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Where angels fear to tread
Noise11 celebrates 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.
Read more at Noise11.com
[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.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
When I first heard it – I have to be honest – I was bewildered by the new sound, I craved for Ritchie whose debut with Rainbow had only come out in August 1975. But after a few weeks, I reversed judgement and found CTTB much more exciting than the first Rainbow abum (which made no undue listening demands on someone who had liked, say, Burn). Half a century later that hasn’t changed.
I honestly don’t think there is a single weak track on the album. Yes, it’s very often just very US-tinged goodtime rock on tracks like Lady Luck, Drifter or I need Love, but what great goodtime rock! Bolin with his flurry of overdubs was a real wizard in the studio, yet no matter how many guitar tracks he layered, it always sounded very organic and surprisingly more relaxed in the studio than Ritchie often was. It didn’t matter that Tommy wasn’t technically as good or disciplined as Ritchie – I noticed that even back then – he had great feel and groove and was just as exciting as Ritchie, albeit without the dark image and the ‘Yuropean’ vibe. I liked Bolin’s playful frenzy, his solos always sounded like he was having fun.
The cover was kind of cheesy, true, but after some hesitation I took a deep gulp of Mk IV and did like the taste of the band.
Trivial fact: The copies for the press at the time did in fact come out with a complimentary small bottle of (hopefully Californian!) red wine. A German critic from (German!) Sounds magazine thanklessly called the gratuitous alcohol “süßer Fusel, as hangover inducing as the music itself“. 😎
Rolling Stone Magazine, however, which had been lukewarm about many more recent DP releases (and also poured derision over the Rainbow debut), liked what it heard and wrote via Kris Nicholson:
Ritchie Blackmore, Deep Purple‘s central force since their creation, left the group after Stormbringer to form his own group; this is Deep Purple’s first record with new guitarist Tommy Bolin.
The album takes off in the chunky funk-rock style of Purple’s last two albums. Distinctions don’t develop until the material becomes familiar. Like Blackmore, Bolin establishes tension between Purple’s solid rhythm foundation and his own sustained clarity and agitated upper-fret playing. While Blackmore was largely confined by this style, Bolin employs it as only one of many. His more flexible approach to writing and arranging produces a more melodic and dynamic feel. With him, Purple’s music has outgrown the predictability of the past. Textures replace a reliance on volume, and changes in tone and pace more frequently contrast and augment each other. There is evidence of give and take that Deep Purple hasn’t shown for some time. David Coverdale’s emerging songwriting talents combine with Bolin’s in “Dealer.” Lord’s more sophisticated keyboard work surfaces in several tunes.
A visible attempt to experiment has expanded the group’s music beyond the heavy-metal trap, and this could lead them to rediscover the progressive style that somehow vanished after In Rock.
Well, I wouldn’t go as far as that with the return to Prog Rock argument though This Time Around/Ode to “G” certainly had a progish touch. And Love Child had an unusual 7/4 meter for the riff (borrowed by Tommy from an old Joe Walsh idea while he was with the James Gang) though it’s played so smoothly by the band you hardly notice it.
November 7th, 2025 at 01:32I still remember buying this album when it was first released. After the lackluster Stormbringer album, here was an album full of energy!! From Comin Home, one of the best opening tracks on any DP album, to You Keep on Moving, there is not a bad track on the entire album!!
November 7th, 2025 at 08:29It makes you wonder. If you are going to mention what Jon Lord actually said about this album, maybe it should be said what he thought about it as a Deep Purple album. But of course that wouldn’t sit very well with a celebration of half a century in a media article. It has its moments and is a lot better than quite a few other DP albums. Superb sound too and a really good mix and one of the best sounding DP albums. Ian Paice’s drumming is brilliant on this album. Tommy Bolin at 74 years of age is a little hard to imagine these days. I suppose it is the same with a few others who passed away far too young all those years ago. I purchased the remix double cd a year or so ago, so that is my 50th anniversary release present to myself and occasionally the neighbours get to hear a song or two as well. Cheers.
November 7th, 2025 at 09:42Yawn……………………….
November 7th, 2025 at 10:54Got this one on release, actually the day it was available in the store. I was never a mk II only hardcore fan..
November 7th, 2025 at 11:34The best DP ever. That’s All I have to say about that.
November 7th, 2025 at 12:11A classic! A 10/10 for me.
Deep Purple albums that deserves a reissue in cds, colored vinyl or deluxe edition box sets are:
November 7th, 2025 at 12:50BURN
STORMBRINGER
COME TASTE THE BAND
And similarly to Rolling Stone Magazine, the UK’s New Musical Express (hardly a fan mag as regards DP by the mid 70s, though the scribe in question, Tony Stewart, was always on the benevolent side) lauded the album too as probably their best since, let`s say, “In Rock” in this rather in-depth review here:
O Lord, why hast thou forsaken us?
DEEP PURPLE: Come Taste The Band (Purple)
Record Review by Tony Stewart
There are two points to make about this album straightaway. One is that new guitarist Tommy Bolin proves to be a considerable source of material and inspiration and has laid down as many solos in one set as other guitarists would in four. And secondly that Jon Lord, one of the two remaining originals, is out to lunch throughout most of the set. Which could of course be indicative of disinterest… or because Bolin has the stronger musical personality and is as smart as Ritchie Blackmore when it comes to grabbing the spotlight.
For this, and more, the album is a real curiosity.
It`s probably their best since, let`s say, “In Rock”, epitomising perfectly all the name Deep Purple represented: high energy, barrel-rolling power and uncomprising rock and roll at its very best. But it`s basically the new boys who`ve produced this.
Ian Paice rows himself in once on a joint composition with Bolin and David Coverdale, and Lord teams up with Glenn Hughes for a beautifully mellow track called “This Time Around”, which makes Jon`s trip out to Munich`s Musicland Studios worthwhile after all, while the rest of the album is taken care of by (predominantly) Coverdale and Bolin, with Hughes snatching another two joint composing honours with one or the other.
So you`ve got to agree that it`s a pretty strange situation for three rookies to know more about the concept of Deep Purple than a coupla founding members obviously do.
Paice, however, does show he`s an invaluable member when it actually comes to laying down the rhythms on that kit, and he and Hughes have the kind of professional relationship (at least on record) which can only be described as Hot Shit. There is after all more power and time changing, accent-making ingenuity than ever before in a Purple line-up.
