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Play that funky music

Deep Purple live at the Capital Centre, Landover, Maryland, USA, on January 15, 1976. This a slightly longer version of the video that has been floating before. Now with more drumming!

Thanks to Paleo Aram for posting this and to Tobias Janaschke for bringing it to your attention.



33 Comments to “Play that funky music”:

  1. 1
    mike whiteley says:

    This is good…..in a “DP gets the funk out” kinda way.
    Tommy’s guitar sound and solo is similar to I Need Love. Unfortunately, Jon’s lost the Hammond beneath a stack of synths.
    Paicey had a serious mop of hair and some fierce, unruly sideburns in ’76 !
    Ian Paice,on the drums !! YES !!

  2. 2
    Uwe Hornung says:

    When Mk IV were good, they were glorious.

    Also, witness at 02:19-22 the highest notes ever emitted by a Fender Precision bass ON EARTH when Glenn pushes his G string (shush! – the one on his bass!) down on the pick-up casing for that beep-beep-beep sound that even startles Jon at 02:22/23 who probably thought: “WTF is he doing now?!” Glenn was most likely trying to communicate with bats – mind you, the Colombian species with the enlarged nostrils of course!

    Finally, the rapport between Glenn and Tommy, those two were really in love with each other. I sometimes miss that Bolin/Hughes split-off band that never was.

    Priceless.

  3. 3
    dpmuc72 says:

    Very good music ! This is Homeward Strut, a song from Teaser, Tommy Bolin’s first solo album. On the US tour he was fantastic, which was not always the case on other tours ! I’d like to see some more songs from that concert but I guess there are not more.

  4. 4
    Fernando Azevedo says:

    MK IV deserved to have made one more album. Tommy Bolin was fantastic!!!

  5. 5
    Adel faragalla says:

    Bloody drugs ruined everything. One thing I love about Glenn that he has won the fight and inspired so many people to be clean.
    Peace ✌️

  6. 6
    purpledaniel says:

    Whoever leaked this footage must know more about the full footage.

    I know this was supposed to be included in the DP MKIV documentary that never materialized…does anybody know anything about it and this footage? Will it ver be released in full? What is still stopping DP archive releases fom happening after 10 years or so?

  7. 7
    Bernhard Huebl says:

    This live video demonstrates very precisely why it was such a huge mistake to hire Tommy Bolin as a guitar player for Deep Purple !
    (and at the same time, why it also was a big mistake to hire Glenn Hughes as a bass player two years before, but that’s another story …)

  8. 8
    Gareth says:

    This needs to be released on a dvd/cd .
    Also Longbeach 76 needs to released on a dvd/cd package along with their performance in Japan.

  9. 9
    Uwe Hornung says:

    “This live video demonstrates very precisely why it was such a huge mistake to hire Tommy Bolin as a guitar player for Deep Purple !
    (and at the same time, why it also was a big mistake to hire Glenn Hughes as a bass player two years before, but that’s another story …)”

    Why a “huge mistake”, Bernhard? “Brave move” more like. And one that worked often enough.

    Even if you are an Mk II diehard, you shouldn’t find it hard to accept that Mk III and IV did what they did well:

    – Yes, it was funkier/had a blacker influence than Mk II, but that was a growing trend in the 70ies, Purple were moving with the times (as they had done when they switched from Mk I to Mk II).

    – And it was a conscious move, Blackmore – of all people! – WANTED a funkier bass player and blacker voices, Mk III’s creation was patterned after Free with Andy Fraser’s funky bass and Paul Rodgers’ bluesy and soulful voice. They hired the bassist, lead singer and front man of the UK’s then funkiest hard rock trio

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-qxJd5uyOo

    and paired him with a second lead vocalist from up North who loved Hendrix, Blues and Soul.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxSxzdfIPLI

    You don’t do that if you want to continue with an Mk II sound – in that case, Ritchie, Jon and Little Ian could have sent David Byron and Gary Thain an invitation whether they would perhaps like to multiply their incomes for a few years by joining them!

