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A Journey Through Space

By Garry Smith

How do you make a single track last for 33 minutes?

Fuelled by a certain amount of Chardonnay and Rioja, I thought I'd try to answer that question by writing down a blow-by-blow account. It may not make complete sense. It may not even make any sense. Let's hope I can read my writing.....

History

This recording was one of the most popular bootlegs when it first came out. Bootleggers bootleg each other, so although the original boot was called Space, the same recording was also later issued under other names, such as H-Bomb, Sonic Zoom, and Darker than Blue, which is where the name of the DPAS magazine came from. I already had a CD boot of this recording, called Made in Germany.

What does Space consist of?

Only four tracks, with a total running time of 72 minutes. The notes in the booklet say that it's not clear whether this is the complete set (perhaps it was a short set because it was an open-air festival), or whether they are in the correct order (Made In Germany has them in a different order).

My own thoughts are that this cannot be the complete set. I feel sure that they would have given Ian Gillan a bit more work to do, and also done something from the In Rock album. However, the booklet does note that IG had a sore throat at the time, so maybe this is the complete set...

A combination of the scarcity of vocals, IG's bad throat, and the overloaded original recording of the vocals means that this is not an album for Gillan fans. But if you want to hear a fresh, exciting and extremely energetic DP, with the emphasis on instrumental expertise, then stick around.

OK, here we go. Please note that all timings are approximate, to within about 5 seconds or so.

Track 1 - Wring That Neck - 20:36

00:20 - Almost immediately we know that this either is not the complete set or is not in the correct order. IG says "..I just gotta get rid of this microphone..." (which he would not say if he had just stepped up to it for the first time) and then "...my last big moment..."
01:00 - Jon & Ritchie use Jingle Bells to tune up. Various noodling.
01:45 - the actual start of WtN. Jon leads. Doesn't sound as though there's much bass just here - though I was listening to it through Walkman headphones on a ghetto blaster. Certainly the bass is clear and present later on. I've only done a couple of quick comparisons, and the sound on Space seems to be significantly better than on Made In Germany.
03:03 - Ritchie takes over from Jon.
03:50 - Great rhythm organ from Jon while Ritchie is taking the lead.
04:15 - The lead returns to Jon, who has a really clear organ sound. There's so much space in the music...now there's a good album title!
05:15 - Jon starts to diverge from the WtN theme
06:20 - Jon descends into the lower registers - an almost sepulchral organ sound - then stops and hands the lead back to Ritchie
07:00 - nice quiet, subdued solo by Ritchie
07:45 - very like what, a year-and-a-half later, would be the intro to Lazy
08:10 - Rog has a 20-second bass solo
08:30 - Jon on his own
08:50 - rest of the band crashes back in - still reminiscent of Lazy
09:07 - back to the main WtN theme
09:45 - everyone else stops, leaving Jon on his own
10:20 - Ian P returns, grooving along quietly behind Jon
10:40 - Jon introduces a new theme - I feel it's a tune I should recognise, but I can't place it
11:10 - lovely percussive organ work - as in Flight of the Rat
11:30 - amazing descending cascade on the organ
11:50 - a complete "freak-out" (hey, it is 1970!) by Jon - I reckon he must be leaning on the keyboards with his arms, and probably rocking the organ too
12:20 - into a very forceful organ section - sounds familiar
12:40 - yup, it's Three Blind Mice!
13:10 - a bit more gentle, still the Three Blind Mice theme
13:37 - another freak-out coming on...
14:07 - all of a sudden, into some classical sounding section...
14:20 - ...which leads into Hall of the Mountain King
15:00 - a big organ swell (stop sniggering, you at the back!)
15:16 - playing with the voltages, I think, turning the organ into a primitive synth
16:20 - sounds like Jon is physically throwing the organ around the stage
16:50 - into a very church-like section
17:25 - a brief snip of Rhapsody in Blue (or is it An American in Paris?)
17:40 - arpeggios / scales
17:58 - everyone back in and back to WtN
18:15 - everyone stops for Ritchie's guitar blitz
18:35 - dead silence
18:45 - that little thing Ritchie does, what tune is it?
19:00 - Ritchie does his "um-ching, um-ching" thing (you'll know it when you hear it)
19:10 - (I'm Dreaming of a) White Christmas!? Ritchie, it's the 11th of July!
19:23 - Jingle Bells - must be the cue for the end of Ritchie's section....
19:30 - because everyone comes in for the big finish
19:50 - but Ritchie does another guitar blitz
20:20 - and the whole thing comes to a messy end.

