Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2010

Am listening to Steppenwolf Live. Protest concert, legalize dope, stop the war, quaint how they seemed enthusiastic about it back then, like it might be possible to change things.

Lots of pre-Frampton talk box all over it, interestingly stuck in the middle of a David Allen Coe-type tune named "Twisted." Either Kay was taking the talky from Joe Walsh or vice versa.

Lots of really funky hard rock, particularly well-played and recorded for the time. 'Course, don't know how much was corrected in studio.

i don't think i even have Live. my dad had a copy. maybe he still does. still have a copy of early steppenwolf, renowned for its 21 minute version of the pusher.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e0/Early_Steppenwolf_-_Steppenwolf.jpg

album i never EVER see used that i need a copy of, 1974's slow flux.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/37/SteppenwolfSlowFlux.jpg

1. "Gang War Blues" – 4:52
2. "Children of the Night" – 5:11
3. "Justice Don't Be Slow" – 5:00
4. "Get into the Wind" – 3:00
5. "Jeraboah" – 5:41
6. "Straight Shootin' Woman" – 4:04
7. "Smokey Factory Blues" – 4:09
8. "Morning Blue" – 4:12
9. "Fool's Fantasy" – 3:37
10. "Fishin' in the Dark" – 5:47

I'm ashamed to say that the double live one George is listening to (which I picked up in a thrift store last year) is the only Steppenwolf album I now own. I clearly need to get some more, soon.

always been curious about the 80's steppenwolf/kay albums. thought you guys would have been all over that for me.

i like all the old records. they are all worth hearing/owning. they were such a huge influence on biker rock of the 70's. they might be the greatest biker rock band of them all. their importance as far as 70's hard rock/metal goes can't be overstated.

finding old steppenwolf vinyl that is clean can be a chore. i think people used to fight, fuck, AND do drugs on top of those records.

Chuck, if you can listen to the live one you've get a pretty good selection from their best. Starts off with "Sookie, Sookie" -- which is great. "Don't Step On the Grass, Sam" is equally so. The shows were in promotion of Monster so the signal cuts from that are on it. It's missing stuff from At Your Birthday Party which I liked -- "Rock Me" and "Jupiter's Child." According to wiki, their first five albums went gold which is kind of modest considering how they were all over radio and embedded in culture due to Easy Rider. I guess the bikers didn't buy all the records, just the first two, maybe, at most.

There's talk box all through the live record, although Kay used a 'bag' slung under his arm. So why did it work for Peter Frampton, not so much for him?

Maybe because he was too early with it. Or maybe girls were frightened of Steppenwolf. If they spent a night with John Kay they were afraid they'd wind up smelling like an ashtray and with a case of the clap. Whereas, mebbe with Peter F. they thought they could take him home, try each other's clothes on and
have a pajama party.

Scott, I did have Rock 'n' Roll Rebels, which was one from the late Eighties. By that time it was always "John Kay & Steppenwolf." I interviewed him for the Call, he was coming to Bethlehem Musikfest, I think, which was beginning to establish itself as a place for boomer classic rock oldies acts in the summertime.

And the gist of it was that there were a bunch of Steppenwolfs in the Eighties, some without John Kay, and everyone had become desperate for money because of the usual bad publishing deals. So Kay said he'd played every toilet in North America trying to make a living and finally had gotten management to get his affairs in order, or something. And that was the first well-made record in a while. It sounded
good, hard rock with fair tunes. I no longer have it, though.

Remember when Rick Rubin was going to revive Foghat? And that never really panned out but Foghat did get their career restarted, sort of, with "Return of the Boogie Men," which had something to do with trials for a Rick Rubin record. I always thought Steppenwolf would've been good for a similar resurrection.

"I guess the bikers didn't buy all the records, just the first two, maybe, at most."

see, i think they must have been the ONLY people who were buying them after a certain point. they were party records for tough crowds.

i remember john kay playing at dive and/or biker bars in connecticut when i was a teen. i think he even lived near me back then.

the guess who, bto, steppenwolf, grand funk, early doobies, all canonical biker rock bands and all critically maligned for the most part.

i basically love any 70's band that wanted to sound like those guys too.

and all critically maligned for the most part.

Bikers and rock critics = not good mixers, little common interests.

From the simultaneous Steppenwolf thread:

Rock Me Baby Rock Me Baby All Night Long" = coolest MTV Closet Classics video evuh
Search also: "It's Never Too Late to Start All Over Again", "Sookie Sookie" (?), and "Monster"

― Joe (Joe), Friday, 18 April 2003 03:31

"Rock Me" and "It's Never Too Late" from At Your Birthday Party. Chuck, even a bad vinyl copy, you'd like
these. It's like a good Black Crowes record they never made.

That's glib.

In the studio from '70-'71, they were no excuses good. I'm thinking an off Stones B-side song, "Child of the Moon," was a rip on something from Steppenwolf during this period. And when John Kay wasn't singing, he'd cede a couple things to a more wimpy guy, who would try to do a rocked version of Donovan -- ala when the latter was backed by Zep or Jeff Beck.

Am listening to Slow Flux now. Sho' nuff, we shoulda been all over this. 'Course, it's Friday in SoCal after a another day of blazing sunlight on the concrete. Closer to vintage Steppenwolf than Skullduggery.

