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Not perfect is exactly the point
Analog Planet has an extensive interview with Roger Glover, accompanied by a brief review of =1. Roger talks about the new album, the bad old days, various Machine Head remixes, including the latest, working with Bob Ezrin, and many other things.
Mettler: None of us are perfect strangers to any of that, to borrow an album title of yours. And it’s, what, 40 years old now, since it was released in [October] 1984 [on Polydor], so I think we need another box set from you guys. Is Purple gonna continue with historical box sets like the Machine Head one?
Glover: I’d love to see a remix of Perfect Strangers, and a remix of The House of Blue Light [released in January 1987, also on Polydor]. I would love to see that. There are a few technical problems, though. We can’t find the tapes for Perfect Strangers. We can’t find anything for that.Mettler: Oh, man, that’s a bummer.
Glover: (shakes head) Yeah, I know. I know. We do have about 40 multitrack reels for The House of Blue Light, which we did on 48 tracks, believe it or not — but to go through all that and find the one that we used would take a lot of time and money.
Read more in Analog Planet.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
I’m for releasing ALL the multitrack reels from the THOBL sessions and if it means a 15 cd set! 🤗
Too bad about the Perfect Stranger masters being lost, but I kind of had a hunch about that.
August 10th, 2024 at 05:00The most beautiful thing about DP is even the worst songs has amazing individual brilliance that you can enjoy selectively.
August 10th, 2024 at 07:51Collectively ‘Perfect Strangers’ as an album is pure perfection form each individual.
That’s a freak moment in time that can never be repeated and remixing it is just a cosmetic rather than artistic enhancement.
Peace ✌️
Very beautiful interview. I don’t understand how you can lose the original tapes
August 10th, 2024 at 08:12Yo,
@2 said…
qt.”Collectively, ‘Perfect Strangers’ as an album is pure perfection form each individual.
That’s a freak moment in time, that can never be repeated and remixing it is just a cosmetic rather than artistic enhancement”.
Agreed…All the re-union Mk-II studio albums are ageing quite well imo. And the 1993 live-albums aren’t too shabby either…
@3 asked…
qt.”I don’t understand how you can lose the original tapes” ?…
Great point, but I’d suggest that there was at the time some legalities with old & new management(s) between all the members settling matters between themselves, & in that process they got lost, possibly even to HEC enterprises. Someone will have them somewhere for sure. When & if it’s required, Ear Music will likely find them, if they don’t already have them.
IMO, the album sounds great already. I really don’t see the need to play with it. There’s only one “extra” tune that I can think of that necessitates some polishing-up, but it was never officially released, though found its way onto the 2-for-the-price-of-1 CD promo’s at least here in Oz. I’ve forgotten its name too which doesn’t help, though it was I think an instrumental.
Peace !
August 10th, 2024 at 14:25To me, Perfect Strangers was a “good” album (after the Mk II line-up having been apart for a decade). Better than anything Ritchie, Roger, Jon and Little Ian had played on with Rainbow, Whitesnake or Gary Moore in a long time. But not as iconic and daring as what Big Ian had done with Black Sabbath only a year before. Perfect Strangers was a bit conventional and safe, DP/Mk II finding their feet again sans platform soles. You can hear that nobody wanted to rock the boat or be difficult. But it obviously filled a void and was what most fans and casual listeners wanted. I can understand why it’s dear to many people.
August 10th, 2024 at 14:37Andre “losing original tapes” in the sense of having them put somewhere, but not finding them again, happens all the time. The Come Taste The Band masters were lost like that for years until someone stumbled across them by coincidence, same with Born Again which were initially deemed permanently lost. Add to that permanent losses like through the 20o8 Universal Studios fire in Hollywood. The Perfect Stranger masters might still be somewhere, but long forgotten, cue in Raiders Of The Lost Ark final scene
https://youtu.be/TASlXWbMZyU ,
or destroyed or even wiped (it has happened before). Don’t give up hope just yet.
August 10th, 2024 at 15:55Good interview! A remix of The House of Blue Light sounds great.. but dont bother with “The battle rages on”…………..
August 10th, 2024 at 15:56Sounds like a good job for Steven Wilson. THOBL, as he apparently has very good eyes & ears & a lot of patience from what I have read, regarding the early King Crimson albums he did & also a few Yes albums. A shame about PS though. How does this happen, well it is pointless going into that. Cheers.
August 10th, 2024 at 22:45still hoping that ROTD will get a remix. That was kind of announced, too?
August 11th, 2024 at 07:20Regarding lost tapes, the other day I read about a new site/service someone from the DP camp maybe should look into:
https://www.mixonline.com/business/making-reel-connections
August 11th, 2024 at 10:43Losing tapes isn’t so strange if you think of the business point of it, that we are taking about corporations that are run by random employees, not fans. 🙂 One record company is bought my another and is then sold to some investment entity seeking to expand their portfolio. Assets need to be moved between facilities, maybe by a third party, a moving firm to whom a certain degree of loss in the form of a lost or damaged box is normal business and covered by some insurance.
In the article I linked above, there is a story of a Rolling Stones employee just by chance walking by Olympic Studios in London when it was closing down. In the “garbage” being cleaned out by someone that couldn’t care less, just being eager to clean up that place so he can end his work day and go to the pub, the RS employee saw tape boxes labelled “Rolling Stones”. He ordered the guys to stop right away and called his office to have them arrange a lorry coming ASAP to rescue music history being lost forever.
So, the worst case is that the PS tapes have been burned at a waste disposal facility somewhere. Hopefully though, the tapes are lying around somewhere – in a studio that has changed owners 16 times since the mid 80’s, in the attic of some grandkids who inherited some weird boxes around the turn of the century, or in the hands of some collector hoping the tapes can be sold to rescue his pension plan.
Maybe a request from someone official at the site above will help locate the tapes? And there’s another problem, who would that be? Does Polygram exist anymore? Who owns the tapes, the label, the studio or someone else? I am sure legally, they aren’t the property of anyone in the band.
I’ve said it before and I will say it again: I think AI could solve this. Once it has been established that the tapes are indeed nowhere to be found, I am sure really good stem separation can be done by AI soon. And we have all the people here to solve everything. Uwe will sort out the legalities. Then Gregster and myself will do remixes and let everyone know decide which sounds the best and then we’ll release the winner.
August 11th, 2024 at 11:09Indeed the garbage being thrown out stories are very common in some cases of lost or almost lost tapes from the good old days. Yes had a close call in that regard in the early 70’s with the Close To The Edge recording sessions & cut up sections of tape numbered & hanging on the studio wall in numerical order for the next day to join together etc. Some of the sections fell to the floor overnight & the cleaning lady came in very early & threw everything out that was on the floor, as you probably would. Jon Anderson & Eddie Offord I think, went in earlier than the usual start time the next morning & freaked out & they had a panic search & rescue mission in the skip bin outside & luckily they found everything & all was good just before the bin collection. Who says all this modern ‘pro tools’ technology is grand, hard to beat the good old days of recording eh? Regarding the remixes being done by Gregster & Svante & then letting all us passionate listeners then give the final approval or not. That sounds very plausible indeed to my ears. We will keep knocking it back until it is ‘perfect’, in the old school 1980’s sound that is. Good luck with the mixing. Cheers.
