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Machine Head‘2024 in the charts
The 2024 reissue of remixed Machine Head has entered German Official Top 100 Albums chart for the week of April 5 at a respectable #7. Chart history for the album indicates that the 40th anniversary reissue has reached only #56, on October 26, 2012.
Let us know how the reissue did in your country.
Thanks to Tobias Janaschke for the heads-up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
In my country such publications do not come. My copy was bought in the USA, my mistake, I should have bought it in Germany, but somehow I didn’t think about the charts.
April 9th, 2024 at 19:25All thanks to people like me who buy it the umpteenth time over 😇 and write devotional treatises as AMAZON reviews. 😂
April 9th, 2024 at 20:46Found this guys review of the latest MH release. He favours the Quad mix on this new set & he doesn’t like the Atmos. I like his review, but I would say that wouldn’t I. He mentions on the quad mix the crack of the snare, the crisp hi hats & the oomph of the bass drum. Also the bass guitar sound being much like it is on the original album. I am not able to find a review as yet, listening wise of the new stereo mix. Seems to be a lot of focus on the Atmos & surround? Typical of this day & age. Must keep searching, curiosity again will kill this cat. Cheers.
https://www.hiresedition.com/review/classic-rock/deep-purple-machine-head-50.html
April 10th, 2024 at 06:05Roger Glover Mix is enough for me to get satisfaction.
April 10th, 2024 at 06:37Yo,
Congratulations DP & Machine Head. Awesome to get into the charts once again, though it’s well known Germany loves you the best, & has done since “In Rock” from 1970…And the German’s also proved it a few years ago with the DP (Overseas ) Live in Longbeach 1971, that reached #68 for memory…
Surely, it must be time to release the outstanding promised CD’s EarMusic ??? Get your act together yo !
@3…Why not grab a copy, & write your own review ?…Your own POV is the most important one…And it’s not as though you’ve never heard the music before lol !
Long live DP !
Peace !
April 10th, 2024 at 07:28It’s at #30 in the UK Official Albums Sales Chart:
https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/27669/deep-purple/
Please note, there is multiple charts on that page and I found the 2024 MH only on this one. Which is still not bad, given how expensive the release is.
April 10th, 2024 at 12:26A local radio station in Toronto is pushing YES as the premier band but still call the tour by the Smoke on the Water title. Maybe somebody is just to young to know the difference
April 10th, 2024 at 20:30Whichever mix, I love putting on the headphones and listening to Ritchie and Jon playing the rhythm parts in the background on that album. Looking forward to the new DP disc in June. Love Gillan’s tricky wordplay lyrics. Roger Glover’s take on bass is always good listening. Such an underrated player.
April 10th, 2024 at 21:34@ 5 – I am not so sure as to the Germans love them best, but you could be right. I think it is more the fact that Paice & Blackmore commenced their ‘residency’ in Germany before DP & said to each other when they became more famous ‘Sheesh Ritchie these Germans are easily manipulated, we should keep coming back here’, Ritchie ‘you are not wrong there Paicey, I might even buy some real estate some day’. And so we have it to this day, a residency indeed. Us Australians are much more ‘picky’ in what we allow to manipulate us. Very suspect indeed we are out this way. Seriously though in regards to this new box set release, a few years ago I had the Glover remixes in my hands & put it back as I was buying the cd’s re releases of Fireball, WDWTWA, In Rock & Burn at that time. I did already have the original cd of MH at that time so I left it. I do sort of regret that at times but I don’t lose sleep over it. This new release Blu -ray disc would be wasted on me & those live recordings I have no interest in. But a online curiosity is often hard to resist at times. Other times I couldn’t be bothered. I know the direct source cd or vinyl is the only real way to listen to the stereo remixes etc. My money or lack of could or should be better spent somewhere else these days. Many people are hoping stand alone cd’s will be released. I always think that when an artist releases these type of box sets, so much in them doesn’t mean anything. Just one disc it usually is that is of a certain interest. Cheers.
April 10th, 2024 at 22:50Album MH is like “Greits hit album .Still 4 rocks SOTW,”Lazy”,”Highway Star”,”Pictures Of Home”.My winner is “Highway Star”.34 first seconds of that song ..I knew .. that’s it, rnr band all my life
April 11th, 2024 at 06:57did not recognize that the purps were in the studio to record a new album.
