180. Deep Purple / Come Taste The Band. 1975. 4/5.

The machinations that took place around Deep Purple during the first half of 1975 were not only a reflection of what had gone on over the previous three years, but was also a portent of what was to come. Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore had been openly critical of his derision of the direction that the band was taking musically, with the funkier tones brought in by David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes on the “Stormbringer” album something he had a hard time getting his head around. Blackmore of course had already begun to contemplate going out on his own, and with his flirtation of doing a solo single actually germinating into a fully fledged new band, Blackmore quit Deep Purple on March 26, 1975, following a gig in Munich. At the time the band had been ready to head into the studio in a few weeks time to begin tracking for their next album, so this news came as a shock and somewhat out of the blue. His official departure was announced by Deep Purple June 21, and Blackmore went on to form Rainbow, whose debut album was released just six weeks later, an album that you can find reviewed on episode 102 of this podcast.
Meanwhile, back in the Deep Purple camp, the remaining two original members, keyboardist Jon Lord and drummer Ian Paice, were of a mind to disband the group, and go their separate ways. However, both Coverdale and Hughes felt as though the band still had an opportunity to exist without Blackmore on guitar, and they persuaded the senior members of the band to hold together until they tried to find a guitarist they felt could match what the band was looking to create at this point of their careers. In later interviews, both Coverdale and Lord suggested that the reason the band stayed together at this point was for money, suggesting that all of them would make more money under the name Deep Purple than they would if they played in different entities. According to an excellent article on the Bravewords website in 2023 on the creation of this album, Glenn Hughes suggested only two guitarists were auditioned to replace Blackmore – Clem Clempson from Humble Pie, and Tommy Bolin. Clempson did not get the gig, but Hughes in this wide ranging interview suggested it was because to replace Blackmore the guitarist needed to be good but also a character. Enter Tommy Bolin, who used a borrowed guitar for his audition because all of his other guitars had been hocked, no doubt to indulge in the addictions that were to grow from this period. Coverdale was quoted saying: “He was a sight to behold – this exotic creature. He walked up to this line of amps – which had been pretty intimidating to whoever else had been there – and turned them all to eleven. Hit a chord, and the chord got everyone off their smug ass and started jamming – immediately”. Tommy Bolin said later about the audition” “When Purple first called me for an audition, I hadn’t slept in a couple days – not a wink – because I’d been up writing stuff. The rehearsal was for 4:00, and I was lying there thinking, ‘I gotta figure a way to tell them, y’know, tomorrow or something.’ And I thought, ‘Well, fuck it, I’ll just go down.’ So I walked in and I was like a zombie. But in the first tune, right away, it was smiles all around. You know, I was shocked to see how good they were, because I had never heard that much Deep Purple”.
There was still a concern about Bolin’s availability, as he was currently under contract to provide a solo album and also to participate in other projects. However, the band all got on well with him, especially after the irascibility that had come with Blackmore, and so the band entered the studio in August 1975 for a month of writing and recording, for the first – and final – album of the Mark IV lineup of Deep Purple which would come with the interestingly titled moniker of “Come Taste the Band”.

