![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/mcbride6.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/morse2.jpg)
Pictures of You
The second single from the upcoming new album =1 is out now:
Video for the track:
The single will be available in physical form on June 28, 2024. Hurry up to pre-order if interested — it is said to be limited to 5,000 copies worldwide.
This premiere of new music is accompanied by a couple of live tracks from Milan 2022:
Thanks to Tobias Janaschke and Lutz Reinert for the heads-up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
First listen . Brilliant!
June 4th, 2024 at 23:22Like nothing I’ve ever heard from Purple before ! Can’t hear any influences here !
And there’s me thinking it’s time for them to stop …..maybe it’s not !
First the positives. Gillan sounds great. Ezrin seems to get the most out of his current range. I am missing a stronger guitar presence but hopefully there’s room for it on the other tracks. Paice mentioned in a recent interview that McBride is more riff based, so I hope we will get to hear it. Ezrin’s fondness for songs under 4 minutes is intact. The song is almost over before it begins. This works for the Beach Boys but is this an approach that suits DP?
June 5th, 2024 at 05:11Really a Great Song from the band but Ezrin has done a bad job..
June 5th, 2024 at 05:15Here the 2nd single
June 5th, 2024 at 06:26https://youtu.be/H1vH2lVN0Eo?si=3pBji-uvdLZtkl9x
Much more interesting song than the previous one.
June 5th, 2024 at 08:47Singing en harmonies are very good. Songstructure is less ordinary. Good one guys!
The live tracks are unbelivable good!! And Pictures of You sounds very, very promising! When you can hear the whole thing..
June 5th, 2024 at 09:09Yo,
Great tune, can’t wait for the album…I hope the radio likes these new tunes as much as I do 🙂 !
Peace !
June 5th, 2024 at 10:02After the third listen I begin to like this song. But Portable Door suits my taste much more than this one.
June 5th, 2024 at 10:54Well Ive just heard 3/4 of it and it is FANTASTIC, Great Riff, harmonies, vocals, the lot, and after Portable Door if the rest of the Album is this good? It will go down as one of the finest EVER!!!
June 5th, 2024 at 11:01Simon Is a pop guitarist.
June 5th, 2024 at 11:27He can fit the calendar, not the band.
If they dont give a damn about Steve, after he keep the band alive, and they wont slow down and keep him..there Is only a man they should have call..even for a single show.
To rispect they’re history and
fans.
I want’t buy this album.
Extreme “weird” end!
Was that it? Please let there be more and a proper ending or at least a fade out.
Unfortunately the track listing in April stated the same running time as this release 🙁
June 5th, 2024 at 11:42Uh, well, that’s something different from DP. The structure of the song has no comparison in the DP catalogue.
June 5th, 2024 at 12:26From 2:38 onward the twin guitars part is not DP. Well, I think, it is now. I enjoy what I hear (although I don’t like using the twin guitars). There will be an interesting album coming out soon. These guys are still extremely good at doing what they’re doing, to say the least.
What a fantastic song… as some of you wrote already : great Gillan, nice and (a bit) original structure, sounds very fresh…impressive !
June 5th, 2024 at 12:43Took a couple of listens.. as they all do. Exciting and comfortably familiar at the same time. Can’t wait for the album!!!
June 5th, 2024 at 12:58Songs are great but has Mr Ezrin had his ears checked recently, the production sounds awfully flat.
June 5th, 2024 at 13:32A new invention in the history of music:
A single that ends with a cliffhanger!
Given the ending of this song, I’m dying of curiosity to hear the following track, “I’m Saying Nothin'”. A real rocker it would appear.
June 5th, 2024 at 13:40The road to glory is lined in red
June 5th, 2024 at 14:08And though the reason now is gone
The battle rages on……
@15 yes, my same thought..
June 5th, 2024 at 15:00after a few listens….. it’s comfortable
June 5th, 2024 at 15:45Reminds me of Call of the wild (or maybe something else) from House of blue Light.
June 5th, 2024 at 15:49Anyone else getting that??
Jacky @10: Pop guitarist?
https://youtu.be/n44UYpGYyu4
Simon has more Belfast spit & vinegar than Steve ever had.
Rajaseudun @12: Granted, DP were never Wishbone Ash, Thin Lizzy, Queen, Boston or Iron Maiden when it came to twin or even triple harmony lead guitar, but Ritchie would do it often enough, eg in the solos to Anthem, Highway Star (that’s a whole Ritchie army at work there!), Sail Away, Coronarias Redig, Holy Man, Gypsy and Soldier of Fortune.
