Another online outfit Sleaze Roxxpays tribute to Come Taste the Band on the occasion of its roughly 50th anniversary.
While featuring a loosely tight Deep Purple from start to finish, it could be said that Come Taste The Band is a tale of two album sides. Side A is a funk fortified groove fest and the flip side is full on blues rock and roll not too far removed from what Coverdale would put together down the road in the early days of Whitesnake. Maybe it wasn’t for fans of the band’s most classic era of just a few years earlier but some pretty damn choice rock and roll indeed. On record, Paice keeps the foot tapping throughout while Lord pumps it up along the way. Bolin delivers masterfully on his lone appearance on a Deep Purple album but maybe the true star with this one is Hughes. Not only does he hold his funk own on bass with Bolin, he also draws a vocal line in the sand that at no time on this record does Coverdale come close to crossing over.
An outfit called DRUM.DOG has posted earlier this year a mini-documentary hailing Paicey as “the unsung architect of hard rock drumming”.
Often overshadowed by his flashier peers, Deep Purple’s Ian Paice is one of the most influential and technically masterful rock drummers in music history. With a career spanning six decades, he helped shape the sound of heavy rock and proved that groove and precision can live inside blistering speed. In this video essay, we explore Ian Paice’s career, drumming style and legacy.
Thanks to Uwe for bringing this to your attention.
Noise11celebrates the 50th anniversary of Come Taste the Band(which was actually released in October 1975, as our archives can attest) which was released on November 7, 1975:
Rather than fold, vocalist David Coverdale and bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes, both newly established from the Mark III era, convinced keyboard legend Jon Lord and drummer Ian Paice to keep Deep Purple alive. Enter Tommy Bolin, a young American guitar prodigy with dazzling fusion chops most famously heard on Billy Cobham’s Spectrum. Bolin, charismatic, adventurous and utterly unlike Blackmore, was handed the keys to one of the world’s biggest rock outfits.
Recorded in Munich with trusted producer Martin Birch, Come Taste The Band saw Bolin and Coverdale lead a writing partnership that opened the Purple machine to funk, R&B and California-soaked groove, while retaining a muscular rock core. The result was a record that both challenged fans and excited critics, one unafraid to experiment at a time when rock was hardening into rigid expectations.
[Update Nov 11]: Purple archivarius extraordinaire Nigel Young sends us a correction regarding our release date confusion:
Come Taste The Band’s UK release was originally scheduled for Friday, 10 October 1975, but was delayed by 4 weeks to Friday, 7 November 1975, which was attributed to issues with the sleeve — see two contemporary cuttings.
It entered the UK albums chart for the week 16 to 22 November 1975 based on sales for the week 7 November to 13 November. And, yes, one of the cuttings credits Tommy as DP’s new singer.
Many thanks to Nigel for setting the record straight.
An online magazine called eonmusic has an interview with Steve Morse. It was done, like many others these days, on the occasion of Steve’s new solo album Triangulation, but unlike those, it does not shy away from his 28 years with Deep Purple.
I wanted to touch on a little bit of your Deep Purple history; is it hard to believe that you were there for almost three decades?
It’s true. I really thought I was going to be there for the last Purple gig. I didn’t realise that they were outlasting me. There’s something about the British Isles that breeds some very tough customers. These guys survived.
2026 marks 30 years since your debut album with the band, ‘Purpendicular’ was released. There’s some amazing songs on there, from ‘Ted the Mechanic’ to ‘Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming’.
Well, it’s great. I think ‘Purpendicular’ is my favourite album because there was no history between us. We had everything up for grabs. Like the song, ‘Sometimes I feel Like Screaming’ was me noodling around, and Jon [Lord] just returned from a break with tea, and you know in England, it’s always tea! I came to be drinking tea! Every few hours, it was another thing of tea and I’d say; “sure, yeah, I’ll have it!” Anyway, So Jon’s got his tea, and he hears me playing this ditty I was working on for my own album and my own thing, and he just starts noodling along with it. I said; “hey, that sounds good”.
Here’s an almost complete recording of the Deep Purple show in Saratoga Springs, NY, on September 4, 2024. It’s an audience recording of exceptional quality, the only drawback is the audio mix that is relatively low on Hammond. Enjoy! Continue Reading »
Candice Night talks to INDIEPOWER_TV from the (now familiar) her living room about meeting Ritchie Blackmore, becoming a lyric writer for Rainbow, importance of the creative freedom, having a cancer surgery while on tour with Rainbow, and many other things. Some of these we have already heard, others are new. Continue Reading »
Ritchie Blackmore gave one of his rare interviews to the Rock of Nations podcast. The excerpt of the conversation has been published, with the full interview said to be “out soon”. Hint: you may want to turn down the volume for the extremely loud intro. Continue Reading »
An Austrian label, appropriately called Reissued Sounds, have released three Glenn Hughes’ albums on a variety of coloured vinyl. Addiction and Feel have already seen a vinyl treatment before, albeit not of the splatteringly garish variety, while Live in Australia appears in this format for the first time.
Interested parties can find more information and ordering instructions from the label.
Thanks to our editor emeritus Benny Holmström for the info.
Glenn Hughes recently made an appearance on the Mick Wall’s podcast (season 5, episode 9). It’s over an hour long, with lots and lots of dirt being turned over and war stories told, good half of it Purple-related one way or the other. We highly recommend finding the time to listen to the whole thing through. Continue Reading »
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Another online outfit Sleaze Roxx pays tribute to Come Taste the Band on the occasion of its roughly 50th anniversary.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing