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One is symbolic of simplicity
Couple of interviews promoting =1 that by now, frankly, sound a bit redundant, but here they are for the sake of completeness.
Roger Glover spoke to ABC News:
Glover said Gillan once questioned how big of an equation someone could come up with where the answer would equal one, then had a mathematician friend come up with an example.
“And he showed it to me and I said, ‘You know, that could be a title,’ and he said, ‘Yeah, I think so, too,’” Glover shares. Gillan then wondered if the equation itself should be the title, but Glover notes, “I said no, just ‘equals one.’”
Meanwhile, Ian Gillan spoke to The Sun:
Leading the charge from these shores in the late Sixties and early Seventies was the so-called “unholy trinity” — Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple.
Why, you might ask, did good Old Blighty supply these all-conquering monsters of rock?
“We were all nutters, that’s why!” says Purple’s lead singer Ian Gillan, possessor of one of the form’s most commanding hollers.
“I used to listen to American bands and think, ‘My God, they’re so well-rehearsed, everything is just so absolutely tickety-boo.’
“But, with the British bands, we were just nuts. We’d go on stage and do anything.”
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
THANK YOU DP
July 20th, 2024 at 13:11you still are the most beautiful thing of my life
♡
God Bless us all
Some good comments from IG and RG. Simon McBride is doing a great job. He’s part Ritchie and part Steve, so everyone should be happy. Gillan made some really astute comments about Simon’s adaptability.
I felt the British were, generally speaking, more creative than most of their American counterparts in the 1960s and ’70s, with a lot of exceptions. But everybody was on the same page in terms of sharing material and ideas, on either side of the pond. I would say our music in America started going downhill rapidly in the late 1980s, largely because video presence started becoming more important than audio quality. MTV played no small part in the destruction of rock music.
Roger Hitts and I were interviewing Rob Tyner (MC-5 and the National Rock Show) backstage in Mecosta, Michigan, in 1982 and he told us we had to carry the torch for rock and roll in the future. Roger and I both thought he had lost his marbles, because rock ruled back then. Decades later, Tyner looks like a visionary. In just a few short years, rock would be largely dead – and Tyner was dead after suffering a heart attack behind the wheel of a car.
July 20th, 2024 at 17:10Anyone knows, what is the bonus track on the Japanese version of =1, and is it available somewhere online?
July 20th, 2024 at 22:29I wouldn’t agree with American music having become inferior. It put the emphasis on different things and playing well was always important, but let’s not forget that the last important movement in rock came from America, namely Seattle and that was the early 90s. Now I’m not known for liking Grunge, but I won’t deny its lasting cultural and musical impact.
And Rap and Hip-Hop emanated from the US too – they have changed the landscape during the last 45+ years and their influence can be heard in rock as well.
Basically, for the last 100 years or more, we have all been raised on music either born directly in America or at the very least inspired by it, the 60s British Invasion wouldn’t have happened without the US role models from the decade before (and the proliferation of US cultural influences in the UK via US servicemen in WW II). It’s the US of A’s lasting cultural gift to the world, you can justly be proud of that.
https://youtu.be/X67Scbwrdn4
Rob Tyner – wow, KICK OUT THE JAMS, MUTHAFUCKAS !!! What a band.
July 21st, 2024 at 22:01Yo,
@3…
Alas, DiscJapan.com is no-more…They could have offered you every DP show of the new line-up if you wanted it.
Peace !
July 21st, 2024 at 23:19For me I do tend to lean towards the British bands, especially in regards to the ‘progressive’ rock & general rock movement during the late 60’s & 70’s, although there are a few American bands that excelled at that also. The European influence was enormous in that regard, folk, classical, opera & jazz. Blues & obviously the American influences are huge. Folk from the British/Irish etc side. Grunge & metal in the States during the 80’s & 90’s was only an extension of what had already been before to my ears & unfortunately, my eyes (hair metal etc). MTV was terrible & as the song goes, Video did KILL the radio star. The last 100 years or so of popular music certainly has been a mishmash of influences that can go even deeper into our past. Cheers.
July 22nd, 2024 at 06:53Yo,
@4…Multiculturalism in the US-of-A also played a big part in terms of what sounds were evolving…From the West-coast to the East coast, & from Michigan to the deep South & everywhere in-between, all had something very unique & different to offer up, & many remain quite successful to this day….eg
Grateful Dead, Velvet Underground, Alice Cooper, Lynyrd Skynyrd, to Dr.John to name a few of the many & varied sounds that came through. And bands like Little Feat managed to make all these sounds into their own…Amazing…
Peace !
July 22nd, 2024 at 13:36There are types of music Americans excel at and they generally do it at a very high quality. The Beach Boys, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, The Doors, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (though feat. one Limey and one Canuck), The Allman Brothers Band, Grand Funk Railroad, Chicago, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Bob Seger, Sly & The Family Stone, Lou Reed, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Eagles, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Prince, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Journey, Styx, Toto, Bon Jovi, Metallica, REM and Kings of Leon are all bands that could have only come out of America. That‘s not a bad mix. And you might add Fleetwood Mac as well because while they were outnumbered by the Limeys, Lindsey and Stevie turned the band into the commercial and cultural behemoth it became.
Personally, I lean towards British rock too because it tends to be darker and edgier, but I admire American bands for their ability to present cohesive band sounds night for night for night. I‘d go as far as to say that the average professional American musician probably has more chops and versatility than his British counterpart. It‘s that melting pot exposure and that Yank sense to relish in competing.
July 22nd, 2024 at 15:05The Great American Songbook as it is known has an everlasting influence on so many. And not only in the USA. They had been there a while & had the time & history for a relatively young country to get involved in song & dance etc. Britain being where it is also & an older country had all the influences from both sides of the pond. Being so close to Europe & having their own history well established really opened them up in the 1960’s & 70’s big time. Bob Dylan & Paul Simon both travelled to England to suss out the folk clubs & artists of which there were so many. And later in the 1960’s Hendrix was smitten with the English scene for various reasons. Even Jim Morrison moved to France. A much richer deeper culture everywhere over there which is understandable. Meanwhile here in Australia we being a much younger lot merely copied everyone else to an extent. Where else were we going to get our influences from. Sad really. Not to worry. Cheers.
July 23rd, 2024 at 23:44I forgot to add that the song ‘Deep Purple’ is in that American songbook, 1933.
July 23rd, 2024 at 23:47So there we go. Cheers.
@3 This is what I found:
14
July 24th, 2024 at 08:37[Japan only bonus track] When a Blind Man Cries (Live in Milan 2022)
[日本盤ボーナストラック] When a Blind Man Cries (Live in Milan 2022)
15
[Japan only bonus track] Uncommon Man (Live in Milan 2022)
[日本盤ボーナストラック] Smoke on the Water (Live in Milan 2022)
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[Japan only bonus track] Smoke on the Water (Live in Milan 2022)
[日本盤ボーナストラック] Uncommon Man (Live in Milan 2022)
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[Japan only bonus track] Strange Kind of Woman (Live in Sofia 2022)
[日本盤ボーナストラック] Strange Kind of Woman (Live in Sofia 2022)
@ 8: Grand Funk Railroad. Really? And no Little Feat? 😉
July 24th, 2024 at 09:41But I prefer Grand Funk Railroad to Little Feat a thousand times over, Max, apologies for my blue collar tastes!
https://youtu.be/mZj1uElADZw
Besides, you‘re not really arguing that Lowell George‘s butt could even remotely compete with Mark Farner‘s more shapely one? He was the Kim Kardashian of bare-chested guitar! 😎
But, yeah, you‘re right, Little Feat‘s polyrhythmic music deserved a mention too – as did The Band and the Talking Heads.
July 24th, 2024 at 13:44Interesting article from Mitch Ryder from the Detroit Wheels about the difference for him between the USA music audience & the industry compared to the European one. Cheers.
https://www.loudersound.com/features/mitch-ryder-roof-on-fire-interview
July 24th, 2024 at 22:59I would second his observations. The man has likely spent more time in Europe than the US in the last half-century. I remember seeing him in the late 80ies playing in Central Park NYC with a big band for free in broad daylight, a matinee show. I was surprised he was actually playing in his home country!
