![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/mcbride5.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/gillan.jpg)
When the trees stop growing
The penultimate instalment of the freshly restored classic Gillan videos. This week, it is Long Gone:
Little birdie tells us that the final one next week will be Gillan’s cover of Lucille.
Thanks to steve4422 for keeping us updated.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
That song tried so damn hard to be joyous, yet the band sounded like it had no fun at all. Even back then I thought, there is something wrong with this number, this isn’t the new Vengeance …
The lines “You’ve got too many fears …
But I’m really not surprised …” sound like IG was mocking the band for their future worries as he had made up his mind to jettison them/relinquish responsibility – turns out that their worries were right for some of them at least because neither John McCoy nor Mick Underwood ever recorded for a major label again. And that final scene of picks scattering over a dismantled guitar like coins is of course telling to.
I do like John’s octave slides into the upper register of his Washburn bass (in the vid at least) during the bridge though.
February 21st, 2025 at 21:29Long Gone is a very positive and upbeat song ☺️
February 21st, 2025 at 21:51Only apparently so, Karin, it’s a song about escaping an unhappy situation no matter what. I believe by 1982 Ian was in over his head with GILLAN and hellbent on severing ties to not be dragged under by the sinking ship. No one can tell me that he joined Sabbath to fulfill his musical aspirations though against all odds he managed an excellent album with them, but that likely wasn’t planned.
February 22nd, 2025 at 02:13Ezrin wrote the string arrangements for Peter Gabriel’s New Blood Orchestra performances.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5yq7Rx5vds
And of course the arrangement for this here, no one from KISS plays a single note (well, that might be Paul Stanley strumming lightly on acoustic guitar), Peter Criss just sings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kkd1s1MLvQ
This was written and arranged by him as well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0IbfNIta4U
As was this breezy or should I say freezy little goody! 😂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtinXsXWeaA
(The Cold Ethyl in the vid is today Mrs Cooper btw, his wife Sheryl, she was a professional dancer in his touring entourage in the mid 70s.)
Now Cold Ethyl really is a “very positive and upbeat song”, Karin! It’s about a – brrrrrrrrrr … – very lasting love:
“One thing I miss
Is Cold Ethyl and her skeleton kiss
We met last night
Making love by the refrigerator light
Ethyl, Ethyl, let me squeeze you in my arms
Ethyl, Ethyl, come and freeze me with your charms
One thing, no lie
Ethyl’s frigid as an Eskimo Pie
She’s cool in bed
And she ought to be … ’cause Ethyl’s dead
Ethyl, Ethyl, let me squeeze you in my arms
Ethyl, Ethyl, come and freeze me with your charms
Come on, Cold Ethyl
Freeze me, babe
One thing, it’s true
Cold Ethyl, I am stuck on you
And everything is my way
Ethyl don’t have much to say
Ethyl, Ethyl, let me squeeze you in my arms
Ethyl, Ethyl, come and freeze me with your charms
Come here, Cold Ethyl
What makes you so cold?
Ooh, so cold… ooh…
Cold Ethyl, Cold, Cold Ethyl …
If I live till I’m 97 (Uwe’s edit: You’re getting there, Vince!)
February 22nd, 2025 at 03:48You’ll still be waiting in refrigerator heaven
Cause you’re cool, you’re ice
Cold Ethyl, you’re my paradise”
@1
Arrh come one, sometimes a song is just a song!
Not everything has to be analysed into details!
The tempo, the feel, the sentiment of the song isn’t black and brown, so to speak!
February 22nd, 2025 at 05:02I don’t really remember ever seeing this video before !? ….it never charted in the UK….got to Number 642 or something!
It’s strange though , cus it’s on the Magic album ….but it was the last ever offering from the Gillan band as IG was taking 6 months off to have his tonsils out ….and we all know what happened next …he was born again !
So ….the words turned our to be quite prophetic!
February 22nd, 2025 at 05:36Something your love of a musician take over your hearing sensors.
February 22nd, 2025 at 10:03We love you Gillan and it’s not a crime when people lose their way and direction in life.
To move from this to join Black Sabbath is also an indication of your state of mind at this given point in life.
Peace ✌️
One of the best Gillan singles, IMHO. The similarity of the opening keyboard riff to Van Halen’s “Jump” is easy to spot.