Gospel rock influence on some tunes, big horns and hard rock, swing, some Allen Toussaint Lou-si-anna, Nixon-ian speecha-lyzing to protest blues and harmonica boogie. Watergate Nixon condemnation in "Justice Can Be Slow" which contains the aforementioned swing and Allen Toussaint influence.

On the money vibe-wise, for 1974 hard rock.

More pre-Frampton talk box all over "Jeraboah" from Slow Flux.

Up right now for play:

<img src=http://www.dickdestiny.com/razorsharp.jpg />

Oik!

http://www.dickdestiny.com/razorsharp.jpg

Was trolling blogs to round up all the Steppenwolf stuff discussed just upthread, and spotted a single album by Derringer/Bogert/Appice - I've never heard of it, but I'm a big Cactus fan and like the Beck, Bogert & Appice live album (and a couple of tracks from the studio disc) quite a bit. Is this worth my time? I only know Derringer from his one hit single.

Haven't heard that particular one but -- probably. Bogert and Appice have made similar records with Pat Travers, which I do have, and these usually revolve around doing classic hard rock oldies, a couple new compositions, and other numbers from their past. And they're all usually hard.

So I think the same would apply for Derringer. There's probably a good deal of hard blues rock on it. Derringer made some fairly heavy records with his band of the same name, not to mention the stuff
he did in Johnny Winter And.

OK, I'll check it out - the price is right, anyhow.

Listened to Steppenwolf's Monster on my morning walk to the post office and back - pretty solid stuff. Some hard psychedelia with loads of organ (it was 1969 after all) and great lyrics, especially the last track, "From Here to There Eventually," which is an attack on religion for being insufficiently socially progressive - and whaddya know, 41 years later, it still is. Was a little disappointed that "Fag" was an instrumental - a pro-gay-rights song from a biker-rock band in '69 (or ever, frankly) would have really been something to hear.

"Derringer made some fairly heavy records with his band of the same name, not to mention the stuff
he did in Johnny Winter And."

the stuff he did with edgar is pretty essential! if you ask me.

Apparently this Derringer/Bogert/Appice disc is from 2001, which makes it a little worrisome, but I'm still gonna check it out.

Reviews seem a bit mixed on Amazon. I can, however, vouch for Travers with Appice. That stuff
smokes. Look up the Bazooka release.

I'm going to check out the DBA Sky is Falling release now.

DBA's The Sky Is Falling is a live version of DBA's Doing Business As... so I'm not sure which one you're aiming for, Phil. Live, it's straight power trio, heavy axe plus two tack ons, "Hang On Sloopy" and "Rock 'n' Roll Hootchie Koo." Which is put on every live record Rick Derringer plays on, I think.

"Blood from a Stone," "Telling Me Lies," "Grey Day" are heavy grungy tunes. "Bye Bye Baby" is like the hard gospel rock Bogert & Appice were fond of doing with BBA and in Vanilla Fudge. And a couple things sound like the Derringer band which means they're a bit more poppy than material Bogert & Appice usually do. It's always trio sound with lotsa shit hot guitar and I just might like "Bye Bye Baby" the best in this because of the old Memphis gospel BBA flavor. "Grey Day" is growing on me, too.

Bazooka, however, the thing with Pat Travers is still better.

hey, phil, i think you need this one.

http://www.rickderringer.com/images/a-derringeraiming_98xx.jpg

and you need edgar winter's scientology concept album to go with it.

joking, of course. also avoid the DNA album that derringer/appice made. i remember it being pretty dire. but it has been awhile.

So there's DNA and DBA.

And TNA and Y&T and EZO.

Speaking of Steppenwolf, their success owed some to Dennis Hopper. From an obit today:

Much of Hollywood," wrote critic-historian David Thomson, "found Hopper a pain in the neck."

All was forgiven, at least for a moment, when he collaborated with another struggling actor, Peter Fonda, on a script about two pot-smoking, drug-dealing hippies on a motorcycle trip through the Southwest and South to take in the New Orleans Mardi Gras.

On the way, Hopper and Fonda befriend a drunken young lawyer (Jack Nicholson, whom Hopper had resisted casting, in a breakout role), but arouse the enmity of Southern rednecks and are murdered before they can return home.

"'Easy Rider' was never a motorcycle movie to me," Hopper said in 2009. "A lot of it was about politically what was going on in the country."

Fonda produced "Easy Rider" and Hopper directed it for a meager $380,000. It went on to gross $40 million worldwide, a substantial sum for its time. The film caught on despite tension between Hopper and Fonda and between Hopper and the original choice for Nicholson's part, Rip Torn, who quit after a bitter argument with the director.

Realized who Willie Alexander and the Boom Boom Band -- on their self-titled MCA LP from '78 anyway -- most sound like to me is the hard rocking side of T. Rex, most blatantly in "Look At Me" which has a sax (though did T. Rex use saxes very often actually? I see them credited on Electric Warrior but not The Slider.) Anyway, whatever...I love this LP. Just super memorable hard rock pop songs bordering on new wave but not quite getting there, really more glam (hear some Dolls, Bowie, Earth Quake, Sparks), and in the middle of Side Two it gets pretty weird, in either a goofball or pretentious way, I'm not sure which -- "Hair," about getting a haircut and "doing the bald, doing the baldie" (they say that again and again, like a new dance step) now that you're a "mainstream rock star""; "Looking Like A Bimbo," glam-swish singing over Sabbath riffs about also "looking like a John," then looking like all these specific people named John Whatever who Alexander starts naming. I even wound up liking their "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" cover, and "Everybody Knows" in the middle of side one is gorgeous -- reminds me of Nikki Sudden/Dave Kusworth's Jacobites stuff a decade later, though maybe the '70s reference point would be Al Stewart, Rod Stewart, some Stewart? And oh yeah, the guitarist, Billy Loosigian (never heard of him) is a real badass. And the last song (supposedly a local Boston hit earlier, as an indie 45), is about Kerouac ("of Lowell, Mass," LP dedication to him says.) I know nothing about Alexander's other stuff, but New Trouser Press Record Guide lists a bunch of other LPs (this one's first) through the early '80s. Only one other with the Boom Boom Band, though. None charted, though I get the idea he had a loyal following in Boston.