The album opens with the up-tempo rollicking of “Comin’ Home”, which has a greater blues vibe than the harder rock tones of either “Burn” or “Stormbringer”, but still motors along nicely. Jon Lord’s keyboards are more in the piano tinkling style of high energy blues tracks, while Bolin’s guitar immediately makes itself the centre of the track, with a non-stop riffing prominent dominating the track throughout. Paice’s drumming as always is fantastic and the bassline from Hughes complements everything Bolin is playing over the top. Coverdale sounds like he having a blast on vocals and the whole song is terrific. It is unfortunate that the song fades out rather than having a clean cut, I’ve always felt that would have been a better conclusion for the song. A great start to the album. This is followed by the more midtempo beat of “Lady Luck”, a song brought to the band by Bolin, which was written by his long-time co-composer Jeff Cook. Coverdale rewrote the lyrics to suit his and Deep Purple’s style more, something Cook always voiced his disappointment about. The lyrics are often misheard as ‘making love’ rather than “Lady Luck”, but maybe that is just because there is such a similarity to the lyric and music header here as with a couple of other tracks on the album, as we will discover. Apparently, Bolin had been performing this song for years in concert, but Coverdale's’ lyrics and a tweak to how the song progressed gave it a Purple-ised feel to the track. “Gettin’ Tighter” is a song composed by Hughes and Bolin which incorporates a lot of the funk that Hughes was bringing to his music at the time and perpetuated by Bolin’s riff, which he had come up with prior to joining the band. Quoted after the release of the album, Bolan said: "I duned it in one practice session. I just rolled... 'Damn, they would enjoy this' [...] I started to feel them and they started to feel me, it was like... giving and taking, that is, musically”. While the rhythm has that funky feel, Bolin’s guitar soloing is absolutely rock solid, providing the real feel of the track and giving it a sound like it is in a freeform writing session. The backing vocals help to push the funk sound of the 1970’s into the track, and it is a great addition on the album. To be honest, it is very un-Deep Purple-like, but it fits here with what has come before it and is a terrific song.
“Dealer” drops back a cog into midtempo with a groovy funk feel about it again, Coverdale’s honeyed vocals dominating the song. The middle section has Bolin contributing a couple of lines of lead vocals as well, before breaking into another signature Bolin solo while that solid unbreakable rhythm from Paice, Hughes and Lord plays out underneath. This solo takes us from mid song all the way to its fade out conclusion, something that never fails to surprise me as it does so. Lyrically Coverdale is stating the dangers of the drug dealers that Hughes was chasing and dealing with at the time, trying to convince him through song. Little did he know that his co-collaborator on this track was just as deep in as his own bass guitarist. Closing out Side A of the album is “I Need Love”, a typical Coverdale theme lyrically and musically for this version of the Deep Purple band. This is one of the better examples on this album of how Lord’s organ sound is very low in the mix and is a complement to the song rather than a major part of its structure, allowing the guitar and bass guitar to be the dominant features of the songs. Whereas with Blackmore the duel between the two instruments had been the main focus of the band, here on this album there is a quite significant change, one that is the most noticeable difference in this version of the band from those that came before it.
“Drifter” opens the second side of the album, and is a song that was completed before the band headed into the studio to record the album. It moves between tempo almost like a cut and paste graphic, feeling as though it is quickening up, only to hit a speed hump and jerk back to its slower pace. There is a definite attempt to draw in a certain vibe in the song through the music changes. On some days it works, on other its feels disjointed. “Love Child” is a much more structured song in regards to basic riff pattern through the first half of the song, and also sounds like a straight segue from “Drifter”, and even has a similar riff that is easy to confuse as still being a part of the previous track. Here Lord’s organ becomes more prominent than it has been, but it is through the spacey keys in the middle of the track that take the main focus, a slightly off putting sound that can sound out of place. Despite this, when moving back to the main riff, it is the closest this album gets to old school Deep Purple with keys and guitar providing that familiar coming together of the two instruments in the way they were best remembered. “This Time Around” is a piano ballad, with just Glenn Hughes singing over the top of Lord’s piano. Glenn has been heard so little on this album that this is always great to hear, but his vocal is also left in the background, not really reaching those amazing highs and power that we know he can. This acts as the introduction and segue into Bolin’s instrumental piece ”Owed to G”, not an ode but something Owed to G, apparently meant to be George Gershwin. The album concludes with the excellent “You Keep on Moving”, the only Coverdale/Hughes composition on the album. It is also the only song on the album that has the two of them singing together on the same track, something that had worked so well and been such a hallmark of the previous two Deep Purple albums. Whether or not this was due to Glenn’s addiction problems or stint in rehab I am not sure, but it is a shame that this was their only collaboration. The song was written before Bolin joined the band, but his contribution on guitar is just fabulous. “You Keep on Moving” is a slow burn, building from its quiet beginning to the middle of the track where those amazing combination of vocals come together, and an actual instrumental solo from Lord, something else that is drastically missing from the majority of this album. Once again, Bolin plays out the track and leaves his mark as well, and the fact that we have an actual conclusion to the track, and not a fade out, gives this album the conclusion that it deserves.