I think the song is remarkable and arrangement-wise diverse, features a – rare with DP – real chorus and a cool middle eight PLUS THE BASS IS FRIGGIN’ LOUD! I wish they had done another chorus after the coda, but trust DP not to get carried away in being commercial … 🤗
June 5th, 2024 at 15:51personally I dont think the song is that different from the overall sound they been giving us since “Now What!?”
and thats good..thats DP here and now and thats fine.. two good songs.. I wont use the word great.. but good will do, and they do it good no doubt about it. Gillans clothing reminds me of how he looked..apart from the long hair.. in 1971 on a tv show singing “Demons eye”..
But hey thats just me!
June 5th, 2024 at 16:35Great!
June 5th, 2024 at 16:36I like this one. The video has not the same ending as the track without video. So, like AG said, the following track seems to be a real rocker. I can’t wait. It looks quite promising.
June 5th, 2024 at 16:39Great! And probably the next song will say everything
June 5th, 2024 at 16:56Nice chorus but the verse and Gillan singing over the middle /end section doesn’t work for me. Is it a Glover composition ? The words sound like his lyrics. Not as good as the first one in my humble opinion.
June 5th, 2024 at 17:08This is an edit. If you listen to the money video version is cuts off at the end with Simon about to let loose.
June 5th, 2024 at 17:34Re: the fade out. Remember,there was a similar instrumental coda on Long Way Round which led into Power Of The Moon. Since it worked on Whoosh,Mr. Ezrin,did it again.
June 5th, 2024 at 17:55POY is not the rocker that I hoped for,but maybe it sits better on the full album.A radio-ready single,for sure.
“Portable Door” better
June 5th, 2024 at 19:11Great Poppy song. Simon Seems very restrained on this song and just playing around the melody instead of across from it. Ezrin Has refrained the band, apparently from going into long solos Since Steve left.
I wish the songs were longer.
June 5th, 2024 at 19:11I think it is going to be a very strong album
June 5th, 2024 at 19:45The battle still rages in these guys. They continue to develop Deep Purple while never losing their roots.
Bravo. Another great track!
June 5th, 2024 at 20:03Much better effort here. Something outside the usual formula!
June 5th, 2024 at 20:12@10.
June 5th, 2024 at 20:41It’s the same old song. People need to let it go. A great band still producing great music. Simon is a brilliant axeman and he has proven it live in concert.
Lets give the new album a chance. Both new singles are great.
It was unfortunate what happened with Steve but life’s bitch sometimes and difficult decisions have to be made. Long live DP.
@11 Just listened to ep on Qobuz and the new song segues very naturally into Portable Door with no pause. It’s almost a single song … on the album too, hopefully. Leeds in November, can’t wait! And I just don’t get the critics of Ezrin: to me the sound is beefy with great separation of instruments.
June 5th, 2024 at 21:51Not a bad song, melodic & typically Ian Gillan inspired, something that sounds like it would or should be on a solo album in many ways. Now I promised myself last night & again this morning that I would not talk about anything but the song, no suspect production & the recording etc. How long can I sustain that discipline for?????????Cheers.
June 5th, 2024 at 22:58@01:27 of Pictures Of You immediately reminded me of @01:08 of Pink Floyd’s Learning To Fly
https://youtu.be/nVhNCTH8pDs ,
but then that is a Bob Ezrin production too as well as co-written by him!
June 5th, 2024 at 23:50I am sorry if I repeat the same before. I have listened more times this second single and I am more and more convinced of the bad production and with a pop approach by Ezrin. It is a pity, really, because this song, this piece, is really good performed by the band.
June 6th, 2024 at 07:13It sounds like a massive guitar solo is about to unleash at the very end of the song. And that is what I thought would happen first time hearing it..
June 6th, 2024 at 08:29That the song was aborted by some reason.
I am a Purple fan and I will always be. They are the soundtrack of my life. I saw them in Macerata, Italy, on Paice’s bday party in 2023. So, of course, I love these two last songs. However, I miss an outstanding guitar player. Purple had Maradona (Blackmore), Ardiles (Bolin), Messi (Morse), and now Papu Gomez (McBride). As an Atalanta fan too (winner of the 2024 Europe League), we love Papu because he was in Atalanta and an excellent player. But, I am sorry, I do not see the flash of genius that I found in the others. I hope to find more quality in the other tracks, but overall I think Morse deserved to be waited for.
June 6th, 2024 at 09:05Still no reaction from our beloved and very competent Herr Uwe…
What’s going on here?
June 6th, 2024 at 10:10@10
How did you get to that conclusion? “ he goes the calendar” ? I mean some things they do called fans day in here is really outrageous. Wow. A beautiful song/ chorus/ bridge. You want ik to be Morse? Let me guess your clock is stuck in the 70’s ?