August 11th, 2024 at 12:04@11 – One of the most heartbreaking examples of tapes being trashed was of course when RCA binned several tapes of Elvis’ early recordings which they had received from Sun records.
No-one even knows what was on them. But from putting various clues together, Elvis fans reckon that – in addition to duplicates and alternate takes – the tapes may have contained a handful of unique songs that were never released.
Elvis archivist Ernst Jørgensen speculates that a Sun Records-era version of “Tiger Man” may have been among these:
August 11th, 2024 at 13:45https://variety.com/2017/music/news/elvis-presley-archivist-ernst-jorgensen-interview-1202529943/
OMG, that threatened Scandinavian-Aussie co-production of Purple material will be endlessly drums-heavy and released for public safety reasons only under the moniker “Ian Paice & Friends Play The Music Of DeepPurple”. 😆
August 11th, 2024 at 13:53Speaking of lost PS tapes, does anyone know if the outro from PS and the HOTBL tours belongs to them? It’s an instrumental outro and you can find it on the bootlegs from Budapest 1987 and London 1987. Please, if someone knows the name of that instrumental!!!! Great stuff!
August 11th, 2024 at 22:19@ 14 – but surely Uwe, if you were put into the position of sorting out all the legalities of the situation, you could put a stop to anything that you didn’t feel was warranted. Not a bad position to be in if I may say so myself. While we all have to work hard & all that & wait for your critical legal judgement on everything. Hmmmmmmmmmm, The SENTINEL is in control, he has assumed control. As long as it doesn’t get to the Doctor Who Dalek mantra, ‘Exterminate, exterminate’. Cheers.
August 11th, 2024 at 22:46“… but surely Uwe, if you were put into the position of sorting out all the legalities of the situation, you could put a stop to anything that you didn’t feel was warranted …”
That is true, I would imagine that the – in your case logistically convenient – looming threat of life in a penal colony in some remote part of the world might work wonders to prohibit percussive perversions permeating the mix. 😂
August 12th, 2024 at 13:55If Roger hasn’t got the time to go through the HOBL reels then I don’t mind having a crack and I won’t expect to be paid. 😀
August 12th, 2024 at 14:49#2 Adel:
I agree with you, Perfect Strangers was the perfect reunion album, all great songs with no weak points, the boys at the peak of their form and fame at around 40 years old, (they also looked great in the photo sessions with their 80’s look!!).
the sound was modern, far from that of the 70s, an adventurous, dramatic and AoR mix unfortunatelymagico & unrepeatable even for Deep Purple themselves
as much as i love every single note the man in black played on PS, i have to say that already here (as in the last rainbow albums) you can notice a few too many technically “dirty” solos, and this became even more evident on tour, but this was ritchie’s conscious choice, take it or leave it.
August 12th, 2024 at 22:57I’m all for it, David!
A modest recommendation: The boxed set should contain purple ping pong balls as well as an easy language instruction manual for their paddle-less propulsion. For DIY collectors you know. A Plop!-record so to say.
That is still on my bucket list: DP performing Mitzi Dupree live.
August 12th, 2024 at 23:07I grew up with THOBL and yes he has that 80’s production and feeling but worn that tape out and drove my parents crazy. I would love to see a remaster/Remix of that album and maybe some extra nuggets in there.
Perfect Strangers lost tapes much like Born Again story just rcently located.I hope they will be found and while Rpger is still with us and kicking and have a knack at it.
August 13th, 2024 at 00:28@ 16 hey Mac Gregor I remember years back you said you didnt like the drumd sound on either Perfect Stranegrs or THOBL?
August 13th, 2024 at 00:31@ 7 why not ? I know the circumastences and the recording of that was weird but some justice maybe will need to be done? it is the last with Blackmore anyway
August 13th, 2024 at 00:32@ 22- AL, I am not sure about the PS sound being mentioned by me but I do remember saying the THOBL needed tidying up & also that gated 80’s snare sound wasn’t my favourite. But yes THOBL sounds a little messy, sort of. Cheers.
August 13th, 2024 at 05:37@24 Uwe, and sleeve notes should have the law written, be in colour – not black and white – and as long as we have the right attitude I’m sure we can get it done.
August 13th, 2024 at 07:55@24. Yes, HOBL – very 80’s production – All snare & vocal and a perfectly horrid guitar sound for some tracks. Mind you that was RB’s doing. I asked RG on his website years ago who was responsible for RB’s sound and he said RB alone.
August 13th, 2024 at 07:58Yes, a free dose of penicillin would be nice boxed set candy as well, the unwritten law and such. I’m sure Roger can still recollect a good brand.
THOBL is the only Purple album where Roger plays with Jon’s organ! On Black & White:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGKpA0qQnAQ
Roger demoed the syncopated Hammond stabs in the verse via a sample from Jon’s playing and presented it to him subtly as a potential idea for what Jon could contribute to the track. Jon heard it and said: “Sounds great, keep it!”, adding graciously: “Put a credit ‘Jon Lord’s organ courtesy of Roger Glover’ on the cover!” 😎
That said, there is no Jon Lord on this track either, Roger (an adept keyboard player in his own right) played all the – very Pete Townshend’esque – keyboards:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx9L7p_VTXA
[Crucify me, but I thought that was a catchy track with some very good and inspired playing by Ritchie. I know, I know, I just committed heresy here.]
Compositionally and as regards variety, THOBL is a treasure trove well-deserving of a lavish boxed set release with outtakes, alternative mixes, demos, bells & whistles. DP were really pushing the stylistic envelope on that album. I preferred it so much more to Perfect Strangers, it solidified the musical value of the reunion for me.
August 13th, 2024 at 17:01The best music to come out of the PS sessions was the 10 or so min jam of Son of Aleric …
https://youtu.be/9d6q3caSO0A?si=3RWpvqd4mE_tEsol
Always loved this throw away piece of post pub mythology… Blackers gold dust.
Love PS btw, it’s ageing rather beautifully… such a pity regarding the masters… much like the debut Rainbow album (I believe) which I’d love to hear remixed along with Rising… I’d die to hear the Stargazer string section isolated :/
Rock on
August 13th, 2024 at 20:51@28…
qt.”The best music to come out of the PS sessions was the 10 or so min jam of Son of Aleric” …
Thanks Kosh, that’s the name of the instrumental tune I couldn’t remember in an earlier post. I’ve got it on a “Petrol Station” 2 for price of 1 CD set that also had a live CD made-up of mostly MiJ tracks as-well as Perfect Strangers.
Anyhow, that tune is certainly a rough one, & needs a polish for sure.
Peace !
August 14th, 2024 at 09:36MAD DOG drives me crazy!!
