The first two Deep Purple albums and hit singles had made the band stars in the United States, if not its home country of England. There was dissention developing, however, as founding members Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore, supported by drummer Ian Paice, wanted to take the group in a hard rock direction. Bassist Nick Simper and vocalist Rod Evans were opposed to this change of direction, which would result in their eventual ouster from the band.
Their third self-titled album, sometimes referred to as Deep Purple III, was released during June of 1969 in the United States and during November in the U.K. It was the least successful of their three early albums, in part because the group's label, Tetragrammaton, was on the verge of bankruptcy.
Deep Purple was the least satisfying of their three early career releases, although it can also be considered their most adventurous. It was probably a better fit during the time period of its release as its music sounds a little dated today. Its disjointed, yet creative, nature, has been overshadowed by their hard rock popularity of the last four-plus decades. Shades Of Deep Purple and The Book Of Taliesyn provide more stability and are ultimately more satisfying overall than III’s meandering through a number of different styles and sounds. Still, if you want to hear something different from Deep Purple, then this is an album you may want to seek out.
The opening “Chasing Shadows” was a tight rock piece with a thundering drum foundation by Paice. The band would begin a number of their future albums in the same way. “Why Didn’t Rosemary” was almost a 1950s and early 1960s throwback, as Ritchie Blackmore contributes artful solos, which would soon become a band staple.
On the other hand, the 12-minute “April” was unlike just about anything else the band would ever record. It was divided into three parts. There is an opening instrumental with a long Blackmore guitar solo, a classical chamber orchestra section written by Jon Lord that contains no participation by any of the band members, then vocals, and finally, another guitar solo. I’m not sure how good it was but it was interesting.
Article comments
1 - jcmosquito
David - nice to see you got to the Depp Purple stuff finally. I don't know if you remember, but I took a shot at reviewing these albums in July 2008 - and ran out of steam to do the rest. However, lately, I have been listening to a lot of Deep Purple related stuff, and finding odd surprises along the way.
But first - I think you missed it on the last Simper/Evans album - I thought it was strong - well, stronger than all those Beatles' covers and other filler on the first two releases. Actually, there was a two record set called Purple Passages (the cover was mostly blue - go fig) that compiled the best of the three albums - it was pretty good actually.
But in retrospect, the Gillan/Glover deal paid off. But what happened to Simper and Evans?
Not really sure about Nick Simper - hung around in the industry and quit soon after I'd guess. Rod Evans went on to front Captain Beyond, with Johnny Winter's old drummer, Iron Butterfly's bassist, and a later Iron Butterfly guitarist, Larry Rheinhart (sp?). There's some youtube footage of them - a classic 70s hard rock band with some interesting chops, and Rod Evans sounding much tougher and harder than he did during his stint with Deep Purple. Personally - I thought the band had a terrible name, and equally terrible album covers. They could have made it, I think.
I'll be reading along as you write the rest - good luck with it. Especially if you include Rainbow, The Ian Gillan Band, David Coverdale's Whitesnake, Glen Hughes etc. etc. etc..........
2 - David Bowling
Nick Simper and The Nasty Habits have been touring for the past several years and perform the Deep Purple Mark I material.
3 - jcmosquito
And there ya go.... are they any good?
4 - David Bowling
Some of their stuff is on utube and let me say, Yikes!