June 6th, 2024 at 11:54Cher Jean-Christophe, I missed you too 😘, I had posted something on Wednesday afternoon before my post at @30, but I had a shaky connection with my iPhone in a plane before starting so it probably ended in Matrix nirvana (we were returning from the wedding celebrations of my daughter and her Holländer of a husband in Puglia, Italy).
Anyway, to quote a great poet from the North of England, here I go again … what I had written was:
Jacky @10 I had given some food for thought:
“Simon a pop guitarist? To quote Gillan: Are You Sure?
https://youtu.be/n44UYpGYyu4
Simon has more Belfast spit & vinegar in him than Steve ever had. Compared to him, Simon is outright gritty.
Steve is a wonderful idiosyncratic guitarist, but his style could easily merge with (more sophisticated) pop, just listen to Flying Colors.”
Rajaseudun’s memory @12 I helped along 😂 a little:
“Granted, DP were never Wishbone Ash, Queen, Thin Lizzy, Boston or Iron Maiden as twin or triple harmony guitars as a recurring stylistic element go, but Ritchie used harmonic overdubs extensively in his solos on Anthem, Hard Lovin’ Man, Highway Star (there is a whole army of Ritchies at work there!), Burn, Sail Away, Coronarias Redig, Holy Man, Gypsy, Soldier Of Fortune …”
To the song I observed:
A DP song with that most rare thing (for DP at least): a real chorus and an unusual, but enchanting middle eight PLUS ROGER’S BASS IS FRIGGIN’ LOUD!
Love 💕 the coda, hoped for a return to the chorus one more time, but trust Purple not to get carried away when trying to be a bit commercial.
A strong composition and Ian’s vocals have never met as much sympathy from a producer as from the Canuck of Jewish descent. Ian Gillan spent most of his life living in the shadow of Ritchie and Jon volume-wise, cut the man some slack to finally hear himself properly on the final records of his career! 😂
It’s an elder statesman piece of music alright (what else could it reasonably be?), but if you think this is POP I suggest you buy the new Taylor Swift album (it’s good, no worries!) and refresh your memory what POP really is.
Plus: My wife thought the song much better than Portable Door – so there!
June 6th, 2024 at 15:19Damn my thumbs on the phone . Plenty of typos lol
June 6th, 2024 at 15:42Well, my opinion: surely a little bit poppy, and again some sadness in the strutture of the song, just like many compositions of these last years of the human artists that are part of out band… maybe a bit of sadness is deep inside old man, old artists, and this factor go straight into the music they feel to make, I believe. Remember Throw my Bones, expecially at the very end? But I can mention more. Anyway….a bit poppy, radio friendly, and once again nothing jawdropping from Simon, that just follow the Melody. I prefer this approach, rather than Steve Morse solos, anyway, often interchangable from a song to another, exercises of great playing but lending to nowhere, very often out of the context of the song. Simon brief solo here reminds me the sound of Steve Morris in Don’t hold me back, or Loving in borrowed time, Naked Thunder sound. It’s me only? Anyway…both singles more radio friendly than ever, chorus, a little bit of Bon Jovi…surely not 1970 music, they sound contemporary now, but at the end of the day…..Is this what we want?
June 6th, 2024 at 16:49WHAT A BRILLIAND SONG…I LISTEN TO IT EVERY HOUR…. MUCH BETTER THAN THE FIRST SINGLE
June 6th, 2024 at 18:27I like it but it sounds strange production wise. Too much perfection can sound a bit over produced. I think but I am trusting my ears not my eyes.
June 6th, 2024 at 18:28I can live with that song but it’s not in my top 100 DP songs.
Peace ✌️
The song is to die for, but the extremely short cuts in the video make it very difficult to closely watch the talented musicians doing their craft.
June 6th, 2024 at 18:57That kind of compositions should be in a Gillan solo work , not in a Deep Purple album.
June 7th, 2024 at 04:38@43 Uwe Hornung
June 7th, 2024 at 06:50I have seen the video you posted. About me, that is not hard rock, it could be not pop as you mean but not even hard rock, unless you consider Brian Adams a hard rock.
It is very sad to read all these comments of people whining. Purple are alive and well and producing new music. And I am simply happy for that. Many so called “fans” don’t deserve new music from their favourite band. Purple are not worn out, they are not pathetic. They are great. This new song is quite strange but I heard it only once. And I like it. Now I’ll go back for a second listening. 🙂
June 7th, 2024 at 08:36What I want mean on my previous post is that Ezrin with his production tends to eliminate hard sounds preferring a softer result because, I repeat, I like the song created by the band.
June 7th, 2024 at 09:02Boring like Portable Door – like all Ezrin Purple productions…
A mash of instruments without fire or inspiration and the guitarist is on vacation again…
Sounds like a spa concert that is played again and again…
They are only a shadow of themselves and fade beyond recognition in the light of their own work.
