Vincent Price is back again
For no apparent reason, the record company has posted a live clip of Vincent Price from To The Rising Sun (In Tokyo), released almost 10 years ago.
Thanks to BraveWords for the heads-up.
![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/morse4.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/gillan.jpg)
For no apparent reason, the record company has posted a live clip of Vincent Price from To The Rising Sun (In Tokyo), released almost 10 years ago.
Thanks to BraveWords for the heads-up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
The excellent Steve Morse, …a minute and 20 seconds of magic !
March 15th, 2025 at 06:39“It feels so good to be afraid” 😄😄
Love this song! Love this band 💜
March 15th, 2025 at 07:54Steve and Big Ian will win any “ugliest T-shirt”-contest hand down. It will be a tie between them. But really: Roger, Little Ian and Don are a close third, forth and fifth! 🤣
The song is nice though, always liked it. Don’s mock theremin sounds are great.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5qf9O6c20o
March 15th, 2025 at 08:16We can’t mention ‘theremin’ here without pointing to Clara Rockmore!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdFSU8sn3mo
March 15th, 2025 at 08:29A wonderful version and Vincent Price is back again, bless him. Good all round sound there and Morse’s solo is very good with that restrained approach, no twiddly dee bits. Certainly puts the ‘aficionados’ in place who say that that lineup was too ‘light’ or whatever they have said along those lines. Comical really, but some people have really short memories. Thanks for posting. Cheers.
March 15th, 2025 at 09:08@ 4- thanks Uwe, very moving that performance from Clara. To think that that instrument was created app 100 years ago. Being silly now, we can get AI to do all these things now, humans have served their purpose. Cheers.
March 15th, 2025 at 10:25Brilliant…and , dare I say …The good old days ! When the band was exciting ! I really miss Steve …bring him back !
March 15th, 2025 at 13:07I really don’t like what the band has become now
I’ve never liked this song,
rather, a sense of hatred perhaps.
It’s definitely a song that only DP could do, but it’s probably the only Purple song that repulses me, as much as Queen’s Invisibile Man made me sick from the first time I heard it.
Don’t ask me for technical explanations on this, it’s just a matter of these two songs transmitting to me absolute zero, cosmic nothingness (something that no other song by Purple or Queen has ever done)
March 15th, 2025 at 14:16I was at that show! At the Budokan in Tokyo in April 2014! Ian had worn that same faux tux t-shirt just a few days before in London at the Royal Albert Hall for the Jon Lord tribute concert.
March 15th, 2025 at 14:34“It was like everybody woke up—like Rumpelstiltskin, you know, from their long sleep. And we all started rocking again”.
Contrary to Don’s comment, this LIVE cut shows Steve wide awake and rockin’ on stage.A heavy riff and great solo.
March 15th, 2025 at 17:55The song is a bit grittier here than on the album, and all the better for it. Great stuff!
@10: I quite agree, but I notice that Steve is smiling here. There are plenty of performances where–and I can’t blame him for it; he’s always rock-solid–he doesn’t have the energy and zest he had in the nineties with Purple.
March 15th, 2025 at 18:26Hi Andrew- Yeah,you could see that,with his wrist problems,it wasn’t always fun for Steve.
March 15th, 2025 at 18:49Btw,I don’t have the energy and zest I had in the 90s anymore,either. Ha !
Auntie Pulplette, l u tulning Japanese?
https://youtu.be/nGy9uomagO4
https://youtu.be/2IMAXMpt-P0
March 15th, 2025 at 19:13(Who said Klauts can’t sound like Toto if they give it ein bisschen a tly? Vee haff ze vvvays … Gleat numbel at the time!)
Can’t we all just agree that Ritchie, Tommy, Joe, Steve and Simon all had/have their strengths and weaknesses, yet still left their indelible stamps on the various line-ups?
That ‘who is better or worse?’ is sooo beside the point. DP have never had anything less than remarkable guitarists, period.
March 15th, 2025 at 20:15I really, really love the Steve Morse era of Deep Purple. I will stick up for them forever.
March 15th, 2025 at 23:06Wonderful albums, great concerts.
Fla 76 …I guess that’s down to everyone’s personal taste …and there’s nothing wrong in that !
March 16th, 2025 at 00:20It’s actually one of my favourites and the first song that I actually played twice from Now What …but, if we all liked the same or agreed on everything, it would be a very boring world !
Personally, I’m never gonna take to Simon ( even though he is a brilliant player …he’s not Deep Purple class …he’s just a session player that’s filling a gap until they quit ..which won’t be long )
And after the comments about Steve from some of the band…I feel quite repulsed ! Steve never said anything bad about them and has come out of this whole thing with class and dignity
@ 14 – no one here at present is saying what you are implying Uwe. People are only talking about what they like, either the song or the lineup. In regards to Joe (Satriani) being mentioned by you, point me to when he was a member of Deep Purple, albums, songs etc and I will add him to the members list. Cheers.
March 16th, 2025 at 05:24This song Vincent Price is a perfect example of the two forces combining so well. Lyrics with the music. Whichever way it happened it works so well. I can just imagine the lads jamming on this feel and with Gillan hearing it and then Vincent was invoked from the other side. Or it could have been the lyrics that he had and he asked the guys to come up with something eerie, brooding and dark. A brilliant and fine tribute to Vincent Price it is. I am sure he would have enjoyed hearing it and we just never know, maybe he did. Cheers.
March 16th, 2025 at 07:06if I had to pick one, Tokyo 2014 is probably my favourite latter day Deep Purple concert film.
It is extremely well recorded. Pure joy in the video / audio department
Hellfest 2017 is stellar, but sadly dvd only
We need another few concert films from Infinite onwards!