April 11th, 2024 at 07:06Montreal – ahh Canada… there was a fire near lake saint louis.. Mr. Grover Mr Gillian – keep it short and use my version. How is it called ? Machine Head – aahh interesting …. I am so glad that Ritchie and Big Ian still work together and it makes me complete happy that Jon didn´t retire in 2002, so let us look forward. Who do the purps think they are !!! in 2024
how many more times will fans get ripped off for yet more re releases of albums supposedly re mixed…..come on…either release new material or retire guys……..
April 11th, 2024 at 11:40I’ve been a fan for the last 49 years or so, Dave, I don’t feel ripped off by their releases, I feel – pun intended – mistreated by the absence of same. I have 12 different CD versions of MH, Dweezil’s new one included. And what’s this with Purple not releasing new albums??? in the last 11 years they have released four new studio albums with new material, five if you count in the coming one this year. That is more than U2 or Kings of Leon released. Or as many as the Foo Fighters released in the same time span.
And anybody not hearing the differences in the various remasters and remixes need his/her ears checked subito! Of course you can say that you don’t give a damn about the differences – the solution is easy, no need to buy then!
And Herr MacGregor, be patient, I’m sure that a stand alone CD of the Dweezil Stereo Remix will be released once the market of box set buyers has been saturated, that generally doesn’t take very long.
Is Deutschland the spiritual home of DP? I think it is, have written this before, there are elements in Purple’s music which appeal to the German psyche, jawohl! The classical influence, the fact that their music is darkish, but not too dark, how well it is performed (we appreciate Expertentum), the neatness of how they engineer their songs (Vorsprung durch Technik!).
And it’s not just DP, I would wager the guess that Blackmore’s Night has sold more CDs, played more gigs and done more TV appearances in Germany than anywhere else in the world. Unser Ritchie ist ein Germanophile, ja, but the appreciation/attraction is mutual!
April 11th, 2024 at 15:50@ 12 – Record companies release these sort of packages. DP didn’t have anything to do with it & haven’t since Roger Glover’s mix. The same with other artists who have a plethora of classic material to milk, it is usually an outside interested business that hears that cha ching sound. It is the first thing I think of when I see a headline, here we go here we go here we go again. It can be interesting for collectors & hi fi buffs, I understand that. The only thing that surprised me with this latest MH release is that is wasn’t released around November slash December. Santa Claus usually regrets that though as it adds to his heavily weighted sack too much. Cheers.
April 11th, 2024 at 22:05I could see In Rock and Burn do equally well commercially with the same treatment.
April 12th, 2024 at 00:42@13 Herr Uwe
It’s no coincidence ! that the Secret relationship Germany- Purple . The influence of German music (influence on the rest of Europe cultural tradition ) on the sound of DP is great. Johann Sebastian Bach , Ludwig van Beethoven, their influence on the duo of sound creators Jon and Ritchie (fans of classical music), is very influential. Bach and Beethoven a fusion between rock and baroque, an influential sound on DP is big , like: Vanilla Fudge, Jimi Hendrix, Cream,:) and the fourth band whose name I won’t mention 🙂
April 12th, 2024 at 08:22Ivica, a fourth band you say, really? Now which one could that be, I’m really stumped at what was and what should never be … 😎
Yes, yes and ja re the German influence! I don’t think it was planned at all, no one set out to assemble a band to conquer the German record buyer and concert market though Ritchie, Little Ian and Rod Evans must have certainly known what German rock audiences liked (I’m not specifically aware that Jon and Nick ever toured Germany before DP though they very well might have as members of The Artwoods or The Flower Pot Men’s ‘Garden’).
In a way it was also luck that when In Rock was climbing the German charts in 1970, The Beatles had split and Jimi Hendrix had died (both massive in Germany), Cream had already dissolved 1968/69, while the Rolling Stones, Led Zep and The Who were all busy in America. There was a definite void and fledgling Mk II took up the baton and ran with it, concentrating on Germany (then among the largest record buying markets along with the US and Japan).