Track 2 - Black Night - 6:02

00:00 - no intro - straight into it
00:20 - the vocals are not too overloaded - of course the flaws in the original recording could never be completely corrected, but they have been worked on, I think
01:30 - Ritchie's solo - not particularly remarkable - but the rhythm section is really rocking
02:25 - back to the riff, then Jon's solo
03:23 - back to the riff
03:35 - back to the vocals
04:05 - another solo from Ritchie - lots of string bending and tremolo arm work
04:45 - IG joins in with Ritchie's solo - like he would do later on Strange Kind of Woman
05:30 - everyone stops - Jon does his percussive organ again, IG screams, the riff returns, and then it's the big finish.

Track 3 - Paint It Black - 11:44

00:00 - intro a bit like Speed King - distorted spooky organ and Ritchie soloing like crazy
00:40 - Ritchie's finger vibrato
01:00 - a single-finger staccato organ melody - IP is already laying down a solo, hitting everything
01:45 - organ and guitar in unison with the main theme
02:25 - breaks down (like The Mule on MiJ) to leave...
02:40 - ...IP on his own. Now there's no way I can document a drum solo, but here goes. First Ian establishes his ground...
03:20 - ...then starts interrupting himself
04:10 - up to full speed, circulating round the drums
04:20 - bass pedal going strong and steady, whilst he does other things on the drums
05:09 - that circular style again
05:43 - stop - slow down - get faster - mamma, pappa, mamma, pappa - BTW, the drum sound is very good
07:00 - slow down
07:05 - brings in the cymbals
07:20 - working on the cymbals, occasional embellishments from the drums
07:50 - speeding up - here we go again
08:30 - almost as though he's hitting cymbals at random
08:40 - slow again, then speed up
09:35 - breaks down again
09:50 - sounds like the final build up?
10:15 - and the final slow down?
10:30 - virtually stopped
10:40 - final flourish
10:50 - a climactic thump
10:58 - IP leads the band back in
11:05 - band joins in
11:37 - very abrupt cut-off of final chord - a second or so lost here.