March 16th, 2025 at 10:15I saw Joe with Purple at a full gig, so I could at least imagine how things might have turned out, lieber Herr MacGregor. A member he never was, but being the first guy to replace Ritchie since Tommy’s ill-fated attempt 19 years before qualifies him for me as more than a sideman. Playing lead guitar with Purple live is hardly a sideman role by any means. And he did things in his role live no one before or after him ever did, listen to those lightning-fast arpeggios he does here during KAYBD @05:39 and 06:39:
https://youtu.be/FXag1wAemoU
If Joe would have failed live, I doubt we would have seen an Mk VII, VIII or IX. He made DP realize they had legs to walk with even without Ritchie. I think that makes his short tenure with the band special, pivotal and worthy of being remembered.
March 16th, 2025 at 18:37I would have loved to see Joe Satriani record an album with Purple. The gigs I saw were good fun for all involved as far as I could see and I guess he would have fitted much more than Steve Morse. Steve is one hell of a player as we all know, no doubt about it, but I never thought him right for DP. But it’s all water under the bridge now…
As for Vincent Price… it’s cabaret, a bit of fun but I never liked that song. That eerie keyboard sounds bring memories of B- …rather C-movies and the lyrics have something to them but overall I’d say it’s a b-side or an outtake at best. The riff, btw, seems ‘inspired’ by She’s a Star from Survivor.
March 17th, 2025 at 08:55@21
“Steve is one hell of a player as we all know, no doubt about it, but I never thought him right for DP” – oh why not Thomas?
March 17th, 2025 at 14:48Well Karin, Steve Morse comes from an american background with jazz and even bluegrass influences and tends to play very fluently, technically perfect. As his albums show he developed a love for instrumental progrog and the likes. Nothing wring with that of course. In fact I like listenig to his solo work more sometimes than listening to his work with DP. I always thought he was a bit … well… not enogh Rock’n’Roll if you get my drift. Rock’n’Roll is about abandon, taking risks, not givin’ a fiddler’s fart. With Ritchie or Tommy things sometimes seemed to fall apart on stage – as the y do sometimes with Ron Wood and Keith Richards for example – and that is were the fun begins. With Steve it was all too perfect for my liking. It had tone but no balls. The fun was rather academic. Just listen to his side project Flying Colors. He seemed more at home there. It is just not my cup of tea. You like Dan Baird? Me too. Now that is Rock’n’Roll for ya! You see I come from that corner rather … rough and ready (as DC might put it), a little blues, soul, sleaze … no progrock for me please.
March 17th, 2025 at 16:25Vincent Price – just pure fun!!
March 17th, 2025 at 20:30So now our former Max has all of the sudden become a doubting ‘Thomas’, Karin? 🤣
Everything that Steve was and became with DP was clear from the beginning if you had heard him with the Dixie Dregs and his own band plus had read the interviews he often gave in guitarist mags. He fooled no one (pun not intended!), Purple knew what they were buying. Steve was a musician who could also play rock guitar, he wasn’t a rock guitarist. Judging from his work with Chickenfoot, Joe was indeed more of a natural rocker than Steve.
But accusing Steve of being Steve is like saying: “Why, oh why did that terrible Glenn Hughes all of the sudden bring funk into DP?” He only did what was in his nature to do:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-qxJd5uyOo
Of course Vincent Price (the song) was humorous and a pastiche! What else could a song about a B and C movie star with an adorable penchant for overacting
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vYlzJAQFTQ0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm41jGc3ImQ
reasonably be? I thought they captured just that aspect of him & the guilty pleasure of cheap horror films (I just watched Terrifier 3, oh man you can’t take that stuff seriously … 🤣
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYMTzx2Qcmw )
oh so well, the Vincent Price vid is the best one Purple have EVER done because it is so apt (and the actor playing him a spitting image of his younger self):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEWYRRaxFhU
(Plus, at least in my simple world, any vid with a pole-dancing nun – @03:17 – automatically qualifies as great art: What’s not to like?!)
That song was always a spoof AND MEANT TO BE ONE! I loved it as part of the set. For all the jokiness and caricature, it was carefully crafted, a great number from all of DP, they really stayed musically in horror B- and C-movie character for it, including Steve’s tortured and ghostly guitar solo.
Hey, I was an Alice Cooper fan long before I was a DP one …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIeAVBTeuV8
“Please don’t touch the displays, young man …
This friendly little fellow is the Heptithilidae, unfortunately harmless.
Next to him … the nasty Lycosa Raptoria. Her tiny fangs cause creeping ulcerations of the skin …
And here … my prize, The Black Widow. Isn’t she lovely? And so deadly. Her kiss is fifteen times as poisonous as that of the rrrattlesnake. You see, her venom is highly neurotoxic. Which is to say that it attacks the central nervous system: causing intense pain, profuse sweating, difficulty in breathing, loss of consciousness, violent convulsions, and, finally … errrm, DEATH!
You know, what I think I love the most about her is her in-born need to dominate, POSSESS! In fact, immediately after the consummation of her marriage to the smaller and weaker male of the species, she kills and eats him. Oo-hoo, she is delicious! (And I hope he was.) ”
😈 😁😂🤣 This stuff is so corny, it’s brilliant.
March 17th, 2025 at 21:04@ 21- yes the riff for Steve would be have been a test of ‘endurance’ possibly, as that isn’t really his natural thing and he makes up for it with his solo. Agree that Vincent Price the song is definitely a bit of fun and I can understand people not liking it. Maybe I have a penchant for ole Vincent, that sort of helps. However it does the job for me. Much better than a lot of DP before that in the earlier 2000’s. Now What was a vast improvement to my ears from the three previous albums, in another realm, much higher too. Regarding Satriani yes it is a pity they didn’t write and record any new material. Not to worry, Purpendicular is well worthy of Steve Morse’s ‘introduction’ and Steve needed the ‘break’, so to speak. I was very happy for him at that time. A guitarist and composer of that quality being ‘overlooked’ by the mainstream juggernaut was a travesty in my book and also for many others no doubt. Cheers.
March 17th, 2025 at 21:05#25 Uwe
I agree with you, the video with the nun is really well done, one of the best Purple ever made!
