Deep Purple (1969)

For being the band's sole eponymous album, it is one of their least well-known and most unusual releases. The "original" Deep Purple formed in 1968 from prominent session musicians (Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord, and Nick Simper) joining forces with singer Rod Evans and drummer Ian Paice of the quasi-obscure Oxford group the Maze. Such impressive musical talent was nearly squandered by extremely limited and rushed studio time for their debut, but, against all odds, they yielded a major hit ("Hush") in the United States. Owing to the success of that single, the album didn't do half-bad either. The next two albums would prove a continuous uphill battle against anonymity in the UK and a train-wreck of a record label in the US, with increasingly diminished returns.

In spite of the haphazard "Garden of Earthly Delights" cover concept, Deep Purple shows a lot more polish than the previous two albums. They earned enough credibility from their debut to allow for more quality time in the studio, which especially worked wonders for Blackmore, who plays as aggressively as ever here. However, as is the case with all three "Mark I" albums, Lord still carries the band. His name is on every original piece, including "Blind", which is his alone, and "Chasing Shadows", which bears the unusual "Lord/Paice" credit. This would be the last album until 1974's Stormbringer to feature original material not credited at least in part to Blackmore. You can sort of understand how Evans and Simper aren't exactly "progressing" with the rest of the band. More on that in a moment. For being the album released right before their heaviest moments, it's a tame affair, though they sometimes find room for a little bit of shredding, particularly on the "alternate" version of "Bird Has Flown" and the bluesy jams "The Painter" and "Why Didn't Rosemary". The loping rhythm of the latter would find its way into the live extended versions of "Wring That Neck", a staple of their setlist until around 1971.

The band had sunk so low by this album that I don't think they even gave it a proper release in the UK and it charted very low in the US. By the time anyone got around to hearing it in the UK they were probably already getting familiar with a "new" Deep Purple that was starting to build a groundswell of excitement at long last in their home country. Evans and Simper were out; the former was considered too much of a crooner and out of touch with hard rock to stay aboard, while the latter, somewhat controversially, was deemed "old fashioned". In their stead were Ian Gillan, who had actually turned them down the previous year, and his long-time colleague from Episode Six, Roger Glover. The new lineup would prove far more than the sum of its parts, especially in heaviness, to a level both bands had only flirted with before. As for Evans and Simper, they would turn out to be a little heavier themselves. Almost right away, Simper was demonstrating his own hard rock credentials on the first Warhorse album. Meanwhile, Rod Evans reappeared in the United States around 1972, teaming up with two ex-Iron Butterflies (and superdrummer Bobby Caldwell) in the debut of Captain Beyond. Of course, neither one would overtake Deep Purple (and all three might as well not exist according to the Rock and Roll Hall of Shame), but it was pretty cool to see that even the Purple castoffs were capable of generating their own style of hard rock.