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8 songs that changed Gillan’s life
Ian Gillan revisits his youth and picks for the Louder Sound eight songs that “set one of rock’s greatest frontmen on the path to glory”.
Chuck Berry – Rock And Roll Music (1957 single)
Chuck Berry was the first and the best. He’s the guy who wrote Roll Over Beethoven, who wrote No Particular Place To Go, Johnny B. Goode, Sweet Little Sixteen, Memphis, Tennessee… come on! And Rock And Roll Music, I mean, the lyrics here are so expressive of the time.
Chuck Berry was a maestro, the teacher for everyone in rock’n’roll. Over the years I’ve probably sung virtually every song that he ever recorded. One night in Germany he used Ian Paice, Ritchie Blackmore, Roger Glover and Jon Lord as his backing group: he used to turn up without a band and just adopt the support act.
I’ve a recording of a live set he did with The Swinging Blue Jeans, in Hamburg, where every song starts fast and just gets faster: it was uncontrolled mayhem. Absolutely wonderful. They were three chord songs, but nobody could deliver them like Chuck. He’s one of the true greats.
Continue reading in Louder Sound.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Interesting that Deep Purple Mk 2 (minus Gillan) once backed Chuck Berry in Germany. I wonder what the exact date was? That’s something they have in common with Tommy Bolin–he and his band Energy also backed Chuck Berry on at least one occasion.
October 15th, 2023 at 01:14My, that would sure be one hell of a bootleg!
October 15th, 2023 at 16:57Good choice of songs though I’m surprised there wasn’t anything from the diminutive piano shredder here whose vocal style left audibly a very large imprint on young Gillan (whenever he dug out the turbo charger for his voice):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0Ujb6lJ_mM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxNSvFMkag
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeUKb7QghkA
October 16th, 2023 at 12:42Well that story about Mark II backing Chuck Berry … I have never heard that before … given the fact that some stories vary with the years … I am not so sure. How about you?
October 16th, 2023 at 16:15I’m not discounting it, Chuck would play with anyone (as long as he was paid in cash upfront!) and prior to In Rock selling like hot cakes, Purple needed the money!
Chuck wouldn’t rehearse with his backing bands (or even talk to the musicians pre-gig, he never was a pleasant man), expecting his unlucky backing musicians to know all his songs by heart, including their keys as he would impromptu change them live. Some of his gigs in the late 60ies and 70ies were supposed to have been shambolic because of those circumstances, I remember a particularly scathing late 70ies review in a German music mag where the backing band apparently scrambled to keep up with him and his undisclosed (to them) arrangements.
The Purple guys with their exhaustive British Beat backgrounds (Joe Meek/Lord Sutch, The Artwoods, Episode Six and The Maze) probably backed him better that night than on most others. And they were probably overawed to do so. Who wouldn’t play with Chuck Berry given the chance?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7i4y8qNCn8
October 16th, 2023 at 19:25[Those poor guys backing him here in 1972 are
under-rehearsed too (through no fault of their own),
but struggle manfully, the fearful-concentrated look
of the drummer watching Chuck’s back to second-
guess what he might be up to next is priceless!)
That Chuck Berry 1972 concert is pretty well rehearsed to me. I looked it up after watching a few songs & that year he had a regular band called Rocking Horse that backed him on a 60 date tour, unlike other years as you stated when he plucked musicians from anywhere it seemed. Yes indeed the drummer does look serious, ha ha ha, when to start, when to stop, whats happening now, he he he. It is a good quality concert that one & I will have to admit to never ever watching Berry in a concert, only ever seeing the odd clip many tears ago on tv. It is good old rock ‘n roll. Cheers.
October 17th, 2023 at 10:22They are nowhere near as tight as, say, Little Richard’s backing bands were, he was a real stickler for starts and stops. But he might have just been more of an ensemble player than “me & my guitar & my little stories”-Chuck. I’m not knocking him, one of my favorite Priest tunes was written by him!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zxoGFjFJlk
Not to forget the legendary Quo!!! ‘Appy days!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPfzy15DOnw
October 17th, 2023 at 15:34Yes indeed Little Richard was much more serious about it all in that sense & he had that look about him too. Berry has that less serious & more it’s only rock ‘n roll vibe. I tell you what though, the way Berry has his band on edge did remind me of Blackmore with Purple & Rainbow. That keeping everyone guessing sort of thing, unpredictable at times, the drummer waiting for the cue as well as the other musicians. Hendrix did that also & the bass player & drummer were often on the edge it seemed. The days of no click tracks & autotune, can’t beat it. Imagine trying to do that today. Cheers.
