![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/morse6.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/morse2.jpg)
More than we asked for
Continuing on the slow news week theme, here’s something for that hangover morning — a Burn documentary, opinionated by a bunch of people most of us never heard about. Of the redeeming qualities, it has input from the ubiquitous Glenn Hughes, and from John McCoy (of all the people). The archive footage includes bits of Doing Their Thing, the Leeds Polytechnic project, Cal Jam, and the Last Concert in Japan.
Thanks to Uwe for the heads-up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
I still have this on DVD. I bought the Rainbow 75-78 one too.It was useful for the Live in London audio dubbed onto the live footage of Burn.Of course what we really want is a Classic Albums presentation on the Burn album, with meaningful input from the surviving members.
December 30th, 2024 at 21:41Some of the commentators in that video are/were journos for Classic Rock Magazine and other UK rock publications (Malcolm Dome and Jerry Ewing for sure). I see that frequent Purple / Rainbow biographer Jerry Bloom had a hand in the production of that video as well. It’s the first time I have seen that particular presentation, and I think it was very well done, and gives an excellent overview of the Mark III years, particularly the stellar Burn album. Glenn Hughes’ contributions were certainly key to the success of that record.
December 31st, 2024 at 01:31I gave up on this half way through when the so called Guests and narrative was sooo far off the truth …I mean Bron being with Ian in the early 70s !!…And Roger leaving of his own volition!!
December 31st, 2024 at 01:47Come on , at least do your research…there is so much guff on you tube , it’s not true !
I think even John McCoys bits were filmed years ago !
Yeah, this came out around the time of the 30th Anniversary remaster/remix of Burn, though not in any way affiliated as a release, it’s a more-black-than-purple Jerry Bloom venture.
So let’s not be too critical of some of the statements, we’re all the wiser 20 years onward. (Though I feel honor-bound to clarify that Ian Gillan was always more than just a “heavy metal shouter”! And there were no “hits” on Burn either, though the material was collectively very strong, no single song charted or gained the significant FM radio play of some of the Mk II staples.)
For a fresher appreciation of the album watch this by an Australian and a drummer (no, not the inimitable Herr MacGregor himself, it’s actually two people):
https://youtu.be/zGxugIc6QTg
Me? I don’t have to put down the underrated WDWTWA to appreciate the greatness and freshness/immediacy Burn had and has retained to this day. While WDWTWA saw Purple experimenting with PROG influences again (after the relatively straightforward Machine Head), Burn jettisons all PROGishness (with the exception of the Burn – the song – solo parts of Jon and his “A”-200 tour de force) in favor of what is essentially US-flavored stadium rock (with Blues and Soul/Funk influences thrown in) that still shows original Brit grit (that grit would be gone on Stormbringer though I like that album too for – much like WDWTW two years before – attempting to broaden the band’s musical recipe, but yeah, Stormbringer is so smooth and glossy an album, it sounds slippery and very LA in places).
But man WHAT a monster stadium rock album Burn is – fucksolutely brilliant!!! It set off the era where, to my ears at least, Ritchie triumphed as a guitar stylist, honing his idiosyncrasies to perfection.
Innocent question for Karin, have you actually ever heard Burn (the album) in full or is it ‘verboten’ terrain for you after you have pledged yourself so completely to Ian Gillan?
December 31st, 2024 at 02:16It is worth noting that on that tour DP played seven songs at each concert, five of which were from the new “Burn” album , which speaks volumes about the time when bands were infinitely braver than today, but also about the kind of album it was.
December 31st, 2024 at 12:52Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
i have the album very good show
December 31st, 2024 at 12:56Ivica, make it six songs from Burn, they sometimes played What’s Going On Here too, not just at the very early Mk III gigs in December 1973 as here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx34LuA59as
but also – albeit infrequently – on the 1974 US Tour.
So the only songs from Burn never played by Mk III live were – incongruously so – the brilliant Sail Away (to me the strongest number on Burn next to the title track) and the underrated instrumental “A”-200 (which would have made a nice piece within Jon’s live solo spot).
December 31st, 2024 at 17:12is gleen touring new jersey this year ?
December 31st, 2024 at 17:57Not yet apparent, Smitty:
https://www.glennhughes.com/tour.html
But it’s still early days for 2025.
December 31st, 2024 at 21:56Hi Uwe
January 1st, 2025 at 20:30I’m sure you will know the answer to this …What was it that Jon said so complimentary about Ray Manzarek ( of The Doors )
I got into The Doors a few years back ( fantastic band ) …and I seem to remember Jon saying something on one of those rock music documentaries about Ray …and for the life of me, I can’t find it anywhere!
Your help would be very much appreciated
Steve, I have to pass on this, I’m not aware of any specific Jon quotes on Ray (or vice versa), couldn’t find anything either, but the influence of latish 60ies US organ-led bands (Vanilla Fudge, Iron Butterfly, The Doors) on Mk I especially is obvious, One More Rainy Day always sounded très Doors’y to me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLhYajHZ9rk
I would imagine that Jon would have had something nice to say about Ray’s lyrical approach though that was very much down to the latter’s “a piano player playing organ”-style (in the early days at least), something Jon always consciously tried to avoid. Ray initially played keyboards mainly as a melody and harmony instrument (plus of course bass with his foot pedals when The Doors did not have a bassist performing with them), Jon was – when he didn’t solo – Deep Purple’s Keith Richards or Rick Parfitt, he determined the rhythm of the band to a great deal playing very tightly with Little Ian.