August 14th, 2024 at 10:05@29 – I guess I love Son, because it is rough… none of that 80s gloss… it’s a wee bit repetitive, but the interplay between JL and RB is just joyful – it’s all the things I love hearing from proper world class players… I could listen to it all day… I reckon they’d missed each other, Ritchie and Jon… you can hear it in the groove and the vibe, I can see (even) Ritchie smiling 🙂 during that one.
Yeah, it’s a half baked post pub jam on a theme, but better than most half baked post pub jams! lol.
It’d been great to have heard it develop, had the potential to be a top, top ballad.
Rock on
August 14th, 2024 at 11:58@ 27 – thanks for the unheard Deep Rainbow track Uwe, good to hear something I had never heard. Without Jon Lord though it is even more DR than the album itself. Is that Deep enough for the nails on your cross, or do you want me to drive them in a little Deeeeeper. Enjoyed your THOBL comments, it is a cracker of an album indeed. @ 28- yes Son of Aleric should have been on the PS album but obviously time restraints couldn’t allow that. The band probably wouldn’t have anyway, not to mention management & the record company. So many bands from the golden era that did so many instrumental embellishments back then, dropped all that when MTV kicked in. Purple without that just isn’t the same & as we all know it is or was one of their greatest assets. It is Bleeding Obvious these days. That final track on this new album is rather good instrumentally, but with Gillan’s vocal, excepting the middle section, it doesn’t do anything for me. Being the longest track & the final ‘song’ on the album, it would have been grander me thinks as an instrumental, a nice ‘reminder’ to go out on. Now hang me up on that cross Uwe & drive those nails in really DEEP. Cheers.
August 14th, 2024 at 12:09@27. Never heard that story before Uwe. What’s the source for that?
August 14th, 2024 at 12:17@32 – oh yes, I’d have loved it to have found a place on the LP, abridged and vocalised… perhaps in place of one of the more puerile Gillan efforts… Knocking, still come across like a sixth form bog wall poem scribbled down after a pretty frenetic biology lesson… musically splendid, lyrically upended… as it were.
🤘
August 14th, 2024 at 12:56@31…
I remember getting home & listening to the full disc of PS thinking it’s the same high quality recording that I had already, & when “Son of Aleric” came on finally, I thought “I already know this, I’ve heard this before somewhere” but can’t pin-it-down…
It is a good track, but I guess after a recording session, you have to trim-off the excess to squeeze it on the 36-odd-minutes available on a vinyl record…The tune “Not Responsible” only appeared on the cassette, & later when released on CD…And there may be another tune available on this double-CD-special I bought from those sessions that didn’t make it onto the record, but it may have been something already existing but renamed on this title…I guess I’ll just have to dig-it-out & check…
It’s a bummer when you’ve ripped stuff onto computer already, & then the computer dies, & in moments like these, you remember you have all this “stuff” that never made it to the back-up…
Peace !
August 14th, 2024 at 13:34No issue, I don’t consider Bleedin’ Obvious a stroke of genius either, it’s a bit cut and paste and Gillan’s vocal melodies – except for the almost cheesy middle part which is at least entertaining in its overt ‘late 60s/early 70s balladeering style’ – are mostly on the perfunctory side, the kind of stuff he can come up with if you wake him in the middle of the night and push a mic to his face.
August 14th, 2024 at 13:38“MAD DOG drives me crazy!!“
How and why, please elaborate AndreA?
Always liked it as a raucous little tune with a great vocal melody, a catchy riff and interesting solo parts by both Jon (very proggy) and Ritchie (great slide playing), one of my fave tracks on the album.
August 14th, 2024 at 14:21@14: You wanted drums, YOU GOT DRUMS!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3QYgqA3YZg
Yeah, free AI isn’t better quality than that at the moment. But soon! Mouhahahahahahaha!
August 14th, 2024 at 14:53David @33: It was either (more likely) a Roger Glover interview around the time of the THOBL release or (less likely) a later interview with Jon Lord in some keyboard magazine. It always stuck with me. If you listen to the track, you can hear that the organ motif in the verses is very static, Jon always changes things around a little. He’s like Keith Richards, he doesn’t accompany two verses the same way.
Mind you, rock history is filled with iconic performances where individual instruments were played by someone other than the guy officially handling/credited with it, be it by another band member or a session or guest musician. The iconic and enticingly catchy bass intro to Sure Know Something by KISS is written and played by Paul Stanley,
https://youtu.be/rQ_MOFkyhsA
so is the bass to Love Gun, the tell-tale bass riff of Living On A Prayer wasn’t played (or written) by Alec John Such, but – uncredited – by Hugh McDonald (later on his successor once being bald was ok in a rock band),
https://youtu.be/Prx00VZgdJk
and this isn’t Bill Wyman recording the bass for Sympathy for the Devil at o4:45 either, it’s Keith, Bill is playing percussion to the right …
https://youtu.be/-JGjaCqIhwE
I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more secrets lurking with DP too, Coming Home for instance features Tommy Bolin on bass, that is why you don’t hear any of Glenn’s trademark funky little fills in it.
And whenever Pink Floyd’s bass parts got intricate or were played on a fretless, the bassist’s first name was all of a sudden David and no longer Roger …
August 14th, 2024 at 15:29😂😂😂
OMG, the dreaded MacSvante Monster Mix! Never breed a moose with a kangaroo …
https://img.wattpad.com/c7d6b2d399afd1976c0f8635cbac51425602ed76/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f6639554c70355f4c3544384572413d3d2d32302e313439643235333966636632636635373833373537393036363939352e6a7067?s=fit&w=720&h=720
Some things just aren’t right.
August 14th, 2024 at 15:39Back from vacation I find a lot to agree to really! Yes, HOBL is rated above PS in my book too. Much more interesting and well worth a remix if not some remixes from differnt points of view. And of course Mitzi’s praises can’t be sing too often!
And when it comes to PS – to me it is one of many examples that outtakes outdo the actual tracks. Son of Aleric and Not Responsible are tracks I treasure much more than the “fillers” on the album – though I don’t think there’s a really weak track on the album. But KAYBD, PS, Gypsy’s Kiss and the afore mentioned ones stand out for me.
Fire Ice and Dynamite … well I have to disagree once don’t I. That stretches things a bit too far …
August 14th, 2024 at 16:10Inquisitive David (Black): Or were you asking how Roger became an expert on effective VD treatment? Already Chris Charlesworth mentioned in his early 80ies DP bio Roger’s painful early 70s chance encounter with the timeless principle of “fun today, gonorrhoea tomorrow”. (Of course, being a bassist, you always get to deal with the leftovers only after the band is done, life is anything but fair.) Roger has retained a vivid memory of the recreational affliction, but cautions: “It sounds funny today, but it sure wasn’t at the time.”
But then Ritchie’s and Big Ian’s US Tours-curtailing hepatitis bouts probably didn’t come from joint toothbrush use and bad tab water either.
August 14th, 2024 at 17:16@37 Uwe
I want mean I really love it.
Real bastard RnR!♡
About me, I love how THOBL was produced.