While my introduction to Deep Purple the band came initially via the reformed Mark II lineup’s reunion album “Perfect Strangers”, this album did come along at an interesting time in my musical development. As a part of a CD club I joined after high school, I bought the box set they were selling of all the albums of the Mark II, II and IV lineups, that stretched from “In Rock” to this album. The result of this was I listened to all of that 1970’s era of the band around the same time, moving between them as I discovered everything that had made this band the powerhouse it was during this time. And what a body of work it is in a five year period. More importantly though for this episode, was when I first began listening to “Come Taste the Band”. Yes, the album name was ludicrous, and when first listening to the album it was a little confusing. Trying to match up “In Rock” and “Machine Head” and even “Burn” with this album was a tough road to wind along. Is there any band ever that has gone from “Speed King” to “You Keep on Moving” in five years? It is incredible.
Back to this album. Obviously, there was a sense of needing to categorise the changes of this album in relation to the change in guitarist and composer. Each album from “Machine Head” onwards had had a slight change to its sound, moreso with the change of Gillan and Glover for Coverdale and Hughes, but now that Blackmore had been removed from the scene that change to the sound came again. And for anyone, that takes some getting used to. Back when I first got and heard the album, that didn’t worry me too much. The album was fine, but overall at that time it was Gillan on vocals and the Blackmore/Lord playoff that I loved, and those albums did get more opportunity from me as a result.
Over the following 35 plus years it has been since that time my thoughts haven’t changed a great deal. Whenever it comes time for this album to come off the shelves and get played again, I’ve always loved it. I mean, what isn’t to like? Even over the past week that I’ve had the album on again, it has been great. Observation wise, there are things that do surface that probably need to be mentioned here. There is a similarity in some of the tracks, in that it can feel as one track morphs into the next and that similar riffs and progressions are being used in several songs on this album. It is also extremely noticeable that Lord’s contribution on the Hammond organ has been tiered right back, and also mixed out in many instances. Tommy Bolin introduces a further directional change in the music to the funk and soul side of the equation, which was where Coverdale and Hughes were sending the band on “Stormbringer” anyway. And ALL of this combines to bring us to one pertinent point about “Come Taste the Band” - in the same way as would be suggested 15 years later on another Deep Purple album titled “Slave and Masters”, this almost isn’t a Deep Purple album in anything but the band name. The music has progressed to a point so quickly that they have taken themselves from the very purveyors of hard rock, to a funk rock band. Now, I do need to clarify this point – I love this album. I think it is terrific and enjoy almost all of it equally, in the same way that I love “Slave and Masters”. But I am not sure it could be classed as a Deep Purple album to the specifications that the Deep Purple fandom would consider it. That is another discussion in itself, one that would most certainly have many sides to the argument. I obviously still call this a legitimate Deep Purple album.
As you will have guessed, even those who are not Deep Purple fans, things did not end well after this album was released. The band went on tour, but it suffered hugely from the dual addictions of both Bolin and Hughes, and performances rode on whether either or both was able to perform to their ability every night. On the final night of the tour, the performance of which was apparently putrid, Lord and Paice decided before they had even returned to the dressing room that the band was finished. When Coverdale came in some time later saying that he had to quite the band, that he couldn’t go on the way they were, he was informed by these two that there was no longer a band of which to quit. Coverdale went on to a solo career that funnelled itself into a new band name Whitesnake, of which eventually both Paice and Lord were a part of. Hughes did several solo spots and as a part of other groups that all seemed to end quickly due to his continuing drug and alcohol addiction. And most sadly of all, the hugely talented Tommy Bolin passed away before the end of 1976 of multiple drug intoxication caused by heroin, alcohol, cocaine, and barbiturates. He was 25 years old. Deep Purple would eventually be revived, but the shadow of Bolin’s passing created a dark shadow on the name for those few years.