The party is over and even though the morning is breaking, there is just no more light.
But memory is the only paradise from which one cannot be expelled.
So let’s listen to “shades of deep purple”.
June 7th, 2024 at 10:01Well, well!
I like this way better than Portable Door – I’m not sure there’s anything like this tune in the Purple catalogue, as others have noted, and that’s GREAT, imo!!! In that sense, it reminds me of the Aviator in terms of the freshness and the new direction!
It’s both new and familiar at the same time – Simon is definitely making his mark on the band and I’m happy to see it! I’m hoping the rest of the record is more like this and less like Portable Door which felt a bit “Purple by numbers” to me – it’s still a good tune, but this?
This is way better – the writing and playing and whole vibe is just top notch!! More of this please!!!
The only thing I don’t like is the production – it is again a bit too compressed for me – especially Paicey’s drums – they actually sound a bit distorted to me from all that compression.
Honestly if they need Bob’s help arranging and making the tough calls that’s fine – but maybe put Roger in charge of sound, and have it be a collaboration between the two of them? Food for thought…
Bring on the new record -again, I hope we get more like this! Long live DP!!!!
June 7th, 2024 at 10:43Andrea @50: Sure Bryan Adams is hard rock, radio friendly AOR hard rock, often diluted with soppy ballads, but both his raspy tenor voice and how guitars and the rhythm section are employed in his music follow the hard rock recipe. His live performances – especially in the 80ies – came from the hard rock rule book. Airdrop him and his band over Wacken, they would rearrange their set a little and have the heavy metal heads singing along in no time (just like Status Quo did).
I fail to see what’s not hard rock about this here:
https://youtu.be/K2OXghIzIbk
The man has immaculate taste btw: His favorite lead guitarist is a former radio electrician from the Heathrow area if you know what I mean … 😎
https://www.bryanadams.com/news/16173/
(Ironically, he really wouldn’t have been a bad lead singer both for AOR Rainbow in the 80ies nor for the more recent reunion attempts.)
June 7th, 2024 at 10:43Answering myself.. am I the only one here hearing the guitar at the end of the song on the audio..?
June 7th, 2024 at 12:36It amuses me no end that some of you think that this is “pop” … what do you normally listen to, Slayer and Slipknot? 😂
For a pop track
– the backing instruments to Ian’s voice are still WAY too loud, hard to believe as this may seem to devout Purplites 🤗 accustomed to the singer being mixed down because he is “not fucking Tom Jones” as Ritchie once gently put it when Ian wanted his vocals louder on In Rock,
– the choppy riff guitar to the verse is too unruly and “distracting” for the casual music listener,
– the middle eight is too long, complex and plain weird, actually very PROGish.
Pretty sure that Purple will not be stealing The Beach Boys’ crown in a while yet. 🤣
https://youtu.be/fJWmbLS2_ec
June 7th, 2024 at 12:36@53: Yeah, let’s. I still don’t understand why people are still paying attention to DP when they know they won’t like it. Absolutely, enjoy the old albums and spae yourself from the letdown of listening to music you don’t like. Choose happiness.
June 7th, 2024 at 12:51After a couple of listens, I like it! I like Portable Door more, but both are good! I’m looking forward to hearing the rest of the album. I appreciate and enjoy listening to how my favorite band has evolved.
June 7th, 2024 at 12:58“Answering myself.. am I the only one here hearing the guitar at the end of the song on the audio ..?”
How shall I put this gently? 🤔 Yes, Micke, apparently you DO hear things that aren’t there. Also see them …
https://media.tenor.com/CnscxoyVKXEAAAAM/haley-joel-osment-i-see-dead-people.gif
There’s treatment, you know … 🤣
Seriously, you’re absolutely right, there is a crashing guitar chord at the end of the audio (faded out on the vid just in time) and it sounds like they are about to tear into something else, we’ll have to wait for the album to say more. Good ears! Fascinating …
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/e6/02/b0/e602b031821abf3bf41d2562c49d853c.jpg
June 7th, 2024 at 13:59I am fanboy of Gillan, Paice and Glover. I’d follow any stuff they could play..
June 7th, 2024 at 14:08rockdoch @53: Let’s go back to that glorious past that never even existed! 😎
Shades of Deep Purple has “formative debut of fledgling band” written all over it. It has naive charm, that is about it. There is more sophisticated and seasoned musicality in ten seconds of Pictures of You than in the 43:33 minutes of the debut. As it should be, we’re 56 years further down the line.