October 17th, 2023 at 21:47Yo,
I’m not sure if it’s fair to place a R&R crown on someone, where it’s claimed they invented / created Rock ‘n Roll. I hear R&R through a few tunes that the late, great Duke Ellington & his orchestra/band were playing even as early as 1942…
And so many people have had that crown placed on their heads, from Chester Burnette ( Howlin’ Wolf ), Elvis Presley, Bill Haley etc etc…
I tend to think the R&R explosion occurred, simply because this time, the Korean War was claimed as being over, & finally, the US-of-A had no fingers in any war-pies, & so finality was realized among the people, & they were happy that the final dregs of WW-II were taken care of…At least for a year or so before they secretly got involved with Vietnam…(Money, money, money, must be funny, in a war-pigs world).
Peace !
October 17th, 2023 at 22:27Gentlemen, it’s very interesting for me to look in these old archives of wisdom, but I can’t help thinking that most of the music you all claim is dearest and nearest to the heart of the current vocalist of Purple, is from the period in his life where he was 10ish and a couple of years ahead!
I don’t know about you, Sirs, but I remember several songs I loved dearly when I was 10ish, this one f.x:
https://youtu.be/unfzfe8f9NI?si=jMT8WY9swuDbIRSt
I loved it! I sang chorus with the ladies of ABBA in the living room, until my sweet dear mum asked me to be quiet ‘if she shouldn’t lose her senses’ (oh yeah, memories like that can never be replaced 😁)
And I was very sure in my heart that I would love ABBA for the rest of my life!
Today? No, not so much, not at all to be honest.
I have some kind of nostalgia towards ABBA and Mamma Mia, but would I prefer that song to define the rest of my life?
NO!
NOT AT ALL 😙
Have a beautiful day!
March 5th, 2025 at 08:57Here, where we live, it’s almost spring, the birds are chirping away and the sun is almost shining 😍😍
There is not a single song I liked as a 10 year old I still don’t like today, even this one here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRB0AIpg4rs
My hard drive never erases anything, it just adds and adds. I like more stuff today than I used to (and long may that continue!), but I haven’t lost anything.
Even some songs my children used to drive me mad with when they were small listening to them on constant replay have etched themselves into my memory in a now pleasant way:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYaNhf7CzpY
March 5th, 2025 at 14:54Hey, I still love ABBA, it’s exceedingly well-crafted music and in its very European construction not entirely dissimilar to Deep Purple. Benny and Björn were both DP buffs, aren’t all Scandinavians?! I mean Ian Gillan reigned Denmark for the longest time! 😘
I’m a sucker for Fernando still!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQsjAbZDx-4
ABBA are everything: cult, classy, classic & cheerfully cheesy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=410M15Ix240
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siFqfb921vw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXWGlF2RkQ4
March 5th, 2025 at 15:28@11 & 12
Please tell me Uwe that you’re misunderstanding me on purpose!
Or am I just so very awful in explaining everything in here (naaahhh! 😉)
After all we are neighbours and have some identical thinking patterns, to some degree!
Well, let me break it down to you ☺️
– 1:
I too remember almost everything I have been singing to, dancing to, raged to and cried to! As you may have guessed: music is a VERY important part of my life (not just rock, but also most genres, especially classical music)
But I don’t for 1 sec believe that what I jumped around to as a toddler is portraying me in any way today (even though I can hear you sigh deeply now and saying ‘tsk tsk tsk – don’t you know you (hey what is that awful word you’re calling me, something with dune..😉) are a combination of everything from the start of your life to your present life etc etc etc)
Yes Uwe I am very well aware of that!
If I died now I wouldn’t like ABBA, or Shu-bi-dua or anything else from my early childhood be defining me as that grown up woman I am today!