Track 4 - Mandrake Root - 33:37

00:00 - Ian G introduces the song, and it sounds as though he's been investigating the contents of a bottle...well, a man has to do something during these long instrumental passages. He invites the crowd to get all their clothes off, says that Mandrake Root is a "filthy rude" song, it's "diabolically rude", and suggests that the German crowd, who must have wondered what he was talking about, should "get your diabolicallies out"!
01:20 - The Foxy Lady riff marks the start of the tune
01:50 - in with the vocals - overloaded - as I said, not an album for Gillan fans
03:30 - into the first solo section, with Jon working on top of what I believe is a rondo rhythm. A spacey, slightly distorted sound in a minor key - changing key or scale as he goes along - it's quite discordant. My notes say that from here to about 09:25 it's a "slow burn".
06:15 - Ian P introduces some rimshots - sounds like the cue for a change
06:30 - Jon's solo becomes more tuneful - should I recognise this tune?
07:50 - Jon goes quiet, then brings up the sort of chords and noises that would later feature in Space Truckin'
08:40 - Ian P is being assertive again
08:50 - by now Jon is on another planet, using odd scales and simply generating noise
09:20 - Jon does the old ambulance siren impersonation...
10:00 - ...back to almost orthodox soloing...
10:20 - ...but now he's hitting everything in sight...
10:40 - ...and back to a single melody line again...
11:05 - ...now he's completely off the rails...
11:20 - ...now back on them...
11:56 - chords from Jon signifying that he's near the end of his session?
12:15 - can hear Ritchie waiting to take control - Jon is making splashy organ sounds
12:40 - the "diddly-diddly" bit that means "it's time to change over"
12:50-13:15 - transition to Ritchie
13:15 - monstrous sounds from Ritchie
13:30 - now Ritchie takes over, generating a lot of noise
14:30 - an early example of an Eastern/Arabic sounding solo from Ritchie
15:15 - heavy chords
15:30 - lots of noise and tremolo arm action - like the end of Hard Lovin' Man
16:10 - an abrupt end to the guitar - did the lead get pulled out? - leaving Ian P on his own
16:25 - really low organ notes (bass pedals?) from Jon
16:50 - Jon starts another solo section, full of discord
17:35 - Hey! Chalk this one up! Ian G's congas, clear as a bell!
17:55 - echoey, spacey stuff from Jon - so how do you get feedback out of a Hammond?
19:25 - into a classical sounding piece - either Ian G or the audience is clapping along
20:20 - a quiet "bam bam" from Ian P introduces the change
20:35 - Ritchie's back, with clear quiet Lazy-intro stuff
21:17 - Ritchie does a descending scale, and Jon and then Rog show instant reactions by repeating it - brilliant!
22:06 - Ritchie detonates a chord, and leaves Ian P on his own
22:30 - a few groans from Ian G - what's happening?
22:50 - Jon's percussive organ again
23:00 - heavy stuff from Ritchie
23:15 - Jon's percussive organ
23:25 - power chords - Ritchie, then Jon
23:45 - Ritchie starts leading them to the end
24:00 - the strobe section
24:30 - still the big build-up to the end
25:00 - the middle section from Space Truckin'
25:15 - a fully established rondo (?) again
25:30 - Ritchie is freaking out now - tremolo abuse, sheer noise until about 30:00 - the rest of the band supporting
27:30 - Ritchie starts a solo
28:00 - Jon joins in with chords and discordant solos, Ian P is pounding away, Rog is working hard too, keeping it all going
29:45 - Ritchie very out of tune now
30:30 - Jon in charge now - something is being destroyed in the background - did Ritchie's amp really burst into flames, as he used to claim?
31:10 - Ritchie steams back in - the noise continues
32:40 - it all comes to a conclusion, Ian P slows it all down
33:00 - Jon and Ritchie do a dive-bomber
33:15 - Jon's organ is switched off
33:30 - Ian G says "Thank you - good night".

You may have noticed that I've used the word "noise" quite a lot. If you've never heard early Purple, then hearing Space may surprise you. Don't forget that this is mid 1970. The Floyd had been doing Saucerful of Secrets and other things like that. Keith Emerson had been jamming down the keys on his organ with daggers, to produce drones as neighbouring notes were triggered together. Jimi Hendrix, soon to depart, had shown what could be squeezed out of a guitar and an amp cranked up to 11. A myriad of underground bands such as Hawkwind would have been experimenting to see what sounds they could generate.

Deep Purple were both a pop band and an underground band in their early days. Audiences back then were used to "freak-outs" - they expected tracks to last 20 or 30 minutes. Nowadays you'd lose half the audience if you tried that.

Space shows that Purple MkII in the early days could generate sheer noise and amazing excitement, underpinned by great musicianship and, above all, a tremendous feel for dynamics. Look at the amount I've written - look at how often things change - the rhythm, the lead, the tempo, the style of playing. 20 minutes, 33 minutes - it doesn't matter - it never gets boring. Noise and excitement - that's why I prefer the name that another bootlegger chose - Sonic Zoom!