Interesting to read how Shades was rated then and how it is rated today:
FROM WIKIPEDIA:
Reception of the album and the band in their home country was generally negative. Despite being presented as a “polished commercial group” in their radio appearances, Deep Purple’s stage excesses and success in the US did not make a good impression on British audiences. The Deviants frontman and later journalist Mick Farren described Deep Purple’s music as “a slow and pompous din, somewhere between bad Tchaikovsky and a B-52 taking off on a bombing run”. 😂 They were also criticised for being too American and the “poor man’s Vanilla Fudge”. As Brian Connolly of Sweet recalled, “they were so out of place that you really felt sorry for them.”
By contrast, in the US the band was often introduced as “the English Vanilla Fudge” and massive radio coverage of their songs granted success for both the album and tour. Ian Paice said of their success in the US versus their lack of it back home, “We have been given proper exposure over there. The Americans really know how to push records.”
Decades later, modern critical reviews of the album are generally positive. Bruce Eder of AllMusic considers Shades of Deep Purple, despite some flaws, “a hell of an album” and praises the “infectious … spirit of fun” of the disc, which has “much more of a ’60s feel than we’re accustomed to hearing from this band”. Blogcritics contributor David Bowling states that Shades of Deep Purple “was a creative and very good debut album”, which combines “psychedelic music with hard rock and early progressive rock into a pleasant but disjointed whole”. PopMatters review of the three albums of the Mk. I line-up considers them “both respectable and consistent”, although Evans’ voice is “perhaps more suited to heavy pop rather than heavy rock”. Canadian journalist Martin Popoff described this early incarnation of Deep Purple as a “hard psych band”, more committed to the music than other contemporaries and already capable of creating “a noise that definitetly foretold of things to come.”
In an Observer Music Monthly Greatest British Albums poll, keyboard player Rick Wakeman chose Shades of Deep Purple as his favourite British record of all time.
END OF WIKIPEDIA QUOTE
We really should offer Rick “Glitzy Cape” Wakeman honorary membership here. 😎
June 7th, 2024 at 14:29A lyric vid of the new song, is Ian singing against the overt use of filters and photoshopping?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee7GXzr5uH4
All the TikTok influencers will be up in (shaved) arms!
June 7th, 2024 at 14:51So, it is a nice one. At the age of Yoda. Celebrate. And it will get better.
June 7th, 2024 at 16:09Oh, god, how I love both of ´em singles! Make no mistake, you unfaithfull Thomases, THIS IS DEEP PURPLE, this is…
June 7th, 2024 at 17:04What is the Whitesnake guy doing here? Shouldn’t he be waiting with bated breath for rereleases of not so old material? 😀
June 7th, 2024 at 20:04Steve has done a new Deep Purple with Purpendicular. Let us see.
June 7th, 2024 at 21:14@ 54 – Indeed regarding the drums etc & Paice laments this ‘new’ way at the 31 minute mark in that recent interview. Long gone are the days of him & Roger at the mixing desk, unfortunately. Too many outsiders interfering in this ‘new’ Purple sound. Bob Ezrin used to be grand way back in time, perhaps it is time he & his cohorts are put out to pasture. I have detected a few comments of late from Paice in regards to the old days etc. Not to worry as he says, ‘it is what it is’. Hanging to get out on the road no doubt & out of the studio. I detect the same drum sound or very similar on Dweezil’s ‘mixing’. Oh well, such is life! Cheers.
June 7th, 2024 at 23:11@ 62 – Uncle Rick mentions the wonderment of when he first heard Hush back in ’68 in that interview with Jon Lord. Cheers.
June 7th, 2024 at 23:15@53 & 62 – Isn’t it great that the old stuff is still around for those that who love it? While the current version of the band keeps putting out new material for those who appreciate “sophisticated and seasoned musicality”? Something for everyone to enjoy.
I’m with rockdoch and Rick Wakeman on liking “Shades” a lot. Ritchie also picked “Hush” as his favorite Jon Lord solo. And we’ve probably all read how John Lennon thought DP’s arrangment of “Hush” suited the song better than the up-tempo original recording.
Energy and excitement – isn’t that what rock ‘n’ roll is about? “Shades” has both in abundance.
Paice’s drumming on the LP is particularly outstanding. “Love Help Me”, anyone? And the drums – on one track, shared with the bass guitar – sound great, too! Less high-fidelity than the records of the new millennium, but much more “live” and dynamic.
Sometimes the most entertaining gigs are the ones where the players have never met before. That feeling of a new band, still feeling things out, and sounding like they are excited about what everyone else is playing, is palpable throughout.
No doubt some will insist it is an obvious, objectively prove-able fact that the music of the current ezrin-produced group is in every way superior to the sounds on “Shades”. Maybe they are right!
99% of critics will also say that the Clash were a better band than Sham 69. Maybe they’re right, too.
I’ll still take Sham any day. Choose happiness, as Svante says.