They did an album a couple years ago with the same line-up. Saw it, never heard it.

"Looking Like a Bimbo" did rock and, yes, Billy Loosigian was badass. He wound up being the guitarist for the Boston band -- not the soCal band -- called The Joneses. The latter which had one album on Atco somewhere between 89-91, I think. Sounded almost exactly like old Bad Company.

There was some Willie Alexander on the Live at the Rat double album, "Kerouac" being one cut, I think.

And he also was known locally for a song called "Hit Her Wid de Axe".

By the way, also decided that there are three real tough cuts on that Widowmaker LP from '76 that I like almost as much "Ain't Telling You Nothing," the super vicious one George keeps recommending -- namely, side openers "Such A Shame" and "When I Met You," plus "Running Free," basically the three songs that are more what I'd call '70s metal than choogly Exile-style roots rock. (They also do all this quasi-offhand hippie party chatter and spillage in the studio noises etc. in the closer, "Got A Dream"; kinda reminds me of something I heard from Pink Fairies or the Deviants once, only way more forced and less good.)

And yeah, I can also hear how "Leave The Kids Alone" is a kind of semi-glam/country-rock mix, as George described it. And I actually don't mind the guitar riff in "Shine A Light On Me," though for some reason I find its gospelly backup chorale really hard to sit through.

listening to dragon - are you old enough. their american debut(? Maybe? they had earlier albums, but i don't know if they came out here. i am curious about their early albums on vertigo. probably sound nothing like this album). they were a big smash in australia/new zealand. don't really dig it. despite the promising song titles like "midnight groovies" and "mr.thunder".

wiki entry is highly comedic:

http://www.musicobsession.com/Pictures/d/r/dragon400281.jpg

Dragon have endured tragedy and notoriety: members dying including drummer Neil Storey of a heroin overdose in 1976,[6] Paul Hewson of a drug overdose in 1985[6] and Marc Hunter of smoking related oesophageal cancer in 1998;[2][6] the Stewart Royal Commission (1980-1983) investigated the Mr. Asia drug syndicate[14] and obtained evidence that Dragon members were clients;[5] the band's disastrous 1978 tour of USA ended when Marc Hunter accused his Texan audience of being "faggots" and they were pelted off stage.[5] On 1 July 2008 the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) recognised Dragon's iconic status when they were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.[2][15][16]

In 1994, Marc Hunter related his version of the Texas show to rock journalist Glenn A. Baker:

"I remember seeing someone standing holding a pistol and shouting 'Im gonna kill you, you son of a bitch'... I didn't know it but by this point the rest of the band had left the stage. I was still singing because I could still hear the music in my head. It took ages to clear the pile of debris on the stage - broken glass, bottles, chairs, half a table - but I was totally unaware of this, I thought I was going over really well and I'm standing there in a crucifixion pose with my arms out, really gone, with heaps of eye make-up on, looking like some sort of twisted priest. And apparently Johnny Winter was taking bets on the side of the stage as to how long it would take before somebody shot me. Then I turned around and saw no one was on stage so I realised I wasn't going over too well after all and I went back to the dressing room and everyone was just standing there... I said 'We went great, weren't we terrific?' At that stage of the band I was really a shocking sod. And all the record company people were just staring at me like I was an insectoid from Mars. And so that was it for us for that trip to America."[18]
—Marc Hunter , 1994

xpxpxp Wait, so Willie Alexander was in the Velvet Underground?? A late version, apparently (replaced Sterling Morrison in 1971, according to Wiki. And before that, he was in a band called The Lost, but I'm not sure whether it's any of the Losts I've heard of before.)

Born in 1943. Christgau actually gave the '78 Boom Boom Band LP a good review (lowered his B+ slightly later for some reason), but said he'd hated what Alexander had done before then. Did like "Lookin' Like A Bimbo," though; called it an anthem for 35 year old rock'n'rollers. (Funny that 35 still sounds old, even though I haven't been 35 in ages.)

http://robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=Willie+Alexander

But Dave Marsh hated him even more than Xgau did, apparently. From the RS Record Guide: "Barely competent funk from an old-timer on the Boston r&b scene; Alexander was associated with the city's late''70s New Wave resurgence, but by the time he got to the recording studio, he was already over the hill. Hold out for Mink Deville instead."