Naturally it then follows that Bolin should play a dual role. One, as “Gettin` Tighter” illustrates, to brace thick, energy-packed chords into the rhythm, and two, as a lead soloist of such tremendous talent that despite the excellent vocal harmonies of Coverdale and Hughes on the soulful “I Need Love”, he again steals the glory for his outstanding work.
This man is an absolute maniac. Not only can he bleed the licks out on an overdrive piece such as “Comin` Home”, but he can restrict what seems a naturally extrovert style (requiring quite frequently double tracking to do what he must do but which isn`t humanly possible with only one outlet) to become almost conservative. When required – as in the dramatic tension of “Drifter”, where Bolin unloops the melody line to allow Hughes and Paice to battle their way through.
And Lord dozes off in the corner. Well he has one other moment, besides the one mentioned earlier. And that`s during “You Keep On Movin`”, where Bolin effectively cuts a path for the organ to surface and then frames the resulting solo. Maybe Lord felt he couldn`t contribute much more, even though that one solo is truly worthwhile and something similar elsewhere would have been a welcome contrast. Yet there`s also Coverdale straining for vocal space, and justly getting it, so Lord`s obviously observing the old Too Many Cooks proverb.
Whatever. Deep Purple are alive and well. This album proves it.
Courtesy of Geir Myklbust’s wonderful and utterly indispensable site:
https://geirmykl.wordpress.com/2016/04/11/article-about-deep-purple-from-new-musical-express-november-1-1975/
Yes, Jon does take a backseat to Tommy on CTTB, but I always took that as the wisdom of an older musician to let a young gun like Tommy shine who was almost a decade his junior. Jon isn’t Mk II-dominant on many tracks, but what he plays shows his musical acumen. Jon’s role on CTTB was both brave and unselfish.
It’s also notworthy that CTTB was upon its release not so much slammed or ignored by music media critics
[who I think relished the fact to hear “something new & different” from DP after Ritchie’s neo-classical and riff-happy songwriting recipe – practiced over six Mk II and III studio albums, though Stormbringer saw it already on the wane – had fallen somewhat into disfavor with them],
but died a death more on the fan front who – I was initially one of them – couldn’t get over the fact that Ritchie’s influence was so radically eradicated on CTTB (and then – adding to the sense of loss – Jon is less conspicuous too!).
The fact that fresh-faced Tommy tended to be everybody’s darling and – not least due to his work on Cobham’s Spectrum – was the new flavor on the market (deemed cool to like) might have played a role in the diverging perceptions of critics and fans as well. By 1975, Ritchie’s moody and stern-faced image, his reclusive demeanor and his draconian rule over DP had worn thin with many rock journos.
November 7th, 2025 at 14:50Cttb was an early purpendicular. Absolute freedom, and more importantly top notch music.
November 7th, 2025 at 16:58It’s of course as much a Tommy Bolin album with DP backing him as the James Gang’s Bang was a Tommy Bolin album with the James Gang backing him, those two albums have a very similar, exuberant vibe.
Bang’s first track was this here, striking a mood similar to Comin’ Home:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guIYxa6w1Yo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2LQktj2sGE
CTTB was also a bit of a blueprint for early Whitesnake …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9DdDvHVKqA
November 7th, 2025 at 17:58@ 8 – A good review that Uwe. In regard to Jon Lord’s contribution though, I would take it that he was somewhere else perhaps. Sarabande? Yes he has taken a back seat and he was also probably over it all in many aspects. It has never been an issue with me enjoying the songs that I like on CTTB. It is a guitar album and so it should be different to what was before, no Gorgan suits me just fine. Cheers.
November 7th, 2025 at 21:18Yes, I thought about that too, he was likely busy thinking about Sarabande: CTTB was recorded during all of August ‘75, Sarabande in early September ‘75. Jon slipped from the CTTB sessions straight into the Sarabande ones which immediately began with live rehearsals with the Orchestra Hungarica.
And Tommy wasn’t really used to a Gorgan set-up in any case, Zephyr had featured an organ, but in a more psychedelic, American West Coast-style role. Finally, the Gorgan was most prominent during the Mk II era, already on the retreat on Burn (Mistreated was written by Ritchie as an un-Gorgan song right from the start) and pretty much gone on Stormbringer.
It’s probably fair to say that much as the joint lead melody attack of the Gorgan established DP’s sound in the early 70s and put them on the map, both Ritchie and Jon began to feel restricted by it eventually and having guitar riffs doubled by a roaring Hammond began to date the music a little by 1973. Machine Head was really the last DP studio album where the Gorgan concept still ruled supreme.
November 8th, 2025 at 01:21For the past year or so, the two Purple albums I’ve been listening to the most are Shades of Deep Purple and Come Taste the Band. Two very different albums but both are among my favorites.
November 8th, 2025 at 02:54#10: Still, the James Gang sounded very “midwestern” and couldn’t hold a candle to the explosiveness of CTTB, which featured the best production/mix DP ever had. Talk about getting the best out of the musicians, considering they sounded so weak live by comparison. I’ve never heard Bolin sound better than on CTTB, so Birch really did him some favours.
November 8th, 2025 at 07:04Love child…the riff was obviously taken from a simple line in Devil’s singing our song on Bang.
Cttb I bought in 1977…before I had all of the back catalogue…just because our local tv and radio dealer still had it in his racks since 1975… bargain price. Liked it ever since and listened to it much more than to In Rock or Machine Head. It’s very uplifting.
November 8th, 2025 at 09:28@15
Sorry Max, but I do have to say, that imho In Rock and Machine Head is VERY uplifting!
I have learned, the hard way, not to talk bad about any singer (maybe except Dio…😄) (no sorry, I won’t!) but in my inexperienced ears Mark lll lacks a great deal compared to Mark ll, or maybe it’s just because Ian’s voice is missing big time!
And please remember I really like the young DC’s voice, but no other singer can do what Ian could and can…
It is almost sacrilege – at least in my universe – to claim the band without Ian could do more than when he was there and oh boy did he make things happen 🤩
Well, opinions are subjective of course, I just felt the need to defend our superior vocalist 😃
November 8th, 2025 at 10:57Come Taste The Band is a good album, I like it..but it’s not DP in the full sense, more of a super group . The lineup without both big hills..Ritchie and Gillan… are not DP …my opinion
November 8th, 2025 at 12:01No need to defense IG in anyway, he’s a hero of mine for many reasons. I just dared saying CTTB (as Stormbringer and The House of Blue Light and WDWTWA) gets more spins here than those more famous albums In Rock and MH. The above are much more fun to listen to for me. More lighthearted, more funky.