I believe that DP having both prominent keyboards (unlike The Beatles, Cream, The Stones, Jimi Hendrix, The Who or Led Zep) AND a prominent keyboarder with a real image was helpful too. Having an obviously classically trained keyboarder like Jon (though I tend to think that Jon’s classical influences are perhaps a bit more Scandinavian and English Romanticism à la Edvard Grieg/Jean Sibelius and Edward Elgar than they are solely German composers) made people take notice. Ritchie was admired as this hot, charismatic guitarist full of mischief, but Jon was REVERED in Germany, he gave DP (and in public perception even early Whitesnake) substance. The way he played (and the room he had within DP to do so) plus projects like the Concerto gave DP an “in for the long run”-image with German rock listeners and critics alike: They were perceived as being serious about their craft, that is always a forte in German eyes. 😄
The “Yes, they do (only) rock, but look how they play!”-image set them apart from a band like Uriah Heep with a similar line-up and even similar organ-heavy music. Heep were seen as a great live act with catchy hard rock singles and ballads, but no one in his right mind would have put them in the same class as Purple as musicians. Blackmore, Lord and Paice were virtuosos on a pedestal.
April 12th, 2024 at 11:52The Blackmore, Lord & Paice combo is the only reason I watch Cal Jam. They are on fire there big time. Fantastic playing from the mighty trio. Regarding Germany, The Netherlands and a few other countries over there I have always admired them for there admiration for so many of the bands I like. As we know it is that European connection. Also as I have noted earlier, when Tony Iommi was struggling along with Cozy & Tony Martin with Black Sabbath, that part of the world really enjoyed it & supported them. The total opposite of what was going on in the USA. I was always relieved for them when I read that. Cheers.
April 12th, 2024 at 21:59Nick played Germany with Billie Davis in 1967. Carlo Little was the drummer in the band, and while in Hamburg he and Nick met with Ritchie Blackmore to discuss the possibility of their starting a new group together. A plan with which RB seemed to agree.
https://www.nicksimper.net//nicks-story/chapters-11-17/chapter-14-billie-davis-the-quality/
That group never came together, but later that year Nick, Jon & Carlo returned to Germany with the Flowerpot men.
https://www.nicksimper.net//nicks-story/chapters-11-17/chapter-16-flowerpot-men-on-the-road/
Interestingly, have read elsewhere that Nick thinks he was the one who first told Jon about Ritchie. And that once Jon was tasked by management with putting together a Chris Curtis-less band, he envisioned the lineup being himself, RB, NS and CL + a singer, likely Terry Reid.
But by the time Jon and Ritchie actually started working together, Ritchie was against the idea of using Little as drummer, preferring Bobby Woodman.
Perhaps Nick’s association with Carlos is the reason he was not, after all, the first bass player to be offered the Roundabout gig? And was only brought in after Dave Curtis didn’t pan out.
April 13th, 2024 at 07:14Thanks Skippy, you really hopped in deep!
https://youtu.be/hByob-5pPEs
How I loved that series as a kid! It also irrevocably shaped my picture of Australia and its lovely inhabitants, both furry and not.
April 13th, 2024 at 13:11I am pretty sure that KLOS 95.5 in So Cal played the new version of Smoke but only heard the last minute or so, and since they dropped the mid day DJ there was nobody to tell you for sure when I heard it. It seemed like a longer yet more direct ending with the “Break a leg Frank” quote at the end. Was this it? I have never heard the end quote before that I can remember, only read about it.
April 13th, 2024 at 15:26@17 said…
qt.”I believe that DP having both prominent keyboards (unlike The Beatles, Cream, The Stones, Jimi Hendrix, WB & L,The Who or Led Zep) AND a prominent keyboarder with a real image was helpful too. Having an obviously classically trained keyboarder like Jon made people take notice. Jon was REVERED in Germany, he gave DP substance. The way he played plus projects like the Concerto gave DP an “in for the long run”-image with German rock listeners and critics alike: They were perceived as being serious about their craft, ( & ) that is always a forte in German eyes”…
*I also tend to think that the fact that a Rock-band had a member such as Jon, who could compose & write music for a full symphony orchestra that was played, recorded, filmed, & received a full 15-minute standing ovation at its end had a lot to do with people watching DP’s movements, & gave them instant credibility, & reason for your attention.
Plus when you listen to any of Jon’s interviews, he’s laid-back, funny, & very easy to get along with, regardless of who it is doing the interview.
RIP Jon Lord !
Peace !
April 13th, 2024 at 23:12In Austria it´s on 17!