March 17th, 2025 at 23:03Max/Thomas, you’re both right!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5S9yquK-jA
That chromatic riff … That is btw the same guy singing (Jimi Jamison) who almost joined DP in 1989 (and they would have been glad to have him), but his management had other plans. He didn’t co-write the song though, that were Jim Peterik and Frankie Sullivan. Still, you can steal from worse writers than Jim Peterik of all people, the man has contributed greatly to the US AOR songbook over the decades …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMYPL4JuXWc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btPJPFnesV4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJtf7R_oVaw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg21Rkew874
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc71KZG87X4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOFxUM7aOzs
Jim Peterik sports – even at his ripe old age – a hair color that should warm any DP’s aficionado’s heart (even if slightly painful on the eyes!).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_QJKaluYjg
March 17th, 2025 at 23:09If you devote your musical life to instrumental music like Steve has done, Herr MacGregor, you can’t sensibly complain about lack of commercial recognition! 🤣
When did you last hear a guitar instrumental in the charts? I know, Telstar seems like yesterday to you! 😎
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxyN3b1bs-w
But realistically: It’s been a while. It was Maggie Thatcher’s favorite “rock” song though, that’s something I guess.
Honorary mention of a more recent guitar instrumental which saw significant airplay (and which Steve would play too at guitar clinics):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfM6nRVBvGs
March 18th, 2025 at 00:52“no prog rock for me please …”
I couldn’t resist!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2XS7pj8lAE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUhc8-vUp8o
Come to the Dark Side of the Force, Max, where no meter is like the preceding one!
https://comrom.co/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/palpatine-gif.gif
March 18th, 2025 at 01:26Among the blind Steve Morse naysayers maxing their resentment out, the one-eyed observer reigns supreme 😇:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/JD1uXn-zKiY
March 18th, 2025 at 02:04@23
“With Steve it was all too perfect for my liking.” – yes, ok, it’s not the first time I read this in here 😊
So as you may imagine I have listened thoroughly to the brilliant mr Morse, but with ‘Ted the mechanic’, don’t you think he is amazing? And of course perfect yeah 😉
Steve Morris otoh, I can never understand why he wasn’t used more in Ian’s bands outside Purple, and why not incorporate him in Purple 😊
In this concert, this tune, he is completely magnificent 🤩
https://youtu.be/4dFQdvYh59A?si=dh82NpLfmBIHC9FC
But I guess there is a reason, and I expect Uwe knows the reason why ☺️😄
“You like Dan Baird?“ – oohhhh noooo! I LOVE Dan Baird! And I get what you mean 😊
https://youtu.be/jnDuketNOME?si=k6OvKxv1C5v2RDbH
And man I miss Dave Letterman too! He would have treated the current political situations all over the world with some shrewd finesse 😃
“You see I come from that corner rather … rough and ready (as DC might put it)“ – ok, so DC is someone we all quote now ☺️😉
March 18th, 2025 at 04:55@25
“So now our former Max has all of the sudden become a doubting ‘Thomas’, Karin? 🤣“ – 😄😄
Well do you have any comments on this Max?☺️☺️
“Purple knew what they were buying. Steve was a musician who could also play rock guitar, he wasn’t a rock guitarist. “ – Huh? Uwe, I slept less than 4 hours so if you have to be cute, please elaborate for this tired Dane! ☺️😉
And btw: still haven’t figured out what DEI means! I have googled and investigated, but I’m no wiser (and DO NOT be cheeky now 😁)
March 18th, 2025 at 05:10https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diversity,_equity,_and_inclusion
March 18th, 2025 at 07:11Karin, of course Steve Morse did a great job in Ted The Mechanic. Purpendicular is such a fantastic album in my book anyway. And as I said, he is one hell of a player, it’s just me prefering more blues based players that like their rock’n’roll … a little dirt won’t hurt kinda stuff, you know. And I have been quoting Coverdale for the last 45 years! Oh baby.
Well Karin, my friends call me Max but you can say Thomas of course. 😀 (Thomas is my first name and I never use it. Everyone calls me Max, which is in fact my second name.)
And Uwe you’re absolutely right, DP sure knew what they were getting. Never would I dare to accuse Steve for being Steve. As I said I liked his playing better on the Dreggs or solo albums. Just not right for DP. Things turned too prog for me on Now What?! (Probably my least loved album of the Morse era.) Don Airey sure doesn’t help here. Fanatstic musicians, just not the sounds and styles I prefer. But I always loved the diversity you can find in the Purple universe – there is something for almost everybody and there sure is a lot in it for me! I am happy with that more back to basics-sound the new album has.
Vincent Price is a treat indeed, I used to watch those movies on the telly when I was about 13 and the parents were out. Loved it! Just like those Christopher Lee flics. I just couldn’t relate to the song, never mind.
March 18th, 2025 at 08:09@35
“a little dirt won’t hurt kinda stuff, you know.” – I agree completely ☺️
Not nice if it’s too neat.
“ And I have been quoting Coverdale for the last 45 years!” – then by all means, don’t let me stop ya 😄😄
As long as you don’t copy DC’s kinda dangerous-sounding breathing! Apparently he is doing it to sound interesting, but well, yeah, he doesn’t 😉
“Well Karin, my friends call me Max but you can say Thomas of course. 😀” – ok then, if your friends call you Max, then I also call you Max 😊
March 18th, 2025 at 11:47Now with DEI out of the way and faced with the choice between Thomas and Max, I think I’m gonna settle for Thomax, best of both worlds! 😉
I fear, Karin, that while Steve Morris is a fine AOR songwriter who can also make himself useful in heavier settings he’s not cut from the cloth DP guitarists are made of.
I saw Ian and Steve Morris on the Naked Thunder Tour and while it was an enjoyable evening it had none of the electricity of a Purple gig.