February 22nd, 2025 at 10:08@3: Ezrin did not write anything for New Blood. That was John Metcalfe.
February 22nd, 2025 at 10:46@4
Cold Ethyl is actually a rather fun song, but when I mention a song to be positive and upbeat, it doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the lyrics 😂
Listen to this wise man:
https://youtu.be/VUb3ObrkzlU?si=vFOE4yFc-pYMTuHr
I was thinking the other night, couldn’t sleep, was reading the newspaper, and THAT didn’t help 🫣 : what it is that makes Purple so different to other bands!
Take this song:
https://youtu.be/CvCqZvkbWcY?si=pDg0h96kLxxgjwFY
Everybody agrees that this is indeed a drinking song, made one night where our troubadour and his bass-basher needed to make a song, a hit preferably, and after a festive night at the pub, they came up with this!
In my head, and I’m completely honest here, this song is funny, light, sweet and caring, even though I know the text isn’t as such.
Someone in here, well a few of you, ok to be completely honest YOU Uwe, has been teasing me over and over, over and over again for some deranged love I ought to feel concerning Ian G, but now where we have put that ridiculous nonsense where it belongs (the bin!) finally I can explain what it is that makes a song like Black Night so much more than the obvious song it was meant to be:
February 22nd, 2025 at 13:38It’s a combination of the lyrics and the melody, it’s the lightness with which it is served, the ‘feel-good’ sensation.
I don’t know how they do it, I just know they do 🤩
And that makes me wonder why RB didn’t feel comfortable among these guys.
Personally I will go through a LOT to be with people that make me feel so much at ease!
Well, that’s the daily news from the small Kingdom of Denmark, have a lovely, bright day filled with coffee ☺️😉
Stathis @ 8
Totally agree with you , I thought it sounded just like ” Jump ”
Who knows what happened with the Sabbath thing !? …I know one thing , IMO the album was superb ( yes, yes, I know about the production..perhaps give it to Dweezil or Ezrin and see what they can do with it ) ..and we all know about the tour being a farce but, it was the 80s , everything was OTT !…and we did get Spinal Tap out of it !
If I was in the Gillan band , I’d be more pissed off about Ian joining Sabbath and leaving them high and dry when they were probably expecting the Gillan band to resume ( not much is ever mentioned about that !?)
February 22nd, 2025 at 14:57Anyway, this new boxed set seems excellent value for money and I’m sure it will sell well and perhaps financially compensate the others .
Thanks Svante, you’re of course right, I really excelled here: First writing in the wrong thread and then inventing that Bob had anything to do with Gabriel’s New Blood project … 🤷🏻♂️ no idea how that crept into my mad mind!
Apologies to everyone!
February 22nd, 2025 at 16:13Black Night has a very swinging shuffle groove, Karin, it was a dance floor hit at the time when rock was still being played in discos. It’s not just a headbanger song, you can actually move to it.
https://youtu.be/HUGh7qZ5oH4
Blackmore always mentions the riff coming from Ricky Nelson’s 1962 version of Summertime, but I’m not so sure whether the Blues Magoos dance floor stomper ‘You Ain’t Got Nothing Yet’ from 1966 wasn’t the real inspiration to Purple. It was certainly widely popular – as opposed to the rather obscure Ricky Nelson single.
https://youtu.be/4HmVyDbVEcY
https://youtu.be/RUUO2Dh6TbU
Let’s not forget that Ritchie was vocal to the rest of the band that In Rock was supposed to be a “dance record”, hard as that seems to fathom these days. He had been to a party in 1969 and saw women dancing elatedly (for some reasons they were nurses having a night out) to rock music and concluded that he wanted that – people dancing to a DP album front to back non-stop without let-up. And Black Night was after all “made to order” from the record company and management who didn’t hear a single on In Rock and wanted something more commercial.
February 22nd, 2025 at 19:52#6 Steve
the story goes that Ian had surgery on his tonsils, I always thought that they were nodules on his vocal cords,
and I say this based on how he sang in the early 80s and then how he sang in MK II bis, and his voice was never the same again.
I also believe that after the operation he didn’t rest enough and didn’t go to the speech therapist to do the right rehabilitation, being in too much of a hurry to get back to singing.