Unrelated thought: Very odd that though the US release of “Shades” both preceded the UK version and had a more appropriate-to-the-title layout, most CD reissues use the boring UK cover. Guess the record execs in a band’s homeland tend to go with the version they are familiar with. At least the tracklisting was the same across all territories.
Another unrelated thought: Popoff has certainly changed his tune on MKI Purple over the years. In one of his early books he rated their records zero on a scale of one to ten. (While giving “Machine Head” a 9… And “HOBL” a 10. And rating “Renegade” as the best Thin Lizzy LP.) Good for him, being open to changing his mind. It’s always great when you “get” music you didn’t previously appreciate.
June 7th, 2024 at 23:26Waiting for the new album, but ehm….I’m waiting here in Italy for some big promo posters too…Anyone will remember my request around July, when promo posters or cardboard display will appear inside some big store in your city? Please contact me here: vavooom99@gmail.com
…and if you’re willing to sell or trade with me old promo poster, please do It NOW!
June 8th, 2024 at 16:00I loved the ending. I thought it was the best ending to a Purple song since Space Truckin’.
June 8th, 2024 at 16:14and this second single also gives us hope that the album will be a worthy successor to the masterpiece that was Abandon!
June 8th, 2024 at 22:14I’m sorry for Steve, but here the melody (AoR style) has returned to priority, and finally we hear some more immediate and effective RIFFS as we haven’t felt for years.
I like the production instead….the real weak point is now Paice’s drumming, which I think is no longer able to do parts with multiple drum fills that enrich the pieces, this already happened in the last 2-3 albums Unfortunately
June 8th, 2024 at 22:19Whats the buzz?
June 9th, 2024 at 00:37Re last comment Ian Paice…… Are you serious?? I’m a Drummer and I have to say, the way Paicee swings it underneath gives it move, groove, verve and alactrity! Highly relevent and incisive Drumming up there with the very very best
June 9th, 2024 at 07:52To borrow a line from a now familiar song “” Man what are u smoking, blow it outa your Portable Door””!
Also yes The last Guitar Chord, gives promise of a ripping intro into the next song!
Deep Purple , ageless , timeless and a friggen great band to which I owe a lot!
Paice drumming – THE weak point???? It´s the END of The Highway Star /the web/, the world /as we know it/, of all /and more/!
June 9th, 2024 at 09:34IP is surely NOT untouchable or holy – but this is over the top, Greg!
Now I remember out of the blue, how I was a bit unsatisfied, when I listened the Saints And Sinners album for the first time… some tracks, is this really Ian Paice, I wondered… after all those Made In Japan… Europe… Burn, Stormbringer,,, is this really him, that simple, serene and taming drumming? But this man is experienced like hell, and he delivers all what the song wants and needs. For me, anyway.
@Greg FURLONG: I never said that Paice has lost his incredible touch, I said that he is much more linear than he used to be and that he puts fewer fills in the songs, and I have noticed this especially since after Bananas (but also in Bananas).. ..for me the last album where Little Ian was was SPECTACULAR remains Abandon
June 9th, 2024 at 12:36# 75 : I’m very much surprised beacause I absolutely LOVE what Ian P is doing on both singles…And to me there’s more here than on most tracks of Bananas (an album I like) for example and it seems to me that Paicey is giving us way more subtle great things during the Ezrin time that during most of the 80’s.
Both Ian are very very good on those two songs I thought. Maybe you’d like one to hit louder and harder and the other to sing/scream that he used to…but I really love the way they very graciously age.
June 9th, 2024 at 14:35@ 74 are you serious? What do you know about Drumming? Are you a professional drummer? Fills? Sometimes less is better you know that, right? It’s all in the feel and the rhythm and there’s nobody better in the business than. Ian Paice!!What’s wrong with some fans in here Constantly complaining? If it’s not Richie Blackmore It is Steve Morse!!
June 9th, 2024 at 16:24I just think Ian Paice is playing to the song, a little like Carl Palmer did with Asia, where he wasn’t as busy as he was in ELP. Keeping it simpler & to the point. It also doesn’t help that his drum sound is shite & we know why as he also does more than anyone. Everything is a lot more tamer these days than in the grand old days, that is of course a natural thing. Cheers.
June 10th, 2024 at 22:30Ian drums these days like a very skilled 76 year old who has already suffered a mild stroke should. I don’t want to see him die playing the drums just because he attempts the dynamics of a 30 year old night after a night. I think his drumming still has incredible groove, taste and swing. And he sounds a lot more natural and at ease today than he did on those Gary Moore and Purple albums in the 80ies.
June 10th, 2024 at 22:56Some of my favourite Ian Paice drumming is from the 1980’s, still busy as a bee etc. The 90’s is rather good also, as to be expected. He is always good, it just depends on the scenario at the time. Ian Gillan’s vocal is what is under the microscope these days, but that also is an age related thing. Well if we can ever forget how much he abused his vocal chords back in the day. Especially as he was Disturbing the Priest. Cheers.
