159. Deep Purple / Burn. 1974. 5/5.

Following on from the success of the album “Who Do We Think We Are”, the episode of which you can find on Season 4 of this podcast, the final throes were enacted for the Mark II line up of Deep Purple. Firstly, lead singer Ian Gillan resigned from the band, and then a little later bass guitarist Roger Glover was also let go. As was related in that other episode, Gillan had said in a 1984 interview that the band had been pushed t record and tour and record and tour, despite the fact all members needed a break. This of course led to growing tensions, none more so than between Gillan and guitarist Richie Blackmore, which culminated in Gillan’s decision to quit. In interviews later, Lord called the end of Mark II while the band was at its peak "the biggest shame in rock and roll; God knows what we would have done over the next three or four years. We were writing so well."
Glover was apparently dismissed from the band on the insistence of Blackmore, however, according to drummer Ian Paice, Glover had told both he and keyboardist Jon Lord some months earlier that he wanted to leave the band. This had actually led to Paice and Lord dropping in on gigs played by a band called Trapeze, who at that time had a lead vocalist and bass guitarist called Glenn Hughes as their frontman. With both Gillan and Glover now gone, the band hired Hughes, and at the time they apparently debated continuing as a four piece with Hughes filling both vocals and bass roles. Hughes himself recalls that he was told that the band was going to bring in Paul Rodgers from the band Free to act as co-vocalist, as both bands had just toured Australia together, while Rodgers has admitted that he was asked to join, he instead continued with his plan to form a new band that became Bad Company. Auditions instead brought forth the figure of a then unknown young vocalist named David Coverdale, who eventually became the man to replace Ian Gillan in the band.
Recording of the album once again took place in Montreux during November 1973, and with two of the writers and performers being replaced in the band, it led to exciting new combinations being formed, and a change in the overall direction of the music that was to be the hallmark of the newly crowned Mark III line up of Deep Purple.

Several things become obvious when you listen to this album compared to the ones that come before it. The addition of both Coverdale and Hughes firstly gives the band an amazing vocal duo that they haven’t had to this point in time. Coverdale is a terrific vocalist, one that brings a bluesy element back to the band in his voice. But behind him he has Glenn Hughes, the man who in the years since has been dubbed The Voice of Rock. Here is a guy who is simply supreme, the smooth, resilient and high-pitched gem of a voice gives the band something it had never had – two vocalists capable of singing lead, which they do switch between through the course of the album. Secondly, there is a noticeable transformation occurring in the music being written, moving away from the hard rock focus the band had used in Ian Gillan’s term with the band, and to a style incorporating more soul and funk through the rhythm section. It is not a total change, but those elements creep in more here than they had on earlier albums. Along with this, there sounds like there is an increased focus back on Jon Lord’s keyboards and a lesser influence of Ritchie Blackmore’s guitar. The dominant instrument on most of the songs is the Hammond organ, while Ritchie’s guitar solo piece is mostly the only time you really notice him in the foreground of any song. When you listen to “Burn”, it becomes easier to understand just why Blackmore was in the throes of deciding he needed to move on from Deep Purple to form another band, because while he was a writer on all of the tracks here it does sound at times that his own contributions are becoming less important to the music.
None of that takes away from the fact that this is a remarkable album. The opening title track, the first of the next era of the band, remains one of its finest. “Burn” is a masterpiece, from the opening guitar riff, into Ian Paice’s amazing drumming. Seriously, take a good listen to what Paice is doing throughout this entire song. It is next level. He has always been an amazing technician but is often underappreciated for what he does on his instrument. On “Burn”, the song and the album, he is a star. The dual vocals from Coverdale and Hughes, Lord’s wonderful Hammond riff alongside the guitar, and Roger Glover’s bass line underneath it all. This is one of the band’s greatest, one that hasn’t been played live by the band since 1976, though has remained in the setlists of both Coverdale’s and Hughes's bands since. “Might Just Take Your Life” is a more sedate track, with heavy influence of the Hammond organ and the bluesy vocals from both singers. It has a great groove and wades along wonderfully well and is well served with the new harmony vocals of the young gun vocalists. “Lay Down, Stay Down” picks up the pace again with more switch in lead between Glenn and David. The familiar Deep Purple rhythm riff underneath, that you can often pick up in many of their songs, also has Ritchie’s solo through the middle to appropriate that he is indeed in the mix.
“Sail Away” is the first of two songs composed by Coverdale and Blackmore, and it has a that familiar Coverdale sound that he took with him when he moved on with Whitesnake following Purple’s demise. The blues base here, along with his lower range smooth vocals is well complemented by the bass of Hughes combining with Lord’s Hammond organ to create a terrifically atmospheric song. “You Fool No One” opens the second side of the album, with Ian Paice’s drum work again taking centre stage throughout, it is spectacular again, along with that amazing vocal duo again producing a sensational performance – especially when Glenn Hughes comes in with that higher pitched awesomeness, he is always so obvious when he makes an appearance. “What’s Goin’ On Here” is very much in the blues bar theme, with tinkling ragtime piano and blues riffing guitar. It’s another interesting track given what the band had produced prior to this album.
Ritchie’s fingers are all over the classic song “Mistreated”, with his guitar regaining some of its prominence that is buried on other tracks and Lord’s keys being supporting rather than dominating. This also allows Coverdale to showcase his own amazing vocals in singularity throughout. “Mistreated” was written solely by these two, and it is noticeable listening to the song because they are the two that hold the top end of the song. Blackmore’s guitar riff is the star, and his mournful solo through the middle of the song and a far more energetic one to close out the track are both beauties. This is another of Purple’s great tracks, one which Ritchie did live when he formed Rainbow, and I must say that Dio’s vocal for me does outstrip Coverdale here... but this is a much more bluesy version than what Rainbow played.
However – what the hell is the final track on the album? The psychedelic, synth based, LSD trip inducing instrumental track “’A’ 200” has always confused me, and made me wonder what the thoughts behind it were. Sure, this was the era for such a song, but I just didn’t expect it from Deep Purple. It sounds like a jam session between the three composers, Paice, Lord and Blackmore, and they just thought “OK, we’ll use that”. With two great vocalists to utilise, couldn’t they have just written another great track using them? Then again, what would I know.

