![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/gillan8.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/mcbride1.jpg)
Smoke, water, fire, sky
Deep Purple has performed at the Montreux Jazz festival on July 8, 2024. This year, the festival added a new venue — an open air stage on the town’s central square, with Lake Geneva right behind the stage. This is where the band has played their set. Smoke on the Water was accompanied by the fireworks, driving home the message. The stunt received a significant coverage in mainstream press.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Ian’s and Simon’s joint harmony singing won’t get them a job in an Everly Brothers cover band anytime soon. 😣
I never said that.
July 13th, 2024 at 00:11il manque un instrument de taille: la Fender de Ritchie et Ritchie car c’est insipide!
July 13th, 2024 at 17:06I have listened to this song over 1000 times at least in my life time but I am always excited to listen to it again and again.
July 13th, 2024 at 19:45Peace ✌️
I can’t stand hearing Smoke in all its forms anymore!
I heard some recordings on YouTube of the recent concerts in Rome and Marostica in Italy….Big Ian seems slightly better to me, but from highway (first piece) which starts well, it reaches hush in the encores you can hear that the voice he goes… even in space truckin and black night towards the end of the set he practically speaks… I hope for the ears of those who go to see them, that in the rest of the tour he improves his voice, otherwise he risks not be able to finish the tour
July 13th, 2024 at 22:49Gillan is back!
July 13th, 2024 at 23:41https://youtu.be/EPw6QZm4IjE?si=wNmd5ZPb8LAmkJrF
Yo,
The version sung with IG in Black Sabbath live is pretty good too, with an awesome solo from Tony. See thread below this one…Apparently a full live show was filmed also…
Peace !
July 14th, 2024 at 00:01SOTW is an all round good song, tells a real story in an interesting way, has an iconic four note riff that is primal, but not dumb, and is arranged for the ages. With the Stones’ Satisfaction you always hear from when it came from, but SOTW is timeless. I always like to hear it played well. Not everyone does the latter.
July 14th, 2024 at 00:37Ian Paice sounds amazing in this recording. Its great to hear his detail cymbal work. Great mix
July 14th, 2024 at 05:53Footage looks good!
July 14th, 2024 at 09:52Hopefully a complete release may follow
#8 Haans:
it’s true, I criticized Little Ian in the last studio works of the Morse era, but he always looks 30 years younger on stage!!
July 14th, 2024 at 22:38Yo,
Leiber Uwe said…
qt.”With the Stones’ Satisfaction you always hear from when it came from, but SOTW is timeless. I always like to hear it played well. Not everyone does the latter”.
You really need to check-out this version of “Satisfaction” from the “Avalanche” album from Mountain circa 1974 Leiber Uwe…People are quick to forget that Mountain, & especially West Bruce & Laing, were the hottest-ticket-in-town to go & see…And there’s very good reasons for that…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6unDohBRoxg
And SOTW by Black Sabbath live is amazingly good, perhaps even better that DP in its rawness & kick-ass heavy delivery…Once again, watch link below…
Peace !
July 15th, 2024 at 03:25That Satisfaction cover is really something, Herr Gregster, danke! Albeit only a four chord song, it is not easy to cover if you want to bring it out of the 60s because the music (not the lyrics) is written and arranged as if Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich had done it, approaching bubblegum. Even the Stones hate that original arrangement, yet are stuck with it. Charlie Watts called it a Samba rhythm.
SOTW is refined in comparison. The Sabbath version is for me too heavy-handed, but I guess it was meant to be. I don’t like the riff played with a straight backbeat as opposed to Little Ian’s ingenious 16th notes hi-hat percolating behind it. Never mind, the Brummies played it as an encore and as an obvious nod to Ian’s past, all good. I’m sure it had the Sabbath punters in, uhum, technical ecstasy, when it was played unexpectedly on that tour. I know it went down great at the German gigs of the time, people were in bliss at the unlikely combination that was Gillabath and raved about the surprise encore. And let’s not forget how Ozzy anointed that line-up with the comment that Born Again was the best Sabbath album he himself “did not sing on”. He was amazed by Gillan’s vocals and vocally it might indeed be Gillan’s most radical/stark and varied performance ever, Ritchie would have been taken aback by some things his nemesis did on that album, he was never really a friend of too outlandish vocal lines which Gillan would regularly explore.
