Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Deep Purple
Label: Parlophone Records
Release: 1968
Length: 43:27
Rating: 3/5
The story behind the making of Deep Purple’s debut »Shades of Deep Purple« is inseparable from the tale of how this legendary, many-sided British hard rock band came to be. With all the famous feats of the ‘golden’ Mark II lineup, which most fans of these heavy rock legends still rate highest today, people often forget that there was once an original Deep Purple lineup (Mark I). With its unique blend of psychedelia, symphonic touches, blues and rock, it played a hugely important role in the development of the early forms of heavy rock and progressive rock too. Even though they’re now cherished in nearly equal measure by heavy metal, hard rock and progressive rock fans, the members of Deep Purple still don’t like being pigeonholed, which is perfectly understandable given how often their music burst past genre boundaries.
It all started when former The Searchers drummer Chris Curtis got a wild idea in his head: to form a supergroup called Roundabout, in which the members would keep swapping in and out. His vision of a superstar merry-go-round slowly began to take shape when he brought in classically trained Hammond organ player Jon Lord from The Artwoods as his first recruit. Lord was soon joined by the headstrong guitar gem Ritchie Blackmore, who, after some persuading, rushed back from Hamburg to try out at an audition. Even then Blackmore was a highly respected session guitarist, with stints in groups like The Outlaws, Neil Christian and The Crusaders and Screaming Lord Sutch under his belt. Curtis’s paranoid behavior, which surfaced very quickly, grew more and more unbearable, until he was finally forced out of his own project.
Lord and Blackmore, who had meanwhile figured out that their playing styles went together like bread and butter, nevertheless decided to carry on building the newly redefined Roundabout project, and brought an old acquaintance of Blackmore’s, bassist Nick Simper (ex-Johnny Kidd and The Pirates), into the budding band. Bobby Woodman was originally supposed to take the drum stool, but things took a different turn during the auditions for a singer, where Rod Evans (ex-The Maze) got the job. Blackmore was completely won over by the barely 18-year-old Ian Paice, who used to earn his bread alongside Evans in The Maze, and the drumming spot was his right after the audition. Paice is, to this day, the last original member who has played on every single version of the legendary band. And so the original Mark I Deep Purple lineup was born, and it threw itself into recording the debut with gusto. The name Roundabout was tossed in the bin soon after the first gigs, while the new band name was picked on Blackmore’s initiative.
»Shades of Deep Purple« got a pretty lukewarm commercial reception at home, while the response in the US, mainly thanks to the hit »Hush«, was completely different. Stylistically, interestingly enough, it sits closer to psychedelia and early progressive rock than to the hard rock that would conquer the world a few years later. Most of the songs are dominated by a fusion of the massive, layered sound of Lord’s Hammond organ, Blackmore’s guitar artistry rooted in blues romanticism, and Paice’s generous drum fills. Evans’s melodic, classic ‘old-school English’ vocal approach was key to flinging the doors of America wide open so early on, while Simper delivered an unspectacular but solid supply of bass lines.
»Shades of Deep Purple« featured four originals and four covers, the standout being the aforementioned cover of Joe South’s »Hush«, which they still play live today. At heart it’s a pleasant pop rocker with a distinctly lovely chorus riding on Evans’s melodic vocals and a love-song lyric where the Beatles’ influence is easy to feel. It’s all backed by the shimmering sound of the Hammond organ and Lord’s sensual mid-song solo, which is one of the most vivid in the entire career of this legendary keyboardist. Despite Blackmore’s roaring guitar passages, »Hush« is propped up by an almost danceable rhythm the whole way through, which makes for a good time and contributed in many ways to the early American success.
The opening instrumental »And the Address«, where all the strengths of the individual players mentioned above get to shine, came out of numerous early jams, which became a favorite way of creating new songs throughout Deep Purple’s history. »One More Rainy Day« is another relaxing track with a distinctly catchy, melodic chorus. Backed by Lord’s full-bodied organ passages, Blackmore’s stinging guitar phrases and Paice’s well-measured drum fills, it somewhat surprisingly didn’t get much of a commercial response.