June 11th, 2024 at 08:20On Perfect Strangers and House Of Blue Light, Paicey sounded confined and relegated to me, it was the 80ies and a certain drum sound and style (the “Bonhamisation” of drumming, but just not as good as the original) were de rigueur. He sometimes sounded lifeless in the studio – mind you, still better and more inventive than the pack. Live he was of course as great as he had always been. With Gary Moore, his drumming had been so relegated it made me cry (it was less inhibited live there too).
Bob (Ezrin) catches a lot of unjust flak here, but I think he has the knack of making DP sound relaxed and at ease in the studio – befitting their elder statesmen status – more so than Roger Glover, Thomas Panunzio or Michael Bradford ever could, there is a certain basking evening glow to the way he records Purple, I like that. Let’s face it, no producer today is going to make the current band sound like it did on In Rock, Machine Head, Burn or Come Taste The Band although we might all long for it. Bob Ezrin is the right man in the right place at the right time in DP’s sunset era (and long may it last!).
June 11th, 2024 at 14:58During Deep Purple’s original run from 1968-76, Paice was one of the exciting drummers on the planet – technically proficient, flashy and inventive. Like Mitch Mitchell plus Bobby Elliott with a bit of Elvin Jones, all rolled into one.
In the early 1980s he ran into some problems.
Lord agreed that Coverdale was right to boot him from Whitesnake. https://trinkelbonker.wordpress.com/2012/09/07/jon-lord-interview-1984/
Then when he was with Gary Moore, he had some kind of breakdown that left him unable to record. Which he spoke about in an issue of Modern Drummer magazine, forget which issue.
Following from which, the drumming in reunion-era Deep Purple has been a strange ride.
Saw the band in concert a few times, and Paice still played at a high percentage – probably 75-80% – of his former capacity.
But listening to the records, it was rare to hear him play anything attention-grabbing. With occasional exceptions such as “Nobody’s Home”, “The Battle Rages On” or “Hey Cisco”.
Did that make anyone else wonder how much the difference might be due to “red light fever”, producer’s preference, or his own inclinations?
Whatever the reason, very different to his former wild, exciting style. On the first few reunion-era records the difference was all the more apparent in contrast to Blackmore’s playing, some of which was nearly as ferocious-sounding in 1984-93 as it had been in earlier years. The reduction of flashy, in-your-face fills was part of it. Compounded by the more compressed, less “live”-sounding way the drums were recorded.
Since Paice’s focus has switched to timekeeping and groove, he does that style well, no doubt. His playing still contains a lot of nuance, albeit subtle rather than bombastic.
Compared to people like Charlie Watts, power pop hero Jim Bonfanti of the Raspberries, or Cornelis “Cesar” Zuiderwijk, though, who sounded much the same for 50+ years, the difference between earlier and later Paice is almost like listening to a different drummer.
June 11th, 2024 at 23:40@ 85 – thanks for the comments & that link. I do think that many musicians look back after a while, particularly after having some time out or when they finish their careers. If they are still playing sometimes they slow things down or wind things back & some do say that in hindsight that they ‘probably over played’ at times when they were younger. Too busy or too flashy is a comment I have read a few times from certain musicians. It may or may not be a reason but it very well could be in regards to Paice. None of the MKII guys were the same after that 10 years or so away from DP. Not to my ears anyway. Personally I think Blackmore was trying to play too fast in the 80’s. Either that or he was bored a lot of the time & wasn’t really into it & was getting his solos over as fast as possible to get the hell out of there, who know’s. Anyway one thing I do know is that that comment from Lord in regards to both of the drummers in Whitesnake is going to be mentioned by Uwe, he simply cannot resist. Now all I have to do is remain disciplined, don’t rise to the bait & definitely don’t take the hook, line & sinker (as he often does, he he he). Cheers.
June 12th, 2024 at 09:00That is a balanced post which is hard to argue with, Skippy. Still, his driving force was intact on PS and HOBL. Mad Dog for example.
June 12th, 2024 at 15:33“None of the MKII guys were the same after that 10 years or so away from DP. Not to my ears anyway. Personally I think Blackmore was trying to play too fast in the 80’s. Either that or he was bored a lot of the time & wasn’t really into it & was getting his solos over as fast as possible to get the hell out of there, who know’s.”
Amen. With the exception of Ritchie who often sounded harsher and less fluid than in the 70ies, they all sounded tamer.
“Anyway one thing I do know is that that comment from Lord in regards to both of the drummers in Whitesnake is going to be mentioned by Uwe, he simply cannot resist.”