    – Mk IV took things one step further – by that time the members of DP had been fully immersed in Amerian culture and music for a while through constant touring there. Bolin looked the part, had energy, star quality, played an exciting lead guitar and had songwriting talent in spades plus an impressive pedigree/reputation.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av_7OgrEPT0

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qh_xJO8yBY

    What could go possibly wrong if you didn’t realize until too late at the time that he was a covert heroin user? Blackmore’s comment on Bolin:

    “I originally heard him on Billy Cobham’s Spectrum album, and thought, ‘Who is this guy?!’ Then I saw him on television (Uwe: most likely that Don Kirshner James Gang gig above) and he looked incredible – like Elvis Presley. I knew he was gonna be big. When I heard that Purple hired him, I thought it was great. He was always so humble.”

    – And fans of Ian Paice have to admit: His drumming was never more ambitious, inspired and cutting edge than in the Mk III, IV and PAL era ranging from 1973 to 1977. And that was down to the music he was playing and the musicians he was playing it with.

  10. 10
    Drew Thompson says:

    We have the full show in the vaults. You never know but one day it might surface!

  11. 11
    Tony says:

    Paicey….. what a guy !
    Gonne see him monday , with Perpendicular !

  12. 12
    purpledaniel says:

    @10 Drew Thompson

    Wow thanks for posting that info. Wasn’t the Landover 76 footage supposed to be included as part of the Jakarta 75 documentary? Can you comment about the MKIII documentary? Why hasn’t it been released?
    Thanks

  13. 13
    Michael says:

    When will these Metall bonkers on their musical one way street without any dignity and soul be stopping to blame any single artistic individual of the 70’s for their authentic contemporary performance in their historical context of 1974/75 where Funk music ruled the world and anybody with and without reputation was making Funk music only because they had contact to their feelings and simply because they were capable to transport that to anybody with a little taste and insight in the beauty of sophisticated and developed style?

  14. 14
    Uwe Hornung says:

    Not everyone, much less not every hard rock band turned funky in the 70ies (Zep and even Lawton-era Heep did, Quo and Sabbath didn’t), but you certainly were allowed to! The 60ies had seen white musicians en masse appropriate black music and the riff-oriented blues roots of especially hard/heavy rock are obvious, but the 70ies (carried well into the first half of the 80ies) saw a breakout of black culture with the music they retained control over: soul and funk. And if you were a musician with ears, there was a good chance the funk bug would bite you eventually. It’s a long way from Bohemian Rhapsody to Another One Bites The Dust, but it’s a path that can be travelled.

    And Purple didn’t do a bad job at being funky at all – not even Blackmore, much as he said he despised it. Gillan once said that when he heard Come Taste The Band he was “stunned by the funk thing” (yet IGB would be funky too, albeit jazzier than Purple ever were), I think that was a sincere, if grudging compliment. Notably, PAL continued the funk path for Jon and Paicey, Paul Martinez’ playing was much closer to Glenn than it was to Nick or Roger, he kind of played like Glenn sans the latter’s showmanship on bass.

  15. 15
    Reverend Harry Longfallis says:

    Gareth #8, never mind the show in Japan, unless there were more than one. Last Concert in Japan was the only DP album that I’ve genuinely hated. Glenn stated in his autobiography that he didn’t like it either.

  16. 16
    Dan Russell says:

    @9 Uwe Hornung
    Mk 1V was inventive and Paicey was just breathtaking. CTTB was sublime to me and something I listen to more than most DP albums. Owe’d to G is one of my fav’s and You Keep on Moving is epic, in my book. In the rare occasions I get to hear Wild Dogs, well, I just dance with Abandon.

  17. 17
    Michael says:

    My point is this endless toxic blaming the people for living their lives! They’d just tried to have fun! In the end everybody has to regret something! We are all only human! Where’s the point to not forgive these people’s mistakes – and riding the blame wave for decades! They weren’t to do it by purpose! They didn’t want to stop the Purple train – it’s the opposite: they just couldn’t stop.