(Would Purple be the defining mark? Yes, to some degree actually!)
-2:
I am NOT saying ABBA are bad music, not at all! They have their right place in the world of music!
I also love ‘Dancing Queen’, no doubt about that, but should I be looked at as a puzzle with 10000 pieces, only about 5 of those belong to the ABBA universe!
-3: “ I mean Ian Gillan reigned Denmark for the longest time! 😘”
Ohhhh he still does! He certainly still does! 🤩
Actually that well known Londoner has made the greatest contribution and impact to the Danish population! (Maybe not every Danish person is aware of that, and maybe Thomas Treo has been doing his best to trash Purple but no matter what, Purple and especially Ian Gillan are the founding fathers of every decent tune coming from Denmark (in another post Iron Maiden is mentioned as a product of theirs ☺️))
As a curiosity I can tell you that both my doctor and my optician are very well aware of Deep Purple 🥰 (yes I discuss my taste in music with both gentlemen 😃)
-4: “ABBA are everything: cult, classy, classic & cheerfully cheesy!”
And here we are at the point of the discussion! Why I don’t like ABBA to be the defining mark of my life!
ABBA are an alright production (some may call them overproduced but that is not for me to decide!) but they lack the depth and sincerity, not to mention the longevity (even though you might comment: oh they have proven their right over and over again! Well that’s not what I meant missy (re the other post about your parents wanting you to be a girl),with longevity I think about the talk we all had about ‘what kind of music would I take to a desert island’.
Even though I like ABBA I would not live the last of my years on a desert island to the sound of ‘Fernando’, ‘Gimme Gimme Gimme’, ‘Does your mother know’ and ‘Thank you for the music’ 😄 (ohhh what a monstrosity that would be 😝)
And actually the ‘desert island’-choice of music may really be the music that defines us all!
My ‘desert island’ music can’t be a great surprise to you Ladies (hi Andrea 👋🏼😙) and Gentlemen, so I end this epistle with this:
(Thanks to Russ 😊)
https://youtu.be/JiFOlv-YAb8?si=nAVJ7epdkrnyPbSp
And also this:
https://youtu.be/3EX7OL9__e8?si=oSxlFu_cLZpQJ1mP
And not to forget this 😍
https://youtu.be/NLWx7lSZw-c?si=RCm7W21qotDDiVTK
And this beauty that put Purple in the minds and hearts of most people
https://youtu.be/Rfirxs_NUcE?si=tm1hhOV1_HfHProK
March 5th, 2025 at 21:44Incidentally, Karin, Dan McCafferty doesn’t agree with your adult dislike of ABBA at all:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JMVdNaZQNI
Nor do Robin Beck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoBzAm_zwBc
or this iconic diva of popular music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgQ9vTokC2s
Tsk, tsk, tsk, this Danish woman,
https://i0.wp.com/media3.giphy.com/media/5xaOcLtop2JSKbnCBoY/giphy.gif
denigrating Elvis, ABBA, David Coverdale, Ronnie Dio and always tuneful Marilyn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmpyC5foddE ,
where will it stop I cry?!!!
What does our board of neutral international experts have to say on the matter?
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/HjH3m61lz7o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRhm5uR1A7s
March 5th, 2025 at 22:28@ 14
Just fore you Uwe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kApg5tuVe8
March 5th, 2025 at 23:13@ 13
Thanks Karin…
My desert island music begins & ends with this gem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcuyZHpAwqA
March 5th, 2025 at 23:48Marooned on a desert island, I would find ABBA’s SOS actually quite apt and helpful …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvChjHcABPA
And as I would flee on a small coconut sack raft – Papillon style – from the ravenous cannibal tribes living there, this song would fit quite well too!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZskAO2VUHPE
[Hardest rocking ABBA song ever!]