Next up is the progressive rock hybrid »Prelude/I’m So Glad«. The intro section is an instrumental orgy built on an arrangement of the first part of the suite Scheherazade by the classical Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, which Lord slyly turned into a proper duel between the Hammond and Blackmore’s electric guitar. The latter was already cutting through the air with unusual sharpness back then, so the later stylistic shift into hard rock wasn’t all that surprising. In the second part of this fun experiment it flows into a cover of »I’m So Glad« (originally by Skip James), which Cream had covered earlier. Evans and Paice had also already done it in their previous band, The Maze. Deep Purple modeled theirs on the Cream version, and the two are similar in many ways, with the key difference that theirs is longer and sounds much rawer as a whole, while the rowdy Hammond once again helps Paice’s drums dictate a distinctly fiery rhythm.
The progressive rock orgy »Mandrake Root«, marked by unpredictable instrumental meanders, is another beloved Deep Purple classic that came out of a long group jam, and it may be the best proof on the whole album of the quality of the original Mark I lineup. The instrumental jam in the middle stands out mainly thanks to Lord’s mouthwatering organ solo and Paice’s unbridled taming of the drum kit. Blackmore, too, with his offering of dizzying guitar riffs, proves why he soon came to be regarded as one of the greatest guitarists of all time. At later gigs this became one of those Purple classics they liked to stretch out to more than 20 minutes.
The very successful cover of the Beatles classic »Help«, which the legendary Fab Four themselves reportedly liked, also found a nice commercial response with the Americans. Evans’s melodic, classically English vocal approach was born for singing Beatles classics, while Lord’s organ adds an extra warmth of a very special kind to this evergreen. Deep Purple wouldn’t be great innovators if they hadn’t spiced it all up with a short instrumental passage, in the middle of which a brief but mighty guitar solo stands out. The psychedelic standard »Love Help Me« is a typical example of the cheerful, positive-minded Mark I style, with lively rhythms and Evans’s endearingly melodic vocals under a strong Beatles influence. Still, despite the rather transparent love lyric, there isn’t a trace of instrumental naivety.
The closing melancholic prog rock-blues hybrid »Hey Joe« (originally written by Billy Roberts) is yet another instant Deep Purple classic. Its instrumental intro features a military march on the drums, a fiery run of guitar phrases and a booming layer of Hammond organ. Lord’s organ antics mesh perfectly with Blackmore’s untamed guitar escapades and lead into a blues-rock-tinged section where Evans’s vocals join in. Weighed down by the burden of the unexpected American success, the original Purple singer shows off his often-overlooked vocal versatility more strikingly here for the first time, with a blues-spiced approach. The whole thing is accompanied throughout by massive layers of Hammond, while Blackmore’s guitar solo this time may even be the best on the whole album. Although the original author of »Hey Joe« was Billy Roberts, the band’s main inspiration for the adaptation was the 1966 version by the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
The psychedelic-tinged Deep Purple debut is a vivid mirror of the original Mark I lineup, a band that leaped forward with every successive release, and today it’s mainly of interest to anyone digging into the roots of heavy metal, hard rock and progressive rock. Despite the fact that it doesn’t reflect the much heavier rock approach they later became known for, »Shades of Deep Purple« is a better debut than many from comparable legendary bands, and from the standpoint of Deep Purple’s astonishingly fast stylistic evolution it’s an extremely valuable document of their early days.
This review is dedicated to Jon Lord (1941-2012).
Lineup
Rod Evans – vocals
Ritchie Blackmore – guitar
Jon Lord – Hammond organ, keyboards, backing vocals
Nick Simper – bass guitar, backing vocals
Ian Paice – drums
Production
Derek Lawrence
Track list
1. And The Address (4:37)
2. Hush (4:25)
3. One More Rainy Day (3:39)
4. Prelude: Happiness / I’m So Glad (7:20)
5. Mandrake Root (6:08)
6. Help (6:00)
7. Love Help Me (3:48)
8. Hey Joe (7:32)
