Month: September 2019

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Subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcasts,

Overcast, Pocket Casts, Anchor.fm, Breaker, PodBean, RadioPublic, or search in your favorite podcatcher! 

Thanks to Our Patrons:

• Clay Wombacher – $5 tier
• Steve Seaborg (Alltheworldsastage.net) – $5 tier
• Peter Gardow – $3 tier
• Ells Murders – $1 tier
• Spacey Noodles – $1 tier

Thanks to our Brothers at the Deep Dive Podcast Network:

• Ry @ Sabbath Bloody Podcast
• The Simple Man @ Skynyrd Reconsydyrd
• Terry “T-Bone” Mathley @ T-Bone’s Prime Cuts

Show Updates:

• Comments from social media.
• Thanks to Jonatan Hedlin on Facebook who provided this interview clip which explains Martin Birch’s nickname as “The Farmer.”  https://youtu.be/nV6Cc9HjlXI?t=480
• Comment on the Stormbringer episode on our website from Paris
  • Here at Foot Fetish Lovers you’ll discover many of user profiles of women who like to brag their cute feet and cute toes. whether donning hot stiletto heels or going barefoot, our members love to transfer pictures that may satisfy any foot deviant. Some relish having their feet and toes tickled, licked, and sucked, or need to satisfy a man mistreatment their feet alone! marsha may foot fetish and sakura foot worship
• Bernie Marsden – The Postman – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnPxwtbOYnM

Lead Up To Album & Writing:

• Reinhardt and Dorman were wrapping up their time with Iron Butterfly in 1971.  They knew that the band would be ending after that tour. They were in contact with Bobby Caldwell who was playing the same places as them with Johnny Winter who was going to be taking a six month hiatus so they talked to him about working on a project.
• Lee Dorman financed the project and they were interested in going in a jazz/rock direction.  They jammed together for a few weeks then began looking for a singer.
• Through their old manager they found out that Rod Evans was available so they contacted him and recorded some demos together.
• They got together and recorded the album in two days because they’re rehearsed it so much and gotten it so tight.
• Rhino says in an interview: “Lee and I played with Bobby and it just clicked, we wanted to do something totally different and just the way Bobby plays makes it totally different. Chris Squire from Yes came one morning to me, when we were uploading the bus and said to me “you guys look like Captain Beyond!”
• Lee Dorman: “… when we were on that european tour of Iron Butterfly in 71, we were travelling with Yes, with whom we did the tour and there was a strike by Lufthansa, so we had to chart a airplane by a company named “General Air”. A game of words started and suddenly, we were on a bus late one night, someone said “Captain Beyond”, we thought it sounded good and kept it…”
• All songs are credited to Rod Evans and Bobby Caldwell.
• The songs were actually written by the entire group but Larry Reinhardt and Lee Dorman could not be listed due to their contract with Iron Butterfly.
• The Album contains of three medleys.  The first three tracks on the first side, the first three tracks on the second side, and the last five tracks on the second side.
• The album was dedicated to Duane Allman who had played with drummer Bobby Caldwell.

Album Lineup

• Rod Evans – lead vocals
• Larry “Rhino” Reinhardt – guitars
  • Started with The Thunderbeats
  • Played with Iron Butterfly
  • Passed away in 2012
• Lee Dorman – bass guitar, backing vocals, piano
  • Bass player in Iron Butterfly
  • Passed away in December of 2012
• Bobby Caldwell – drums, all percussion instruments (including bells and vibraphone), backing vocals, piano
  • Played with Johnny Winter and Rick Derringer
  • Also played with John Lennon, Ringo Starr, and Eric Clapton
  • Still actively playing and living in Florida

They previously played with a keyboardist, Lewie Gold, but he left before they recorded the first album.