I don’t want to be defined by just ABBA either, but I do dress up like them occasionally … Is that so wrong, Karin, can’t you be a bit more inclusive? 😪
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-d4J3YUQmU
I could do a lot worse than being on a desert island with just an ABBA Greatest Hits tape. A Blackmore’s Night Best Of for instance
https://www.toonpool.com/user/10730/files/blackmores_night_1110775.jpg
would see me drown myself in the sea or ask the cannibals whether they would mind having me for dessert in their desert. 😁
You have no heart, Karin. Sweden should invade Denmark all over again for your recalcitrant stance,
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Stormen_p%C3%A5_K%C3%B8benhavn_%28F.C._Lund%29.jpg
you pesky little dune vandals!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L6T6Yj5u4k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GvL0jFY7u8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j1vhCf5XKg
March 6th, 2025 at 06:07@14
🧐
Did you actually read my post, number 13?
I don’t think you did, and if you did please read it again, because I never trashed ABBA! Couldn’t dream of it!
But sweetie, there is a very big difference in acknowledging a band and then let it define you for the rest of your life.
I find it always so amusing when you pick out a lot of famous people who always completely agree with you, and of course always disagree with me!
I’m not in opposition to those fine people you found there!
And then you write this:
“where will it stop I cry?!!!” – nooooo need to either yell or cry out! I like ABBA a lot, I just don’t love them today as I did when I was driving my poor mum to her tears (there is a limit to how much a mum can stand her 10-yo screaming ‘Mamma Mia’ over and over 😄)
But then again Uwe, IF I didn’t like ABBA today, IF I looked at them the same way as I do the buttertenor from the US, no matter whom you would summon, even if it was Mette Frederiksen, King Fred, Queen Mary, Angela Merkel, Macron, Georgia Meloni or Keir Starmer, or any musician, actor, writer, novelist, or any other famous person you like to quote, no one could make me feel and think differently because anyone’s taste shouldn’t be dictated of other people’s opinions!
I do though have this feeling that you do misunderstand me on purpose!
I look forward to the day where we can agree on anything! I really really do 😃🤩
March 6th, 2025 at 07:25@14
And now you mention DC Uwe! I found out what it is that rubs me the wrong way!
The man, DC, always looks like a Greek tragedy!
When he is singing ‘here I go again’ he looks like he’s trying to manipulate every woman to take care of him and to console his poor manly ego!
That is not appealing!
If he could drop the act, forget all about Greek tragedies and butch up a bit, then I would actually tolerate him much more! (May even like his singing a bit 😉)
March 6th, 2025 at 07:49@16
You’re welcome sweetie, and yeah ‘Mandrake root’ is amazing!
@17
🤣🤣🤣
Ohhh my 😆😆😆😆😆
Thank you so much for the free exercise you give every time I read your posts! Laughing like this trims my abdominal muscles 😄
But then this:
“You have no heart, Karin. Sweden should invade Denmark all over again for your recalcitrant stance,” – what have I done now?!.!?
And this:
“you pesky little dune vandals!” – I’m completely in the dark here! I have no idea what I have been saying and doing that was so wrong 😑
Please don’t paint me all black!
I have never said I dont like ABBA! I love their music, it’s just not ‘my’ music anymore!
But to end this cavalcade with up beat tempo and humorous songs that would actually make a big difference on a prolonged stay on any desert island, I present this for you dear friends:
https://youtu.be/4dFQdvYh59A?si=WGGqtoYtEKatbr0U
https://youtu.be/Oy91SQ5jPtU?si=hq_pHjPy3ALSH43x
https://youtu.be/iMuqY36q7zU?si=ernEH-jf3IsZK1gv
https://youtu.be/7yYifj6IsUQ?si=upByeQnaTzRkAdy_
(With drumstick twirling and everything 😍)
Even this:
https://youtu.be/1P17ct4e5OE?si=23lPJ5AWtECYwKD0
My all time favourites 🤩
https://youtu.be/uIaXva9akfs?si=16QTmOglN2kDDSnf
And:
https://youtu.be/zi3lxg9SX28?si=4mn5avSgOaTJbp02
(Especially 2:50 – 2:55 is MAGNIFICENT 💜)
And finally
https://youtu.be/bbkNm739ULA?si=c0eTXtFnHx1Y2_u3
These songs would help me, not alone survive with a big smile on a desert island, but actually making me want to stay there 😄
March 6th, 2025 at 11:56😄😄
This song:
https://youtu.be/_6FBfAQ-NDE?si=NmYtSHdj-739gnos
was one of my favourite songs when I was young, and it still is!