Titel Interpret
NEW 17 1 Machine Head Deep Purple
https://oe3.orf.at/charts/stories/oe3austriatop40longplay/
Have a nice day!
April 14th, 2024 at 09:51Josef
In a word: Jon gave Purple GRAVITAS without ever making them seem pretentious.
April 14th, 2024 at 13:06Yo,
@23…Thanks for the post & link, much appreciated…And it was really good to see Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” in there at #28, though one wonders if it has ever left the charts ! Great album, & happy 50-th DSotM !
Peace !
April 15th, 2024 at 11:03Ah, Josef, so you guys have found Anschluss once again to German developments! 😈
Jet Auto Jerry: Yup, that sounds like the new remix version.
April 15th, 2024 at 11:27According to Louder classic rock site a ‘new’ revelation is upon us. Tony Iommi has named his favourite Deep Purple song. Amazing story. Cheers.
https://www.loudersound.com/news/tony-iommi-favourite-deep-purple-song
April 17th, 2024 at 21:58Yo,
The whole “In Rock” album is a masterpiece of incredible music, & I’m pretty-sure that Speed King is a Roger Glover riff too…It’s no wonder that Tony Iommi loves the whole album…(And Tony is riff-meister & well accomplished musician himself…An inspired stylistic guitarist with endless rock symphonies at his finger-tips imo)…
One almost wants to grab a copy of the magazine to see what Brian May had to say, as the early 3 x Queen albums prove his incredible ability to make heavy-duty-melodic masterpieces too…
Thanks for the post & link ;)…
Peace !
April 18th, 2024 at 11:44Well, Roger will be pleased, Speed King is his riff.
Ritchie would mock the number in later years. If truth be told, it’s not high on my list of favorites either. The name checking of rock’n’roll classics’ lyrics and the instrumental passages are fun plus the (non-US pressing) intro with Jon’s mock bum organ note is atmospheric, but it’s not really a “song” that would pass the “play it with just an acoustic guitar”-test in my book. Very few In Rock tracks do which is why I always say that the album is more a statement in sound and instrumental abandon than it is in composition.
But I still remember my joy/glee when “The Deep Purple Singles A’s and B’s” came out in 1978 and I noticed that they had mistakenly released the hitherto unavailable piano version of the song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVeDzO4OG9U
I wasn’t expecting much from that release, had only bought it on my completist itch and then this baby rumbled from the speakers! Together with Hallelujah it made that vinyl worth having.
April 18th, 2024 at 13:33I have never heard that piano version of Speed King, thanks very much Uwe & nice to hear some ‘new’ music from 54 years ago. Gillan’s vocals are different in parts also & the guitar mid section sounds rather compressed or something. Speed King is a emphatic way to make a statement of intent if ever there was one. What a way to start a new career. Hard rock indeed compared to MKI & it sets the scene for what follows. Tony Iommi has always raved about that album & I guess Louder classic rock need to sell their stories, hence the ‘revelation’ headline. It was a grand year 1970 as we know for British rock. Uriah Heep’s Very “Eavy Very ‘Umble, Black Sabbath’s debut album, Deep Purple In Rock & Atomic Rooster’s Death Walks Behind You amongst many others. Hammond organ & heavy guitar riffs with creative lyrics to boot. Cheers.
April 19th, 2024 at 22:22Bloody kangaroo, Herr MacGregor, where have you been the last half-century, on some remote South Pacific island?!
At the time, the release of that “wrong” version was seen as a careless record company howler eclipsed only by the erroneous vinyl re-release of “Shades of Deep Purple” with the spooky “derelict car wreck and puppet”-cover, which was at one point intended as a new cover for the re-release of Purple’s debut, but ultimately rejected – yet a first batch with the wrong cover art crept out in late 1987 to be withdrawn immediately (needless to say I have a copy, it would have made a great early Alice Cooper Group cover).
http://www.deep-purple.net/discography/shades/shadesheritage.jpg
April 21st, 2024 at 14:46Uwe yes indeed things do move slowly all the way out here, especially back in those times. I have also never seen that cover you sent a link to before. That is a poor album cover that one & wouldn’t suit the band & their music me thinks. Alice Cooper indeed. Thanks for that. Living in DP heartland (Germany) would give you much better access to all those sort of obscure items no doubt. I can imagine the record stores over there back in the day compared to ours out here in Sydney & Melbourne. Cheers.