It must also be said that today’s surgical techniques are not the same as those of 40/50 years ago…
February 22nd, 2025 at 20:57@Fla 76
Good and interesting points you make, I was only thinking along similar lines the other day , especially when you look at his work in early Purple and in particular Jesus Christ Superstar ( what a mind blowing performance that was !) …and then we move on to say ..Mr Universe, Glory Road etc….there is quite a diversity!
Obviously age plays a part …not to mention all his smoking and drinking!
Anyway, I don’t really care, as far as I’m concerned we are lucky to have him and he’s quite simply the best rock vocalist there ever was !
Have you noticed he now seems to have a bit of a different way of speaking? Like he’s had some palate work done or something?
February 22nd, 2025 at 22:33Klaus Meine lost his voice around the same time and had to undergo therapy with a Jewish cantor in Vienna I believe. Coverdale not much later. In the days pre-in-ear-monitoring, these guys all over-strained their voices battling against the overall loudness on stage.
February 22nd, 2025 at 22:33I think Ian‘s first noticeable change in voice was late 1971 – Machine Head was the last album he recorded with his original DP voice. Made in Japan already sounded considerably raspier and so did WDWTWA. He still had a considerable range when he re-entered the business with IGB a few years later, but by then he needed force to hit notes he had reached with ease at the beginning of the 70s. Most screaming with GILLAN was more force than ease too. His voice on Born Again is stunning, but it is not something – by then approaching 40 – he could do four nights a week for 90+ minutes, hence the attrition of his vocal capabilities on long tours with lots of flying and vastly varying climates. It‘s one thing singing and screaming that stuff well-rested and with perfect acoustics in a studio atmosphere, it is quote another delivering it live continuously while traveling. A 40 year old man is not really meant to continue singing falsetto in a rock environment.
February 22nd, 2025 at 23:45#16 Uwe
but the difference is that Klaus had a better vocal technique than David and even the Ian Gillan of the 80s and Klaus regained almost all his high notes.
David with his “1987” way of singing was totally ruined, Gillan was smarter and decided to cut it with the high notes.
for me it was not so much in 1971 that he began to sing incorrectly, the harmonics of his voice in made in Japan and in the first period of his solo career tell me that he was singing well.
It is in the second part of his solo career that he begins to dirty his voice too much.
and I think it was a deliberate choice of his to sing that way, but the difference is that BigIan always sang in his original tessitura (or vocal range), while Coverdale changed his tessitura entirely and it was vocal suicide.
February 23rd, 2025 at 10:28For me… it´s official from a day one of its release: absolutelly the worst song of all huge PURPLE family. Oh my…
February 23rd, 2025 at 18:08#1 Are you on crack? That’s a great song, period.
February 23rd, 2025 at 19:24I don’t even like it when Coverdale sings high – I liked it if Halford, Bonnet, Hughes or Gillan screeched, but with Coverdale I just thought it bewildering: “Now why is he doing that?” He got the job with DP because of his lovely low tenor/baritone voice, not because he could climb highs like a young IG.
You’re completely right, Fla76, DC willfully left his natural tessitura to venture into regions his vocal cords were simply not made for. ‘Vocal suicide’ indeed.
February 24th, 2025 at 01:45@21
“I don’t even like it when Coverdale sings”
Well well well, maybe I’m misquoting you a bit here, but still… 😉
I do agree. He really shouldn’t sing high (or shouldn’t sing at all, but never mind that ☺️)
I guess we can agree that it wasn’t the singing that took a toll on Ian’s voice?!
February 24th, 2025 at 06:21Nope, I do think that the mere fact of singing that high took a toll also on Ian’s voice, just not as fast as with Coverdale who was totally out of his natural range. It does with any rock singer, look at Bon Jovi. Rock music singing on world tours is not comparable to an opera tenor with a steady engagement at, say, the Met or the Scala.
No one can tell me that the screams from Child in Time were good for Ian’s vocal cords night after night in the early 70s. Was there ever a gig back then where they did not perform that song once they had written it?
February 24th, 2025 at 09:57@23
But an opera singer, who uses the vocal chords even more than Ian did with CiT, doesn’t hurt them for good, so why should he have done that?
Hasn’t it everything to do with warming up the voice and treating oneself with care?
February 24th, 2025 at 12:59#22 Karin
I think it was the singing that ruined BigIan’s voice, but not the MKII singing, but the dirty singing he did in his solo career around the 80s.