Wonder why it was a "New Wave Resurgence"; it's not like New Wave existed before, except in art films, right? Anyway, I would definitely take the Boom Boom Band LP over any Deville album I've heard (nothing against Deville, who've albums I've talked about here too, and a couple I've liked) Also wouldn't call any Boom Boom I heard "funk."

another nice album i picked up today. frank carillo's solo album from 1978. great singer and guitarist. stylistically, its all over the place. all i know is every track has some slice of sweet guitar action.

http://www.lpcd.de/1/F4546_01.jpg

bio info:

http://www.frankcarillo.com/bio.html

always liked that frampton's camel album he plays on. would really like to hear the doc holiday album he made in 1973. never see it anywhere. don't think i ever heard the album he cut in 1979.

Paul Hewson of a drug overdose in 1985

If only this were from an entry about U2.

other stuff i got that fits here:

tilt - music (parachute - 1978) good fun heavy rock album from detroit. never heard of it/them before.

edgar winter's white trash - recycled (blue sky - 1977) which includes, appropos of chuck's last post, the song "new wave" with the lyrics: "there's a new wave comin' to wash the old away..."

adam faith - s/t (WB - 1974) resurrection of 60's doofus #23445. mentioned here cuz the entire album is him and russ ballard and the album starts off with a long ritchie blackmore solo (!!!).

roadmaster - hey world (mercury - 1979) i always try to like roadmaster, they are one of the kings of flouncy aor, but they never usually stick. and i've been trying since, like, 1979, so i get some sort of medal.

storm - s/t (capitol - 1983) big echo chamber 80's hard rock with female vox. some decent songs if you can ignore the wind tunnel production.

topaz - s/t (cbs - 1977) digging this a bunch. hard rockin' glammy power trio. apparently they weren't cutting it on cbs's dime though and the label brought in some gunslingers to get things done. the liner notes tell the tale:

topaz is rob stoner, billy cross, and jasper hutchison. WITH ASSISTANCE FROM MICK RONSON, HOWIE WYETH, AYNSLEY DUNBAR, RICK MAROTTA, RICK SCHLOSSER, LUTHER RIX.

hahaha! ouch! it's cool by me though. mick ronson could have sit in on every hard rock record that he wanted to as far as i'm concerned.

I had the Topaz album. It had a pleasantly cheesy flouncy tough guy trio photo. I think some of 'em went on to back up Link Wray. Or maybe not.

Storm always struck me as a soCal take on Queen -- played in a wind tunnel, as said -- with histrionic making up for total lack of songs. And didn't they have sort of an 'Angel' look to them, too?

in "Shine A Light On Me," though for some reason I find its gospelly backup chorale really hard to sit through.

Just couldn't pull off the Exile on Main St. thing. Or quite do Humble Pie ca. Eat It.

A whole album of punch outs like "Ain't Tellin' You Nothin" though would have been something.

So, just realized that the obvious '70s sonic precedent for that one lovely Alexander/Boom Boom Band ballad I compared to Jacobites above was probably Marc Bolan too, duh. (Which makes me wonder something. Don't think anybody's ever complained that T. Rex didn't get any albums into Stairway To Hell -- just listed "Bang A Gong"/"Jeepster" as a single in an appendix, but should they have? Just listened to The Slider for the first time forever -- turns out it charted higher than Electric Warrior stateside, weird -- I'd definitely call "Buick Mackane" a hard rock/metal tune, which explains why GNR covered it I guess, but I didn't notice any other tracks near that heavy on that LP. Honestly don't know if I've ever heard Tanx; the title always sounded heavy and metal to me. Doesn't look like T. Rex made the Jasper/Oliver book at all, and their defiition of metal was even wider than mine. Popoff sticks them in his "very very occasionally and slightly hard rocky" appendix in the back of his '70s book, seems to be saying the most metal thing about Bolan was his look. But hair metal bands -- Def Leppard at least -- were big fans, right?)

Speaking of hair metal, decided that 1988 Punch Drunk LP by Helsinki cowboys Gringos Locos I mentioned above (though I think I typed 1978 by mistake) doesn't really have the melodies or singing to put its sleaze over, though its Aero/Nuge/Halen/fast boogie riffs do push into a hefty overdrive a couple times ("Living On Borrowed Time," "Livin In Your Lovin' Light"), and they get a little funky with some Grand Funk cowbell in the title track then a little funkier with a Wild Cherry riff in "Jean Jinx Jane," then close with a six and a half minute talked "Guitarslinger's Blues" that doesn't have the momentum to support its rap. Really wanted to like them, love the idea of Rock City Angels style metal cowpunk from Hanoi Rocks land, but they don't cut it.

In newer news, I actually kind of like the new Heart album, Red Velvet Car, which is out in a couple months, though I'm not sure how much yet. Also kind of like the new Stone Temple Pilots album, which is more a powerpop than a grunge record. Blurbed the latter here:

http://www.rhapsody.com/stone-temple-pilots/stone-temple-pilots-2#albumreview

Favorite rocking album of the year so far, though, is a "country" CD with Link Wray and garage riffs, from Jace Everett. Wrote about it on Rolling Country, and linked to my Rhapsody review of it there too:

Rolling Country 2010

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpmU4xnmxlQ

And yeah, people like Girlschool (and Joan Jett maybe?) have covered that one, too. So what was T. Rex's hard rock percentage -- maybe 20%? More? Less? Kinda weird that I've never wondered about this before.

check out the 9 minute cadilac jam on youtube. i dunno, i think marc and t-rex had plenty of hard rocking moments. and his guitar sound was aped by, like, a million bands.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6evT5x-wqs&feature=fvw

Okay, Scott, I believe you! (And if you keep posting youtube links I'll never be able to open this thread!) So anyway, different question: Which T. Rex album or albums should've made my metal book? (And isn't weird that me, Popoff, and Jasper/Oliver all missed them?)