Album Art & Booklet Review

• The album cover contained 3D artwork using lenticular printing on the US release.
• The crystal ball Captain Beyond is holding contains the earthsign symbols of fire and water.
• Album concept and design by Pacific Eye & Ear
• Illustration by Joe Garnett – the artist who did the Stormbringer album cover

Album Details and Analysis:

• Recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood, CA.
• Mixed at The Record Plant in Los Angeles
• Engineered by Wayne Dailey
• Produced by Captain Beyond

Side One:

1. Dancing Madly Backwards (on a Sea of Air)
2. Armworth
3. Myopic Void
4. Mesmerization Eclipse
5. Raging River of Fear

Side Two:

1. Thousand Days of Yesterdays (Intro)
2. Frozen Over
3. Thousand Days of Yesterdays (Time Since Come and Gone)
4. I Can’t Feel Nothin’ (Part 1)
5. As The Moon Speas (to the Waves of the Sea)
6. Astral Lady
7. As The Moon Speaks (Return)
8. I Can’t Feel Nothin’ (Part 2)

Album Review & Reception

• The president of Capricorn, their label, also managed the band.  Southern rock bands were becoming very popular at the time and according to Lee Dorman, Captain Beyond got pushed to the back burner.
• With Rod they only played about 60-70 gigs in the two years he was with the band.
• Live they played all the song from the first album except “Raging River of Fear” and “Thousand Days of Yesterday (Time Since Come and Gone).”

In The News . . .

• Heavy metal and classical music have more in common than you think
  • Take Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore, for example. A self-professed classical music fan, many of his works in the ’60s were modelled on classical examples. 
  • “I still listen to a great deal of classical music,” he said in 1985. “That’s the type of music that moves me because I find it very dramatic. Singers, violinists and organists are generally the musicians I enjoy listening to most of all.” If you listen to both Jon Lord’s keyboard solo and Blackmore’s guitar solo on Deep Purple’s “Highway Star,” both are distinctly Bach-like in harmonic progression and virtuosic arpeggio figuration.

This Week in Purple History . . .

September 30 through October 6

• October 1, 1973 – Billy Cobham’s “Spectrum” is released

• October 5, 1990 – Deep Purple’s “Slaves and Masters” is released

• October 4, 1999 – Paul McCartney releases “Run Devil Run” featuring Ian Paice
  • Paul McCartney Playing “Run Devil Run” Live with Ian Paice and David Gilmour

For Further Information:

• https://archive.li/20010502182733/http://tinpan.fortunecity.com/aprilskies/65/hi.htm?nocache=916049916
• https://web.archive.org/web/20110225032734/http://rockchoice.com/interview-bobby-caldwell/
• https://www.officialcaptainbeyond.com
• https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-story-of-captain-beyond-stoner-rock-pioneers

Listener Mail/Comments

• Comments about the show? Things you’d like us to cover?  We’d love to hear from you. Send us an email at info@deeppurplepodcast.com or @ us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

Subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Anchor.fm, Breaker, PodBean, RadioPublic, or search in your favorite podcatcher! 

Thanks to Our Patrons:

• Clay Wombacher – $5 tier
• Steve Seaborg (Alltheworldsastage.net) – $5 tier
• Peter Gardow – $3 tier
• Ells Murders – $1 tier

Show Updates:

• Comments from social media.
• Apple Podcasts Reviews!
  • 5 Stars! Bogue Herb Lives, 08/19/2019 – Mark 3!
    • It took me awhile to warm up to the podcast. I’m a big Purple fan but Mark 1 leaves me cold. However, when the show about the concerto popped up I started to get interested. Then Mark 2 and the five great albums. Now for the cream: Mark 3. The Burn episode was great and now I’m chomping at the bit to hear Nathan and John’s take on my favorite DP album, Stormbringer! Keep up the good work guys. Great format and knowledge. Good to hear real fans talk about this great band.
  • 5 Stars! 08/27/2019 – A Deeper Purple….
    • These two guys are not held to the conventional notions of the band…..and that’s a very good thing! If you’re not afraid to look outside the more conventional realms of “Machine Head” and “Made In Japan”, this podcast gives another listen to some underrated periods of Purpledom!
  • LDeepBoogie , 09/07/2019 – Finally a Podcast on Deep Purple
    • I’ve been waiting for a podcast on this band forever! Great information by two old friends discussing classic albums by the band and discovering new material! If you have any interest in DP you need to check this out!
  • BLCKSBBTH , 09/07/2019 – They said something very important
    • This became my favorite podcast when they called attention to the fact that DP’s concerto was composed (by J Lord) as an organic interlocking of rock band and ochestra, whereas S&M is Metallica playing greatest hits with strings added. I can’t beleive it took 20 years for someone to call attention to this publicly.
• Lo Axelsson on YouTube:
  • My feeling is that many older men are just as bad as teenagers. “Fun” story related to your podcast:
  • I was in a record store looking at a copy of Shades of Deep Purple when the owner comes up to me and goes “ah, Deep Purple with their ORIGINAL singer, he’s MUCH better than the other one!” (I’m assuming he meant Gillan, rip Coverdale etc.). Anyway, I got annoyed by his disdainful tone and answered that Rod Evans is great but that I much prefer him in Captain Beyond. By the bewildered look on his face and lack of response, I conclude he didn’t know of them. I sealed my victory in this pretentious record store pissing contest by buying Fireball. (I am a 30 something woman btw)
  • I felt he didn’t have to know I had actually only just learned about Captain Beyond through your podcast and found a record by them at my dad’s and think it’s fantastic :p

• Ritchie fixing a TV.
  • @JoergPlaner comes through with the magazine article confirming it is a TV.
  • Ritchie spent time in his teens working as a radio technician at Heathrow airport.
• Jim Massa on YouTube:
  • If you look at the cover of MIJ, look on the left side of the Hammond (Jon’s left), that is a ring modulator/phaser unit. It is that which created all those effects for Lazy, Space Trucking. . He did not add a synth (ARP Odyssey) until 1973 shows (WDWTWA).
  • Jim also tells a great story of meeting Ritchie and having drinks with him during the  Rainbow tour and getting VIP tickets.

• @JohnMoe started this game on Twitter: Album Titles That Disagree
  • I contributed some Deep Purple albums

Lead Up To Album & Writing:

• After being fired from Deep Purple he joined Marsha Hunt’s band, White Trash.
  • Marsha Hunt w. Nick Simper Bilzen Festival – My World is Empty Without You (1969) 
  • According to Hunt the Rolling Stones’ song “Brown Sugar” was about her.
• After a few gigs NIck Simper felt the band wasn’t performing well and he was tasked with finding replacements.
• He got Ged Peck who he’d toured with in The Flowerpot Men on guitar.
• He also got Roger Pinner (aka Roger Truth) on drums who he’d worked with in The Pirates.  He was replaced soon after with Mac Poole.
• During this time Nick Simper was also playing with The James Royal Set as well as putting together Warhorse as a side project.
• Ashley Hunt was also recruited having formerly auditioned for Deep Purple in 1968.
• Rick Wakeman joined on keys having played with Simper in the James Royal Set.
• Wakeman was on the fence about the project and was eventually replaced with Frank Wilson.
• Marsha Hunt became pregnant and folded the group and they basically just continued on as Warhorse.
• Soon after this they got a record contract with the new label Vertigo and recorded the Warhorse album.
• They made their live debut as a support group for Mott The Hoople in Hemel Hempstead.
• The Warhorse album was released in November of 1970.
• Warhorse was managed by Ron Hire who was a part of HEC Enterprises who financed the original version of Deep Purple.

Album Lineup

• Ashley Holt – vocals
• Ged Peck – guitar
  • Worked with Billy Fury, Tommy Quickly (when he was managed by Brian Epstein), the Flower Pot Men, Screaming Lord Sutch
• Mac Poole – drums
• Nick Simper – bass
• Frank Wilson – keyboards

Album Art & Booklet Review

Album Details and Analysis:

1. Vulture Blood
2. No Chance
3. Burning
4. St. Louis
   • Cover of a song by Easybeats; written by George Young and Harry Vanda.
   • Released as a single and failed to chart.
   • Read that Deep Purple had done this in their early set until dropping it around 1969.  In an interview with Nick Simper in DMME he denies Deep Purple ever played this song.
5. Ritual
6. Solitude
7. Woman of the Devil

Album Review & Reception

• Could not find any reviews of the album contemporary to the release.
• Album was re-released in 1984 as “Vulture Blood.”