  18. 18
    George Martin says:

    To All,
    Music is a matter of opinion. There is no right or wrong, you like what you like and you don’t like what you don’t like. It’s that simple. So not all of these posting are going to be positive ones. There will be negative ones as well. There’s and old saying “We agree to disagree.” I’ll take the high road and pass on commenting on this one. Happy Holidays to all and let’s hope next year is a good one for everyone.
    Peace!

  19. 19
    stoffer says:

    @18 George…..brief and to the point , Very Well Said !!

  20. 20
    Marcus says:

    There was a little boy
    who had a little toy
    ’twas a guitar he had borrowed
    and when he was good, he was very, very good
    and when he was stoned it was horrid

    Or as Dickens put it:

    It was the best of marks, it was the worst of marks, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

  21. 21
    Michael says:

    Ritchie, Lordy and Paicey where simply hooked by Glenn – the same goes for Glenn and David in respect to Tommy – it’s simply plain like that – the rest is just life.

  22. 22
    Rock Voorne says:

    I think Blackmore showed a lot of funkyness long before Glenn arrived.

    Dear old Rog once said “Change is good” which seemed to me a bit opportune or obligatory to say at the time.

    His brother in crime also was inclined to think “progressively” as well.
    A byeproduct of the Zeitgeist me thinks , esp. when he ridicilously said in 76 he left DP because they were stagnating in formula artistically….
    Gillan left the band during the days they recorded the immortal MADE IN JAPAN and WDTWA is pne of my favourites , he sings wonderful on that.
    Fast Doward 10 years or more wehad to endure his diminished, once GOD like vocals, his screams were painful and cringy.

    How exactly he managed to TOOLBOX and then again go down again I do not know.
    Stagefright I once read explaining the dalling back into tobacco and alcohol…..

    The strong man is still here.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLWOLBdXf-M

  23. 23
    Uwe Hornung says:

    I think Ian was sincere in his resignation letter in 1972 that he felt restricted (and exhausted) by the Purple sound and touring machine post-Machine Head. His favorite album had been the experimental Fireball which all the other band members thought a failure. WDWTWA had been an unhappy experience with Ritchie refusing the relase of Painted Horse and clashing repeatedly with Ian about the latter’s more off-the-wall vocal melodies and arrangements.

    And if you look at his Cher Kazoo sessions, the IGB output and even the Gillan albums, I don’t hear anybody consciously trying to recreate a Purple sound (Colin Towns avoided the Hammond where he could in an effort not to be compared to Jon Lord, he prefered the electric piano which is why the band Gillan could sometimes sound a little harsh compared to Purple). The issue is simply that Ian’s voice is so idiosyncratic and was such a great part of Mk II’s overall sound that anything he sings automatically bears similarities to/reminds one of his work with Purple.

    But this

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RjKJ9uA-H0

    is hardly a man trying to sound like Deep Purple, is it? : – )

    Nor could I imagine Ritchie agreeing to play it and release it under the Purple moniker though it sure was catchy enough to have been a mid-70ies disco hit! I love that song.

  24. 24
    MacGregor says:

    That song sounds like Episode Six in so many ways. That is where it all started as we know. Cheers.

  25. 25
    DeepOz says:

    @10 Drew Thompson. Any chance of the band touring AU/NZ in 2023?

  26. 26
    max says:

    IMHO it is – hell, yes, among some other things 😉 – the funky stuff that rises DP and spin offs above your average hard rockoutfit. CTTB, Malice in Wonderland, Clear Air Turbilence, Play Me Out, White Snake (Celebration anybody? Goldie’s Place?!), Private Eyes… did I mention even RB did it…Snake Charmer. What a weakth of music released within just 2 years. Still can’t believe it. And do love those records to this day.