November 8th, 2025 at 13:48CTTB was obviously a radical departure from the MK II and even the Mk III trademark Purple sound. And how could it not with only two mainly non-writing members from Mk II remaining and Ritchie as the Strat commander-in-chief, main driving force and ideas-giver walking out somewhere over the Rainbow?
That doesn’t keep it from being an excellent album though and I totally get what Max means with “uplifting”. Mk II and III albums weren’t depressive affairs, but they were a bit stern-browed, that is just how Ritchie writes (Big Ian has comparatively little to do with as he can co-write darkly with Black Sabbath or Colin Towns and at the same do breezy pop with Roger Glover or Steve Morris on his solo outings). Bolin on fire sounds joyful, Ritchie on fire determined. It also has to do with the way Tommy employed harmony, his chord changes are a lot more “sunny” than Ritchie’s often brooding and neoclassical ones. The only song on CTTB I would consider moody on CTTB is the plaintive You Keep On Moving and that doesn’t feature a co-write credit for Tommy but was a leftover from the Burn sessions which Ritchie didn’t want on that album as a Coverdale/Hughes composition with Jon lamentably supporting him (“it doesn’t belong on this album, Ritchie is right”).
Too bad Mk IV never did Hush (the only DP song Tommy Bolin knew along with SOTW when he joined them). That could have come out great with Tommy’s sense for rhythm guitar, Glenn’s funk groove and the dual lead vocals of the unrighteous brothers done soulish in a Sam & Dave vein.
November 8th, 2025 at 14:45A good album (and maybe my favourit DP-album cover, I Have to admit), although some tracks are pretty forgettable (Comin’ Home, Drifter, I Need Love). It is tied to Stormbringer for me; both I enjoy very much, but I don’t listend to them when I’m in a Deep Purple mood.
Live versions of Gettin’ Tighter and Love Child are wonderful and I really love the almost borderline screaming vocals of Coverdale on Lady Luck from the Longbeach ’76 recording
November 8th, 2025 at 15:19As with anything Purple all offer something great!
November 8th, 2025 at 18:14Love to rock out to Dealer & Gettin’ Tighter!
It is good to see those Midnight Special live performances of the Tommy Bolin era James Gang. At least there is some genuine live footage of Bolin, even though the camera focus on the lead singer is a bit over the top. Bolin was evidently heading in the right direction, musically speaking. That self destructive urge he had, for whatever reason was diabolical. Such a shame that that happens. Those softly spoken quiet people like him and Hendrix, it’s as if they just can’t handle all the hype and the business of everything that goes with being a successful musician. I don’t know, they obviously needed to get out, at what was their most positive and creative time of their life. The frailty of human existence.
November 8th, 2025 at 21:03I think being a TB fan before CTTB came out certainly helped me in enjoying this album. The one thing I liked this album was that it contained more up-tempo rock songs than Stormbringer. Sadly, Tommy would be dead less than a year later. It’s ironic that in 1975 Joe Walsh did same thing with the Eagles, (joining an established band while maintaining a solo career), that Tommy tried with DP. Obviously, Joe was, (and is) far more successful.
November 8th, 2025 at 21:06I do wish that both Martin Birch and Kevin Shirley should have faded the vocal on the outro of the song I Need Love. That really annoying ‘disco’ vocal repeated line of ‘whooo, give love, whooo, give love, whooo give love etc etc etc. All that while Tommy Bolin is soloing wonderfully along with the band. Why was that rubbish left in the final mix. Well we know why……….give love, whoo hoo, give love, whoo hoo. Let me remix it and also Hughes cocaine fuelled whooo hoooo hooo on an early song too. Nothing to do with the music or the song, easily faded out and no one would have noticed. Well except for Glenn, ‘what the effing hell have you done erasing my vocal, that cocaine was so fu..ing awesome’. Next remix of CTTB by MacGregor. Rant over.
November 8th, 2025 at 21:24If you define the core of DP as “guitar + organ on (almost) equal footing over a swinging rock pulse” (and there is good argument to do so), which essentially means Ritchie + Jon + Paicey (or whoever is following their footsteps), then CTTB of course comes out short because it largely misses the dominant organ ingredient, it is as Herr MacGregor so succinctly put it “a guitar album”.
I believe it was Rolling Stone Magazine that once described In Rock as a sonic anomaly with “Jon Lord’s almost hilariously overloud organ”, yet an anomaly that forged a trademark sound. Clapton, Beck, Hendrix and Page never played in a band where their role as the supreme improviser and lead melody instrument was challenged by an equally strong keyboard player – only Ritchie was confident enough to see the charm and forward perspective of joining up with the undeniable lead instrumentalist of The Artwoods in the form of Jon Lord (Derek Griffiths was not at all the guitar hero type within that band), which is interesting in so far as back in the 60s Ritchie had not had that much experience of or exposure to playing with a keyboarder, much less one in a prominent role (unless he was backing a rock’n’roll pianist star such as Jerry Lee Lewis). Most of Ritchie’s bands were guitar bands with only Lord Sutch’s Savages sometimes featuring someone who tinkled some piano.
November 8th, 2025 at 21:49As Jon Lord said, a very good rock album but not a Deep Purple album per se. i think it has to be judged on those terms. Still one of my favorites.
November 9th, 2025 at 04:23#25: I would also say it’s a bass album. Another bass album would be Trapeze’s “You are the Music…”. The Trapeze tracks Glenn plays on his current tour made me go back and listen to the studio versions of “Way Back to the Bone” and “You are the Music…”. Very cool bass work that is somehow understated and refined at the same. Perhaps this ability is what Ritchie saw in Glenn first and foremost.
November 9th, 2025 at 13:05Komm Du mir heim! Comming home a forgetable track? It’s among the tunes my brain plays on hot rotation for the last 4 + decades. Can’t help it. One of the great openers and it’s still a let down they didn’t use it to open their shows. Plus: it made 15 yo me find out about a certain B.B. with Lucille – the wonderful start of a love of a lifetime…
November 9th, 2025 at 14:09Hey, “Death to Disco”-MacGregor: I incidentally love the “disco vocals” in the coda of I Need Love just as I love the backing vocals to the chorus of Hold On!
