby Stills & Nash etc. It is endless. Cheers.
March 8th, 2023 at 22:00Hello,
In the 70 which bands created something classic that 50 years later we still talk about?
Pink Floyd, Zep, Black sabbath and Deep Purple were the most prominent.
50 years later which band is still alive and kicking a.s.s. of always newer fans?
One band. Deep Purple.
So I really think it is completely normal and above all well deserved that Deep Purple is on the front page ( again) of C.R magazine.
And I don’t forget Jethro Tull which should also be there.
When was the last time Zepellin toured? Lol.
So yes Deep Purple are and should be in the front page of C.R.
Long live Deep Purple family.
Richard Legris.
March 9th, 2023 at 04:55Regarding the pronunciation of names, I think of ‘Geddy’ Lee as in Gary of Rush. Lee once said years ago in a interview some where that the name Geddy came from Gary, his Polish mothers accent etc. My memory of that is vague but for some reason I thought he said a Irish grandmother or aunt or something, but that is probably not the case. The name Gary sounded more like Geddy so that became his name or nick name of sorts. I wonder how the guys in Purple now days hear Simon McBride & his accent? They can talk fast the Irish & Scots at times. depending on where they originate from, however a lot of countries do have that in their dialect. Cheers.
March 9th, 2023 at 21:17