Happy April Fool’s Day to all of you out there pranking your unsuspecting victims today. And I do hope that for all those who celebrate, you had a happy Easter weekend. While I appreciate the use of the Pagan fertility symbols of the egg and the bunnies, I’ve never been a big Easter guy. I do like the Reese’s egg shaped peanut-butter cups, but who amongst us doesn’t? While most of you were celebrating the revered holiday with your families, I was holed up in a dark room bouncing between my April Fool’s Playlist and the newly released Machine Head – 50th Anniversary/Super Deluxe from the lads in Deep Purple.

I must admit to you, after all this time other than including Deep Purple songs on a number of my playlists, this is my first post about Deep Purple. I didn’t make a recent, conscious vow to expand the list of artists I’m writing about but fate seems to be leading me there. I’ve posted for the first time this year about Tracy Chapman, The Cars, Adam Ant and Alice Cooper. Much like I said on my recent post on Alice Cooper’s Billion Dollar Babies, I think I was too young for Deep Purple. I started listening to rock n roll in earnest in say, ’78-’79, and Deep Purple’s real heyday was probably 1970 to 1973. Make no mistake, I’ve always liked Deep Purple, they were once whispered about in the same revered tones as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Together with those two bands Deep Purple were known as the “unholy trinity of British hard rock and heavy metal.” Well, at least that’s what Wikipedia says. But like my mother, you can’t always trust what Wikipedia says. I will say, their 1972 live album, Made In Japan, should have made my List of Essential Live Albums. It’s a double-live album with only 7 songs… a feat the Allman Brothers would be proud of.

Deep Purple went through a lot of line-up changes over the years and they are such an epic band that each era is described as “Mark I,” or “Mark II,” etc, with Roman numerals no less. I’ll use it in a sentence, “The Deep Purple album Machine Head was released in 1972 by the Mark II line-up that included Ian Gillan (vocals), Ritchie Blackmore (guitar), Jon Lord (organ/keyboards), Ian Paice (drums) and Roger Glover (bass).” I think the Mark II line up, that I just slipped into this paragraph, is the most storied of their line ups. After Gillan split, they recruited David Coverdale as lead singer, later of Whitesnake fame, so this was no slouch of a band.

All of that said, by the time I got into rock n roll – and started collecting music – when I was in junior high, Deep Purple wasn’t talked about as much as other bands. Sure they had great songs that were played on the radio, many of them from Machine Head, like “Smoke On The Water,” or “Highway Star.” Maybe it was because of the line up changes we weren’t as into them as we were Zeppelin or Sabbath. Of course Zeppelin and Sabbath still put out an album or two in the late 70s. Blackmore had split Deep Purple and formed Rainbow, so maybe that was what overshadowed them a bit. For some odd reason it took years for me to dig back through their back catalog and get into this band. That’s on me because peak Deep Purple is simply outstanding.

Frankly, for guys my age, the album that brought us into the Deep Purple fold was 1984’s Perfect Strangers. I absolutely loved the title track on that album and naturally we all liked “Knocking On Your Back Door” as well. It may not have been a great album or “up to par” with their classic early 70s work, but it was a damn strong hard rock album. It was from that album that I went back and started exploring Deep Purple’s back catalog. There was one album that stood out to me the most and probably has stood the test of time and that is the previously mentioned Machine Head from 1972 that is being celebrated with this new 50th Anniversary or Super Deluxe Edition. I’ve seen it described as both so I’m using both in my title. Of course 2022 would have been the actual 50th anniversary, but Covid slowed down a lot of production on box sets.

In this new release, there are two different remastered versions of the album, both done by Dweezil Zappa – for those of you who were wondering whatever happened to him. I already own Machine Head, so in the interest of full disclosure, I’ve just been streaming the album. The remasters sound great, especially in my car, but that’s no audiophile testament to the new sound. I just love this album. It has some of their biggest songs. “Highway Star” is an absolutely kick ass road song. “Smoke On The Water,” a true story about an idiot with a flare gun who burned down a casino Montreux at a Frank Zappa show. Deep Purple were supposed to record Machine Head there and then… “smoke on the water.” The iconic riff to “Smoke On The Water” has been described as “the Beethoven’s Fifth of rock n roll.” “Space Truckin'” is the song that concludes this album and I love that song. It was on my Playlist For The Love Of… Cars. I will admit, the almost 20 minute live version on Made In Japan might be definitive. When you pair Machine Head with Made In Japan which was culled from that tour, 1972 is an incredible year for this band.

Beyond the big hits that every rock fan knows, there are some great album tracks on Machine Head. I love the metal funk of “Maybe I’m A Leo.” It’s one of my all time favorites. “Lazy” is a song both my father and my wife could agree on as my theme song. It’s a long jam of a song. The interplay between Jon Lord’s keyboards and Ritchie Blackmore (truly one of the world’s greatest guitar players) turns this album up to 11. “Never Before” was released as a single, but I never heard it until I bought the album. It’s another great hard rock song. I can’t say enough about Ian Paice’s drumming on this album and this track in particular. Ian Gillan’s banshee wail is ever present, everywhere. “Pictures Of Home” is a song that just blasts out at you. This version includes a great B-Side, almost a ballad, a bluesy thing called “When A Blind Man Cries” that should have made my list of favorite B-sides.

The bonus material in this Super Deluxe Edition, consists of two separate concerts. The first is newly remastered In Concert ’72 taken from a BBC broadcast. I know it was previously released. It’s difficult to describe Deep Purple live. They jam on tunes for 10 or 20 minutes and it never gets mellow or totally bluesy ala Zeppelin. Jon Lord’s organ sounds like suppressing gun fire meant to subjugate a village. I hear him playing and I feel like I’ve just entered a carnival that’s being run by Satan – and I mean that in a good way. Gillan can go from singing to wailing in a sentence. The guy gives his all. And as I said, Ritchie Blackmore is a stupendous guitar player. I always kind of checked the box on Blackmore, “Yeah, yeah, he’s good.” Listen to this live stuff and you realize, oh my, he’s fabulous. I don’t think Ian Paice ever gets his due as a drummer. While I really enjoyed the In Concert ’72 disc, if you’ve got Made In Japan, this is just a nice to have, not essential. They do cover “Lucille” at the end which is interesting.

The second concert disc is a performance from Montreux in 1971, obviously before the idiot with the flare gun at the Frank Zappa show burned the place down. I would tell you, this is a great performance but the sound quality is very bootleg-level. Having heard a lot of bootlegs over the years I didn’t find it as off putting as many will, but its rough. I love that they open with “Speed King.” “Child In Time” is over 20 minutes here… If only the sound quality was a little better. Some of the jamming here is of the “melt your face off” variety. Again, this disc is likely just for the true Deep Purple fanatic.

With it’s expensive price tag – especially for vinyl – I can’t advise everyone to run out and buy this package. But every one should own Machine Head in some form or format. It’s an absolute hard rock masterpiece. I would advise everybody to crank the In Concert In ’72 disc, it’s well worth your time. And if you’re a Deep Purple fanatic, the Montreux ’71 disc is for you… although I’m guessing if you’re a Deep Purple fanatic, you already own this in bootleg form already. And as an aside, check out Made In Japan from the ’72 tour for Machine Head, its a stunner.

Classic rock, done loud and extraordinarily well. There’s nothing not to love about Machine Head.

Turn this one up loud as you shake that Easter family visit out of your system…. Cheers!