It’s what sets I Need Love apart from being just another (albeit very good) proto-Whitesnake song like Lady Luck.
Actually, I don’t find it as much Disco as I find it “Stonesy”, something you might have found on The Glimmer Twins’s Black & Blue album. Not that the Stones were ever really averse to Disco influences.
https://youtu.be/gVpzrxjiAtc
https://youtu.be/hic-dnps6MU
https://youtu.be/9iw_BE_X9sA
All of Rock’n’Roll is inherently dance music anyway, people moved around to it
November 9th, 2025 at 14:53@18
Ok I get your point.
But to me CTTB is quite funky, and funky is sweet, but I’m more into the pure rock genre (and I know, stating this I will get corrected 😁 but in my ears it’s funk.)
However Lady Luck is beautiful in all aspects. (But rock it ain’t!)
Love Child reminds me of Led Zep, and honestly I understand why Ian won’t sing these songs since they are very far away from the original Purple concept (Mark ll style, not Mark l) and DC sounds a bit like Rob Plant’s long lost twin.
It’s nice, but not the Purple I cherish 😊
Finally: You Keep On Moving reminds me of another band, though I like the vocals, but again: not the beloved Purple style. (IMHO)
The House of Blue Light and Who Do We Think We Are are among my favourites too. But even them can never replace In Rock 😍
If I may link to the real stuff:
https://youtu.be/xHEaX_fz5eU
This, Gentlemen, is Purple in all its glory 🤩 (again: imho!)
November 9th, 2025 at 18:28@19
“CTTB was obviously a radical departure from the MK II and even the Mk III trademark Purple sound.”
– Indeed Uwe! And you can love it or hate it. I do neither. But I certainly prefer where Ian G is the vocalist because his personality adds to the band’s ’devil-may-care’ + ‘tongue-in-cheek’ way I love so much.
Music as a ‘pick-me-up’ doesn’t need to be heavily analysed! Sometimes a nice tune with a big smile is all that is needed 😃
No need to go all Pink Floyd-ish to be taken seriously 😊
November 9th, 2025 at 18:37Yes, PF is still somewhat an open wound for me.. except ‘Wish you were here’, it’s beautiful but does not bring me in a good mood.
@ 23 – I am the opposite Robert, musically I didn’t know Tommy Bolin at all in 1975. I was hearing a new guitarist in DP in every sense of the word. I had read about him, but I had never heard his playing at all. Not a bad way to get into the album in that sense, I had no expectations other than the proverbial thought, ‘I don’t how good this guy is, but he better be really good’. In later years I listened to his Teaser album, but it wasn’t until the internet that I listened to him in the James Gang and also his performance on the Spectrum album. Cheers.
November 9th, 2025 at 23:05To end this (for me at least) little chat about DC and funk, this one:
https://youtu.be/oj1d63i5kHQ
It is soooooo very very good! Funky and rock at the same time, and DC’s voice is adorable (not Ian Gillan-adorable ☺️ but who is in this day and age)
I would like to know who the female backing vocals are! (Uwe, do you know that?)
November 10th, 2025 at 07:03CTTB is a great album. For hardcore fans, that is, for those who who have adventurous musical thinking and are not afraid to explore new territories.
It doesn’t do much for the casual fans, though, who are the absolute majority. If you need an example of how to play really cool funk and be relevant for large audiences, check any Doobie Brothers album from the era. CTTB would not even come close.
I wonder if we should expect a 15 CD deluxe box set soon.
November 10th, 2025 at 08:06I knew one track with Tommy Bolin when I first bought CTTB: the James Gang‘s Must Be Love
https://youtu.be/Ws_xu-od0OQ
which had been on a Warner Brothers double vinyl entitled “Heavy Metal – 24 Electrifying Performances” which, inter alia, also featured DP, Allman Brothers, Led Zep, Sabbath and T. Rex.
https://www.discogs.com/release/1624466-Various-Heavy-Metal-24-Electrifying-Performances/image/SW1hZ2U6NTkxNDA0Mw==?srsltid=AfmBOorvvP0uNsoRMkEeWR-HBvz0CcHlGDFQjdXu9sEFpI1pPOyo8633
https://www.discogs.com/release/1624466-Various-Heavy-Metal-24-Electrifying-Performances
I then bought in pretty rapid succession Teaser, Private Eyes, Spectrum and the two James Gang albums with him which were a bit more difficult to get as the James Gang without Joe Walsh was – much like Trapeze – a rather exotic act in Germany. At that point in time I still preferred much heavier music than Tommy usually played and wrote, but something in his songs and playing attracted me. I had his pre-DP work and solo albums pretty much complete before I had, say Jon Lord’s 70s solo albums complete.
*********************
Generational family drama @20 + 28: I must say, some glaring music educational deficiencies apparent there!
Still, burdened with a son, who likes Led Zep, I shall not gloat … 😔
Edith’s appreciation of Little Ian is a ray of light in my life – especially since I’m not even sure she knows who John Bonham is! 🤗😂 Hard as it may seem to grasp for someone from North America or the UK, DP were back in the day much more a household name with the general record buying public in Germany than LZ. Most LZ releases of the 70s did – unlike DP or even acts like Uriah Heep and Status Quo – not even bother the German Charts (while all DP product released between 1970 and 1976 did). We were a steadfast Deep Purple country.
She knows who Cozy Powell is though, but has little appreciation for Rainbow, the Dio stuff is too stern-faced for her (and as someone who once worked in bookstore retail she’s no great fantasy fan either, not “real literature” to her) and the Bonnet/JLT eras are too nondescript AOR to her. A song like 16th Century Greensleeves is to her a heavy-handed stomp fest “immer auf die Zwölf” and anything with a heavy metal gallop, slow or fast, makes her roll her eyes 🙄. Not a great Judas Priest fan either (“Why does he always have to scream like that?>/i>”). 😂
November 10th, 2025 at 14:37@33: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwinds#Personnel
November 10th, 2025 at 21:10@ 29- Hold On has that vocal as its chorus Uwe, it is part of the song and I have never found that cringeworthy (picture of Ritchie waving his hands from side to side). However the add lib backing ‘disco’ vocal at the end of I Need Love is unnecessary and not part of the song and to add that while Tommy is soloing is sacrilegious to my ears. Martin Birch and Ian Paice at the final mix must have thought it was ‘cute’ or something. Those Rolling Stones songs, yes I remember them, they were all over the radio and at parties too, back in those days. Not to my liking at all, but thanks for the reminder. White people doing disco does NOT work and don’t start trying to say it does. I will NOT click on any links that you may send. I have to try and keep my sanity, at least a little bit. Regarding Edith not being into fantasy, I sort of already knew that, I couldn’t imagine your marriage wouldn’t have lasted too long, he he he. Plenty of pillow talk there at least, or not! As I have always said, I can understand some people not liking Cozy or even Bonham’s drum sound and approach, there are others too that have that heavier feel and sound at times. The 1980’s spawned far too much of that and yes Judas Priest too after Dave Holland left and Scott Travis joined. It is what it is. Cheers.