It’s not that bands cannot lose popularity over time in Europe too, but they hardly ever fall into oblivion, especially if they continue to perform well. People appreciate live music. Ryder always had his deutsche fans. Red Scar Eyes was an underground hit here.
https://youtu.be/kHtM7E-Z5Kw
July 25th, 2024 at 04:25@ 15 – I will have to admit Uwe to not knowing any of Ryder’s music, many of those songs being covers. Unless I heard them back then & didn’t know who he was or I have forgotten about him. The name rang a very distant bell for me. Excellent musicians all round & that Rockpalast gig from 1979 looks & sounds rather good. I will watch more of that later. Allegedly (from the dastardly wikipedia) Blackmore was influenced by Ryder & The Detroits for the rhythm on Purple’s version of Kentucky Woman. And Steve Hunter the guitarist you mentioned a few weeks ago was connected to Ryder & credits him for his ‘break’ into rock & roll & also for introducing him to Bob Ezrin. Also Ryder was apparently an influence on Bob Seger, John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen & wait for it, Ted Nugent. This research thing Uwe, I am beginning to like it very much. Cheers.
July 25th, 2024 at 11:31Jeez Uwe…I’m not into butts … if you forgive the pun. Not even Lowell George’s one. But his music stands out.
I seem to remember that the man in black himself made some comments about GFR in the same vein he did about Grateful Dead. I tend to agree in both case. And I think the Yanks did the trick again with the Dave Matthews Band. Don’t know how the y do it …
The clip with that footstomping music thang is enjoyable I have to say though. And there is nothing wrong with blue collar taste. Off to blast out some Skynyrd on the way home …
July 25th, 2024 at 13:07@17…
Little Feat was pretty-much all I brought as “new albums” through the 1990’s until this day, in a must have diet of collecting. Yes, they had ups’n’downs too with members dying or leaving, but they’ve always delivered top-quality music, guaranteed, no duds what-so-ever. Even “Sam’s Place” that was recently released is quite surprising, in that Sam the conga-player can sing an entire album quite well lol, & it reveals that the beast is very-much alive & well !…(Though it is mostly a studio collection of the “tail-end-improvisations” to songs live they’ve played for decades as add-ons to other tunes improvisations that Sam always sung).
Everyone must have “Down Upon the Suwannee” in their collection imo.
Little Feat’s career parallels DP’s in many respects too, where apart from the ups’n’downs, they to had a hiatus of a similar time-frame, & faced the same / similar critique as DP did with post Lowell George & post RB per-se.
I’m glad that both bands are alive & well !
Peace !
July 26th, 2024 at 10:28Glad to see their praises sung here much better than I could have done! 🙂 And I agree there are parallels to DP. A main difference I think is that Blackmore and Lord knew their showmanship, they created an aura – the man in black, the maestro rocking the hammond around- and Gillan sure looked the part. Coverdale and Hughes did so too. There was a certain magic, a sense of danger and sexyness around the band – at least in the 70s. Whereas Little Feat looked like a bunch of farmers or rural music teachers most of the time. I guess they could have been as great as the Allman Brothers Band had they only cared a bit more about image things.
Same goes for a lot of great musicians of course.
July 26th, 2024 at 14:44I see more similarities between The Allman Brothers Band and Deep Purple, but, yes, Little Feat could cook up a nice improvisational stew too. Image was certainly a reason, but I think the jazz influences of pretty much all members other than Lowell George had something to do with the lack of mainstream success as well. Mainstream audiences can tolerate jazz influences only in homeopathic doses if at all.
I’ve actually seen Little Feat and DP on the same bill in 2008!
https://www.rockpalastarchiv.de/bild/classic08/classicrn08.jpg
Little Feat probably had the hardest time, their music being somewhat complex and not immediately catchy. The Hooters have an extremely loyal following in Germany and can play hit after hit after hit and Gotthard of course appealed to the hard rock sentiment in DP’s audience (they also know how to “work” an audience), but overall it was a nicely varied open air.
July 26th, 2024 at 17:36Yo,
@20…
That would have been an awesome evening Leiber Uwe ! Thanks for posting the link to the flyer, as I would have thought you were pulling my leg !…DP & LF together on the same night…Amazing…
You actually would have seen Little Feat just before Ritchie Hayward (RIP) fell ill, & before Shaun Murphy was released from service…They were selling quite a few records through their Hot Tomatoes label, though the last studio effort on that label would have been 2004’s “Kickin’ it at the Barn”, a superb, even brilliant work of Little Feat art, with a large number of live-releases that followed, as that’s what the people were wanting as guided by the internet discussions through their website etc etc. In 2008, they recorded at “427 studios”, with a number of session players & singers, singing Little Feat classics with the band. The record isn’t a bad one either, titled “Join the Band”, & that’s likely what they were backing on tour.
RIP Mr.Hayward, probably my favourite drummer ever, dearly missed. Right up there with the best of the best.
Peace !
July 28th, 2024 at 10:46