Steve Morse OTOH is so musicianly he just barely fitted into DP because DP, although a real rock band, have a strong musicianly component. But Steve Morse is still no rock’n’roll bandit, you couldn’t picture him ever replacing, say, Ron Wood in the Stones, Joe Perry in Aerosmith, Steve Stevens with Billy Idol or Steve Jones in the Sex Pistols if you know what I mean. Compared to Blackmore, Bolin, Satriani & McBride, Steve Morse was the least rock’n’roll of them all, he just doesn’t have it in him (which is perfectly fine, he has qualities destining him for other great things). But it’s a bit like asking why Tom Hanks or Woody Allen weren’t the right guys to play in a Spaghetti Western and these guys here all were:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7a/0c/bb/7a0cbb99caad0f4c76020ff8ba3cae26.gif
To me, Ritchie was in any case always the Lee van Cleef of Deep Purple.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/61/ae/28/61ae28af85b05b1cb76304278abaaf24.gif
March 18th, 2025 at 15:57Video just like a mini movie with wax figures & all !
March 18th, 2025 at 17:55All tongue in cheek with a cool jam !
Good song to play on Halloween!
@37
“I fear, Karin, that while Steve Morris is a fine AOR songwriter who can also make himself useful in heavier settings he’s not cut from the cloth DP guitarists are made of.“
Yeah, I know you’re right Uwe 😊
Too bad though because he is a marvellous guitarist in my inexperienced ears!
“Compared to Blackmore, Bolin, Satriani & McBride, Steve Morse was the least rock’n’roll of them all, he just doesn’t have it in him“
Ok Uwe I know what you mean 😊
“To me, Ritchie was in any case always the Lee van Cleef of Deep Purple”
Lee van Cleef?
https://youtu.be/ARgWZiUZ4sU?si=MXtVVI3xX6fAp4-r
Ritchie? Well he could be some kind of a gunslinger 😄
March 19th, 2025 at 12:51https://youtu.be/Sp_jdaMpwVA?si=-0mgCwDJ4uYtg3Xh
I remember reading somewhere that IG said something to the effect of ‘Steve Morris is a great player but his stage moves make the pyramids of Gizeh look lively!’ True I think. I agree, Uwe, he didn’t seem to fit in the footprints of Blackers, Bolin or Satriani. BTW: I have seen IG live in Ludwigsburg/ Rockfabrik and they have blown us way. The place packed, it was all sweat and noise and rough and rowdy rock’n’roll with no prisoners taken. Loved it!
While DP in Stuttgart 1993 and the RAH-show in 1999 sure stick out I have to say that there’s quite a row of shows of ex-members I immensly enjoyed. Rainbow 1979, Jon Lord 1996, Gillan 1990, Glenn Hughes 2018, Blackmore’s Night 1996, Ian Paice anytime and then some. I prefer the smaller gigs anyway.
March 19th, 2025 at 12:56“And I have been quoting Coverdale for the last 45 years!”
Why not then here introduce all your future comments with a cheery
“NOW ‘ERE’S A POST FOR YA !!!”
Thomax? 🤣
It would make your always valued input even more – now how shall I put this … – propulsive and penetrative?
https://townsquare.media/site/486/files/2012/08/Whitesnake.gif?w=980&q=75
I’m sure even Karin would be won over eventually. That woman can only fight her natural hormonal inclinations for so long before she succumbs.
March 19th, 2025 at 18:45#36 Karin
Steve Morris was a fantastic composer and arranger, he would have made a different album than Purpendicular, more canonical, but certainly better than TBRO….he was not taken into consideration for two reasons:
he was not a top level guitarist like Steve Morse who would have ensured a revolution in the band.
and then he was in a bit of a cold period in his relationship with BigIan, if the latter had sponsored him a lot, I think Morris could have entered the Purple as much as McBride entered recently.
#37 Uwe
March 19th, 2025 at 23:28There are many of you who say that Satriani has a rock attitude, I honestly have never seen it in him, neither in Deep Purple nor in Chickenfoot, for me he is always a refined Guitar Hero.
@41
“I’m sure even Karin would be won over eventually. That woman can only fight her natural hormonal inclinations for so long before she succumbs.” – HEY! I asked you very politely not to taunt me in that merciless manner you so often do 😓
I told you in strictest confidence how I found out that DC’s voice is not too terrible, listening to it far far away 🤣 ( ohh ups didnt mean to laugh out that loud! But what can a woman do when she can’t fight her natural hormonal inclinations 😝)
March 20th, 2025 at 15:07@42
“he was not a top level guitarist like Steve Morse who would have ensured a revolution in the band” – yes I know several in here agree with you 😌
But I do love his ‘guitarism’ here:
https://youtu.be/4dFQdvYh59A?si=wzdPQH2sBoTsQB3a
“and then he was in a bit of a cold period in his relationship with BigIan”
March 20th, 2025 at 15:26But why was this?
Normally Ian seems so friendly towards everyone (pipe down Uwe 😄)
Steve Morris is inherently a session and studio, not a live musician. But Purple are predominantly a live band. That doesn’t mean you have to jump around like Angus Young, but you need to be able to project something and that is where Steve Morris is lacking. Even Steve Morse exuded an at least athletic enthusiasm and devotion to playing his instrument. Plus Steve Morris exhibits a strong pop slant in his writing – DP is however not a pop band and not very adept at crafting and presenting pop tunes either.
“There are many of you who say that Satriani has a rock attitude, I honestly have never seen it in him, neither in Deep Purple nor in Chickenfoot, for me he is always a refined Guitar Hero.”
He’s not a Pirates-of-the-Caribbean-with-black-eyeliner type rock star guitarist, Fla76, granted, but still had more rock’n’roll in him than Steve Morse (who is by no means a cold-hearted or technocrat musician, but brought a more of a C&W/Bluegrass vibe with him).
Simon I like for his punkiness and his slightly edgy to erratic moving about.