November 10th, 2025 at 21:39@36
Thank you Svante 🙏🏼
November 10th, 2025 at 21:45Doreen and Irene Chanter aka The Chanter Sisters (they were indeed siblings) were the backing vocal chicks on a lot of Purple Family recordings, often together with Liza Strike and/or Helen Chappelle. Especially anything Roger Glover produced, they would be his choice.
But they were omnipresent on other Brit recordings of the 70s too + also performed as a vocal duo:
https://youtu.be/ho6sSe8TqRk
https://youtu.be/nEkfMZ4ZC0M
(A not yet famous Elton John was their musical director on their first album from 1970.)
Doreen (the blonde) also sang with another notable female Brit backing singer, Jacqueline “Jacqui(e)” Sullivan, with Roxy Music as “The Sirens”:
https://media.gettyimages.com/id/102299596/photo/english-singer-bryan-ferry-with-roxy-music-vocalists-doreen-chanter-and-jacqui-sullivan-at-the.jpg?s=612×612&w=gi&k=20&c=y6n8-Q6Cu5ucq7_78oyq0ICVyQjEYEIw3lZ7fISPyaA=
https://youtu.be/EaBTicZMWbg
November 11th, 2025 at 00:52Georgivs, ouch, that comparison between Mk IV and McDonald-era Doobie Brothers … 😑 The Doobie Brothers under Michael McDonald were funky too, true, yet in a much more smooth jazzy way, but more importantly they were mostly squeaky-clean blue-eyed soul pop (nothing wrong with that, I liked them in their later configuration too), just listen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LCB_RdfdXc
Way too clean for Mk IV, I’d compare where Mk IV wanted to go more with something like Mother’s Finest:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfKMQJgNaxM
But there is indeed one similarity: I believe that the McDonald-era Doobie’s version of the Tom Johnston-penned 1972 hit Listen To The Music (at 46:00 in the above vid from 1982) caused about as much happiness with fans of their previous line-up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkytJLoxGmQ
as when Mk IV did Mk II’s Highway Star. 😂
There is a version, also from 1982, where they jazzed it up even more …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIvvmisqpQQ
And you guys thought IGB were bad when they did SOTW!
On a musical level, I’m actually fine with the 1982 versions of Listen To The Music – they really put some new ideas in it and the radical rearrangement has its own groove – but to an old guard Doobie Brothers fan from the Tom Johnston-era it must have been a hard swallow!
I know, Herr MacGregor, white dudes can’t funk shit …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFiv9M577a4
November 11th, 2025 at 03:32Your wish is my command, Tasmanian, here you are, I Need Love mixes WITHOUT the dreaded disco singing!
Tommy & Jon isolated:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEATjtKMvh4
Glenn & Ian isolated:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODmtfVBMGAQ
Am I allowed to remark shyly on the fact that Little Ian’s drumming on this particular track is PURE DISCO 😂, so why exactly aren’t “Disco vocals” allowed?
Everybody did it back then, even the mighty Quo!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPmZS6PwsSY
November 11th, 2025 at 04:00#11&12 And someone still claims that Jon was absent from CTTB 🙂 With Love Child, This Time Around, and You Keep On Moving, he had his highlights on the album. This brilliant video shows that JL was also an important part of the MK4 sound (found on a German Deep Purple fan site). If a film about DP is ever made, I know who could impressively portray Jon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5DejuJiUT4
November 11th, 2025 at 09:30Dear Sirs,
This is especially a question for the drummer section in here, this song:
https://youtu.be/a7mVI-cWeKU
I have noticed the drummer has several cymbals. My question is: why?
I mean, he can apparently only hit one at a time (two if that is the only thing he does) but the vast amount he has, is it because the cymbals sound different?
( and yes, I have a bit of a sugar heart for Status Quo at the moment (as usual I blame Uwe a bit 😄) and they are terrific!
BTW Uwe, should you red this, I have to tell you that if you indeed give me that drumstick I can practice this phenomenal trick Mick Tucker did so very good:
(And now I want to find a song with Sweet at yt, and writing ‘Sweet’ in the search bar Def Leppard appear with ‘Poor some sugar on me’ – so much fun 😄)
Oh, but here it is:
https://youtu.be/ysCA0cRXFLo
Think about it Uwe, I could become famous, being the female Mick Tucker, and then I had YOU to thank for it 😃😄😄
November 11th, 2025 at 16:08I wonder if the “sleeve difficulties” did not come from Glenn’s prolonged stay in a facitlity to cure him of his coke addiction after he had been force-sent home from Munich.
In Germany, there was a mishap with the sleeve: The inner gatefold of the initial prints showed the inner gatefold pics from Machine Head 😂 and they only noticed that after while. Not all of them were withdrawn and those sleeve misprints then became pretty soon collectible items on record fairs in Germany!
************************************************************************
Another belated glowing reappreciation of the album by an initial doubter here:
https://joesiegler.blog/2024/10/deep-purple-come-taste-the-band/
The 2020 podcast he makes reference to in his blog is this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz8KO1HRoM4
And the two talkative young men, slightly matured, only revisited the album yesterday in their ‘The Deep Purple Podcast:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICg2upUmWWA
Listening to the album today, it strikes me how much it was a blueprint for how early Marsden-Moody-Murray-Lord-Paice (or Dowle) WS would sound. Also in how Jon changed his role from co-lead organist/50% of the Gorgan to a supportive organ player creating an aura or halo for the guitars to settle in like he did on the Whitesnake albums from Trouble to Slide It In.