July 15th, 2024 at 18:17Yo,
@12…
You’re welcome Leiber Uwe…I’m not one to appraise a cover version of someone else’s song, but Mountain sure made-it-their own, & in a very unique way too…
qt.”Ritchie would have been taken aback by some things his nemesis did on that album, he was never really a friend of too outlandish vocal lines which Gillan would regularly explore”…
Yes, & it also seemed that IG asked for RB’s opinion & / or direction perhaps a bit too often also, which likely didn’t help circumstances back in the early ’70’s…And of course, we all know about RB’s thoughts through the ’90’s, though I suppose he needed something or someone to blame…
Peace !
July 17th, 2024 at 00:38If Ritchie didn’t like a vocal line of Ian, the song simply wasn’t released (—> Painted Horse) or Ritchie would stop contributing to it (—> Mitzi Dupree). That was actually one of his most unpleasant traits, the stifling of other people’s ideas, especially given his own “throw-toys-out-of-pram”-reaction if other people did it to him (—> Black Sheep Of The Family, —> Soldier Of Fortune).
Gillan’s vocal lines are rarely obvious, immediate or enticingly commercial, he’s an idiosyncratic singer and a stylist, not really a chart chorus provider, but that is what makes him (and all Purple line-ups where he is a singer) so special.
I really like Mk III/IV and even V too, but David’s, Glenn’s and Joe’s vocal melodies were mostly conventional compared to Ian’s (with some exceptions such as You Fool No One or This Time Around). Ian says something interesting in the (btw excellent and in depth) MOJO interview and I’ll quote it here verbatim:
MOJO: “After you left, Roger Glover was fired. DP Mk III included a new vocalist, David Coverdale, and bassist, Glenn Hughes. Did you pay much attention to them?”
GILLAN: “You can’t put your finger on how to deal with it at that age, so I ignored everything. But obviously I did hear the songs on Burn and Stormbringer. Great, just not for me. It was exactly how Ritchie likes things – very well-structured and predictable, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. But it didn’t have that edge. It wasn’t … In Rock and Machine Head for sure.”
I think that quote is very telling: Maybe Ritchie’s more conservative desires in music and Gillan’s quest for the slightly unorthodox were destined to never be able to cooperate for longer than a few years? We tend to concentrate on their personal difficulties here, but what if Gillan is just a little too Prog for Ritchie? Let’s not forget that he wanted to replace Gillan initially with Paul Rodgers of all people. Now Rodgers is a great singer, but he has never written or sung a melody I would regard as surprising or a little outlandish, he’s pleasantly melodic, reliably conventional and blessed with a wonderful voice. Free and Bad Company were lots of things, but certainly not musical innovators. Bad Co enshrined musical conservativism as much as, say, Creedence Clearwater Revival.
July 17th, 2024 at 16:40Whoah….. a few comments here to tear apart. @ 14 – “If Ritchie didn’t like a vocal line of Ian, the song simply wasn’t released (—> Painted Horse) or Ritchie would stop contributing to it (—> Mitzi Dupree). I doubt that that was just a reaction to Gillan only Uwe. He is a song man & knows a good song. Both of those examples are justified by Blackmore. Painted Horse is a boring song compared to all the others on WDWTWA & the less said about Mitzi Dupree the better. Talk about a stock standard boring blues riff. A song I always avoid because of it’s cliche & dullness & the tongue in cheek lyrics do not mean it is a good song at all. There is another example on TBRO also. A album filler track. @ 12- “And let’s not forget how Ozzy anointed that line-up with the comment that Born Again was the best Sabbath album he himself “did not sing on”. He was amazed by Gillan’s vocals and vocally it might indeed be Gillan’s most radical/stark and varied performance ever, Ritchie would have been taken aback by some things his nemesis did on that album, he was never really a friend of too outlandish vocal lines which Gillan would regularly explore”. I remember Ozzy ‘putting the boot in again’ to Dio with that comment. Anything to ‘justify’ his childish attitude at being replaced by a better vocalist & the success that that entailed, something O$Bourne was incensed about & couldn’t 7 wouldn’t accept. Also he may have known Gillan from the 70’s both being Brummies & all. I doubt that Blackmore would have listened to Born Again, why would he? Having said that you are correct in that the ‘personalities clashing’ thing does get in the way with both scenarios that I have highlighted. So anything to get the better of the rival, a sad situation that happens all too often in life with so many. Oh & I purchased yesterday the wonderful Creedence Clearwater Revival classic Cosmo’s Factory. An old favourite & there is plenty of exploration on that album. The wonderful extended 11 minute version of ‘I Heard it Through the Grapevine’ & the sublime opener, ‘Ramble Tamble’. They pushed the boundaries for a great song band at that time. A wonderful guitar band also & my first rock band as a rather young lad, which of course lead to even more wonderful rock bands. A bit harsh on Bad Company too, those early albums are great examples of a tight four piece rock band & very good songwriting. Each to their own as we often say. Cheers.