#23 Uwe
I disagree with you because Ian had the notes to sing Child in Time every night, he had the range, and he had an incredible natural delivery.
listening to his songs when I was young, even in MKII I think Ian was a heavy tenor with unmatched high notes, then over time he became a baritone.
Robert Plant, on the other hand, was a baritone who sang almost everything in falsetto, there was makeup, just like there was makeup in AC/DC, Judas, Whitesnake and many others.
Bon Jovi, like Springsteen, wore out his voice due to a texture that was always on the edge of the register transition notes, those notes that Ian touched relatively rarely.
David Coverdale touched them a lot, much more than Rob Haltford for example, much more than Steve Perry who almost always started higher.
Transition notes are the downfall of singers if not performed perfectly!
much more than just the top notes!
Gillan and his band started singing dirtier and singing more on the passing notes, and without proper technique you ruin your voice.
Sure, there were no monitors, the bands played really loud, and every night was a party, but he was the boss, and he should have taken care of his voice.
I remember an old interview with Tarja from Nightwish who said that after a concert she tried to stay silent, that she tried to sleep at least 8 hours, that even the next day she tried to speak as little as possible and that then she did a 1 hour routine of warming up her voice before the concert.
clearly we are on other levels of perfection.
but I only know that a few months ago I saw Geoff Tate live and it was incredible, of course he knows how to dose his voice, but he still has all his vocal texture and he can do Take old of the Flame!
I firmly believe that if Ian in his solo career had not learned the bad habit of dirtying his voice to be more macho, and instead had always sought a clean timbre, his vocal cords would have always moved in the right way to get to singing Child in Time until he was at least 70.
being able to reach high notes with your voice is a whole series of adjustments to the vocal tract, obviously if you are operated on for nodules in the 80s, your vocal cords will probably never be the same again (as they could be if you are operated on with today’s technologies)
February 24th, 2025 at 15:14@19. Worst than “Magic” from Difficult To Cure? I think not or indeed pretty much all of Flesh & Blood.
February 24th, 2025 at 15:26@25
Thanks Fla76 😊
Maybe you think of the Black Sabbath period?
I couldn’t believe it was Ian when I listened to the music that time.
February 24th, 2025 at 19:59He wasn’t very nice to his voice, but he did also had some health issues, as far as I remember ☺️
Those live videos from the Fireball tour I would presume, say it all. Ian Gillan’s vocal is shot on those songs. From there on it was all madness indeed. Having a break after the initial MKII split helped him out a little, but from then on……………..As I have said before, I am surprised Gillan can still sing at all after all that he has put himself through over the decades. However he did ‘know’ himself better than other vocalists it seems, the ones who cannot sing anymore because they didn’t know themselves. Cheers.
February 24th, 2025 at 21:28James @20: I‘ve never tried crack but the painful banality of Long Gone might drive me to it now that you mention it! 🤣
It‘s a silly major key romp and the chorus is wince-worthy, reminding me of the Bay Watcher here:
https://youtu.be/CdKVX45wYeQ
February 24th, 2025 at 23:16@26 I agree, David. Magic from DTC is much worse in my book too. And some songs from Flesh & Blood are pretty poor.
February 25th, 2025 at 13:19I may add Rock Fever, Too much is not enough and don’t get me started on Ritchie’s ouvre of late…
I prefer Ian singing adult music even when he‘s in a major key:
https://youtu.be/O9T9Di1nEiY
https://youtu.be/_GN7hN-P4mU
https://youtu.be/k1-Yoz3EiKQ
https://youtu.be/aj-NSHn2obc
And before the IGB bashing starts, Colin Towns’ influence on IGB was as pivotal as on GILLAN, he wrote and co-wrote a lot of material though John Gustafson was an important writer too, especially on the rockier numbers. I can understand that Clear Air Turbulence was a bit too jazzy for many people, but Scarabus (the album) was full of uplifting songs that were accessible but still had a brain (plus a musically interesting execution which frankly I don‘t really hear on Long Gone, that is hard rock drawn by numbers …).