I add: I had a CD with an extended version of THE SPANISH ARCHER but I lost the CD and could no longer find it on sale.
August 14th, 2024 at 18:58@38 😱 what have you done! 🤣 once heard never forgotten. Sounds like the first made in Japan box set mix. Don’t hold your breath for the producers job if Bob E isn’t available.
August 14th, 2024 at 19:18I love Mad Dog. Good riff, interesting lyrics, the keys solo is mad in a schizophrenic sort of way and a decent solo from RB. But the best bit is as they come out of the solo there is one of those magical DP moments where they suddenly light up and the last minute or so is chock full of intensity.
Btw agree Uwe, Bleedin’ Obvious sounds like a bunch of disparate ideas glued together into an unsatisfactory whole.
August 14th, 2024 at 19:22@ 40 Uwe that poor moose/kangaroo hybrid looks lost & lonely & longing for ideas………….Re: Svantes @ 38 – Bonzo style drum track, whoops, sorry Uwe, I had to put the knife in……Cheers.
August 14th, 2024 at 21:54@ 34 – “Knocking, still come across like a sixth form bog wall poem scribbled down after a pretty frenetic biology lesson… musically splendid, lyrically upended… as it were’.
August 14th, 2024 at 22:08Be careful Kosh, Uwe aka the Sentine,l he watches & he waits, well he won’t be waiting that long before a plethora of replies head your way, he he he. I agree fully, sometimes Mr Gillan’s lyrics do drop to a certain level, down , down & deeper & down…Remember the lyric, ‘draws titties on a karzi wall’….Although the song Mary Long is a superb bit of writing, Gillan can do very well at times when he puts his mind to it. Look out, here comes Uwe……………Cheers.
AndreA, the original THOBL CD featured longer versions of several songs (not just Spanish Archer), as did the tape btw. Unfortunately those extended versions never saw a remaster, Universal missed the bus completely and only remastered in 1999 the regular vinyl shorter versions. So your only chance of obtaining them today is buying on eBay a used original CD from the late 80s/90s.
Most of the longer songs are 20 to 3o seconds longer, but Strangeways, that magnum opus, clocks in at a whopping +o1:40 extension on the original CD! It drove and drives me nuts how carelessly Universal ignored this, real case of —> Ostfront with no home leave either.
The only songs that were NOT longer on the original CD were: Call Of The Wild, Hard Loving Woman, Mitzi Dupree and Dead Or Alive.
The more I think about it, the more a release of the complete THOBL master tapes makes sense, there must be a wealth of unreleased material which is comparatively rare with Purple recordings. I remember from an interview with Roger that Mitzi Dupree for instance was a cut and paste job from demos and the one and only time Blackmore played it in the studio, he refused a second take because he disliked the song. Mind you, it doesn’t have as nice a waltz groove as Renaissance Faire or “HEY!”-audience-singalongs as Under A Violet Moon … 😑
August 15th, 2024 at 01:06I appreciate that they attempted to create something different with Bleedin’ Obvious, but it didn’t quite work. Still, C+ for trying. Maybe that is one of those cases where Steve would have done better than Simon compositionally. Everybody has strengths and weaknesses, Steve had a real hand in leaving the riff/verse/bridge/chorus/solo/repeat format for something different.
August 15th, 2024 at 01:37Any good studio will have a sign at the door of the control room reading “NO DRUMMERS BEYOND THIS POINT !!!”. And for good reason too.
Where sufficient literacy should be in doubt, easy-to-grasp symbol signposts can help:
https://i.etsystatic.com/34531699/r/il/b8d8bb/3776757292/il_570xN.3776757292_jj2r.jpg
August 15th, 2024 at 01:49The considerably longer versions of Strangeways and Black & White as on the original CD:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z-e-p87fmc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-hMQ4iR_uk
That is actually some good, intensive stuff that is missing on the shorter versions.
August 15th, 2024 at 02:09Wow…
All this talk about THoBL has made me at long last by a CD version from the tape, LP, & digital copy I have, & thankfully it’s still available new here Down-Under, for under $20:00 including postage :)…It appears to possibly have had a re-mix, as it was listed as a 2003 edition, UK/European made, so we’ll see. I did look for a German Polydor version ( these are the ones to grab for everything if available ), but I would have been paying triple the price for a 2nd-hand item from Discogs, no bollox…That postman is a greedy SOB.
Peace !
August 15th, 2024 at 08:05@52: Unfortunately, the original German Polydor version on CD had mastering issues with unwanted digital distorsion in places, starting right off in the Hammond intro that opens the album… In those early days of digital, someone didn’t know their new fancy tools enough.
August 15th, 2024 at 08:31Don’t think Bad Attitude is longer. The longer part of The Unwritten Law is great since it’s only the drums and the sound opens out and shows what a remix could sound like.
Strangeways is an odd one since the longer version suggests (I think) that they had various goes at overdubbing the instrumental parts. One imagines that bits and pieces of solos exist which could turn it in to a 10 minute epic. A remix would be great here as the snare is too high in the mix IMO and the keys and guitar would benefit from being on separate channels to give it the full dualing vibe
August 15th, 2024 at 08:40@ 50 – I love it, the dark side & enter at your own peril. Where can I get one from. It is direct & to the point. Not to be messed with. Cheers
August 15th, 2024 at 09:10THOBL cd I have is the Polydor, W German issue, bought it upon release in 1987 all the way in the outback of NSW Australia. No sound issues on this disc thankfully, maybe I was lucky. And yes it does have the ‘extended’ or original length songs, the only version I know. P & C Polygram Records Inc USA. Made In W Germany. Cheers.
August 15th, 2024 at 09:28Bad attitude is longer the ending oriental riff of oS vibe is cut short.
August 15th, 2024 at 10:09@47 – noted, I love Gillan as we all do.. but there’s not doubting stuff like KAYBD really did out Spinal Tap in the year of Spinal Tap ! lol The question is; how much more Spinal Tap could KAYBD be…? errrr none, none more tap.
August 15th, 2024 at 12:01Yo,
Thanks everyone for the input re- THoBL…Generally speaking, why I opt for the German Polydor versions of CD’s is because they’re comparitively lower-in gain at mastering, & the so-called “brick-wall” issue is avoided, so your amp has to pick-up a little slack, meaning the volume dial has to move upwards a little…But the sound is warmer & clearer…
As an example of what I mean, simply ask yourself this…
“Have you ever wondered why the song you like on the FM radio station sounds better than the original CD you just bought”???…
The German Polydor CD’s sound more like the FM radio station imo…
Anyhow, I cranked up all three Mk-II reunion albums earlier tonight, & it was every, very enjoyable. They all sound great, no need to mess with anything imo.
Peace !
August 15th, 2024 at 14:19My oldest THOBL CD is a nearly 40 years old UK pressing (so it says on the CD, but accompanying booklet states interestingly enough “Printed in W. Germany”), no sonic issues there either and it does feature the elongated versions. But it is the only one, already one of my Japanese copies from ’93 – i.e. before the Universal remaster – features only the shorter vinyl versions as do of course any newer pressings. Also there is no explicit mention of or implicit pointer to (like running times of the tracks) anywhere that would indicate that it holds the long versions.