July 18th, 2024 at 00:09The Mountain version of Satisfaction is good, a little slower but that adds to the heaviness of it. Cheers.
July 18th, 2024 at 22:00Yo,
@15 & 16…
The whole “Avalache” album is great listening, & very diverse in styles. I’d suggest they’d come across “Dr.John” in their travels, as the album does have a more than subtle funk tinge through it, & the ending lyric of the last song states “That’s for the Doctor, Dr.John”…
Both IG & RB are correct in their POV’s, & in making music that works. It seems that IG wanted to move forward, & RB was inclined to milk-the-cow-some-more since “his” (?) formula worked & needed the same milk to work.
Of all the many different bands I’ve played for people whilst “partying”, Bad Company always stops conversations & people ask “Who’s this ???…I wish the radio played more songs like this”…
I could never ever see Paul Rodgers in Queen per-se, & squirmed before my first listening to “The Cosmos Rocks”, but I got through it surprisingly well, & I actually rate the album surprisingly high, with easy-to-get-along-with songs & memorable melodies. For sure with more time, I think no-doubt that they could have made the album even stronger, as it seems to me to be a collection of solid, yet underdeveloped tunes. On that basis, it still gets a solid 7 / 10 from me.
Who knows what PR’s could have wrung out of DP, but he made the right decision in getting Bad Company started back then, there’s no doubting that.
Peace !
July 19th, 2024 at 10:10Lieber Herr MacGregor, I have to ask, was flunking geography class hard on you? I t must have been. First you deem Tucky Buzzard American, and now Gillan gets the dubious honor of being a Brummie! 😂 He’s from Middlesex (Greater London Area), some 180 km away from Birmingham. I know, not a relevant distance Downunder, but in the UK it’s another world. You mistook Ian with that curly-blond singer FROM THAT OTHER BAND, who is indeed – like Ozzy – from the Birmingham area. I really don’t know how you can make good on this, does Tasmania have swamps you could perhaps consider for ritual suicide to cleanse the MacGregor Clan of your multifold sins? 😔
Moving on: Painted Horse … I liked that number and it would have fitted well on WDWTWA, but only Jon liked Ian’s vocal meldoy, the others didn’t, so Ritchie had a majority behind him. As for Mitzi Dupree, yes, it’s a jammy Blues, but an inspired one. The way it reports about a chance meeting on an airplane (during Ian’s GILLAN days) is great poetry. Unless, of course, non-flying wizards toppling off tower structures in arid environments is your thing. Now where do we go …
To Bad Co of course! I never said they couldn’t write a tune or two, but they were never edgy or inventive, never pushing the envelope or surprising in what they did. Split Enz they were not. and Paul Rodgers with Queen was as good a combination as, uhum, Joe Cocker with The Spiders of Mars. 🤣 Bad Co was diluted Free. Dilute some more and you end up with Foreigner. Of course that music is popular, because it rubs no one the wrong way, yet is well-executed, but it’s also very, very safe. A lot of people like that or AC/DC (or Dire Straits) wouldn’t be where they are. I can enjoy Bad Co as tunesmiths, but there is nothing inventive to them. That was all I said. A Band like Mott the Hoople sounds to me more dangerous (even though Paul Rodger’s can sing circles around Ian Hunter as the ‘Unter will readily admit).
July 19th, 2024 at 23:47@ 18 -yes I take the Tucky Buzzard one & being lazy in my presumption & not researching that but the ‘Brummie’ one was me being silly. Meaning they are from England, (spare me from the wrath, many would loath someone saying that in certain parts of England.) No different to many people saying, oh, you are Australian. Yes I reply. I know that is a poor example in a way, being a continent & all. I am originally from New South Wales. I just don’t go into the ‘closer proximity’ demographics as such when talking about a person. Tasmania, where is that, he he he. There are differences though as you say. I know what you mean regarding Bad Company, playing it safe so to speak. Most probably they didn’t go any other way when playing live also (I have never heard any live material from them). In regards to Rodgers with Queen, not a good fit there. Even with Jimmy Page (I do like the first Firm album & have always owned it) but it sort of didn’t work in many aspects. No harm in trying though. But what about CCR? Are you not into ‘swamp’ music. Not my terminology, but they were called that by some. Rockabilly, bluegrass, country rock, blues & rock. You lived over there at that time, did you not get into them at all? Cheers.