November 11th, 2025 at 20:38@ 41- thanks for those isolated Deep Purple CTTB tracks Uwe, you have been spared the WRATH. Interesting hearing the different Bolin tracks there, a bit ‘scratchy’ is his playing at times. And you may also mention Ian Paice playing a disco beat, but only once and that has now been relegated to NEVER again. Deep Purple playing disco………………….where will this end…………. Play that funky music white boy………Cheers.
November 11th, 2025 at 21:08@ 44 – I remember Joe at the Black Sabbath site he had, I use to visit and comment regularly there about 15 years or so ago. These wonderful things can often happen, a musical piece or many, initially don’t strike a chord for different reasons. Decades pass by and the memory of hearing that is entrenched in a sort of lost world. Then when something sparks a re listen, magic can happen. It is a grand feeling indeed. Good to see Joe is still around. Cheers.
November 11th, 2025 at 22:29@43 Thanks for that one, Karin. I was never into SWEET… looks like I underestimated them. They were called pop and not worthy in our Gymnasium universe.
November 11th, 2025 at 23:54Crocco @42: Oh my, this guy has all the Jon Lord mannerisms down pat, including Jon’s slight “Keith Richards sloppiness” when he played rock! 😂
**********************************************
Curious Karin: Cymbals are like wimmin, structurally all the same, yes, yet you never know what individually happens when you hit on one of them. ☝️😎 They sound different, some are made to be played for longer periods (ride cymbals), some for emphasis (crash cymbals).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_sdSVMijgw
Also, Karin, drummers aren’t like normal people, there is really nothing on earth they don’t like to hit, it’s an obsessive compulsion for them often from a young age onwards …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FlhtqJtICE
Herr MacGregor and Svante will no doubt explain things better and more in depth once their daily medication wears off.
************************************
And you may also mention Ian Paice playing a disco beat, but only once and that has now been relegated to NEVER again.
You know me, Herr MacGregor, I would do no such a thing!!! 😇
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFec7sNga_c
Oops!
*****************************************
… a bit ‘scratchy’ is his playing at times …
I noticed that too, the way Tommy sometimes “rakes” the strings is a bit reminiscent of Ace Frehley’s idiosyncratic style, but unlike Ace Tommy doesn’t do it all the time.
November 12th, 2025 at 01:56Karin, incidentally, it’s too late for you to become a female M. Tucker, there already was one, Moe (Maureen) Tucker, drummeress of The Velvet Underground!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebGKpouqRqo
Moe also ‘sang’ – in a Velvet Underground/Andy Warhol NYC artsy sense …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH9OaI1Vidg
November 12th, 2025 at 04:40I love this album because it has beautiful production where all the instruments are clearly heard (the drums are fantastic). I wonder if Ezrin has ever listened to this album… #1 sounds like shit.
November 12th, 2025 at 08:44@ 43- Karin, this gentleman gives a quick 6 minute demonstration as to the three most used cymbals in popular music. There can be more cymbals used or even less, depending on the musician and the music being performed. Cheers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOXQGXLzvAs&t=220s
November 12th, 2025 at 08:45@43 Mrs Karin Verndal
Il suono dei piatti è determinante per il sound generale di una batteria. Per via della vastissima scelta a disposizione, però, è difficile persino per i batteristi con più esperienza trovare il proprio set. Se poi ci aggiungiamo variabili quali genere musicale, stile personale e gusto soggettivo, la ricerca diventa pressoché infinita.
November 12th, 2025 at 09:09@4
Totally agree, by far the worst Deep Purple album ever! It shouldn’t even have the name Deep Purple on it. Call it anything else, by this time the band was done.
November 12th, 2025 at 16:28@ 48- Thanks again Uwe. I did notice that isolated track for Love Don’t Mean A Thing when viewing and listening to your first link. I just needed a few days to get over the first one before venturing into that realm again. It is always fascinating to hear these isolated recordings, so much that we don’t normally hear. As in the ‘idiosyncracies’ of the players. The little squeaks and buzzing of strings, a slight mis hit or two on the drums etc etc. I will listen to You Can’t Do It Right soon. @ 43- Karin, if you are seriously thinking about taking up the drums, the most difficult thing of all is communicating and associating with those pesky bass guitarists. Otherwise the drumming itself is a piece of cake………..oh and get Anton and René some hearing protection. Cheers.
November 12th, 2025 at 20:29Tsk, tsk, tsk, Max, in 1976-77 I fearlessly wore a The Sweet metal button pin in 11th and 12th grade Gymnasiale Oberstufe on my jacket. Plus one by Rainbow and one by Status Quo and one by Kiss and one by Ted Nugent (“If it’s too loud, you’re too old!”) and one by the Scorpions and one by Slade! Facing derision at every school break for having a Realschüler – und Schlosserlehrlingsmusikgeschmack, yet I persevered! How could you be so spineless, was your Gymnasium in reactionary Bavaria and not woke-progressive Hessen (like – needless to mention – mine), I dare ask? 😂 And what will Tillythemax make of all this?
https://sites-cf.mhcache.com/e/1/az1zaXRlc192MSZzPTY3MDhmZjgxNWViNmRlODI5ZmM2ZDA0MzRlMzcxZTQxZjI0OTgwNDM0Mzc0OGE5NzlkOWI1NzI3OTUxNTM3ZjYmZT0xNzYzNTg2MDAw/008/694/3264/000164_49911628b6330bdymn401f_D.jpg
https://sites-cf.mhcache.com/e/1/az1zaXRlc192MSZzPTVlYTAyOGUzNGY3OGFjYzFhMjhmZTEzMmJjNWE5ZGZhYTdhNzdjYjZhZjM0NDQ3MmY5MzJjNWUzMDI2OTU5MzEmZT0xNzYzNTg2MDAw/008/694/3264/000046_70740579050f6ds42jta10_Z.jpg
(No Smokie poster though, even though I never thought them terrible, they were just “too much acoustic guitar” for me.)
November 12th, 2025 at 21:59Wiktor & that Beatles producer: Some people just never see it …
https://youtu.be/ErLHmjEyNhw
🤣
https://www.thenostalgiashop.co.uk/products/deep-purple-come-taste-the-band-vintage-advert-1975-ref-ad17122
https://www.ebay.com/itm/314015616605
https://mikeladano.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/aug-18-2013_0008.jpg
November 12th, 2025 at 22:19@47
“Thanks for that one, Karin.”