March 20th, 2025 at 18:42Steve Morse has that ‘classical’ element to his playing at times, critical for Deep Purple. Steve Morris I only know from certain Ian Gillan material, he is a fine guitarist. But in DP? And Fla76 saying ‘better than TBRO”, better??? Different yes, but who would have written Anya with the other guys or the title song, an epic it is. Different is the word to use, as Fla76 did use in regards to Purpendicular. Joe Satriani, I do own ‘Surfing’ and have heard a little here and there of his music over the years, online and in a live setting. Would he have been melodic enough for Purple? More ‘rock’ most probably than Morse. The diversity and melodic styles of Morse would have been what Roger Glover picked up on. I am being biased though, being a Morse aficionado from the early 1980’s. Steve Morse suited the musical background of DP in that sense, just like Blackmore did. Melody comes first or it should. Tommy Bolin had a good sense of melody. Rock ‘n roll. Cheers.
March 20th, 2025 at 22:33I think we can all agree that neither the two Steves (Morris & Morse) nor Joe Satriani could have been Johnny Thunders (right) and Sylvain Sylvain (left) of the legendary New York Dolls – visually speaking of course!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvmvMFXWzc8
Some people just look the part.
March 20th, 2025 at 23:15And if Ritchie could have behaved, this discussion wouldn’t happen ☺️
March 21st, 2025 at 11:54Bolin was musical and had a good ear, but he wasn‘t obsessed with technique (which Blackmore in the 60s and 70s still was – he was competitive enough to keep honing his craft and proud of his abilities). Tommy did his own thing (with a high individuality and recognizability factor) and pretty much nothing else. From that vantage point he was actually a most unlikely choice to replace people like Joe Walsh and Ritchie Blackmore.
I sometimes think that Bolin would have felt more at home with Bob Marley & the Wailers than either James Gang or Deep Purple.
March 21st, 2025 at 13:44#45 Uwe
I still think that the way Steve Morris held the stage would be the least of the problems for his eventual entry into Deep Purple.
as Blackmore was on stage (even on the TBRO tour) all the others – including Steve Morse – simply could not compete, Blackmore’s magnetism is something that only he has.
#46 MacGregor
I’m sorry but TBRO is a poor album in terms of ideas, held up only thanks to the great instrumental performances of Lord, Paice and Gillan who went crazy writing the lyrics over the vocal lines that were Joe’s.
Maybe Roger did a great job too, but the mix killed him.
Sure, even though Blackmore wrote and played the riffs knowing he would then tell everyone to fuck off, he still wrote riffs that were better than 99% of the shit hard rock bands were writing in 1993, but it was still an insufficient test for The Man In Black, who should have left us one last masterpiece!
I repeat, Steve Morris in Naked thunder & Tooobox did a much better job than Blackmore in TBRO!
and not only that, if you compare the different writing styles of Naked with those of Tooobox you realise that Morris had many arrows in his quiver.
and I think Blackmore and Morse could never have made a Tooobox, while Simon McBride could have done it.
March 22nd, 2025 at 00:05@ 50 Fla76- I have to comment in regards to your wild ‘expectations’. To say that anyone should leave a ‘masterpiece’ as their swan song is way beyond belief. No one owes us (the general public, fans etc) anything. Besides, Blackmore had already been there, done that as have the other guys. They did leave us with Anya and the title song, TBRO. Classic MarkII is it not? The off the cuff comparison of Gillan’s solo albums to Deep Purple’s TBRO is totally irrelevant. How can you compare two totally different scenarios. Different energy, different people, settings, songs, and everything else. Ian Gillan singing JLT’s melodies, give me a break. I have no problems with anyone not liking something, but please keep it in perspective. As to the stage presence, I don’t care about any of that. I am a believer in the ‘stand (or even sit) and deliver’ stage setting. Yes, Blackmore definitely had a ‘presence’, but it should be all about the music. Getting that across in a live setting, no matter what. I have never thought about how people look in DP, it is a question of how good does it sound for me. Cheers.
March 22nd, 2025 at 21:42#51 MacGregor
yes it’s true, nobody owes anything to anyone, least of all Ritchie was obliged to write a masterpiece in 1993.
but he only mentioned 2 songs from TBRO, a bit of a poor memory of that album, don’t you think?
the title track is a really great song, anya is good too and Solitaire was interesting too, but the rest of the album can’t even compete with THOBL, and then it lacked some relevant solos.
Ritchie made that record because he was financially obliged.
the comparison with Gillan’s two albums is very simple: for me the quality of the songs was better than those of TBRO for a whole series of reasons, even if in Purple there were Lord and Paice and with Gillan there were Tommy Eyre e Ted McEnna/Leonard Haze.
then as a boy I loved TBRO madly, let’s be clear
March 23rd, 2025 at 00:48TBRO is an album of mustered professionalism (as opposed to true inspiration), contractual obligation, clenched teeth (Blackmore & Gillan) and premature relief (Glover, Lord & Paice). It’s historically relevant as it shows that Mk II had run its course creating vibrant new music, but I doubt that DP’s appreciation in the pantheons of rock would be markedly different had it never come out. It has moments where Purple’s sheer abilities as a band still shine through, but don’t call it creative.
Ritchie’s pride for the work he’s done with Mk II is very limited in any case as only three albums pass his test: In Rock, Machine Head and – just barely – Perfect Strangers. Three out of seven, but then one of his great notorious quotes about Mk II and Mk III is “I think we were giving the public bad music half the time.”
Outside of the Mk II canon only Burn and S&M find grace with him.
Mind you, he doesn’t like or appreciate most of his work with Rainbow either: The debut not heavy enough, Rising rushed and underproduced, LLRnR listless, DTE transitional … Only the Turner era and there especially DTC and BOOS find some favor. Stranger In Us All was pretty quickly discarded by him too. His interest in his back catalog before Blackmore’s Night is zilch – you can tell by how noninvolved he is with rereleases.
