Classic Rock has an article on the intriguing story behind The Mule, with multiple quotes from the star of the hour himself — Paicey.
As with the majority of compositions by the Mk II Purple line-up, The Mule is credited equally to the classic quintet of Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Jon Lord, Roger Glover and Ian Paice. But hang on a minute. Type the track title into Google, or indeed any search engine, and a sixth name pops up: that of Jethro Tull mainman Ian Anderson.
Drummer Paice chuckles down the phone from his country mansion in Henley-on-Thames. “I can state categorically that no Aqualung influences were involved in the making of The Mule. It just so happens that Anderson is my middle name – Ian Anderson Paice.”
Somewhere in a parallel universe there’s a live rendition of The Mule with a marathon flute solo. But what happened in reality was this… After its appearance on Fireball, The Mule was incorporated into Purple’s stage show and became the focus for Paice’s tub-thumping talents. Live, the song’s running time increased dramatically. The Fireball version lasts 5:21; on the 1972 live album Made In Japan it’s twice as long.
The talent exhibited by Paice on The Mule sent shockwaves through the 70s rock scene. Cream fans in particular were stunned by the Purple pounder’s dextrous display of controlled power and awesome technique. Ginger Baker’s Toad – previously the benchmark for such drum-solo shenanigans – was summarily squashed under the trampling hooves of The Mule.
A new installment from Ian Paice Drumtribe — couple of drum solos recorded during one of the An Evening With clinics some time around 2007. Continue Reading »
Steve Morse and Paul Gilbert were special guests of Ernie Ball stand at the NAMM earlier this year. We had previously posted a couple of tracks from their performance, but there was another one. And it is a spectacular jam over a tune that was written and recorded in the bad old days, but only became a live improvisation vehicle during Steve’s tenure with the band — Pictures of Home. Continue Reading »
In Rock is a new addition to the LickLibrary stable of instructional videos.
In this course, LickLibrary veteran, Danny Gill walks you through the many highlights of each song from this classic rock gem one phrase at a time, including all of Ritchie Blackmore’s legendary guitar parts from the tracks; “Black Night,” “Speed King,” and the anthemic, “Child In Time.”
The Dead Daisies are scheduled to appear in a charity concert tonight, July 3, at 8pm EST (repeated at 11pm EST). Also on the bill: Alice Cooper, Peter Frampton, Joe Satriani, Corey Taylor, Don Felder, George Thorogood, Myles Kennedy, Lizzy Hale & Joe Hottinger of Halestorm, and many others. The event is taking place online and you can watch it at rockforrelief.net or youtube. All donations will go towards Feeding America foundation fighting domestic hunger in the USA.
The mysterious single released for the Record Store Day in Germany on June 20th turned out to be interesting for two reasons.
First, besides the already familiar tracks Throw My Bones and Man Alive it contains a new one from the upcoming album — The Power of the Moon. The single is available now through selected retailers in Germany and will be released in the UK and Scandinavia on July 17, 2020. The rest of us will have to wait for the album to come out on August 7.
Second, the single sleeve oh-so-matter-of-factly states in the back that the band is now managed by one Matt Clark of SIRCL Ltd., with no mention of Bruce Payne or Thames Talent to be found.
Quick googling shows that SIRCL was incorporated in October 2019 with the address of an accountant firm in Milton Keynes, UK. Another related company — Deep Purple Live Limited was set up to manage music publishing, with five members of the band as shareholders plus Mr. Clark as the director. Thames Talent office in Connecticut is now marked on Google maps as ‘Permanently closed’.
If there was an official announcement of a second change of management in the band’s 52 year long history, we have definitely missed it.
Thanks to Lutz Reinert and andreas leutgeb for the info.
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Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing