Deep Purple Biography
Deep Purple survived a seemingly endless series of lineup
changes and a dramatic mid-career shift from grandiose progressive rock to
ear-shattering heavy metal to emerge as a true institution of the British hard
rock community; once credited in the -Guinness Book of World Records as the
globe's loudest band, their revolving-door roster launched the careers of
performers including Ritchie
Blackmore, David
Coverdale, and Ian
Gillan. Deep Purple was formed in Hertford, England, in 1968, with an
inaugural lineup that featured guitarist Blackmore,
vocalist Rod
Evans, bassist Nick
Simper, keyboardist Jon
Lord, and drummer Ian
Paice. Initially dubbed Roundabout,
the group was first assembled as a session band for ex-Searchers
drummer Chris
Curtis but quickly went their own way, touring Scandinavia before beginning
work on their debut LP, Shades of Deep Purple. The most pop-oriented release of
their career, the album generated a Top Five American hit with its reading of Joe
South's "Hush" but otherwise went unnoticed at home. The Book of
Taliesyn followed (in the U.S. only) in 1969, again cracking the U.S. Top 40
with a cover of Neil
Diamond's "Kentucky Woman." With their self-titled third LP, Deep
Purple's ambitions grew, however; the songs reflecting a new complexity and
density as Lord's
classically influenced keyboards assumed a much greater focus. Soon after the
album's release, their American label Tetragrammaton folded, and with the
dismissals of Evans
and Simper,
the band started fresh, recruiting singer Ian
Gillan and bassist Roger
Glover from the ranks of the pop group Episode
Six. The revamped Deep Purple's first album, 1970's Concerto for Group and
Orchestra, further sought to fuse rock and classical music. When the project,
which was recorded with the Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra, was poorly received, Blackmore
took creative control of the band, steering it towards a heavier,
guitar-dominated approach which took full advantage of Gillan's
powerful vocals. The gambit worked; 1970's Deep Purple in Rock heralded the
beginning of the group's most creatively and commercially successful period. At
home, the album sold over a million copies, with the subsequent non-LP single
"Black Night" falling just shy of topping the U.K. pop charts. 1971's Fireball
was also a smash, scoring a hit with "Strange Kind of Woman." Plans to
record the follow-up at the Casino in Montreux, Switzerland, were derailed after
the venue burned down during a live appearance by Frank
Zappa, but the experience inspired Deep Purple's most enduring hit, the AOR
staple "Smoke on the Water." The song, featured on the multi-platinum
classic Machine
Head, reached the U.S. Top Five in mid-1972 and positioned Deep Purple among
rock's elite; the band consolidated its status with the 1973 studio follow-up Who
Do We Think We Are and the hit "Woman From Tokyo." However,
long-simmering creative differences between Blackmore
and Gillan
pushed the latter out of the group that same year, with Glover
soon exiting as well; singer David
Coverdale and bassist/singer Glenn
Hughes were recruited for 1974's Burn,
and Gillan
meanwhile formed a band bearing his own name. After completing 1974's Stormbringer,
Blackmore
left Deep Purple to form Rainbow
with vocalist Ronnie
James Dio; his replacement was ex-James Gang
guitarist Tommy
Bolin, who made his debut on Come Taste the Band. All the changes clearly
took their toll, however, and following a farewell tour, the group dissolved in
1976 with Coverdale
going on to form Whitesnake;
Bolin died of
a drug overdose later in the year. The classic lineup of Blackmore,
Gillan, Lord,
Glover, and Paice
reunited Deep Purple in 1984 for a new album, the platinum smash Perfect
Strangers; The House of Blue Light followed three years later, but as past
tensions resurfaced, Gillan
again exited in mid-1989. Onetime Rainbow
vocalist Joe
Lynn Turner was recruited for 1990's Slaves and Masters before Gillan
again rejoined to record The Battle Rages On..., an apt title as Blackmore
quit the group midway through the supporting tour, to be temporarily replaced by
Joe
Satriani.
In 1994, Steve
Morse took over the guitar slot, fresh from a stint in Kansas;
the revitalized group returned to the studio for 1996's Purpendicular,
which proved a success among the Purple faithful. 1998's Abandon
followed, as well as a 1999 orchestral performance released the following year
as Live at the Royal Albert Hall. Deep Purple was given the box set treatment
the same year with the four-disc set Shades:
1968-1998, which collected hits, demos, live takes, and unreleased tracks
from throughout the years (touching upon all of Purple's different lineups). The
late '90s/early 2000s saw the release of several other archival releases and
collections (Machine
Head 25th Anniversary, Friends
& Relatives, Rhino's The Very Best Of, and Days May Come and Days May
Go: The 1975 California Rehearsals), as well as a slew of DVDs (Total Abandon:
Live Australia 1999, In Concert with the London Symphony Orchestra, Bombay
Calling, and New Live & Rare). Former member Blackmore
also kept himself busy after leaving the band by issuing a single album with his
briefly resuscitated outfit Rainbow
(1998's Stranger in Us All), before forming the Renaissance-inspired Blackmore's
Night with fiancée/vocalist Candice
Night. Despite numerous lineup upheavals during their career, Deep Purple
remains alive and well in the 21st century. Jason Ankeny & Greg Prato, All
Music Guide