I agree that both Naked Thunder and Toolbox show more inspiration than TBRO though the former stands on shaky ground with its glossy yet somehow cheapskate 80s production and its indecision between AORIsh hard rock and Accidentally On Purpose (but sans that album’s boisterous charm) whimsical pop. Naked Thunder is a more stringent piece of work and the production has aged better, but it suffers in my ears from lack of keyboards – I’m too much a DP fan to not miss keyboards when I hear Ian’s voice.
Much as I try, I can’t fathom Steve Morris in the role of a DP guitarist – let’s not get carried away.
March 23rd, 2025 at 15:15I really love the record The Battle Rages On, it’s powerful, charming and has a few very good hits.
March 23rd, 2025 at 19:18But the album itself surely deserve a place among the great records Purple have made 😊
The reunion DP albums all have a few weak songs on them, that is ok as most artists do, especially as time moves on and the ideas become, well less and less ‘creative’ for whatever reason. Unless there is new inspiration (Steve Morse with Purpendicular and Bob Ezrin on Now What) to get the chemistry working again.That happens occasionally and it is nice when it does occur. Yes TBRO was a contractual balls up indeed. We know what happened, but I still really like half of the album and that is enough to make it a good album in my book. There are more weaker songs on it than the previous two MK reunion albums, however with all things considered at that time, that is probably expected one would think. The reason I do not compare solo albums from band members to the band itself is that a solo album or a collaboration outside the band is usually a different take on many things, if not everything. The only exception might be when an artist may re record songs that were in the ensemble they were involved with, differently. As they thought the songs should have been when they were there, in an attempt to improve them or to prove a point perhaps. That is rare but I have noticed that a few times with a few artists. A solo record should be different from the behemoth that a band member is usually involved with. Cheers.
March 23rd, 2025 at 21:14Karin, what exactly is “charming” on TBRO? The album is ice-cold, heads-bowed-down, let’s-knuckle-down-to-getting-this-album-done-and-pretend-that-Ritchie-and-Ian-are-getting-along-again. Its lack of warmth is among its most appalling and obvious traits.
People were only desperately lapping that album up at the time because they were out of their minds with happiness about Big Ian’s return. They conveniently ignored how band-internal communication had once again deteriorated to WDWTWA & Stormbringer levels. When Ritchie stops fighting against things he doesn’t like (and he finds lots of things to dislike on an everyday basis!), he’s not agreeing after better insight, but in the process of mentally packing his bags, it has happened that way over and over again.
Tortured and toiled is what that album is. It sounded oppressive at the time and still does to me today. It was a harbinger that Mk II had gone as far as they could. And today, Ritchie and Ian would find very little musical common ground. Ian has lost patience with Ritchie’s musical conservatism and the man in black is disenchanted with what Ian’s voice and vocal melodies can bring to his songs today.
March 24th, 2025 at 02:32@56
“Karin, what exactly is “charming” on TBRO?”
Well Uwe, allow me to explain 😊
Unfortunately, and at the same time happily, I am not a musician!
The way you, and most of the gentlemen in here, listen to any kind of music, is on a completely different level than me!
You can go into details I don’t even know exists! You can, as you do here, ‘read between the lines’.
I cannot!
You say: “People were only desperately lapping that album up at the time because they were out of their minds with happiness about Big Ian’s return.” – yes sweetie, and this is where I am!💜
I was so happy, thrilled, over the moon (and a lot of other planets too actually) that Ian was back, and for good it seemed 😍
No more of DC and other misfits (and before you mock and belittle me, yeah I have admitted I understand why so many of you love DC, I am not appalled by him anymore, but man I prefer Ian), Purple seemed to be together, solid and apparently agreeing (I didn’t know anything about the feud between Ian and Ritchie) and I was just thrilled of all that wonderful music I was to explore and expect 😍😍😍😍
“Tortured and toiled is what that album is“ – yeah and later on I learned Jon’s thoughts: “‘how the battle raged on’ – between Ian and Ritchie.”
But Uwe, to be unbearable honest here (unbearable – because maybe you think I ought to be ashamed, but how can I be ashamed of something I had no idea existed?) I knew nothing about it.
My favourite band with my favourite singer was back together (how was I to know Ritchie had gathered his mental suitcases and was leaving? Yet I cannot read minds!) and everything was blissful 🥰
‘Anya’ was a great hit – I loved Ritchie’s guitar there 🤩
And still today, when I listen to TBRO, I feel this joy about it.
I envy you for your musical talent and understanding!
I haven’t anything remotely similar.
But I do have the innocence, the child-like pure happiness, and I am grateful I have (almost 😉) all my senses so I can enjoy music for what it was meant to be: blissful happiness 😍😍😍
(I can never prevent a big smile on my face listening to Purple 😍)
Just like when I listen to this, and see the orchestra rocking along 🥰
https://youtu.be/vb31FkIL22Q?si=an0L2ZDsU9xfpoPF
March 24th, 2025 at 11:24Pure happiness 😘
#56 Uwe
oppressive is a fitting adjective to define the atmosphere of TBRO
March 24th, 2025 at 14:51It’s all good, Karin, in 1993, I had followed DP in the media (to the extent I could) for almost 20 years, I had read the Chris Charlesworth bio plus been a member of the DPAS and recipient of Darker Than Blue and was therefore well aware of band-internal strife by then. Plus I had seen the Mannheim gig where it was patently obvious that relations between Ritchie and Big Ian were once again tense and hardly cordial. Worst mood I ever saw Blackmore on stage with – IG pretending manfully to not see it which got Blackmore seething even more.
I was actually wary at how long the second Mk II reunion would last when IG returned to the fold. Wary because both the Naked Thunder and Toolbox releases and tours had been diminishing returns for him, his career was spiraling downward, DP was once again his option to make good. On the Toolbox tour I had seen him in a former cinema of a small town out in the boondocks (which didn’t even sell out). Wary because I had seen DP Mk V at Hammersmith where Ritchie had been relaxed and all smiles (plus playing very well) with Joe Lynn Turner in a way like I hadn’t seen him in a long time. Wary because of the coldness TBRO emanated, it just wasn’t a happy-sounding album to me nor did it sound as fresh and “Hey, we’re looking for new frontiers!” as S&M. This is anathema to convictions held by most here, but I thought that album had through & through positive vibes even though JLT was no IG.