Plus: Poor Boy Hero is a love ode 💕 to Elvis, Karin, I thought you might like to know 😈:
“Rockin′ to the poor boy he’ll be my king
Really got to shiver when he sings
He is the image of my fantasising
Now we got the whole world listening
He will be the biggest thing in history
Cause he′s doing the same thing
But so differently
Got to hear the poor boy hero sing
Now we got a genius the people cried
When he moved a finger we sighed
And then we squeezed him till he broke inside
When he went to Vegas the music died
He is still the biggest thing in history
Now he’s doing the same thing so indifferently
Got to hear the poor boy hero sing
Living in a fantasy
Love that poor boy tenderly
Now he’s gone so tragically
Give that poor boy back to me
Hero of the century
Love that poor boy tenderly
Now we take it easy on the soul
February 25th, 2025 at 15:38If it isn′t magic it leaves me cold
It′s only magic if it’s fresh and bold
It′s nothing if it’s easy on the soul
You can be the biggest thing in history
If you′re going to do it, do it differently
You could be a poor boy hero too”
@31
Yeah alright then!
I have a serious suspicion about you sweetie!
Do ya wanna know what it is????
If, IF, EP was such a huge, important role model for our troubadour, how come Purple never ended their earlier shows with songs of praise to him (EP that is)?
Instead they had “Lucille”, a magnificent song btw, but a praise to EP it sure wasn’t!
(And writing this I just know you will come back here with at least ten (10!) examples of Purple shows that actually ended with some kind of EP song – arrrgghhh) (I do know I can erase what I just have written, but it’s to show you that I really think about what you bring in here ☺️)
Has Ruben entered the world 😍
February 25th, 2025 at 17:27Guys the real story behind the loss of Ian Gillans high falsetto is not down to drink or smoke or too much touring.
February 25th, 2025 at 23:29IMO it simply that he was not as cunning a linguist as he thought.
Ruben has entered, Karin, on Monday, 2:43 am in the Erasme Hôpital in Bruxelles (where his parents live). My first wife and I have already been there (from Monday to Sunday night), 49 cm, 3,3 kilos, mom, child & dad are all fine!
February 26th, 2025 at 12:07Lucille is a number by Little Richard…another of Ian’s heros, Karin.
February 26th, 2025 at 12:59Remember DP weren’t just Ian’s band. With his own bands he did play a couple of Elvis songs.
@34
Aww congratulations from the bottom of my heart ❤️ 🤗🤗
Not much is so wonderful as when a little baby is born 😊
February 26th, 2025 at 15:16@35
Yeah Little Richard, and a lovely song!
It’s actually pretty humorous:
– sometimes it’s like Ian decides EVERYTHING regarding Purple, members, choice of songs, how long time they tour etc!
– other times then it’s: ohhh noooooo! Ian doesn’t decide more that 1/5 😄
I am sure that if Ian Gillan really wanted to end each and every show with a praise to some butter-tenor from USA, he would have done so!
😁
February 26th, 2025 at 15:22Well, that’s all!
The IGB encored with Whole Lotta Shaking Going On and Jailhouse Rock (which Ian let John Gustafson sing), both songs part of Elvis’ oeuvre.
https://youtu.be/jFQr8nyREdk
The rock’n’roll medley starts at 50:55.
But there is no point reasoning with THAT WOMAN, Max, if she sets her mind to it, then Elvis is crap and Ian didn’t like him and Poor Boy Hero (written only weeks after Elvis’ death and full of biographical references to him) must have been about someone else. In Karin’s Ianverse there is no planet Elvis. Hell hath no resilience like a woman’s preconceptions! 😎
If Ian dabbled with an Elvis song here and there …
https://youtu.be/CACWkbiYuN8
then that is just a coincidence!
https://youtu.be/5pOoe1t2f7A
In the Ianverse, you don’t hear Ian singing it like Elvis (in a baritone voice) either, it rather sounds like Child in Time, doesn’t it? All you have to do is believe it.
Let’s all just agree that of all 50s rock’n’roll singers the “butter tenor” had the least influence on Ian and that he went out of his way to never sing anything from Elvis plus that all indications to the contrary (including things Ian said and wrote himself) are delusional figments of imagination. And move on.
It is an old Memphis proverb that the fruit of truth can n’er be harvested from barren land. Return to sender.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PcZsXu3AlpQ
February 26th, 2025 at 17:12@38
🤣🤣🤣
Sweetie, you sound exactly like you just had a newborn who won’t let you get any sleep!