Yes, Bad Attitude is longer in the coda too, not very much though.
Speaking of: The Bad Attitude riff, great as it is, is a blatant rip-off from YES’ (or should I say Trevor Rabin’s? 😎) Owner Of A Lonely Heart. I bet my ass off that Ritchie heard it climbing the US charts (it reached #1) and thought: “Hey, I can do that!”, nicking not the notes, but the infectious rhythm pattern. The ole magpie.
I’ve been listening to THOBL a lot the last few days. I still think it ranks head, shoulders & dandruff over PS (safe, but a welcome return) and TBRO (distraught). It is to me the only post-reunion Mk II album that is as good as their 70ies output. In terms of versatility and being experimental (not a weak track on it to my ears, brilliant lyrics by Big Ian throughout), I’d file it with Fireball and WDWTWA. I remember at the time an Ian Gillan interview in Kerrang! where Big Ian said it was his favorite Mk II album since Fireball. The gig I saw in Frankfurt Festhalle on the ensuing tour was a highlight too, a very inspired night.
August 15th, 2024 at 14:38“Knocking, still come across like a sixth form bog wall poem scribbled down after a pretty frenetic biology lesson …”
Kosh, you’re an even worse prude than that MacGregor drum stick stiff! 😆
And what’s wrong with biology courses anyway?
“Girls who are very bright,
Must stay in class all night,
And practice their biology
I love to teach high school, high school
I need to teach high school, high school
A, B, C, D, E, F, G,
How I love anatomy,
2+2 and 3+3,
Students have a ball with me”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adVdgcG4b7w
(@ 03:07)
August 15th, 2024 at 15:59I love THOBL but I never understood why they abolished it in concerts
August 15th, 2024 at 21:23I was really looking forward to THOBL in 1987 as the band had been together for a few years. As PS sounded a little too easy going in places, the anticipation of a better songs album was high & they delivered in spades. Except the two songs I don’t like musically, (prude mode kicking in) Mitzi & Hard Lovin’ Woman, the album rates a 8.5 out of 10 for me. It would get a 9 if not for those two boring songs. Perfect Strangers would be a 6.5/10 for me. Listening to the original version of KAYBD now for the first time in many many decades & gee it is commercial in it’s delivery. I guess I have become used to the live versions over the years. I am starting to feel like Mary Whitehouse though in regards to listening to those lyrics. I didn’t buy PS on cd to replace my vinyl as I stumbled upon a bargain priced ‘official’ release of the aptly titled ‘Knocking at Your Back Door’ the best of 80’s Deep Purple, Polygram again. It has KAYBD, PS, Son of Aleric & Nobody’s Home on it. I do wish it had Gypsy’s Kiss, like those lyrics of Gillan’s, “John Wayne & the Alamo, Crazy Horse Geronimo” etc & also “I will rip your lungs out through your nose” etc. Although with my latest title bestowed upon me, Mr Prude, thanks Uwe, those lyrics could be deemed a little to violent. I wonder which spaghetti western movie Gillan borrowed that saying from or were they from the movie The Alamo. Cheers.
August 15th, 2024 at 23:54Yo,
Thanks Leiber Uwe. I’m not too concerned about the song lengths, as long as the music sounds good, & hasn’t been tampered with. In fact I doubt very much that anything was doctored, with it simply being the next batch of CD’s to be pressed-out, as it was likely selling steadily “as-is” already…
Should it prove dodgy, I’ll simply record the cassette on the digital-recorder, & do a mix myself, but I’m hoping I don’t have to do that as it takes time to get it right.
Peace !
August 16th, 2024 at 00:44It seems Mitzi’s influence has cost this poor Tasmanian paramedic his job. This is a little too close to home for my liking, I have to uphold my Mr Prude reputation. Thanks again Uwe, I really appreciate it. I suppose we could ‘blame’ Ian Gillan for highlighting all this behaviour in the first place. Maybe this lady is or was a Deep Purple ‘House of Blue Light’
aficionado? Cheers.
https://pulsetasmania.com.au/news/tasmanian-paramedic-sacked-after-callout-to-woman-with-table-tennis-ball-stuck-in-body/
August 16th, 2024 at 04:21@61 Uwe… lol, very good.
In reality, I believe KAYBD to be a bit (dare I say it) tongue in cheek (oh dear) from big Ian… Maybe 🤔… if the rather blatant double entendre stuff was good enough for Robert Plant, why not Purps ?
As for Bad Attitude, one of the stronger songs of the reunion era, but yes, it’s a bit familiar… yes?
Rock on 🤘
August 16th, 2024 at 07:22Yo,
So I dug-out the 2-in-1 CD that I bought years ago, & figured-out why I hadn’t likely ripped them to computer…
“Son of Aleric” comes in as track #10 on an official “Perfect Strangers” CD , under the Polydor / Universal label, No 546045-2. There’s nothing really good to say about it, except that its quite honestly, only 10-minutes of energy-less jamming. There’s no melody to hum, only bits & pieces of Jon & RB fooling around. It’s RG’s bass-line that holds-it-all-together, but honestly sounds like the boys fooling around with a possible chord sequence that goes nowhere quickly, as they’re bored with it. It sounds similarish to what the re-union Mk-II did with SotW outro’s in the live arena, but with more chords.
Disc 2 was named “Under the Gun” which is a reasonable sounding compilation of the tunes the boys were playing circa 1988-89, so it has mixed live & studio tunes from “Nobody’s perfect”, “Perfect Strangers”, & “The House of Blue Light”…It’s drawcard for me was a new tune named “If I don’t be there by Morning”, which turned out to actually be “Under the Gun”…And it also claimed “Women from Tokyo” live, but its the super short version from “Nobody’s Perfect”, with the Buddy Holly tunes probably getting more track time lol !
So there you have it, dubious marketing saw me fork-out some bux on the basis of having at least 2 x new tunes to warrant the purchase with one being a dud out-take, & the other tune a renamed “Under the Gun”…Which makes you wonder what to do with it, since you already had the tunes on albums ( bar one dodgy one ) ?…
Rant over, the fog has now cleared, on with the show !
Peace !
August 16th, 2024 at 08:16I don’t get it that the poor guy was fired when he was obviously only trying to help, the woman consented to it and his female colleague was there to supervise proceedings in any case. And it’s not that rare, people stick stuff in their orifices all the time while on an experimental roll and then call emergency because they can’t get it out. Removal of a ping pong ball from anywhere (other than from the windpipe) doesn’t strike me as open heart surgery either. And wouldn’t a red card/warning (rather than a dismissal) have been enough if he wasn’t university trained for removal of ping pong balls from vaginas (who is?, probably not a part of the standard gynecologists’ curriculum either, even in Tasmania)? Strange w-w-ways.
And re KAYBD, don’t you guys get a little too hung up on physical descriptions, I always took it to be a song about social climbing with some tongue-in-cheek (or in other places!) observations.