As with a lot of musicians at the time, there was an inherent respect of DP for The Doors as counter-cultural icons that forged a trademark sound with a singer writing deep poetry – Ritchie is on record for explicitly deeming Ian Gillan’s neo-Jim Morrison look in 1969/70 attractive for Mk II’s future, this was way before he knew that a little girl called Karin in Denmark would one day be smitten with the chosen singer! 💜🤷♀️
https://c8.alamy.com/comp/2HWEYBC/ian-gillan-lead-singer-of-the-deep-purple-rock-group-pictured-in-the-royal-pavillion-gardens-in-brighton-east-sussex-after-it-was-announced-he-would-be-playing-the-part-of-jesus-christ-in-a-pop-opera26th-june-1970-2HWEYBC.jpg
https://www.licensestorehouse.com/p/767/ian-gillan-lead-singer-deep-purple-rock-group-21680263.jpg.webp
I mean it’s not for nothing that DP have covered Roadhouse Blues and that Big Ian has sung other Doors songs both as early as with Episode Six
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNgygG04md8
and even more recently in his career:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK3gACseqh0
And wasn’t Riders On The Storm the taped outro (or intro?) track on the Black Sabbath Born Again tour?
Even a band like GHOST pay reverence to The Doors to this day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyxrzUe_TDM
This will be considered heresy by all Jim Morrison fans, but Ray wasn’t a bad singer either:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBTNtkMh05A
And if I dare say, by 1977, when Ray had the criminally underrated Nite City running, I venture the guess he had given Jon Lord a few listens in the meantime (he plays a lot ‘choppier’ than before) or at least declared to his fellow band members: “BTW, since I am paying for all this, I want my Hammond to be mixed as loud as this guy from Deep Purple!!!” 😂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e847NbuFjkQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-a-QoIIY9w
January 2nd, 2025 at 01:12Given that Gillan and Glover were brought into the band as a strong songwriting team. Glenn was writing in Trapeze but surely Coverdale was an unknown. What was Plan B if Coverdale and Hughes weren’t able to contribute in the same way?
January 2nd, 2025 at 09:17Uwe
Fantastic insight and comments, thanks very much for taking the time to do all that . I know I didn’t get the answer I wanted but I got way more then I asked for ( exactly as this thread suggests ! )
I can remember Jon’s comments were on one of those late night documentaries about music ( around 2008 to 2011) …I’m pretty sure it was about Ray playing the bass lines on his left hand ..with a Vox Continental?
January 2nd, 2025 at 10:37At the time , I only thought The Doors were ” light my fire ” etc …little did I know!!
Anyway, Thanks Uwe and a Happy new year
thanks wue! 😉
January 2nd, 2025 at 12:46Actually, the did have a bass player in 2005 in Atlantic City. Ian Astbury joined Manzarek, Krieger and a bass player and drummer whose names I can’t remember. I love the Doors albums, but I never liked any live stuff by them, they always sounded thin, and Morrison just didn’t seem to cut it live, of course he was probably drunk anyway.
January 2nd, 2025 at 13:01DeepOz, as you said, Glenn was already a prolific writer in Trapeze, their songs were generally either written by Mel Galley and his brother Tom (he of Phenomena fame) or by Glenn alone.
DC already wrote (not so bad) songs in the late 60s, he could play acoustic guitar and a little piano, some of his 1968 home demos are on the recent The Solo Albums boxed set release:
https://youtu.be/dvFT3l8tm4E
https://youtu.be/MVXHRmTQCtk
https://youtu.be/4kznVHPxLBc
https://youtu.be/JyfHGX9HizU
And ballady as they are, those songs all sound a lot more timeless and 70s contemporary than what DP put on their 1968 debut which all still breathed a prominent mid 60s vibe! 😂
That said, DP hedged their bets a little: DC was only presented to the world press as the new singer AFTER the songwriting sessions in Clearwell Castle leading to the Burn album’s recording in Switzerland (for tax reasons) had been concluded. Whether someone has own songwriting ideas or not is something you notice pretty quickly once you start jamming with him. And where Ian Gillan had often only revealed his vocal melody ideas to the band once a track was more or less instrumentally finished, DC chipped in his ideas early on which Blackmore liked because it gave him more of an influence on the finished vocal line. What he wanted heard in his mind and what Big Ian would come up with had been a bone of contention during the recording of WDWTWA which is why Painted Horse (where Gillan’s “out there” vocal line failed to please Ritchie) was shelved in the vaults. It certainly didn’t sound like something Paul Rodgers would have come up with:
https://youtu.be/Vc_9PHHrd2k
That was already very much the type of unexpected vocal melody that would become a trademark of Ian’s singing in IGB and GILLAN a couple of years later – far too outlandish for Blackmore who prefers more conventional vocal lines.
January 2nd, 2025 at 14:56Smitty, “wue” is the most Asian sounding variation of my not really translatable first name yet, cảm ơn, I finally feel like a Vietcong general! 😁
https://www.album-online.com/photos/prev/M2Q0NjEzMA/album_alb5485815.jpg
January 2nd, 2025 at 16:32@ 11 @13
Coincidences
“Now What” was released in April 2013, a month after May 20 Ray Manzarek died
A beautiful tribute by Don Airey – to the great Ray ….( “Riders on the Storm”)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBfqURqESf0
January 2nd, 2025 at 17:58