In my ‘Ianverse’ there is no planet Elvis! Exactly 😅😂
But there is a plenty of beautiful, well written, well sung music, guess by who?!
How come I am not allowed to have my very own, completely private (ok semi-private) opinion of your great idol?
I don’t ridicule you and name your universe ‘Elverse’, do I? (😆)
I just can’t help I don’t like Elvis P! It’s not like I woke up one morning and decided to hate everything concerning him!
I just don’t like him, he was way too much full of himself, and his voice, well from where do you think I came up with the word ‘butter’?!
And I am at peace with the – apparently – fact the Ian Gillan in some kind of confusion in his life once thought something of EP! (In Ian’s autobiography he says he lost all interest in EP in ‘69) (so I guess it was his hormone-driven youth that persuaded him to take after the idol most of the girls were all head over heels in love with, to increase the score so to speak 😉) (well haven’t we all episodes from our youth we don’t bring up at dinners with friends as a conversation starter?) ( I have a few but no need to bore you with those)
What I love with a singer, songwriter, artist, is that I can FEEL the person behind it all.
And I really do not care if the hair isn’t perfect, or the face isn’t beyond beautiful, or the body doesn’t have the right form, as long as I can sense the person behind it all.
And I am truly sorry (I really am! You always get so very emotional and agitated whenever I’m not kissing the foot soles of EP!) that I once mentioned in here that EP is not my favourite.
But besides EP, I don’t have a lot of other persons in this industry I don’t like! (Yeah there are some genres like fusion-jazz that rubs me the wrong way) (well, ok, I am not all smiles when I accidentally hear Dio singing)(but besides those two, EP and Dio…well, you know)
In my universe there is always room for other people’s opinions without me trashing them, actually I find it fascinating that we don’t all agree! How boring a world it would be if we like parrots just nodded and uttered the words: ‘ohh I agree with you’ (in a high-pitch voice) over and over again.
“It is an old Memphis proverb that the fruit of truth can n’er be harvested from barren land” <- 🤣🤣😆😆
I say thank you! I am not insulted in any way (and I am pretty sure you think it is because I am too stupid to comprehend what you just have written😆)
I may have linked this before, but please listen to this anyway
https://youtu.be/ljIQo1OHkTI?si=Ld5jGLnNdjjCXYj4
Jim Kerr could never win any model competitions, his hair is silly and what not, but man he can sing 🥰
The same goes for Dan Baird! His voice isn’t even something to brag about, like Ian could do all day long without anyone in their right mind would disagree! But please listen to this:
https://youtu.be/a5kwyHjL7ZU?si=xVx7F5F8UYD6pnTf
You can’t deny that his presence is so strong that you can reach out in the world of music and almost touch his energy?!
It’s impossible not to feel that young man, as he was when he sang this, living and breathing the very essence of a human being of flesh and blood!
You can’t disagree with me that if Dan Baird wasn’t singing he would die! Or at least that is how he makes it feel and look like, and sound like.
It’s the purpose of his life to bring music and singing out to those of us who open our hearts and minds and welcome it in our life, and by that we get to be richer persons (not in the material sense) and we can go on even if everything in our personal lives aren’t perfect!
And here you have it, why I am so thrilled whenever I listen to Ian G, because that man can sing! He can deliver the musical message so that no one (or at least me in my ‘Ianverse’ )(🤣🤣) feel a cohesion I wouldn’t find elsewhere.
It’s not that I decided on day: I just love Purple’s music and Ian’s voice, I just can’t help myself! I get goosebumps unwillingly! My mind is wandering to places more beautiful and exciting that I can describe here. (Again if you learned Danish I could describe it 😉)
Purple is a magnetic and brilliant band, Ian and also other singers, bring joy and fulfilment, and I guess it’s actually because I can’t play any instrument or sing, that I am so much in awe! Because I am!
Without music my life would be a pale and empty place to be living in, and even the loveliest coffee couldn’t make it better.
I remember I once was asked which of my senses I would keep, if I had to lose one sense.
I was completely sure!
I would with no hesitation lose my eyesight if it meant I could keep on hearing. (I am thrilled I have all my senses ☺️)
Thank you for this exciting and inspiring opportunity to share our interests in music 😊🤗
February 26th, 2025 at 19:28#34
Congratulations, Uwe.