T. Rex was not metal no matter how broadly you stretch the term. Marc Bolan's guitar had distortion on it, and wrote maybe three good riffs. That's as far as it goes. He started out making acoustic-guitar-and-flute bullshit and wound up making records that might have rocked had the production not been so unbelievably shitty. T. Rex is rock for eight-year-olds; it sounds like Muppet music, and I don't mean that in a good way (though this being ILM someone will now jump in and say that's the greatest idea ever). They might have been loud enough to be halfway good live, but I don't know; I've only heard the studio albums and that 2CD compilation of singles, and that stuff is about 95 percent crap. "20th Century Boy" is good, "Cadilac" is okay, "Metal Guru" is okay...that's all I can remember right now. But the fuzzy-everything and cardboard-box-drums sound of it all ruins any value it might have had. The continuing veneration of T. Rex is one of the greatest pieces of evidence that a great many English people, particularly English critics, can't make good rock music and can't recognize good rock music when they hear it.

you could have gone with slider or electric warrior. heavily distorted and overamplified chuck berry riffs that influenced everyone from the sex pistols to whoever is starting a guitar band this week.

were t-rex a metal band? no. did they inspire/influence a TON of hard rock and metal and punk bands. hell yes.

Woooaaagggh....Switching gears, just got this mass email mailout from Metal Mike Saunders. He starts talking about a couple Deep Purple outtakes, I think (correct me if I'm wrong), then cuts and pastes reviews he wrote nearly 40 years ago -- absolute time capsule stuff:

yeah, the three "outtakes/B-sides" and the Demon's Eye track (that is replaced in the US by the UK lead single Strange Kind of Woman) all could have been on the album musically --

Freedom
Slow Train
I'm Alone
Demon's Eye

for me the Fireball sessons are the best playing and recording (audio) they did during 1970-1972, ie the Gillan lineup

i know i prepped (propped?) the album in the PRM/73 HM history/overview so i'm going to pull cut/paste the deep purple paragraph. (i wasn't considered a big DP fanboy since i never got into Deep Purple In Rock)

( last week one of the endless $1 bin lps i brought home is the 2nd Captain Beyond sans jacket. never heard/played it for more than 30 seconds when it was in a Warners box of promos...it's pretty cool. Rod Evans was a good singer).

i don't know why the hell i thought Machine Head was that good (it's a really muddy recording or pressing on the american issue) at the time. "new album must be the best" syndrome i think.

the New Haven Rock Press thing is pretty funny so i'll copy it too.

funny anecdote (then and now) about the spring 1972 cover piece/essay i wrote on DP for pete johnson's Warners house monthly mag CIRCULAR...

Purple came through the burbank offices when the issue (may 29th) was new and lying around (the same spring/summer i saw them at the Anaheim Convention Center), Blackmore scans through it and goes, well, any normal day for RB in post-In Rock apparently included the moods "nuclear" and "General Blackmore on the rampage," soo i guess it wasn't exactly a Judd Apatow comedy-hit wrap party when general B interrogated the publicity department point blank. (although nowhere close to the classicness of Ted Nugent calling the CREEM office 1979-80 and telling them he's coming down with a bow and arrow, then when they tell him Gregg Turner's the guy who trashed the bad Nugent album saying he should get guitar lessons from Pat Smear to learn "downstrokes", wants to know "where does that guy Turner live, i'll shoot him instead.").

so, re Circular/pete johnson -- after i subsequently did (or just prior to Deep Purple) a 2-pager (for Circular and pete) on Daddy Cool (that wasn't 100% complimentary since they weren't that good a group, just kinda cool with one certified Aussie hit classic Eagle Rock), pete johnson ok's/greenlights a Black Sabbath cover story (pre-release publicity for VOL 2 before i ever heard it)but mails me a 1-page typed memo, refering the "deep purple incident" and saying"do the black sabbath feature no problem, but be careful mike, you've got to quit pissing off our groups!" hahahaha

the crazy-high word rate on the Black Sabbath piece paid for my rent (a 1-bedroom above a garage right on Highland Blvd just up from the Hollywood Bowl towards burbank) for the 3 1/2 months i was out in LA that summer. (and the expenses-paid weekend trip to nashville to interview Grand Funk for the Fusion career/discography retrospective helped too).

hahahah my summer job in summer 1972 was schlepping down to Manny Aron's original store on Melrose as many mornings as i could, to pull/buy that day's new used-bin input of every/any great album stickered with 10cent and 33cent and 25centlittle handwritten (by manny) white price stickers....all left on the albums forever. inc a MONO white label copy of the 3rd MC5, etc etc etc, velvet underground albums for 25cents that i passed on to samoan-kevin in his "box" of freebies from me from that trip. new Budgie promo lps for 10 cents (about 45 cents in today's $$) included!

from

A Brief Survey Of The State Of Metal Music Today
Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, April 1973

DEEP PURPLE
Deep Purple In Rock, Fireball, Machine Head, Who Do We Think We Are!

The consensus view on Deep Purple is that In Rock and Machine Head are their best, with Fireball somewhat of a dud. I've been listening to Purple a lot lately, and would like to go completely against that appraisal: I think their albums improved up through Machine Head, and that Fireball has some of the most powerful cuts they've done. Three years old now, In Rock just sounds dated – the album is very poorly recorded, with aimless solos of all kinds cluttering up songs like ‘Flight Of The Rat’, ‘Into The Fire’, and ‘Hard Lovin' Man’.

