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Purple blitzkrieg
Roger Glover chats with Martin Popoff about musical blitzkriegs, styles, sonics, prolific players, dull strings, abrasive admirals, leaping out, and being easy to get along with:
DEEP PURPLE’s first platter in eight years, NOW What?!, began life on the internet with a light advance track called ‘All The Time In The World’, one that had the mighty Purple eaters of the world bickering with stomachs grumbling.
You’d have to ask the record company that. Yeah, it wouldn’t have been my choice. But then again, ‘Smoke On The Water’ wasn’t my choice either. I know nothing about that. I know nothing about the selling of music. They felt, I guess, that ‘All The Time In The World’ would get play on the softer stations, the Radio 2s of the world, or… I don’t know; I don’t know what their plan was. They’re a great company and they really believe in this record and I can’t remember… I thought to myself, how did they come to that decision? And I can only think that they had a meeting of all the staff and said, ‘Right, what are your feelings?’ I have no idea. I thought at first, you know, that’s not a good thing to put out. But then I thought, it’s certainly going to make the album much more of a blitzkrieg when it does come out.
Read more on BraveWords.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Despite the many versions of Deep Purple, much of their “sound” has been due to the brands of instruments they play. Imagine, for example, if the Hammond were replaced with some other brand of organ–or with merely an electronic keyboard.
Throughout the years, Blackmore maintained his connection with the Fender Stratocaster and that association kept his part of the Purple sound alive. Steve Morse and his Music Man likewise perpetuate the sound for his era. Tommy Bolin played a variety of marques and models, but it was his playing with the Fender Stratocaster that had the greatest Purple connection.
Probably only the most musically savvy can discriminate between the various brands of drums and bass, but I feel some of Glover’s best work was done on the Fender Precision and the Rickenbacker 4000 series. Glenn Hughes kept that tradition alive in Mark III and IV.
It is nice to see Roger going back to his roots with a Fender. I have long maintained that the band needed to simplify their sound and go back to their roots instead of trying to reïnvent the wheel.
Sometimes round works best.
April 29th, 2013 at 00:54Dear Tracy, I read your comment on ‘Morse track-by-track’ article, and if you read this interview, interestingly enough you will also read Roger Glover made hint that Steve Morse has always thought that he is the with ‘those people’ (even if Steve Morse is the longest serving guitarist on Deep Purple)
Let me quote this interview “He still feels like he’s the outsider of the band. Even though he’s been in the band 20 years now. Probably because he’s American and we’re not. No, that’s a huge thing. And he really enjoys himself, playing with us, that’s for sure……..”
Well, honestly I don’t know how to put my opinion on this case. Maybe, just maybe (so I might be wrong too), I think Steve is always put his ‘down-to-earth’ attitude in every aspect of his working days, including Deep Purple. From Roger interview above, I also could sniff that the ‘old members’ always support Morse (and Airey) as the ‘lead strikers’ of the band. But maybe(again), Steve never intended to show his presence in Deep Purple on the surface (I mean interviews, promo, etc). Steve just do his job professionally, always show what he is in Deep Purple with his fingers only.
Never mind, as long as the band is happy, Steve is happy, personally I don’t think this is a big issue at all. I could safely conclude that Steve is the perfect personality for Deep Purple.
Just another quote from this interview “….Virtuosic people generally aren’t easy to get along with. But Steve is easy to get along with, as long as we live in the same world with him.”
If I could take time for a little complain, I just wish he was on the big space for deciding the set list, you know what I mean. If I was Morse, I would put a condition that at least 3-4 songs (exclude instruments like TWDG or CL) on the set list in every concerts are coming from DP albums with me.
Cheers
April 29th, 2013 at 07:23Very good observation T. Steve’s sound isn’t very british heavy…It’s too brown and soft for that. The overriding factor for me though is that people underestimate how the voice has changed too. Ian although still very good, sings nothing (and I mean nothing) like he used to. that could also be a different instrument!
The vocalists tone and phrasing are over 50% of the sound of any band. Add to that the vocal dynamics that IG brought to the first 4 (studio) MkII albums (and to a lesser degree PS and HOBL) and you have a very different sounding band. I think the band appreciate that and now play very much to their current strengths.
It would be nice however if Steve would strap on a strat once in a while and play his own style on the most iconic guitar there is. I understand that he wants to maintain his individuality and of course that he is sponsored by Music Man, but if he can play Bob Ezrin’s Gold top LP, why could he not play a couple of solos on a Strat? You never know, he might like it!!
Cheers
April 29th, 2013 at 11:30Picking simpler accessible songs like All the time and hell to pay is smart marketing. Cmon Roger…you must have like All the Time as it ended up on the record. Just say…we like them all and we let the record company pick.
April 29th, 2013 at 13:48On this album I agree Ian sings nothing like he used to, he sings better! Same goes for how they play. It’s like the difference between waking up in the morning with a smile, or a growl. This growls like a friggen bear!
April 30th, 2013 at 14:42Andre #2,
You are correct in so many ways, yet it does take away from the ‘ownership’ o f one’s position when you continue to express yourself as a hired gun. Hard to be a real band when one of the 5 continues to just ‘go along’. He had a whole different attitude when interviewed about ‘ Flying Colors’. A new band. Not what he has been a part of for 18+ years…. Oh, and won’t ever get him the notoriety Purple has. I love Steve and his ability. I don’t care for his spine, or lack there of…. Not very ‘American’ as far as I’m concerned. He needs to ‘bone-up’.
Ch-BeerZ?!
May 1st, 2013 at 03:54Morse is such a modest down to earth guy, it is probably just the way he looks at it. I admire him for his Dregs & Trio band & for being able to play the guitar in a band called Deep Purple. It would be incredibly hard I would imagine, to do that, following you know who! Satriani talked a few years ago about how it was too much to contemplate being the ‘guitarist’ in that band! He knew of the continual pressure from first, himself, & then from fans, media & the like! Something like that anyway, from what I can remember of the interview. I may be wrong, but I think being low key is the way to go with it! Much better than if someone like Malmsteen was the guitarist, we would NEVER hear the end of it!
May 2nd, 2013 at 11:44Funny enough, some friends of mine associate the way Steve moves on stage with spaghetti.
We kinda got into this noticing how guitarplayers moved and compared.
May 2nd, 2013 at 15:58The way Michael Schenker moves often made me wonder if he had a back made of iron, always bending over.