– you’re welcome Max 😊
I know Sweet was a bobblegum band in some aspects, but I loved them, still do actually.
BTW: the bass (Steve) and drums (Mick) can do wonders with the rythm they produce. But that is a completely different thing! (Yes, it has to do with the frequency and pain relief 😃)
Really think Mick Tucker was great (NOT Ian Paice great of course) and I’m still practicing doing what he can with a drumstick. (And apparently I will never get my hands on the Ian P’ drumstick Uwe possesses 😄)
I remember being a kid and the girls were crazy with Sweet, and not because of the music.
November 13th, 2025 at 08:46I loved their music and rather lately saw them, and thougt: well ok, they certainly dont get my motor running 😁
@48
“Curious Karin”
– well Uwe, that’s my only virtue ☺️
“Cymbals are like wimmin, structurally all the same”
– ok, now I go on that diet 😅
“They sound different, some are made to be played for longer periods (ride cymbals), some for emphasis (crash cymbals).“
– thank you, that’s what I was wondering!
Thanks for the link, but what language is it – didn’t understood anything but the guy looks quite enthusiastic 😅
The other link: I have always admired Cosy, sad he died so young 🥺
November 13th, 2025 at 08:55@49
“it’s too late for you to become a female M. Tucker”
– no Uwe, that’s never too late! You have no idea what I’m capable of 😃
Thank you for the links!
November 13th, 2025 at 08:58@51
Thanks MacGregor! I get it 😃
The way Ian P plays the cymbals here is wonderful:
https://youtu.be/OorZcOzNcgE
And the other day I was listening to Whitesnake and it was with Ian behind the drums, he did something similar….
November 13th, 2025 at 09:02Arrhhh now I can’t find the tune and don’t have time to search for it, well just believe me 😄😄
@52
Grazie mille, Andre 😃
Credo che diventerò un batterista quando non avrò più voglia di lavorare come omeopata!
In Italia va tutto bene?
November 13th, 2025 at 09:06@54
“the most difficult thing of all is communicating and associating with those pesky bass guitarists”
– 🤣
Well I guess I will never play with Uwe 😁😂 so guess that problem is a moot point 😃
“oh and get Anton and René some hearing protection.”
November 13th, 2025 at 09:10– can you recommend some good ones? You know where they cannot hear me swearing every time I drop the drumsticks or get them in my eyes 😄
@55
“(No Smokie poster though, even though I never thought them terrible, they were just “too much acoustic guitar” for me.)”
– Uwe, I liked and still like Smokie!
The little vocalist was adorable, especially in this:
https://youtu.be/eHBP1SitZSw
Btw: the drummer! He is something else 😃
November 13th, 2025 at 09:13@56
Unfortunately I’ve seen it twice. An absolute train wreck. Bad album and terrible live. Sorry Uwe but I call it the way I see it and hear it and it was was God awful. I do remember that one advertisement from that time.
November 13th, 2025 at 11:57For me it´s best Purple-album ever (studio)
November 13th, 2025 at 12:21@61 Karin
“Everything’s fine” if I “feel” Italian, that the mafia and corruption are fine, that it’s a country that lives only on tourists and museums, that a minister steals money from pension funds but is still in government (if I steal an apple I’ll be sentenced on summary judgment), if I’m okay with the fact that in restaurants there are Northern European prices but we are a country with the lowest wages in Europe, that young people flee abroad, that people are nostalgic for the bald man and that in the end those who accept all this end up complaining (but only when they find themselves with nothing on the street because before everything was fine).
November 13th, 2025 at 16:31@66
I am sorry 🥺
Thought miss Meloni was a good leader?
Well what do I know?
You could move to Denmark! The weather is awful, mostly rain and grey skies, it’s cold summer and winter, but the winter is the best because then we have 🔥 in the house 😄
The food isn’t anything to speak of either! Ok yes, we have several Michelin restaurants but the price range is so crazy I can’t even afford to dream about eating there 😅
But I tell you what is good: the coffee! At the moment I make coffee from a blend called ‘Irish Rum Cream’ and it is yummy 🤤
Besides the coffee we also make ok good beer (yes we do Uwe 😄) Carlsberg is among my favourites. The wine production is also happening now, thanks to, the warmer (read: less colder) weather, and I know for a fact that if you like to go hunting, there are plenty possibilities to shoot a nice meal.
What else do we have in Denmark?
Well, no mafia, not even motorcycle-rockers, since they are all being banned…. But we still have a fairly high rate of crimes!
We have beautiful beaches and lovely forests, not to forget here in Randers where I live, a local guy (a quite nice man) has made a shrine for the butter tenor, aka Elvis. And I know for a fact that his widow (Elvis’ widow that is) will visite next year, March I think it is.
We also have lovely music, maybe you’ve heard this:
https://youtu.be/V-zJ92Xy4bI
Love them very much but you need to understand Danish to get the jokes!
The vocalist, Simon Kvam, is also a brilliant comedian.
This one is adorable
https://youtu.be/KlV-xGTV1P0
And this:
https://youtu.be/riHdzZ5_K6U
Unbelievable delicious 😃
So think about it!
November 13th, 2025 at 18:44@55 Well, when I was at the Gymnasiale Oberstufe non of those bands were of the slightest interests for my classmates. They wouldn’t have known any of those mentioned by you (maybe Kiss, if you showed them a picture). This said, some of my printed band-shirts and my folder with a collage of some of my heroes raised the attention of some of the older teachers. One asked me to make him a Rainbow mixtape-CD…
November 13th, 2025 at 21:21For me it was mainly Purple, Sabbath, Rainbow, Dio, Alice Cooper, Iron Maiden and later on Guns N’ Roses and Aerosmith whose lyrics were handwritten on every free cardbord-folder; metal-pins I didn’t have.
Realschul-Rock like AC/DC and Motörhead I went on to enjoy some time after my abitur.
Well well well Uwe… I wouldn’t have dared to leave the house with that collection of pins on the jeans jacket my parents wouldn’t let me wear… not for fear of getting bullied… but because I developed a sense of true quality early on . A Rainbow pin I did by myself for need of proper merch to get my hands on, a Whitesnake pin I wore too – bought it at a Rainbow gig – but Sweet, Slade, Scorpions…I wouldnt wanna be seen with those hanging dead on the fence! And no Smokie one as well… we’re talking 14 + here….