March 6th, 2025 at 12:30It is so very much full of love of life 😍😍😍😍
We can actually agree on this:
Coverdale is a flamboyant larger-than-life act, no argument from me, sister! He’s not authentic like Big Ian is. Coverdale acts his songs assuming this grand pose. It doesn’t bother me (Freddie Mercury was an act too, btw someone who impressed DC quite a bit), but I understand that it can rub some people the wrong way.
Blackmore once scoffed, in his typical London Greater Area arrogance:
“David Coverdale today? Just listen to his (speaking) voice and the posh accent he has adopted trying to sound like Roger Moore. He’s from up north (DC is from Yorkshire)!!! And we all know how they speak there!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THsSizqiSKs
That said, Coverdale retains a few Yorkshire accent remnants in his stage speak: “Ere’s a song for ya!” or his frequent use of “luv'” as a noun where other people would use “dear” (“Anything you say, luv’!”) 😁 But that is not his posh interview accent.
March 6th, 2025 at 15:53@22
“We can actually agree on this:” – YAY! Thank you! It’s so comforting NOT to fight all the time!
(Why do you fight me all the time Uwe? I’m actually quite nice and friendly, according to René 😊☺️)
Ok I do have a question:
When you say ‘larger than life’ about someone, what does that actually mean?
I have heard the expression several times but I always just nod and kick my shoe in the dirt and brush invisible dust of my arm when I’m presented with that expression, because I never know if I should smile or look serious, so it would really help me if you will enlighten me 😊
Doesn’t Ritchie like DC?
March 6th, 2025 at 20:49Gill(K)a(ri)n @21: I think Depeche Mode are a perfectly credible band, with an immediately recognizable sound and enormous longevity. They still sell out the largest halls in Germany within hours, all power to them.
I like their melancholic side:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrC_yuzO-Ss
Dave Gahan is a great singer and front man.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP38Z1QfkYw
Taking on Nothing Else Matters requires bravery, the Metallica version is so iconic, Dave did well here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXiStRXnufQ
March 6th, 2025 at 23:16@24
“Gill(K)a(ri)n” – what is this nonsense 🧐
Btw in this song:
https://youtu.be/XDEWlYbRUvE?si=GKAZdqAkl3FQCnHg
Doesn’t the vocalist look exactly like this person:
https://youtu.be/v42i679W6_s?si=oT1wWfXnfxt_3RBs
I’m thinking of Carla 😄
(Norm is a hero of mine! In one episode Woody was rehearsing on playing Moses in a play, and Woody mentioned a lot of nations. Then someone asked, ‘what about the Cellulites’, and Norm answered: ‘they are in the land of Vera’ 😆)
Yes, I also really love those songs, but had never heard the Metallica cover, thank you for the link!
March 7th, 2025 at 16:59(Uwe, you have made me quite curious: do you ever sleep? I mean, no matter what kind of question any of us in here ask you, you always have an answer! And good answers! In-depth ones 😊
No matter what topic is presented in here, you always have intelligent comments! (NOT messing with you, I’m completely serious! ) (I really really am!)
I guess you still work as a lawyer, I know you’re married, I guess you eat now and then, so the only solution to this enigma is you have to stay awake all the time!?
Please enlighten me ☺️
It’s simple: I’m nocturnal. It’s a terrible habit.
https://literaryfictions.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/nosferatu-gif-rising-from-coffin.gif
I’ve never been a morning person, even as a child. Early afternoon is morning enough for me.
March 7th, 2025 at 18:48@ 26
“I’ve never been a morning person, even as a child. Early afternoon is morning enough for me.” OK, that explains it; I thought maybe you had a secret hoard of WWII era surplus Pervitin.
Seriously though, I can relate. I’ve always been a night-owl… My Mom says when I was a baby I never wanted to go to sleep.
March 8th, 2025 at 00:22@26&27
Ok I’m a combo, go to bed really late, and wake up really early!
March 8th, 2025 at 12:22That has a lot of benefits I’ll tell ya 😎