Still, In Rock does have historical value: it made Deep Purple big European stars, and in retrospect shares honors with Led Zep II as the seminal heavy metal album. Justifiably so, since parts of it do scorch, with Purple in places even sounding like an English MC5.

But Fireball is a different matter entirely. It's their most metallic, best recorded album from the word go – the title cut is supersonic. Ian Gillan's vocals on this LP, I think, have to be the best in all of recorded metal rock...arrogant, petulant, and sneering. ‘Strange Kind Of Woman’ is Deep Purple's all-time most arrogant cut, ‘Fools’ their closest to punk rock, and so on. Fireball's weakness, and the cause for its bad reputation, was its two or three very bad cuts. Machine Head remedied this by being their best album overall, having only one bum cut. The less said about Who Do We Think We Are, the better. It's atrocious.

Deep Purple fans generally regard all the group's LPs through Machine Head as indispensable; those not enamored of the group, vice versa. For the record, Lester Bangs mercilessly bombed In Rock in Rolling Stone when it came out in 1970...he loves the group now. Hi Lester!
===============================================
Deep Purple vs. UFO
Metal Mike Saunders, New Haven Rock Press, 1972

TIME AGAIN for one of those legendary matchups, a method which has in the past answered such immortal questions as: Could Eric Clapton shut down Alvin Lee? Could’ve George Chuvalo whipped Joe Louis? What do Leigh Stephens and Brian Wilson have in common? Nothing.

In one corner we have Deep Purple, and in the other... that renowned band of obscurity, UFO. Now you may laugh, watching Ritchie Blackmore ready for the kickoff by tossing his guitar ten feet in the air (twirling it around his body, walking on it, and that’s just openers) while UFO’s Mick Bolton is stumbling around trying to put his strap on. If so, COOL IT, dummy. There may be some surprises before the night is over. You guessed it, this is one of those classic matchups: virtuosity vs. ineptitude.

Deep Purple’s early moves were bewildering. They had 12 men on the field, then only 10; then tried to pass and run at the same time, tried to please everyone and wound up pleasing no one. 'Hush' and 'Kentucky Woman' were Top 40 hits, with the result that the dunced-out underground crowd wouldn’t listen to them. Their first two albums weren’t too good, at best uneven, the group blowing it by indulging in the progressive foibles of the time.

The third album was really a bobble. Titled Deep Purple, it came out just before Tetragrammaton folded, so it was a stiff in more ways than one. The group was stuck for a year in transit as a result, lacking an American record label.

So ya have to keep in mind Deep Purple’s early problems with image, Me, for instance, now I was a potential Deep Purple fan, having dug 'Hush' and 'Kentucky Woman' (and further dazzled by the guitar solo on the latter, which I considered one of the most scorching I had ever heard). I tried to tell people about this nifty group. Then 'River Deep' came out, which I again liked, and all my friends laughed at me. So, overcome by shame, I quit listening to Deep Purple until later shown the light a couple years later.

At halftime, Deep Purple came up with a brilliant move: they deported their quarterback (who later resurfaced with a minor league team Captain Beyond, but was stoned to death with beer bottles on the playing field one day by a bunch or irate New York fans). Ian Gillan took over at lead vocals from Rod Evans.

ON the opening third quarter kickoff, however, a free-for-all erupted on the field. Deep Purple With Orchestra, otherwise known in sports terminology as an 85 yd. penalty for gross imbecility, was about the most nitwit move since Beano Lujack’s 1921 Eiffel Tower play. Star tailback Ritchie Blackmore stormed to the sidelines and called coach Jon Lord a moron to his face, not the last time Blackmore would express such an opinion, and Deep Purple’s forces seemed to be in utter disarray.

Deep Purple regrouped, of course, and Deep Purple in Rock took over featuring straightahead power plays. Some people have commented on similarities to the MC5, all-time champions of the Honcho Football Association (which eventually merged with the NFL when the Five, along with the Ann Arbor Stooges and the Flamin’ Groovies, pulled up and moved the franchise to England).

But no matter. In Rock was blistering hard rock save for 'Child in Time,' a play that drew a 5-yard penalty for taking too much time. But the rest was great, a landmark of the early heavy metal offense along with Led Zep II.

Fireball was the most enigmatic Deep Purple effort. It started out stronger than any other Purple LP, with 'Fireball,' 'No No No,' and 'Strange Kind of Woman,' but then fizzled totally. Even 'Fools,' one of the group’s strongest songs ever, is fucked up by long instrumental breaks. The entire second side still prompts occasional debate between Ritchie Blackmore Purple’s main songwriter) and Ian Gillan who writes all the lyrics). Blackmore hates Fireball, while Gillan considers such an opinion an affront to mankind.

Back to those first three plays, though, cus they were beauts. 'Fireball' sounds like the thundering British incarnation of the MC5, and if you’ve ever seen Purple strut around the stage to 'Strange Kind of Woman', well… Fireball’s inside liner photos sum the group up better than a thousand words: Gillan in his most arrogant Rock Star pose, Lord and Blackmore simultaneously getting it on. They scored anyway, even if it was a sloppy drive.