November 13th, 2025 at 21:32Why is Max now writing under his son’s moniker?
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George @64: You saw Mk IV live twice?!
https://preview.redd.it/vi4ldytkeajy.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=416f546a6387bd2f289b1efc4d4076a711a99498
Envy devours my entrails … Come on, force yourself to give us some details from your harrowing experience! Where did you see them and were the sets the same?
November 13th, 2025 at 23:34@ 70
I saw them January 22nd and January 23rd 1976 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The sets were the same. The 23rd show audio is on you tube, take a listen to it and see if you can get through the entire show. I doubt it, it’s terrible. Jon Lord and Ian Paice are incredible trying to salvage the train wreck but it was almost impossible to do. The concert is heavy on Jon because Tommy was to wasted to play most of the parts. Every time a guitar part comes along Jon just jumps on top of it in order to save it. Just listen to the guitar solos in Burn and Highway Star. They don’t exist and don’t tell me that’s Tommy improvising. Jon basically plays everything. Trust me I was there. Also, it didn’t help that Glenn was totally wasted too. Look no loves Deep Purple more than me, no one but this was not Deep Purple. About a month or two after these shows the band broke up. Also, I think Coverdale is a great singer when it comes to his own material but he can’t sing Gillan songs to save his life. This is just my opinion but I bet if you asked anyone else there they would say the same thing. This was not DeepPurple. I hate to say this but Nazareth opened for them and they were 1000 times better.
November 14th, 2025 at 14:10Thanks for the eye and ear witness report, George, much appreciated. Wow, two Mk IV gigs in a row.
I don’t doubt one bit that Tommy failed at replicating Ritchie’s parts, I’m convinced he never sat down to try to understand them, much less learn them properly. What he did live was perfunctory at best and not more than a child’s raw and scrawly sketch of what these solos should be. I would even go as far as to say that Tommy was never technically accomplished enough to play the Highway Star solo the way it needs to be played nor could he do the necessary bends and doublestops as controlled and accurately as Ritchie. Tommy could do very little else other than play like Tommy Bolin (though that was very charming). Martin Birch summed it up when he said about the CTTB sessions: “Unlike Ritchie, Tommy played entirely on feel.” And if he didn’t feel something, then that was that, end of story.
And that DC and Glenn were no good at tackling Mk II material? What else is new? 🤣 Mk III and IV should have never attempted Highway Star or Space Trucking, they were awful at it.
Mk IV were basically only good at doing their own thing: Mk IV music. I would have been happy to see them playing only Hush (which they never did, but could have credibly done I think) and SOTW from DP’s past and otherwise concentrate on CTTB material only. For someone who grew up on the music of Mk II and Mk III that would have been of course hard to stomach and a disappointment.
Similarly, I have no doubts that a very close-knit band like Nazareth in their prime might have given DP a run for their money. They were an excellent live band and they were hungry. Should have gone much further than they did, especially as they had more of a pop sensibility than Purple where catchy chorus parts were more or less coincidence. Even Mk III were not invincible, when they played Hamburg in Germany in March 1975, local heroes Randy Pie gave them a hard time as openers, the press said Purple struggled afterwards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLf1fKuWB9Q
What about the rapport between Glenn and Tommy though, was that in evidence at RCMH? Sorry to be a pest! 😎
November 16th, 2025 at 03:02@72
You’re not being a pest. I love talking about concerts that I have gone to. Glenn was on the left and pretty much did not move to far away from his microphone. Coverdale in the middle and Tommy on the right. Tommy also did not move around that much either. If Coverdale was not needed on stage he walked off. Guitar, organ and drum solos he was gone, in fact now that I think about it even if he wasn’t singing at the moment he was gone. Glen and Tommy really didn’t have a real connection. They pretty much stayed in place. I am not saying they ignored one another but they were kind of in there own world, not really paying attention to one another. I can’t believe this January it will be 50 years ago. You know as bad as it was I would give anything to go back and do it all over again. Time is going by to fast. I can’t wait for the touring next year hopefully it won’t be the last. Fingers crossed.
November 16th, 2025 at 21:51Viewing that Randy Pie song and I couldn’t believe that that would give DP a hard time as an opening act. Although Glenn Hughes would have enjoyed them me thinks. Maybe they were a bit more rocking and rolling on other material they had. And that lead vocalist looks so much like Rob Halford from the same era. A uncanny resemblance don’t you think? Cheers.
November 16th, 2025 at 22:13Thanks George, looks like the abundance of drugs in NYC in the Bicentennial year was not a good thing! 😂
At the Budokan gig, Glenn and Tommy were as enamoured with each other as a gay couple!
Herr MacGregor, Randie Pie were a Hamburg band so that might have helped them at that gig in their home town. They were also critics’ darlings for being so “un-Krautrock”. Highway Driver was a single, their other stuff was more improvisational, but retained the funky vibe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aSs7F_FOtQ
(great organ solo)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdzNZ_YacSY
You’re of course right, Glenn probably watched them from the side of the stage and thought: “Man, this is the music I should be doing!”
Blackers btw graced one of their singles with his guitar playing @01:35:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvpiChwc3kA
Perhaps he knew some of them back from his Hamburg days in the 60s.
November 18th, 2025 at 02:21Glenn’s and Tommy’s rapport and chemistry seem to be intense here (and Tommy wears my favorite jacket with him! 😎),
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcIH006dWbA&t=235s
that is why I asked about the RCMH concerts, George. But I guess the temptations of the Big Apple had them both washed out at those gigs.
November 18th, 2025 at 22:27At the end of it Tommy spins around. If he tried that when I saw him I guarantee he would have fallen down. Glenn was also moving better than what I saw.
November 19th, 2025 at 17:09Yeah, the Tommy pirouette!
Tommy always had an effeminate way of moving on stage (even when raising his fist in the air) – or let’s call it outright gay. That wouldn’t have been an issue with an act like David Bowie or Roxy Music, but in 1975 with a band like DP and a predecessor like Ritchie, I always wondered whether that played a subconscious role in his lack of acceptance by many fans. Him and Glenn would have made a wonderful gay couple.
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/y8jdWMEjjBhQ6nwzwXtzAf.jpg
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQbApNravWg4p26SG3tTYRdxG-M_X1HF-3nKRy7ZGx02TyViG64X6LSKW4p&s=10
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November 20th, 2025 at 15:40