Janbl
February 27th, 2025 at 06:37Opa Uwe, ich gratuliere herzlich!
February 27th, 2025 at 09:46@32 + 38
From DP’s Who Do We Think We Are inner sleeve:
« Me and my mate Barry Higgins at the Island Revenue were fanatical Elvis fans at 14. We used to go back to this place from wherever we’d been and play and sing all his songs. I knew every word, tune and arrangement and what song follows what on all his albums up to Blue Hawaï ».
February 27th, 2025 at 10:12Ian Gillan, Disc, January 1972.
@42
‘were fanatical Elvis fans at 14.’ <- 😄😄
I guess the keyword here is 14! 😆
February 27th, 2025 at 13:04Jean-Christophe came to our rescue! Well done!
Can’t wait how Karin finds her way around this fact too.
February 27th, 2025 at 15:13@44
Max 🤣🤣🤣
Ok I tell you a secret: (ssshhhhh 🤫) I really LOVE LOVE LOVE Elvis Presley! Have done all my life (or something 😂)
February 27th, 2025 at 16:05(Maybe I have a tendency to ein bisschen im Dienste einer guten Sache liegen😃)
Ian stayed a fan of early Elvis all his life, Karin, that never changed, he just stopped listening to the more mature Elvis that went into Hollywood film work and eventually Las Vegas residencies which Ian saw – like many people – as selling out.
I mean what are these lyrics from 1977 (the year of Elvis’ death), if not an adulation from Ian?
“Rockin′ to the poor boy, he’ll be my King
Really got to shiver when he sings
He is the image of my fantasizing
Now we got the whole world listening
He will be the biggest thing in history
Cause he′s doing the same thing, but so differently
Got to hear the poor boy hero sing …
Now we got a genius the people cried
When he moved a finger we all sighed
And then we squeezed him till he broke inside
When he went to Vegas the music died
He is still the biggest thing in history
Now he’s doing the same thing so indifferently
Got to hear the poor boy hero sing …”
I’m not even that great an Elvis fan (I think I have two multi-CD compilations from him), but I appreciate his historical role and his influence on Ian Gillan (and I always liked that bit of rock’n’roll twang in Ian’s voice as opposed to the blues histrionics in Robert Plant’s voice though he did them well).
Taking Elvis out of the Big Ian equation is a bit like taking Buddy Rich out of the Little Ian one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9esWG6A6g-k
It’s simply ahistorical. These people come from somewhere.
February 27th, 2025 at 16:50“I remember I once was asked which of my senses I would keep …”
… and you said, “I don’t care, take them all, I don’t need any of them to be strong-headed!”, wasn’t that so, liebste Karin? 🤗😇
😈 You may throw things at me now, Keeperess of the Ianverse, the chance was simply too good to let slip. There is a proverb in Germany, “Better to lose a best friend then to miss out on the chance for a caustic quip!”, I am guilty of that on all counts. 🫣
February 27th, 2025 at 22:55@13 And also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ_SUMRBKH0
February 28th, 2025 at 07:23@47
“and you said, “I don’t care, take them all, I don’t need any of them to be strong-headed!”, wasn’t that so, liebste Karin? 🤗😇”
😆
I know sweetheart that is how you see me, but in real life, I am blessed with all my senses!
@46
And again, have said it before, will undoubtedly say it many times more:
If I ever came in dire straits and had to fight for my life during some great unjustice, I know I would cope and win if I have you as my defence
lawyer ☺️
Another innocent question:
How come it is so important how I see the alleged relationship between the current troubadour of Deep Purple and some long gone has been, once cheered on and worshipped?
But maybe you guys in here are just like the most men I have met:
February 28th, 2025 at 15:18Sie werden bis zum Tode foltern, um in allem Recht zu haben, und wenn das nicht funktioniert, werden sie so lange weitermachen, bis der weibliche Teil aufgibt.😉☺️
@46
“Now we got a genius the people cried
When he moved a finger we all sighed
And then we squeezed him till he broke inside
When he went to Vegas the music died
He is still the biggest thing in history
Now he’s doing the same thing so indifferently
Got to hear the poor boy hero sing …”
When I read this lyrics it really doesn’t strike me as Ian personally was in awe of Elvis! (I’m serious here, not suggesting anything more than what I’m writing!)