August 16th, 2024 at 09:41Whilst I agree Son… meanders, it still had some genuine potential, hence the jamming around the main theme… as I said earlier there’s much to enjoy in the jam, especially the interplay with Jon and Ritchie… I reckon it was ‘the ballad’ that couldn’t quite find its feet… For me, it taps into the vibe of the time, you can hear the joy in just noodling in the studio, I love that, its imperfection gives it worth… for me, loving the band as I do, this kind of stuff that will be lying about on the tapes for THOBL is surely what we all want to hear ?? not 15 slightly differing versions of Yes riff rip off.
My brother gave me the ‘minidiscs’ of Radiohead’s OK Computer sessions… hours of ideas that got no where, melodies that didn’t make the cut or were worked up for the albums that followed… that is the gold dust for anyone… meandering noodling is part of that, it’s about getting inside the creative process, almost being in the studio… just 4 or 5 world class musicians jamming out ideas… yeah, I love it… so there !
August 16th, 2024 at 12:00@ 68 – Who knows what really happened Uwe. I just look at it as a humorous situation, but it very well may not have been. That lady or the assisting female paramedic might have laid a complaint & in this world today as you well know, that can be all it takes. I shouldn’t really bother with it on a rock music site, but that ‘ribald’ humour mentality strikes again thinking about Mitzi Dupree. Pub humour might be a better way to put it for many & I would prefer to not hear it at all in music. I definitely DO NOT have a hang up about anything like that. Double entendres as you know I enjoy big time, why not & at a certain time & place of course. Gillan visits pubs doesn’t he, say no more. I am not a pub individual, but in my late teens I did hang with certain friends who were, it grows tiresome very quickly with the bragging & put down mentality. But with good humour, bring it on. If only Ritchie had had his way with that song not being included on THOBL album, we wouldn’t be here talking about it. I wonder if he ever knew that it did end up on the album, he probably wouldn’t care anyway. Cheers.
August 16th, 2024 at 12:01LOL…
I was going to leave this well alone, but Uwe said…
qt.”And it’s not that rare, people stick stuff in their orifices all the time while on an experimental roll and then call emergency because they can’t get it out…And wouldn’t a red card/warning (rather than a dismissal) have been enough if he wasn’t university trained for removal of ping pong balls from vaginas (who is (?…), Probably not a part of the standard gynacologists’ curriculum either, even in Tasmania ? Strange w-w-ways”…
ROTFLMAO !!!
Yes, well…On the basis that she did ask to have it removed, I don’t think there’s an issue at all, other than it wasn’t removed on site, & needed further hospital treatment… It was a request asked by the patient after-all…What goes up, must come down, so what pops in, must be able to pop out also.
Where’s Mitzy when you need her hey ??? One phone call is all that was needed in techniques to expel the foreign body…Plastic is showing up in the most remarkable of places in today’s world hey !
I would suggest that much, much more went on than was disclosed to the press lol.
Peace !
August 16th, 2024 at 14:09I have stated many times before that I do like instrumental music. Too much vocal especially by the one singer all the time gets to me after a while, no matter how good the singer is. So any instrumental or extended musical passages in place of a boring song or two is what I crave with these sort of musicians. Son of Aleric is just experimenting, improvising & noodling etc, but it is tantalising in what it represents, classic DP. Not so much of the ‘management & record company want another hit record’. The new album = 1 lacks instrumentals etc, too many short songs, the same old same old formula in that regard. They sounded like they were nearly there with Bleeding Obvious. Not to worry, it is back to the drawing board (or time machine) again. Cheers.
August 16th, 2024 at 23:17Yo,
@69 said…( re Son of Aleric )
qt.”Whilst I agree Son… meanders, it still had some genuine potential, hence the jamming around the main theme… as I said earlier there’s much to enjoy in the jam, especially the interplay with Jon and Ritchie… I reckon it was ‘the ballad’ that couldn’t quite find its feet… For me, it taps into the vibe of the time, you can hear the joy in just noodling in the studio, I love that, its imperfection gives it worth”…
I have to disagree here, ( & I listened to it 3 x times in a row trying to find something good within it ), & in all honesty, there’s simply no-one interested in what they’re doing, except RG…I hear absolutely no inspired moments at all, perhaps the boys were warming-up / setting-up & the tape happened to be rolling ??? Or more likely it was the end-of-the-day, & they just wanted to go home because they were exhausted, as that’s what it sounds like to me…Completely uninspired & directionless…And they didn’t develop in any further either, eg, it never became a tune of any sorts, just a bass-line / chord sequence that the others noodled / warmed-up over.
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure…
@72…
With so much music available from the “=1” sessions, & another album to come in the next year, perhaps a double-album is warranted, & some extended instrumentals or long solo passages…But these long passages / solo sections were always designed for the live arena. That’s why say 1971’s “Live in Longbeach” is over 70-minutes long, with only 4-tracks on it…
“Hush” is the tune where the boys stretch-out instrumentally today…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HasyyqAHCTk
That said, “=1” remains super successful, & many shorter songs has a greater impact over a wider audience, & offers radio more opportunities to play the music. It has displayed the way to grab a new audience whilst pleasing the old fans too. Its massive world-wide success encourages the band to keep rocking, as it revitalises everyone with purpose & direction.
Peace !
August 17th, 2024 at 01:35@72
the same old formula is nothing other than RnR.
Excellent I would say.
After 60 years you criticize the DPs for having only one voice. Did you only notice this today?
Something doesn’t add up…
August 17th, 2024 at 11:26I don’t understand your talk about remixing and remastering of PS and THOBL: both sound better than =1
I would a new job on the latest album which is recorded like a shit
August 17th, 2024 at 11:35While Herr MacGregor continues to go off topic with the burning subject of instrumental music, Gregster intrepidly grabs the bull by the horns: The old adage is confirmed to not try at home what pros do on stage. Mitzi was after all a trained talent, the clubs, where she put her art on display, contracted someone who knew how to … contract. This aspect seems to be key to me when forming an opinion on the matter. That and good aim of course.
Now which instrumental music do you like again, Herr MacGregor? I forgot.
August 17th, 2024 at 15:29I will try & keep it musical Uwe, in regards to Deep Purple & as we all know about Mitzi through DP, this should be ok. When the paramedics arrive & manage to get through all the other ping pong balls lying about the floor, the lady in question innocently says ‘I managed to get all the others out no problem. But all that is left seems to equal one. Cheers.
August 18th, 2024 at 09:38“But all that is left seems to equal one. Cheers.“
Brilliant! 😂
August 18th, 2024 at 11:12@ 73 – yes the tape was rolling with Son of Aleric & a good thing too. That as we know is how certain music can come to light the next day or later on. Where as before those years, not many people had the tape rolling whilst playing around with things, hence so many opportunities were lost forever, unless the musicians do remember it. Any out takes, songs not released, jams etc are good to hear, well most of them. And don’t forget Ian Gillan has always said DP are an instrumental band first & foremost, something like that. Most ideas but not all, would stem from that in certain aspects. Back in the day at least from what we have heard. Someone (possibly not the band) decided to place Son of Aleric from those PS sessions on a ‘best of’ & also the re release of PS. A good thing they did, as they also did with the track with Blackmore playing bass guitar on from the WDWTWA sessions, I think from my memory. Cheers.