July 20th, 2024 at 01:11The question whether Tasmania has swamps remains unanswered, but given that you did not mistake Gillan for Percy the MacGregor cleansing of name is herewith provisionally revoked!
I like CCR, how can one not? But their plethora of singles hits has somehow obscured them as an album band for me and I generally prefer album to singles bands. I’ve seen Fogerty live, not that long ago actually. He was very good. But his revenge quest against former management and band mates is not really my cup of tea. And of course everything about their music is made up, Fogerty’s fake singing accent, how he didn’t see a bayou until he was an adult, the whole rural Americana pose. CCR were a West Coast band pretending to be from the Southern Heartland, they are as much the real thing as Candice Night is an English damsel in distress. And while Run Through The Jungle apes psychedelia, it’s not exactly Jefferson Airplane or The Doors, is it? Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young were fearless Prog in comparison.
Bad Co in their prime were live just like on their records sans overdubs. And since they did few overdubs, they were pretty much exactly the same. Good musicians and Rodgers – like Dio – never took as risk live. They’re both not Bonnets or Gillians who both do not shun risky territory. Bad Co’s comparatively recent release “Live 1977 & 1979” is worth having, immaculate execution, but not boundary-breaking frenzy like Made In Japan.
If I say a band is conservative and playing safe, it doesn’t mean thatI can’t appreciate them. Hey, I’m a Quo fan! I own everything from CCR, Fogerty, Bad Co and Paul Rodgers. They all released fine music, but there is no Clear Air Turbulence or Born Again among them.
My favorite Forgerty song is a cover by another artist – no, not RAOTW by Quo -, but this today largely forgotten gem by Ms DeVito:
https://youtu.be/CbZQyG9qkLQ
July 20th, 2024 at 13:25Well here we go Uwe, shock horror. I didn’t know that Status Quo version of RAOTW was a cover let alone a John Fogerty song. See what happens when you reside on another planet. I didn’t follow Fogerty at all after CCR & I had dropped Quo by the mid to late 70’s, sold my albums or gave them away. I never liked the heavy ‘accent’ of Fogerty either & wished it wasn’t like that, especially on certain songs were it is a little over the top irritating. Cosmo’s Factory is the only album I have ever owned & I also remember a few of their other successful singles. I don’t hear any attempt at psychedelia though, but I suppose a few of those effects & instrumental bits on one or two songs may be in that vein, sort of. It is not a surprise that CF has more instrumental music on it & hence my appreciation for that. Not that I am familiar with their other albums at all. I agree regarding Bad Company, clinically ‘perfect’ in every sense. I haven’t replaced those first three albums I used to own on vinyl with cd’s, I suppose that says something. A good memory of some fine songs though. Cheers.
July 21st, 2024 at 06:59“Well here we go Uwe, shock horror. I didn’t know that Status Quo version of RAOTW was a cover let alone a John Fogerty song. See what happens when you reside on another planet. ”
You are aware that Alan Lancaster eventually became one of your countrymen?!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luhrwuMuACs&list=PLdKaiDcOpxcORUQQQm2I_NvuXy4qY60wH
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_NT12M3nv0&list=PLdKaiDcOpxcORUQQQm2I_NvuXy4qY60wH&index=4
That Bombers singer had an amazing range:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UaAdLys2ZY&list=PLdKaiDcOpxcORUQQQm2I_NvuXy4qY60wH&index=5
When RAOTW came out in the autumn of 1977, all old Quo fans hated it, too poppy, too C&W (an old love of Francis Rossi though it was Rick Parfitt who proposed to cover the song after having heard Fogerty’s original
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEUP5yjIOB8
from his 1975 solo album on the radio). Some grumpy fans said: “They now sound like the (Bay City) Rollers!” I was never too crazy about the song or the whole album of the same name myself. It’s a song that tries a little too hard to be catchy.
Rick Parfitt loved it. And thinks John Fogerty is a prat (so does Francis Rossi, who once quipped “Nice song, NOT a nice person!”).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0be8JgKLx4
Springsteen throws it in his set now and then, at least when he is playing Europe (not sure whether he is aware of the Status Quo version).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSLi9GVDDvI
It actually works best when Quo return to it some of that original Zydeco feel it has.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nFAQYxEAP4
Don’t feel bad, lots of people don’t know it’s a Fogerty song. And he’s like embarrassed that Quo ever did it, but happy to take the royalties. A prat.
July 23rd, 2024 at 02:16