  27. 27
    Rock Voorne says:

    Uwe

    Cherkazoo is one my favourite albums but I dont think your reasoning is valid here.

    From IGB on he dabbled into a so called highbrow attempt with jazzrock but that was mainly the input of his bandmembers.
    He soon wanted to rock again at a time that style was being called dinosaurrock.

    Aside from that, my taste is mainly classic rock but going into other territories does not mean my core changes.

    I m not sure what you mean with off the wall vocal melodies and arrangements and lyrics.

    I think he is singing differently on WDTWA but how to describe it?

    IMHO he was sounding better than ever.

  28. 28
    Jim Sheridan says:

    Drew Thompson at # 22, when you say you have the whole show in the vaults, do you mean both video and audio of the Maryland DP show?

    Bring it on!!!

  29. 29
    Uwe Hornung says:

    “I m not sure what you mean with off the wall vocal melodies and arrangements and lyrics.”

    Let me try, RV:

    Ian G’s vocal lines writing style is unconventional to say the least – it’s an idiosyncratic mix of almost introverted/unexpected (counter-)melodic bits, the rhythmic use of language, talking or even almost rapping over the music, screaming/shouting and doubling guitar riffs. It is not straightforward, not intuitve (to other people than Ian that is!) and not “let’s get to the catchy chorus”- or “can people actually sing along with this?”-obsessed.

    Ritchie has always had issues with that approach, he prefers singers that structure conventional vocal melodies easy on the ear: Paul Rodgers, David Coverdale, Ronnie James Dio, Joe Lynn Turner, last but not least: Frau Blackmore aka Candice Night (I left out Graham Bonnet intentionally because many of Bonnet’s vocal lines are off-the-wall/unexpected too, that showed mainly in his later work, on Down To Earth the vocal melodies originated largely with Roger or Ritchie).

    Jon Lord, however, is on record for saying that Ian’s style to write vocal lines made Mk II special for him among all DP-line ups and “Ian Gillan the true voice of Deep Purple”. Jon thought Joe Lynn Turner’s more conventional vocal melodies trite in contrast (Ritchie loved them).

    An assortment of musical examples from Ian’s chequered career where he has done vocal tracks/melodies no one else would have come up with in my humble opinion:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g-lk2Fakn8
    (Ritchie hated that vocal track so much he refused the release at the time.)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJZtbwgGXPU

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFTaji5sbXw

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8TKU_5bius

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8TKU_5bius

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jceT9SWwK8

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltI_wvHwb-k

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaXQtkQssHc

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGx_P19l7bQ

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhDylUKMnWM

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr2Q_KAw55Q

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjK5pdd94p4

    You get the gist, I hope. I could have gone on forever. As regards constructing vocal lines that are not banal or self-evident, he really is in a class of his own.

  30. 30
    Russell Wagus says:

    Why didn’t someone film a full Mark 2 show on 35mm or 16mm film like this? So many missed opportunities.

  31. 31
    David B says:

    Well that was a tantalizing comment from Drew. Is it really him? A follow up comment to the questions above (or even a long Q&A on here) would be great

  32. 32
    Uwe Hornung says:

    Vee haff ze vays to mäke Drew tälk, ja?

    https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/hellboy/images/2/27/KarlKroenen.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20080629003818

    Himmel, ze wörld iss starved for zis: Möre Mk Föur!!!

  33. 33
    Rock Voorne says:

    Uwe Hornung says:

    ” I think Ian was sincere in his resignation letter in 1972 that he felt restricted (and exhausted) by the Purple sound and touring machine post-Machine Head.”

    He wrote that letter in august 1972.

    Dont think by then he could already been tired of touring MH or WDWTW) released in 73 I think)

    Relate that to how long he has been playing these songs since 1984. Taking that stance for a resignationletter might have been very appropriate anno 1988 or something.

    But after he returned to the fold he kept on squeezing out these tracks.
    Even today.And probably in 2023/2024.

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