April 21st, 2024 at 22:49Yo,
That “Shades” cover reminds me of this Died Pretty cover…
https://genius.com/albums/Died-pretty/Doughboy-hollow
Peace !
April 21st, 2024 at 22:56Some stuff was difficult to get in Germany too at the time. Yes, every record store had a good collection of DP stuff, but getting the Trapeze, Captain Beyond, Warhorse and James Gang stuff was quite difficult. I used to go on buying sprees in the mega London record stores like HMV whenever I was over there.
April 22nd, 2024 at 13:40@29 said…
qt.”1.Ritchie would mock the number in later years.
2.If truth be told, it’s not high on my list of favourites either.
3.The name checking of rock’n’roll classics’ lyrics and the instrumental passages are fun plus the (non-US pressing) intro with Jon’s mock bum organ note is atmospheric, but it’s not really a “song” that would pass the “play it with just an acoustic guitar”-test in my book.
4.Very few In Rock tracks do which is why I always say that the album is more a statement in sound and instrumental abandon than it is in composition”.
R1. RB tends to do this after a period of time with everything he’s played, except maybe “Street of Dreams”…
R2. Fair enough. It is very-much a band effort, with unusually lots of light & shade, yet without losing any energy or compromising your attention…My only gripe is that for a world that was changing from stereo sounds & into quadraphonic, the solo sections of guitar & organ come out of the right-side speaker only…Tragic miss-step there imo.
R3. It’s not meant to…It’s a bass-heavy riff with guitars & keys supporting…A creative player can easily find heaps of colourful chords to play over it bar-for-bar, as long as someone was playing the riff / bass part. In fact, it would enhance the whole tune imo.
R4. I disagree…The elements came together, the song writing was incredible, & everyone shared-the-load equally with the music. It’s the sum-of-the-whole individual parts that when played together by Mk-II, that do genuinely place the band on Mt.Rushmore, as the cover suggests. There’s no bollox with that cover, it’s the bands crowning moment, that makes “Machine Head” almost appear like shoe-shine music in comparison.
Peace !
April 23rd, 2024 at 10:57That original Shades of cover – in all its various regional permutations – was horrible and dated the album by a couple of years already on the first day of release, the hairdos and threads, the archaic presentation of the band in irony-free Tudor style stiffness. Jon, Nick, Rod, Ian & Ritchie looked like friggin’ Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich in that photo! I think I even would have preferred a car wreck and a derelict puppet. The covers of Book of Taliesyn and the third album (commonly referred to as ‘April’ in Germany) were improvements but really would have fitted better with Caravan or some other band from the Canterbury Scene or even some Brit Folk Rock outfit like Fairport Convention or Pentangle. Daring messages accompanying a d pointing to the music they were not. It wasn’t until the Concerto that the cover art made at least sense (even if an empty concert hall was kind of an obvious photo subject for the album) and In Rock was then the first actually iconic DP sleeve capturing both the Zeitgeist and the music as well as constituting a remarkable piece of Pop Art. But it took them five albums to get it right.
April 23rd, 2024 at 12:20I have never been a fan of any artists on the front (or back) album cover in photo form. In Rock & Burn are ok as they are not a photo. So yes I agree those Shades of DP hairdo’s are a classic 1960’s mis step in that sense. Book of Taliesyn I am fine with as any art form is better than any photo, hell even a blank cover is better. As long as any band or solo musician do not have the proverbial mug shot all is good & proper.
April 23rd, 2024 at 21:41I guess that is why artists like Roger Dean & others became popular. There are some bad album covers out there, cue David Byron covered in cob webs on Uriah Heep’s debut album. Cheers.
I somehow got to buy a SHADES…..lp with a guitar on the cover….
Tastes differ, a lot of DP covers are fine by me but some are cringy like BANANAS.
Btw, I do remenber buying Singles A s and B s and felt more than 2 sufficed the purchase,
Its been decades ago and after that an extended cd version was released.
I do own the lp version with the woman in the purple bathsuite.
I try to recall
Speed King , piano, was indeed a nice thing
Emmaretta
I m alone
Strange kinda woman which wasnt on the European Fireball
Hallelujah, great
Its possible I had only the 3rd DEEP PURPLE 2ndhand by then, not sure.
April 28th, 2024 at 01:47