Actually the lyrics makes me think that Ian is sad of the way Elvis was treated, by himself, but certainly also by the people who ‘squeezed him till he broke inside’. It really is sad when you think about it.
I guess Beatles experienced a lot of the same, but they were 4 individuals who could support each other and talk about ‘the crazy girls who screamed so loud that they couldn’t hear themself play!
Elvis was alone, alone on stage (he was there with his band of course but I have never heard they were in as high demand as he was?), he was alone after the concerts, he was alone with his thoughts, and I remember on of you fine people in here once said that he was so very much insecure, that he rehearsed songs over and over again because he didn’t find them good enough.
That makes me really sad to think about, because it explains a lot of his behaviour (see Uwe! I do have a heart underneath my severe stone cold Viking and which persona 😉)
Sadly I don’t know Ian personally (and I mean this in a polite and respectful way, thank you very much) because I would really love to hear his opinion re Elvis.
No doubt the man could sing (Elvis that is) and no doubt he was groundbreaking in the music industry (then we can have a long and interesting discussion of the style of his music and his performance, but why ruin a perfect afternoon ☺️) but his legacy became ruined, not of his own doings, but because he was, well, yeah mistreated by people who didn’t care about the person Elvis, but merely was interested in the $$ he could fill in their pockets.
I know I have been harsh on the man, suggesting he could have broken free, he could have thrown off the reins, broken the yoke, freed himself from the tyranny of the money-men, but I do acknowledge life isn’t always as easy as when you’re a nobody like me, compared to be world famous like he rightfully was!
A conclusion:
– Can we at least agree on the fact that I don’t particularly like Elvis Presley’s music, because it isn’t my style? And that is ok??!
– That I acknowledge that Ian had some kind of tenderness and compassion towards that poor guy Elvis became?
– And that Elvis is indeed dead and has left the building long time ago?
(Now what can we discuss next in here 😄)
February 28th, 2025 at 16:25Guys, new release of Gillan with ‘Lucille’ 😍
February 28th, 2025 at 17:03“How come it is so important how I see the alleged relationship between the current troubadour of Deep Purple and some long gone has been, once cheered on and worshiped?”
Good question, I think it is because I’m a history buff. If you look at the things that interest me: politics, WWII militaria, rock band family trees, the way music is connected to the past … history (roots & branches) is the common thread in all of that. I take the view that paths led us to where we are in all things and I’m intrigued by those paths. There is very little that cannot be traced and understood better with a closer look at its history.
History is an anchor in comprehending the world for me. For other people it might be religion, spirituality or human interaction, for me it’s history. Very Freudian and Marxist, I know! 😂
March 1st, 2025 at 02:25@52
March 1st, 2025 at 11:57Uwe, I have been hunted down by a vicious flu (ought to happen with all the sick people I meet every single day) so my faculties are very low.
I lay down again and wait for either sudden death or death in general 🤒🤧
@ 53 – Get well Karin, you will rise again after that cursed devil bug is dismissed. Cheers.
March 1st, 2025 at 22:14It’s been going round a while now. I caught a real bad virus flu (i.e. not just a severe bacterial cold) in the mid nineties and it knocked me out like no disease has before or after (including my bouts with Corona), I was still out of breath months later. Ever since then I get flu shots religiously once a year, I have no intention of ever having it again, especially at my age now, I was in my mid 30s at the time and it still left me feel half-dead for weeks.
Once you have it, there is not much you can do except rest and watch yourself (and have René watch!) that you don’t catch bacterial pneumonia on top of it. Bacteria like to hop on where viruses already are.
God bedring!
March 1st, 2025 at 22:34@54 & 55
Awww thank you guys 🤗🤗
No pneumonia, but the most evil flu.
Normally I get over it quickly but I didn’t catch it in time to get it kicked out with some of my remedies.
Stay healthy and avoid people who sneeze and cough 😏
March 2nd, 2025 at 07:04Karin, surely the boogie woogie flu? Get well soon
March 3rd, 2025 at 16:51@57
Aww thanks David 🤗
I’m a trained and skilled homeopath, and normally I get over any flu (boogie woogie or otherwise 😉) in no more than 4 hours.
But this one that caught me, was an intriguing variant, combined with streptococcus and staphylococcus, but when I found that out, few hours later I was fine and dandy again 😊
March 3rd, 2025 at 17:27