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The Frank Sinatra of rock´n´roll
A 1981 vintage Jon Lord interview, where he talks about the bogus Purple, Gillan’s departure from the band, Tommy Bolin, prospects for a reunion, Tony Ashton, an upcoming solo album, and the Frank Sinatra of rock´n´roll. The interview is published with a warning that no part can be quoted without permission, so we can’t offer you a teaser. You can read it here.
Thanks to Uwe Hornung for the heads-up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
“Ritchie suddenly decided that he didn´t like Ian Gillan´s voice, which was silly…” – Jon Lord
That’s not how copyright law works.
January 25th, 2025 at 05:05Ok then, Jon Lord said it bluntly!
Ian G was a primadonna, and so was Ritchie.
Aren’t all great musicians and singers primadonna-like in some aspects?
January 25th, 2025 at 13:08Ritchie wanted a bluesier, more Paul Rodgers-oriented voice by 1972 and less outlandish vocal melodies, that is hardly a secret. He also had more input (which he liked to have) in the vocal melodies of Mk III as opposed to Mk II where Ian Gillan basically sang how and what he liked over the music.
DC, GH and RJD are all fine singers who can craft a good melody but have you ever really heard them sing a vocal line that is utterly surprising and off-the-wall? An album like Born Again is full of that stuff, so is a lot of IGB and GILLAN material. But Ritchie didn’t like surprises unless he was the one behind them.
January 25th, 2025 at 14:38nice interview of the Maestro, where he highlights what we were saying some time ago about Ritchie’s evolution with Rainbow post-Dio era..
when Cozy came out all conflicts ended and Ritchie married FM music, but he never evolved again.
If the MK II would have taken that damned 6 month vacation, maybe history would have been different.
when Simon Phillips and Tony Ashton are mentioned in an interview, I always think about what incredible musicians they were and that only with Lord & Paice could they collaborate (that is, Iommi, Emerson or Bonzo would never have woven external collaborations of the richness of the Purples)
January 25th, 2025 at 21:16It probably should say ‘Ritchie grew tired of all the Gillan screaming’, not to mention a few others things. But Jon Lord was being diplomatic as ever & good on him for that. Hindsight again and the irony of it all with Blackmore originally wanting a ‘screamer’ when he was looking for a new lead vocalist in 1969. If only all good things came in moderation eh? Cheers.
January 25th, 2025 at 23:14@ 4 -“when Simon Phillips and Tony Ashton are mentioned in an interview, I always think about what incredible musicians they were and that only with Lord & Paice could they collaborate (that is, Iommi, Emerson or Bonzo would never have woven external collaborations of the richness of the Purples)”. Hmmmm. not to be too pedantic Fla76, but Simon Phillips still is a superb musician and his CV say it all.. He hasn’t left the building as yet. Bonzo? Not sure what you mean, he was only around for 10 years or so and we know where most of that time was spent. Regarding Keith Emerson, he did more than most in his collaborations within the ELP band. Unlike Jon Lord who was much more busy outside the band Deep Purple. A big difference and Emerson also did do solo & other collaborations. Rick Wakeman was also much busier outside of his collaborations within Yes. With Tony Iommi it is much more restricted, that is to do with his style etc. I am not so sure about Tony Ashton either. It is what we enjoy or do not enjoy, again. Horses for courses it seems. Cheers.
January 26th, 2025 at 02:08Unsinn, Herr MacGregor, Big Ian screamed less and less with every new Mk II album, his most screaming was on In Rock, WDWTWA had almost none. He grew out of it. There was no screaming on his abandoned solo work post his 1973 split either and IGB was devoid of it as well. Actually, it was the formation of GILLAN that saw him return to his trademark screaming again. The last album that contained a lot of screaming by him was Born Again – more than 40 years ago.
Ritchie didn’t like that he couldn’t control or intimidate Big Ian and that Ian’s vocal melodies often defied convention, that’s all.
January 26th, 2025 at 04:34#6 MacGregor
yes I know well that Simon Phillips is still playing!
my thought was about collaborations with particular characters, people who are not just rock musicians, but who are true artists of a higher level.
another one that I put in this circle of artists was Eddie Hardin
January 26th, 2025 at 15:58Uwe, TOOLBOX sure has a lot of trademark screams too … IG said something to the effect that he promised to scream all over it as the more poppy approach of Naked Thunder didn’t work very well saleswise. TOOLBOX is among the many most underrated albums from the Purple family. It’s a timeless classic to me.
As for DC, GH und RJD – I agree mostly. But GH has some rather strange attempts on some of his solo work, doesn’t he. And RJD I seem to remember had his moments with prog lines too… on those DIO-albums noone would buy in the 90s. I didn’t like them so listend to the stuuf no more than once or twice – but some vocal lines were a bit out of the comfort zone I believe.
January 26th, 2025 at 16:33You have failed to mention the most important aspect Uwe. Live performance and Gillan didn’t back off at all there it seems and it is embarrassing in that aspect. We are all aware of the ‘soapbox’ dramas of everything else, but that over the top screaming was, well when we were young we thought it was the bees knees. We still did in the early 80’s at a Gillan gig & even DP. As the years peel off the layers though it is rather annoying lot of the time, with any vocalist. Cheers.
January 26th, 2025 at 21:28