There is no reason to gloat about that comment, it’s simply stating the obvious and banal: Paicey was and is better than nearly all rock drummers on the planet, Cozy was just one of many. Cozy had a very narrow style (Neil Murray once said that this was not down to his ability, but to Cozy becoming typecast and playing to meet expectations people had of him), Little Ian is much more variable. By his own admission, Cozy didn’t really listen much to the music around him, but delivered a foundation for the rest of the band to build upon; Cozy was very seldom really “in conversation” with other instruments (the way Paicey or Ginger Baker were), he ploughed his way through.
But I never disliked Cozy’s drumming for lack of technique (you can be simpler than Paicey and still good), but for lack of groove and swing (as well as for his terrible habit of rushing songs to death live – as if he were auditioning for The Ramones). That to me is a lot more important than technically spectacular (Paice) or overly dramatic (Powell) drum rolls. I’m also a bit of a nerd for what the bass drum does, and there Little Ian was/is extremely inventive, musical, adventurous, nimble-footed and clever whereas Cozy was – for lack of a better word – meat and potatoes, I never heard a bass drum pattern from him that made my jaw drop (playing fast and mercilessly on double bass pedals leaves me cold). The two things you can say about his drumming are that it was (i) larger than life dramatic and (ii) very physical. To his credit, people as varied as Jeff Beck, Ritchie Blackmore, Graham Bonnet, Don Airey, Michael Schenker, David Coverdale, Jon Lord, Jack Bruce, Robert Plant, John Sykes, Keith Emerson, Neil Murray, Tony Iommi, Glenn Tipton and John Entwistle all rated the physicality and drama he brought to their music, so bang your celestial drums in happiness forever, Colin Trevor Flooks, I would have liked to have my ears mangled by your tour de force drumming a while longer, believe me.
You know what my favorite tracks featuring Cozy are? These two:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNrVd7RDZUk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLKjOE2EG4E
Both songs lend credibility to what Neil Murray said: That Cozy was better than he (or other people) often allowed him(self) to be.
June 12th, 2024 at 18:37Good points re Cozy & his style. A pity in some ways he was never the same after his Rainbow days in regards to how he played previously with Jeff Beck. Then again we possibly wouldn’t have had certain music that he has been associated with. He has played with so many talented musicians, a bit like Simon Phillips has also. However as you said his resume says a lot in regards to diversity & respect amongst his peers. Sure as hell he wasn’t as nifty on the kick drum as Paice or Bonham, but each to their own. That Elmer Gantry vocal song & the other one Living a Lie with Frank Aiello singing are both superb songs on that Tilt album. I have those three Cozy albums from that era. Gary Moore plays on two wonderful slower instrumentals, plus a couple of typical fast rockers. Bernie Marsden is great too on a few songs, very melodic playing from both guitarists & Neil Murray is grand on a few tracks also, plus the songs & instrumentals from Jon Lord’s mighty album, Before I Forget. That instrumental Tender Babes is grand & no doubt set Cozy up well for his stint with Emerson & Lake a few years later. Yes his hard hitting sometimes is a bit too much, depending on my mood but at least we can hear the drums properly, probably too much in some instances. Better than being buried under other instruments though, but I would say that wouldn’t I. Cheers.
June 14th, 2024 at 00:04I love that one, so much more than “Portable Door” which is a pale replay of “Pictures of Home”. Here – you have the hook, the swagger (“your hair is blowing allover the place, ha ha HAAAAA”), the radio friendliness so needed but without losing tthme purple tank power to it. It sits heavy on my head and doesn’t want to go away. I wasn’t enjoying the purple single like that for a long time, you go and sing it every now and then. “So I trust in my eyes again -these cameras never lie…” Splendid.
What strikes me the most – is the absolutely beautiful
stunning ending, which – you’d hope – leads to something bigger in the same extraordinary way… A simple cut off to this would be one of the worst brainfarts the band ever had. We’ll have to see it on the album.
Hard to discuss production for me – Martin Birch knew how to give Purple the organic sound. Streaming versions always sound lossy, so it’s hard to tell if Ezrin failed to produce it well or not.
June 22nd, 2024 at 10:01#55
Uwe, Brian Adams’ lifelong guitar player is a man named Keith Scott, and he is a fabulous player of his own right. He has the same type of flair and swagger as Ritchie did have in his ol’ days – if only he wants to apply it. I’ve seen him doing that plenty of times in BA’s concerts. He’s one of the best rock guitarists no one ever talks about, which is a damn shame.
“Cuts Like A Knife” guitar solos are ones of the best in the history of the genre… If only that damned fade out on the track wouldn’t exist – the world would know. Amazing to learn Bryan “is a sucker for a (certain) guitar hero”, to borrow a line from Europe. 😃
June 22nd, 2024 at 16:40