August 18th, 2024 at 12:47Son of Alerik is to me DP pretending to be The Grateful Dead 😂, it’s noodling ambience music in places, but I don’t mind it, it does show their musical rapport among each other if not exactly littered with peaks of inspiration.
Yeah, the chord structure could have led to a ballad if Big Ian had added vocals, though it is also somewhat quaintly reminiscent of some of the more stilted Mk I stuff.
Good to have, but hardly mandatory listening.
August 18th, 2024 at 14:35What a brilliant merchandising idea …
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTWKmNs-7RYRTDpD_x6B0urIx_h3Uh_gbuJmQ&s
August 18th, 2024 at 14:53@ 81- ha ha ha, that cap, I want one. I could have worn it a few years ago when I was playing table tennis competition. Damn, I wish I knew it existed back then. Although it would depend on who was asking if anyone enquired, ‘who is she’? It was a mixed competition, I don’t think some of the ladies would have been impressed. Cheers.
August 18th, 2024 at 23:32Yo,
Leiber Uwe said…
qt.”Son of Alerik is to me DP pretending to be The Grateful Dead 😂, it’s noodling ambience music in places, but I don’t mind it, it does show their musical rapport among each other if not exactly littered with peaks of inspiration”…
***I have to complain here…There is absolutely nothing within “SoA” that even remotely sounds like the Grateful Dead. I have a reasonable amount of the GD, from jaw-dropping inspired to garbage, but even the GD’s garbage is better than “SoA”…There’s simply nothing in it, & I mean really nothing…If it did actually have any merit, I’d say so, but it doesn’t.
However, what it does reveal is where the source tapes of “Perfect Strangers” ended-up, & that’s with Universal Records don’t you think ???…Someone listened through them to find “SoA”, & attached it as track #10 on this official version of “Perfect Strangers”, which actually degrades the album rather than uplifts it…All “SoA” reveals is that there’s very little recorded work / out-takes from the “PS” sessions, but they found it, & used it for this dodgy cash-in 2-in-1.
Peace !
August 19th, 2024 at 00:44Son of Alerik is really dull stuff. The funky blues jam Glover Paice Lord on Who Do We Think is more beautiful..
August 19th, 2024 at 05:09Son of Alerik was already released in 1984 in Germany as the B side of the Perfect Strangers 12” single, so they had it lying around and did not stumble on it. The maxi single vinyl release preceded any digital form of it. (I have no idea whether it was ever released on tape in 1984/85.)
I don’t want to be too strict with it: In 1984 DP were finding their feet again after a decade apart, perhaps jamming on a track like SoA helped them gel again. If you want to say something nice about it, I guess we can settle for “meditative”. Other people might call it a yawn-fest though. 😂
August 19th, 2024 at 05:46Who is this Alerik, let alone his son? A few possibilities or pissabolities. The last one from songfacts ( for what it is worth) sort of says something. Cheers.
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/alaric
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alaric
https://www.names.org/n/alerik/about
https://www.songfacts.com/facts/deep-purple/son-of-alerik
August 19th, 2024 at 07:23Transcript found from 1984 between Alerik & Ritchie in the Black Forest outside Blacker’s castle. Ritchie: Halt, who goes there? Tis I Ritchie, Alerik. Ritchie: Ah, Alerik it has been centuries past since we last met. Alerik: tis true Ritchie, it has been a while. Ritchie: And how is your son Alerik? Alas he is no longer with us, he fought bravely to the end. Ritchie: sorry to hear that, tell you what, I have been musically noodling with the other guys (who’s names I have already forgotten) & I will dedicate the tune to him, bless his soul. Alerik; Ah Ritchie, thank you & if ever you need to contact him, you have that ouija board I gave you many centuries past. Ritchie: Fare thee well Alerik! End of Transcript. You would think that after all this communication from the dim & distant past, that someone would finally reveal Alerik’s sons name. So the mystery of the enigma continues. Anyone have a clue at all? Uwe any ideas, you are the closest to all these medieval forests & castles. Cheers
August 19th, 2024 at 10:08comparative track lengths for HOBL
August 19th, 2024 at 10:43vinyl CD
Bad Attitude 4:43 5:04
The Unwritten Law 4:35 4:54
Call Of The Wild 4:40 4:48
Mad Dog 4:31 4:36
Black & White 3:44 4:39
Hard Lovin’ Woman 3:23 3:25
The Spanish Archer 4:57 5:31
Strangeways 5:55 7:36
Mitzi Dupree 5:02 5:05
Dead Or Alive 4:44 5:00
What a smart Alerik you are, Tasmanian!
Rampaging, plundering, burning, pillaging and looting – those Nordic explorers sure knew how to have a good time! Always with a keen eye for smashing more developed civilizations to bits.
Or as one of our history teachers used to say: “Hermann’s Germanic victory against the Romans in the Teutoburg Forest set us back a good 400 years.” 😆
August 19th, 2024 at 12:43@89. Wise words Uwe. Those Nordic explorers nipped over the North sea and left 4% of their DNA in my bloodline which make communicating with my Swedish work colleagues a smidgin easier.
August 19th, 2024 at 12:53Don’t understand Son of aleric hate. For me it’s one of great purple moments with beautiful playing from all. Ian Paice laying there alone is the best on entire PS album…. In my subjective humble opinion… and PS is great album from start to finish for me….
August 19th, 2024 at 15:52Ancestral researcher McGregor @87, now that Dåvid ‘Sigur’ Blæck @90 has outed himself as a late consequence of unchecked Viking rape orgies, we need not look for Son of Alerik any further, he is alive and well. 🤣
August 19th, 2024 at 16:01Tomek, I don’t hate SoA and always listen to it attentively, but it kind of ambles along. As jamming sometimes does, nothing wrong with that …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqVy6eRXc7Q
Had I mentioned that I like Bob Marley too? I have that in common with Tommy Bolin.
August 19th, 2024 at 22:26@ 92 – ha ha ha, Uwe. David @ 90 is keen exposing his 4%, good on him for that. I fear my Viking’ DNA might be higher than that, I don’t know for sure though. Would I own up to it though, I am not so sure, he he he. They certainly have spread far & wide as have have other races. Remember the Clannad song ‘I Will Find You’ from The Last of the Mohicans’. Cheers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O40qCivS74
August 20th, 2024 at 00:13Yo,
@91 said…
qt.”Don’t understand Son of Aleric hate. For me it’s one of great purple moments with beautiful playing from all”…
***LOL ! I doubt that anyone actually hates the tune, it’s just very under-produced, has no melody / theme, & doesn’t really work at all, especially the 10-minute version…It lacks any form or direction.