Machine Head puts it all together for Deep Purple. Not that it was flawless, because 'Lazy' was pretty indulgent (if you can imagine bringing the coach in when you’re on the ten yard line, in order to call time out and lead the team in pushup exercises), but everything else was fine. Most important, Machine Head looked like the flash effort this team had been capable of all along.

Maybe too flashy for their own good. Last time I heard, rumors had it that all of Deep Purple were going to split to the Canadian Football league…..for opposing teams. But that’s showbiz.

Deep Purple In Performance: The first thing you notice about Deep Purple on stage is their arrogance. They don’t merely take the stage, this group commandeers it. A Deep Purple show invariably settles down to a three-way battle for the spotlight (or the recently revived strobe effects-Ed.): Gillan vs. Lord vs. Blackmore.

The difference from their records is that Blackmore wins, hands down. Ian Gillan may be the archetypal narcissistic handsome(?) English lead singer, but when Blackmore strides out to the front of the stage for a solo, there’s no contest. The man is absolutely crass every trick in the book, from lightning fast runs alternated with slamming his guitar against the amplifiers, to spews of feedback noise while he performs Dir Danelli aerial acrobatics with his instrument. In other words, he plays guitar like it ought to be played.

Deep Purple wastes about 50% of the live show in irritating extended solos evolving out of songs like 'Lazy' and 'The Mule'. Everyone gets one: guitar, organ (Jon Lord makes Keith Emerson look like a model of taste), drums, and vocal. Unaccompanied, each and everyone. When Deep Purple all finally get going at the same time, playing either tight songs ('Strange Kind of Woman,' 'Highway Star,' etc.) or charming, they’re great. The sound is much more metallic than their records, and it’s Grade-A unsubtle English punkoid rock.

UFO
How the Deep Purple/UFO matchup came about was pretty logical. Having been blown off the field in the States by supposed patsy Uriah Heep (Ha!-Ed.), Deep Purple wanted more of a breather for their opening game. They couldn’t have asked for better in UFO, a Class D ballclub making their debut.

Was Purple ever in for a shock. UFO’s first album (Rare Earth 524) was the biggest upset in thirty years, hands down. It was tremendous. Which defied all logic, because UFO had absolutely no ability, but there it was all the same. They sounded like early Blue Cheer played backwards… sludginess in reverse acceleration that was about to grind everything to a total halt.

From 'Unidentified Flying Object,' 'Boogie For George,' and 'C’mon Everybody' to 'Timothy' and 'Follow You Home.' These guys had it. On the strength of 'C’mon Everybody,' UFO placed #1 in the Japanese polls, perhaps the most amazing feat of the decade.

Actually, UFO reminded a lot of the Pretty Things, an outrageous Northern outfit that was the most hated team in football for years. Other clubs hated them because they played dirty! The Pretties would bite, kick and gouge with no mercy whatsoever. Before the ball was snapped. Phil May was considered the vilest quarterback in recorded history; some players refused to tackle him because he smelled so bad. The Pretties talked about how they were paying their dues, but the opposition called them scum and finally had them booted out of the league.

So anyway, the suspicion arose that lead singer/QB Phil Mogg of UFO was a direct lineage of Phil May, if not like latter Phil M. himself. You just had to wonder about a guy whose nickname is Moggy. And Mogg’s only discernible move was a sort of atonal yelp, which made things all the fishier.

One English trade paper viewed these developments with genuine alarm, declaring that if UFO were to have continued success with this sort of nonsense, it would herald in a new Dark Ages. The band reverted back to expectations, though, with their second album Elyi. Phil Mogg was relegated to only occasional duty, with Mick Bolton taking over the show and proving beyond doubt that he was probably the worst guitarist to ever plug into a wah-wah backwards. And not bad/good either. Bad as in awful. When Mogg did get his big chance, towards the end of the title cut, he hit his right tackle in the back of the head with the first and last forward pass of his career.

UFO In Performance: This is where UFO blew the whole show. Recorded live in Japan (live at Hibiya Park, Tokyo, no less), UFO LANDED JAPAN (stateside 80374) is perhaps the most stultifying effort ever to see vinyl. Six cuts, three per side, compose the album…which means you have Mick Bolton soloing 60% of the time. And he outdoes his work on Flying. Honest, Leigh Stephens would roll over in his grave.

Lining up for 4th and 57 with two minutes to go, Phil Mogg improvised a bit from 'Boogie For George' (seriously, this is really on the LP — he probably got the lyric to 'The Hunter' from Music Outside and by his point in to the game, anything seemed believable): 'They call me a punter/That’s my game.' The snap went over his head and out of the end zone.

The final outcome: Deep Purple by a solid nose and a half, 33 to 17.

Editor’s note: originally our cover was to carry a Jay Kinney illustration of Deep Purple battling UFO, but unfortunately we could not get hold of any photographs of the UFO which showed their face. This was after repeated calls to their record company (Chrysalis) and their publicity organ (Gibson & Stromberg). Our sincere apologies to Phil & the fellas.

© Metal Mike Saunders, 1972
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Breakfast of Champions: Deep Purple's Machine Head
Metal Mike Saunders, Circular, 29 May 1972

IF YOU'RE OVER 20, you needn’t read on. Unless, of course, you want to hear why Deep Purple are a good group – just like Black Sabbath, Grand Funk, Led Zep, Alice Cooper and others. Or unless you’re over 20 and are a Deep Purple fan anyway (congratulations!).

