Deep Purple: In Rock (1970)

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We all know the history of Deep Purple. Many of the band members had played with other people, Ritchie Blackmore, for example, played for Screaming Lord Sutch, and was an early member of a band called The Trip (which was a British band at the time, but then moved to Italy and became more of an Italian prog band in the 1970s), which very few know about. I am still a bit confused how Purple came together, although they’re one of the few bands that managed two albums the same year they formed (Humblie Pie being the other). The Mark I phase (that included guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, vocalist Rod Evans, bassist Nicky Sempar, organist Jon Lord, and drummer Ian Paice) managed three albums, which were released on the Tetragrammaton label (which was ran by none other than well known comic Bill Cosby!). Those three albums were Shades of Deep Purple (1968), The Book of Taliesyn (1968), and Deep Purple (1969). I was rather surprised a person like Bill Cosby was in charge of a label that would sign Deep Purple, since his specialty was comedy. They only managed a couple hits during this era, both covers, Joe South’s “Hush” and Neil Diamond’s “Kentucky Woman”. At that time, those early albums took a few months later to get released in their UK homeland, meaning early UK success was a bit hard to come by. The band at that time was more of a psychedelic band combining psychedelia, early prog, and early hard rock, and consisted of covers of other people’s songs (like Cream, The Beatles, Donovan, Joe South, Neil Diamond, etc.), as well as a few originals. These albums often sounded “of their time”, probably because of the psychedelic gimmicks, and the production (which really needed a lot to be desired), although their third album sounded the least dated of the three. I am not saying these albums are bad, but fans of the much heavier and harder rocking Mark II lineup might find it hard to take in these early albums.

After their third album, Rod Evans and Nicky Semper were gone, in comes bassist Roger Glover and vocalist Ian Gillan, establishing the Mark II lineup. First comes the rock with orchestra experiment called Concerto For Group and Orchestra before coming to the album I’ll be focusing on.

That album is In Rock, which is their first proper studio album with the Mark II lineup. A brand new identity for the band. The reason: I am pretty certain the band was witnessing bands like Led Zeppelin riding high, so they decided to crank up the volume, giving their own mark on the burgeoning hard rock/heavy metal scene. In Rock makes no bones of what this album is: a heavy, aggressive, often in your face album! All psychedelicia of their early albums gone. No more covers of other people’s songs, this is 100% hard and heavy Deep Purple, and they immediately drive home that point with the opener, “Speed King”! This is a no-holds-barred approach to music, with Ian Gillan delivering those high-pitched vocals that highly influenced many heavy metal bands to come. The band unexpectedly gets jazzy in the middle part where Jon Lord gets some great organ solos while Ritchie Blackmore copies what Lord did on his guitar. Next song, “Bloodsucker” continues in this vein, but then comes the band’s epic “Child in Time”. It starts off slow, in ballad form, but then they come up with some aggressive passages as well. This song was well known for plagurizing a song from San Francisco band It’s a Beautiful Day called “Bombay Calling” (you can find this song off their self-entitled 1969 debut, which featured “White Bird”), and since I’m familiar with “Bombay Calling”, I have to say I agree (of course Purple never had a violinist, since most people don’t feel violin and heavy metal goes together anyway, so you don’t hear any on “Child in Time”). On a side note: It’s a Beautiful Day got back at Purple by recording “Don & Dewey” off their second album, Marrying Maiden (1970), which bears more than an uncanny resemblance to Purple’s “Wring That Neck” (which appeared on The Book of Taliesyn). “Flight of the Rat” is back in to hard rock territory, showing once again this is a brand new Deep Purple with a completely new identity separate from the Mark I lineup! Same goes for the rest of the album. This album didn’t spawn any big hits like “Smoke on the Water” (which, of course, is off the Machine Head album from 1972), but then it really doesn’t matter if there are big hits on the album or not, as long as the band makes great music.

Deep Purple newbies probably want to start with Machine Head first (more accessible, but still hard rock), but any Deep Purple fan must have In Rock, because it shows the beginning of Purple as a full blown hard rock/heavy metal band!