I’m listening to it once again as I type this out yo.
You have an intro that’s possibly interesting, & then at 01:18 Jon starts a solo that’s disjointed & meanders nowhere, so it sounds uninspired…At the 02:00 mark, RB throws in some loose noodling / phrases that may or may not grab your attention, that by 02:49, he & the band have lost-the-plot…But there’s a short recovery of sorts among the flotsam & jetsam at around 03:22, with a burst of chords that may indicate a chorus of sorts, with the others picking themselves up to join in, but as soon as their attention is back-on-track, the tune suffers a dreadful death for the remaining 6-odd-minutes…
It’s only the first 02.30 that holds anything of any worth musically, the rest is not really listenable, at least as far as calling it a tune goes. It quickly becomes a dis-jointed mess if you’re honest with yourself. Perhaps a looped first 02:30 could hold its own as a video back-ground-tune, which is where I likely heard it first a long time ago.
So you can’t really say people hate this tune, when there isn’t really a tune here to dislike.
Peace !
August 20th, 2024 at 00:32When I heard the b-side (son of..) I was hoping for something like Weiss Hiem or Maybe Next Time or even The Snowman. Compared to all of them Son Of.. comes a very poor fourth. Now Not Responsible, that’s a proper B-side
August 20th, 2024 at 18:21@92 surely David Svart!
August 20th, 2024 at 18:25Musicians ‘jamming’ or ‘noodling’ can be the most inane sound there is. But it is ok, that is what it is. It isn’t a finished product. When playing improvised music or off the cuff experimentation music, to the outside world it more than likely is boredom plus. People walk away or fall asleep etc. However to the musician involved it can be another world indeed. How else are musicians in an ensemble going to find ideas? Well as we know there are also other ways, but noodling is high on the list. Search & destroy indeed.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/noodling
August 20th, 2024 at 22:49I remember listening to SoA for the first time as the B side of that maxi single and I was moving my butt back and forth in eager anticipation (remember in 1984, I was still DP-undernourished). And then the music played and played AND PLAYED … and after about four minutes I began wondering: “Surely, the real song will be starting any second now after this somewhat lengthy warm-up?!”
Fast forward four decades and I’m still waiting! Maybe there will be a “Son of Alerik Part II” coming out soon? 🤣
It’s probably as vital a composition to the DP canon as the legendary (and beautifully christened) Dick Pimple was …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKn050P-lZs&list=RDFKn050P-lZs&start_radio=1
… though even that at least OOZED (I know, I know, this is in very poor taste, but as usual I couldn’t resist …) infectious energy and a general sense of fun + innocent abandon.
August 21st, 2024 at 00:52@ 99 – Twelve bar blues schmaltz Uwe. At least Son of Alerik isn’t that. And speaking of ‘blues’ I see DP are still noodling with the cursed ‘Green Onions’. I am reminded of the old saying ‘Will no-one rid me of this turbulent Priest’. I have changed that of course to ‘will no-one rid me of this cursed 12 bar blues’. Anyway each to their own, again. Cheers.
August 21st, 2024 at 07:27@99. Uwe, I was at the Deep Purple Appreciation society convention in 1995 when we got to hear the new Deep Purple for the first time (and before anyone else) and I can tell you that the anticipation and then appreciation was palpable. Gillan saying that we were in a phone box got a laugh – i think there were around a 100 of us) I still have my original copy of Dick Pimple which was available to members only (must be worth a few quid – but less since it was on the Gillan/Iommi who cares CD)
August 21st, 2024 at 08:33Correction. I’ve just checked Darker Than Blue. There were 350 of us. Be a very big phone box.
August 21st, 2024 at 08:37Yo,
Comments by Leiber Uwe were asked to be moved into here from another thread, so here they are !
qt.”It’s what happened in the studio among all five of them, that playing off each other and – perhaps inadvertently – creating something great while doing it. No one in Purple was ever a classic songwriter like Lennon/McCartney or Brian Wilson or Elton John, but the way they functioned as a band/collective/unit, creating masterpieces from scratch via endless jamming, made + makes them special and is their inherent strength. Purple create their music from little basic ideas (far removed from already constituting a song), well-oiled jamming, their instrumental prowess and their ability to listen to each other. It’s an organic process and they are masters at it”.
***And they are human too, & so have really-poor days in the studio as-well, as “SoA” indicates. This is nothing more than perhaps a then new label “Universal”, that purchased the rights to produce the PS album, & searched the tapes for “something” to market a new pressing of the disc with…And in my circumstance they won, where I bought a 3-rd copy of PS hoping to find an uncut gem, in the manner of “When a blind man cries”, but instead was scammed with 10-minutes of “waiting for something to happen that doesn’t” lol.
Time to move on.
Peace !
August 21st, 2024 at 11:07Yo,
@88…
The disc THoBL finally arrived, & it appears to be the 1987 pressing, with no hint of the suggested 2003 pressing anywhere to be found…It’s the Made in the US-of-A version, under the Mercury label, which is a most excellent result, as the quality of all the RUSH recordings from the 1970’s reveals. Serial No.#314546162-2. Mixed in Munich, Union Studios, & Mastered in NYC, at Sterling Studios.
The tune lengths are the shorter ones that you listed, though oddly enough, “Call of the Wild” comes in at a fuller 04:50 than your list, with the others varying a second or so, either greater or lesser. Perhaps the “dash-2” indicates a 2nd pressing on the serial number lol.
It sounds great, so no issue or complaint here.
Peace !
August 23rd, 2024 at 02:10Did you order vinyl or a CD, lieber Gregster?
By the way, my condolences to you, Herr MacGregor and of course to spouse Magic for the passing of your boundary-breaking countryman Sphen.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/video/2024/aug/22/sphen-the-globally-famous-gay-penguin-dies-at-sydney-aquarium-video
So two birds can be gay and still not be lesbian, you live and learn. It’s a global trend too:
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/08/21/science/same-sex-flamingos-hatch-egg/index.html
August 23rd, 2024 at 14:55Yo,
@105…
It was the CD version Leiber Uwe, I’ve had the tape, a digital-copy of the LP & LP for decades. A lot of the DP catalogue has become quite affordable in recent times, so I update from tape & LP when the price-is-right, though there’s a few outstanding CD’s from Steve’s era to acquire. *That said, I just purchased “InFinite” last night with the alternate cover & DVD brand new for $15:00 delivered…Bargain !
As for the gay penguins, lets just say that with all the nuclear activity, accidents, & DU use in weapons-of-war over the decades, the birth ratio’s of a lot of species that remain with us have been irreversably altered, & we do what we have to do, so as to try & survive extinction…(Shhh)…
Peace !
August 24th, 2024 at 00:31@ 105 – I wasn’t aware of Sphen at all Uwe, so it is difficult to be upset or emotional about it, but I do appreciate your concerns. Regarding Arthur & Curtis, the two pink Flamingos, what a touching story that is, many thanks. See, males can also have compassion & empathy. Cheers.
August 24th, 2024 at 00:54