Tell me Ritchie wasn’t inspired here!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2rrDwDojxQ
Or that this wasn’t something new, fresh and even rootsy for Purple:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN71pptknjA
March 24th, 2025 at 16:35I disagree strongly, Uwe. S&M sounded dated the day it came out, some second rate Foreigner but with more kitsch (has any Purple related album ever had a song as dull as Too much is not enough to offer?) and the lyrics as the music do not sound happy to these ears. King of Dreams made for a nice AOR track with a bit of interesting sounds provided by RB and Fire in the Basement was a nice little Rock’n’Roll song in the vein of Lady Double Dealer or Hard Lovin Woman…the rest of the lot… I never could relate to that album. TBRO on the other hand sounded raw in places, even fresh in some songs and the inclusion of 4 songs off it in the live set was more than welcome. The band fired on all cylinders when I saw them in Stuttgart – I know, I know – whereas the show of the S&M tour I saw plus the bootlegs from that tour show nothing but a mess. People walked out on them! Paice and Lord were obviously ashamed of what was going on. JL said that album should never had the DP sign on it – and I agree. And I am far from being a die hard Mark II only fan.
March 24th, 2025 at 18:44Half of TBRO was rather mediocre – but so was half of PS too.
@59
Re King of dreams: RB is amazing here, no doubt about that. And JLT can sing alright (even though he doesn’t have the same dept and roar as IG, well and lack the sentiment ☺️)
RB sounds actually a lot like a later Prince
Re the unplugged version – well ok if you pinpoint the details out for me like this I know what you mean, of course.
Is it Roger or JLT playing the guitar here?
I get it that the bad feelings between the two alpha-males may have been obvious (to the observant in the audience, I’m not even sure I would have caught the animosity because I would have been this starry eyed kid all amazed of being in the presence of such a fantastic band ☺️)
After all, Ian is amazing to make the audience feel very well treated 😊
So you somehow expected a nearby breakdown, or a volcano would erupt?
March 24th, 2025 at 19:31Just listening to the music of the records, it’s pretty difficult to pick up on these sentiments!
And the lyrics didn’t make me any wiser, because who was Ian writing about? An awful girlfriend or an awful guitarist 😉
I really do think that if the politics of the band DP (or any other band) were not available for any fans to know about, there may very well be a different slant on the music at certain times. Getting all worked up about the politics certainly looks like it is getting in the way for some DP followers. It should ONLY be about the music that we hear, shouldn’t it? I heard the three DP albums Uwe mentioned before I read about any band politics etc. When I became aware of all the shenanigans at the time of the albums recordings, it didn’t change my take on any of it as to liking or not liking the music. All it did was highlight how certain lyrics were written and that is only on a song or two and I then marvel at how they managed to get the album completed and then go on tour. The touring and each live concert can also change people perceptions and that is another story in many ways. The albums are usually what comes first, then all the other ‘feelings’ about other things permeate throughout the music, not really a good thing I would think. Music first, everything else rather distant, if relevant at all. Cheers.
March 24th, 2025 at 21:59@60
“TBRO on the other hand sounded raw in places, even fresh in some songs and the inclusion of 4 songs off it in the live set was more than welcome.”
– what Max says 😉
@62
“When I became aware of all the shenanigans at the time of the albums recordings, it didn’t change my take on any of it as to liking or not liking the music.”
March 25th, 2025 at 06:02– exactly MacGregor ☺️
If you walk into a rehearsal space with a band for the first time for an audition and are not able to “read the room” after, say, an hour of jamming, there is something seriously wrong with you.
People aren’t drum machines and bass sequencers, they communicate in how they play, whether they want to or not. So yes, I can hear “bad vibes” in a band, especially one I have listened so often and so closely to as DP. I never liked Made in Europe for instance because I could hear that by early 1975 Ritchie had withdrawn from the band and was not really communicating with the others anymore, all the cool professionalism and energy of the recording could not hide that. Made in Europe sounds emotionally abrasive and dead to me, a band going through the motions in grand gestures, but hollowed out. That doesn’t mean that the album isn’t interesting to listen to, Glenn, Jon and Ian even put in an extra effort at determination, but a joyful experience it is not. There is no spirit of communion between Ritchie and the rest of the band.
I guess you could say that I am therefore not in complete agreement with my favorite Tasmanian’s statement: “Music first, everything else rather distant, if relevant at all.”
No wonder he likes ELP, that celebration of testosterone-charged, but ultimately empty, technocratic music. ( 😈, Uwe, what a nasty little brat you can be!)
March 25th, 2025 at 07:19#59 Uwe
Ritchie and Joe were definitely the stars of the S&M tour.
even in the video you linked, Joe demonstrates a remarkable interpretative and improvisational ability on his vocal line of soul origin, a great vocal performer.
in my ranking S&M is above TBRO, even though in S&M they all play with the handbrake up, I find the quality of the riffs and the development of the melodies superior, as well as the general atmosphere and the sound.
March 25th, 2025 at 07:53Agreed, Flav76, S&M was not Jon, Ian & Roger being themselves (though Roger’s bass intros to the chorus of King f Dreams are great every time), they were treading on their toes, “not our home turf, but we can do AOR too”. And they did. It’s simply a good album. Maybe not a great DP album, but a fine AOR one featuring Glover, Lord & Paice, there aren’t a lot like that! And tenfold groovier than anything Turner-Rainbow ever committed to tape or hard disk, Paicy and Lordy made sure of that. I even found the album organic in its mellowness.