Deep Purple was one of those bands that I think I always sort of knew about, and who didn’t know “Smoke on the Water” and even “Black Night”, even if you didn’t know the band. So once I started listening to heavier music in my mid-teens in the mid-1980's, Deep Purple was one of the bands that was almost immediately there on the horizon. The arrival of those 80’s Mark II reunion albums of “Perfect Strangers” and “The House of Blue Light” combined with “Machine Head” and “In Rock” gave me a basis for what the band was like.
I eventually joined a mail-order record and CD club, who sent me out a catalogue every two months, filled with new releases and callbacks and rarities, as well as cheap new blank C-90 and C-60 cassettes, which was my main purchases from that club. But on one occasion they had a CD box set of the Deep Purple albums stretching from “In Rock” through to “Come Taste the Band”, and I had to get it. And it was then that I first listened to the full album of “Burn” rather than just the two songs I knew off the greatest hits album I had. And it was amazing. I had by this time already also had some Whitesnake albums, so I knew Coverdale’s vocals well, but hearing him in all his glory on this album, with Glenn Hughes alongside him, was a real eye – or ear – opener. Their combination when I first heard it was groundbreaking, something I had been completely unprepared for. The changing of the lead vocalist for verses was done so perfectly, and was such a breath of fresh air, as good as Gillan is. And while some may say the style of music the band played n Mark III was the real change, the real change was the harmony vocals combined. And the album just opened a whole new section of music for me.
As I do, I have been listening to this album again for a couple of weeks in preparation for this episode, and not only have I fallen in love with it all over again, I have actually heard more of what the band does on these songs than I have ever noticed before – things like how amazingly good Ian Paice and his drumming is on “Burn”, it feels like I should have known this before now, but I have really noticed it more now than ever. Just how piercing Glenn Hughes’s vocals are when he gets his chance to shine, they cut through the speakers and make you admire his talent all over again. And how commanding David Coverdale is as lead vocalist, in his first real big break, in one of the biggest bands in the world. The pressure on him to replace Ian Gillan must have been enormous, and yet he sounds like he has been in the band for years.
It wasn’t until a decade after its release that I first heard this album – being four years old at the time surely I can be forgiven. But I have made up for it since then. This is a truly fantastic album, one that sometimes gets lost in the band’s history because it ISN’T of the Mark II era. And given that this album is now fifty years old, it is as good a time as any for everyone to take a listen, and discover for yourself just how awesome it is.