In past years I might’ve cringed at the name Deep Purple. They started out fine enough, with bombastic hit. Then about half the group split, and when they did reform they started running around with symphony orchestras and concertos and stuff like that. Nada.

Heavy Metal Wins Out

But when it comes down to selling a million records, a group gets down and does what they do best. In Deep Purple’s case it’s loud heavy metal rock. Their new album, Machine Head, is their best yet.

Fact is, when Machine Head arrived in the mail, I was so impressed (fevered even) that I sent in an unsolicited review to The New York Ti, whoops I mean Rolling Stone. It turned out, though, that Lester Bangs had already been assigned the review, so we’re presenting the unrun review’s debut here (in abridged form) as a suitable analysis of Deep Purple’s music. As an addendum, that is – we’re still dealing with the sociological aspect here, ‘cos I hear some cretins across the room sniggering.

Though Some Still Scoff

"The new British rock groups... So many of them just don’t have any roots. Look around. Rod Stewart has roots. Fleewood Mac have roots, but there aren't many. If it doesn’t have roots then I’m not interested," says Kim Simmonds, guitarist/leader of Savoy Brown.

Wanna fight, Kim??? Not that Deep Purple need any defense, but I would like to point out that anybody can be a duller-than-Drano imitation Creedence Clearwater rejuvenated British boogie band. Much less that I wouldn’t dream of trading a typical Deep Purple slice of heavy metal for the entire output of the Savouy Brownd Blooze Band. Kip Simmons and all.

And when you’re playing rock and roll and have a wallful of Marshall amps, who needs roots? I mean ask the Kingsmen if they had their B.B. King licks down pat.

So there.

Machine Head is really nice. As the review here says, the first side is a solid 20 minutes of relentlessly consistent heavy rock, with 'Never Before' in particular a great song – a blistering amphetamine guitar riff contrasted by a most effective melodic bridge in the middle of the song. The second side may let up a bit in the middle, but that still leaves 30 full minutes of crash boom bang.

And the cover. The cover is absolutely gorgeous.

Sticking up for the Persecuted

Finally, some thoughtless buffoons around town have been calling Warner Brothers the home of ageing wandering minstrels. This kind of slander really makes me mad. Goddamit, I like Warner Brothers – they have the most albums, the best albums and they’re the only company with the insight to send their promos out in a big box every month.

But more than that, you know the real reason I love Warner Brothers? Because they have Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper and Deep Purple. They may not have intended to wind up with said groups, but they’ve got them, and that’s what counts.

Deep Purple

And yes, Deep Purple. Let’s put it like this: I’ve played Machine Head 247 times so far, and if that isn’t a recommendation of the highest order, why, I don’t know what is. A great group.

Before You Pass This Review off as Lunacy, Think About Fact That You Would Have Considered it Gospel Had You Read It in Rolling Stone:

Machine Head
Deep Purple
Warner Bros. BS 2607
Deep Purple have had a lot of epithets hurled at them during their career, all of them uncomplimentary; I think they must be one of the few groups who have never received a favorable review.

The bombastic Deep Purple who took on 'River Deep Mountain High' were a basically different band together from the recent classical-rock/heavy metal (now you see ’em, now you don’t) bombastic Deep Purple tagged by one critic as "schtick collectors with no personal vision," but it’s ok – bombastic goings-on have never been too well received until lately, and besides, it seems like everyone and anyone English was getting it in the face back then. While in some cases it was deserved, it seems like the Wall Street Stone just didn’t much like those English groups...strange.

Machine Head is a different matter... The entire first side is competent Third Generation rock: four five-minute songs that crunch along (most of the inspired moments coming in 'Never Before', a most effective combination of heavy metal and melody), setting up a splendid 20-minute drone of the energetic street-clatter heavy metal fans have come to love so much.

Side Two is less even, the middle of the side occupied by a seven-minute cut, 'Lazy', that brings out my hereditary impatience with anything under 130 decibels... Sandwiched around 'Lazy', however, are 'Smoke on the Water' and 'Space Truckin’', two of Machine Head’s best cuts. 'Smoke on the Water' is a number about the trials and tribulations of a rock band, which in Deep Purple’s case includes the recording studio burning down. On 'Space Truckin’', Deep Purple come up with some good riffs and really cook the way any self-respecting bunch of Limeys with a wall of Marshall amps ought to.

...All in all, Machine Head has a lot of good heavy metal noise for those who can’t do without. While for my money Deep Purple may be no Sabbath or Led Zep (we can’t all be King Kong, y’know), on this album I definitely find them far superior to a number of touted Third generation bands – Uriah Heep, REO Speedwagon, Bull Angus – that, for me at least, just don’t make it. It’s been a pleasure giving Deep Purple what may well be their first good review ever.

Returns so far show rave reviews of the new Deep Purple album in Rolling Stone, Phonograph Record Magazine and sundry other publications. Though in some cases it’s hard to tell whether the reviewers were raving about the album or just plain raving, it’s a sign – whether of the times, modern decadence or recently enlightened critical standards, Circular just dunno. In any event, Circ leaves Deep Purple with these words of wisdom: keep a knockin’ and keep a rockin’.
© Metal Mike Saunders, 1972

That T. Rex were influential I'll grant you. But man, I fuckin' hate 'em. I hate the whole glam thing, actually. Bowie, the Dolls, all of it. Dull, shittily-produced "rock" for people who cared more about their shoe collections than their record collections.