Karin, Roger played the guitar in that radio feature of King Of Dreams, but Joe could have done it by himself just as well. He’s a capable guitarist and even played co-lead Southern Rock style in Fandango:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZPDemZ7JMA
I never fail to listen to Slaves & Masters with anything less than interest. And Max: I would add The Cut Runs Deep, Truth Hurts, Love Conquers All (appalling lyrics) & Fortuneteller to your list of “barely bearable for Max” songs from that album, but I agree that Too Much Is Not Enough is truly awful! The oral sex-homage Breakfast In Bed and Wicked Ways are both ok in my book. The non-album and soundtrack-only song Fire, Ice & Dynamite wasn’t exactly Machine Head material either 🤣, but at least Jon gentlemanly chose not to play on it, leaving the keyboards to Roger Glover who could thereby enjoy his 15 minutes of John Paul Jones fame in DP. 😎
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx9L7p_VTXA
(Listening to it now, well it does have a pleasant Doobie Brothers-type buoyancy to it …)
Again, Mk V was never more than a DP detour for me, I did not expect them to last for more than one or at best two albums. But detours can be fun and lead you to places where you haven’t been before. I have heard of weak gigs they did on their tour, but the second Hammersmith night that I witnessed was one of the Purple gigs where I heard Ritchie play with greatest contentment and love for the music. We all know that was comparably rare with him.
Joe Lynn Turner as a front man remains an acquired taste though.
March 25th, 2025 at 09:20@66
What is wrong with the lyrics of ‘Love conquers all’?
March 25th, 2025 at 14:31It’s a cute little lovesong, maybe not so deep as if Ian had written it ☺️😉
Jon Lord took issue with the “oh girl, and if it takes me a lifetime“ on LCA, he thought that corny and cabaret singer-like. Said it (and Joe’s foreigner’esque vocal melody) ruined the song for him “which could have been another When A Blind Man Cries had Gillan sung over it”.
So you see, liebe Karin, Jon and the Wicked Witch of East Jylland were in perfect agreement, everything is better with your skat Ian. 💕
For some reason, Roger is proud of his bass line in that song, he says he‘s the one determining the chords with the placing of his root notes and that it is motownish. I‘m not sure I hear it! 😆
March 25th, 2025 at 18:21I knew the ELP ‘compliment’ a few days ago wasn’t genuine…………….ouch! Uwe, get over the soap personality drama rubbish. The Made in Europe concerts had a tired and wasted band sound to them for different reasons. That happens as you very well know, look at what happened after Blackmore left………….Certain things eventually get in the way of humans interacting, you know that. To go from a studio environment (reading the atmosphere in a room) to the later stages of world tour says a lot. I suppose everyone has to play golf together every Sunday and visit each other at their abodes and go to the weddings of each band member etc, etc, etc. The idea that people always have to be in each others pockets is a non realistic one. I am not advocating for people to be loathing each other either, there is nothing worse than that, is there. Many many bands don’t operate like that. Bands are a professional setup, how many business have issues at times and still get on with it. Yes something has to give eventually, but doesn’t that occur within anything involving human interactions over a certain amount of time. Don’t forget we have to add THOBL album into that selection of Deep Purple ‘friction’ based albums. So we have, WDWTWA, Stormbringer, THOBL and TBRO. It worked didn’t it? The recordings that is. Humans eh, can’t live with them, can live without them. Well that is one way of looking at the differences of human interactions. Some people get along fine for a very long time, then suddenly a pedantic little issue comes to the fore, that is all it can be at times. Other people are ‘wired’ a little differently from the start and it doesn’t last very long at all between these individuals. Life eh? Cheers.
March 25th, 2025 at 21:17If I remember correctly, Too Much Is Not Enough was not written by Purple, but by Joe with some other people.
#66 Uwe
after all these years, the thing that makes people say that S&M is a good album is the general atmosphere, which is very fitting, just like Perfect Strangers was.
even cut runs Deep and Wicked Ways were potentially great songs.
It’s a pity that the overall performance (especially Paice’s) was really too relaxed, too marketable towards the radio (for a hoped-for but never achieved success)
#69 MacGregor
March 25th, 2025 at 23:26certainly in Purple more than any other band, each album is the perfect result of the situation the band was in at that given period of its history.
and in the period 1984-1993 this is even more evident.
….oh and one more point in defending TBRO: The band play Anya to this day and they even added the title track to their set list time and again… so they seem to be happy with theses songs at least (not exactly hits they HAVE to play) – whereas no song from THOBL (which I like a big deal) ever got played again after the tour of 88 and even PS os only represented by the title track or KAYBD.
March 26th, 2025 at 06:26@68
“So you see, liebe Karin, Jon and the Wicked Witch of East Jylland were in perfect agreement, everything is better with your skat Ian. 💕”
That is true, yes ☺️
As we say in Danish:
Kvalitet fornægter sig ikke 🤩
March 26th, 2025 at 06:32@71
Well in my book Max had made some marvellous points here. 🤩
Actually THOBL is one of my all time favourites! I love the freshness and bold lyrics. The music itself is very much ‘in-your-face’ and provocative , the sweet way 😊
March 26th, 2025 at 07:50And maybe RB had some Swedish blokes, with which he wanted to attack Ian, but I cannot hear it listening to the music ☺️
Well Uwe, Fortuneteller and Wicked Ways – consequently not in the set back then – indeed are a bit better than the other tracks you named. And Fire, Ice and Dynamite … not sure it should have been brought to the public eye here … I tend to forget they have really done that. It kinda leaves a dirty mark on a love of a lifetime. Embarassing is too small a word … And hey: There’s Slow Down Sister, we havn’t mentioned that one. Ritchie made use of the Stormbringer riff once more and here we go…another mediocre track but at least not embarassing.
What’s wrong wrong with Love Conquers All …? Well, about everything I’d say. I was tempeted to say IG would rather cut his throat than doing a song like that … but on the other hand my son reminded me of the Bolland Project just the other day. Another juwel I tend to forget for reasons of self defense … and it’s IG who put his vocals on it …
March 26th, 2025 at 11:56