This Week in Purple History . . .

September 23 through September 29

• September 24, 1969 – Deep Purple performs the Concerto for Group and Orchestra live for the first time.

• September 26, 1990 – David Coverdale quits Whitesnake!

• September 25, 1999 – Deep Purple performs the Concerto for Group and Orchestra for the first time since 1970.

For Further Information:

• http://www.deep-purple.net/tree/warhorse.htm
• http://dmme.net/interviews/simper.html

Listener Mail/Comments

• Comments about the show? Things you’d like us to cover?  We’d love to hear from you. Send us an email at info@deeppurplepodcast.com or @ us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

Subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Anchor.fm, Breaker, PodBean, RadioPublic, or search in your favorite podcatcher! 

Show Updates:

• Comments from social media.
• Trinkelbonker (Michael Eriksson) interview with Dan McCafferty of Nazareth from 1989:
  • DRUGS (TOMMY BOLIN/JIMI HENDRIX)
  • – We may not have been angels but we always avoided the hard stuff. We toured with Deep Purple in the States in 1976 and I worried about Tommy Bolin. He was a beautiful man and a good guitarist but he did not want to listen to people that warned him about that shit. I tried to talk to him and he said “Jimi Hendrix did it and look how good he was”. I said, “But Tommy, Jimi is dead!”. I actually saw Hendrix early on and it was way better than the last time I had a chance to see him. Tommy Bolin was one of these guys that this business just eats up. It was a good tour for us, we did better than Purple really.
• Sleepfan on YouTube points out that “Sunset Ride” was NOT a Tommy Bolin album!
• Bolin writing credits on James Gang’s “Bang” album – accidentally credited him as having writing credits on four tracks when actually he wrote/co-wrote eight tracks.
• Jim Massa on YouTube says, “Hey guys, I noticed you haven’t done a Machine Head episode yet!”

• Chris Schild on Twitter mentions that he heard that Tommy Bolin’s picture of his head has been copies into an older shot of the band for the cover of Jame Gang’s “Bang” album.
• A LOT of love for Stormbringer and for Tommy Bolin!

Thanks to Our Patrons:

• Clay Wombacher – $5 tier
• Steve Seaborg (Alltheworldsastage.net) – $5 tier
• Peter Gardow – $3 tier
• Ells Murders – $1 tier

The End of Mark 4 and Deep Purple:

• The work that Bolin did on the album had it carried to the live shows could have put fans’ longing for Blackmore to rest.  However, their live set was instead disjointed and inconsistent.
• “Come Taste The Band” is often forgotten or dismissed.
• Hughes says during the live set they’d be on stage for an hour and 45 minutes and Coverdale would be off stage for about 45 minutes with the band jamming and Hughes singing.
• Coverdale states that he thought the band members had all become spineless.  They could see the wheels coming off but they felt powerless to do anything about it.
• In an interview with Tony Stewart in 1976: “I refuse to stand on stage with Glenn while he’d doin his bloody ‘Georgia On My Mind,’ and I’m standing there in the dark saying, ‘C’mon, get it out of your system.  Where’s the band? C‘Mon, Tommy, get it out, c’mon Jon do your classical bits’ – and I’d go off and have a cigarette. Where’s that at? That ain’t no …. Band. Then Ian turns round and says ‘Dave, stop bellowing so much.’ I got that gig on the strength of my talent.  Nobody did me a favour. Those cats wanted me to work. Like, I’ve got the good to do it, and up to now people have only heard one facet of my talent.”
• After recording the album Hughes went to rehab for the first time but it wasn’t successful.
• The band’s management was very worried about Hughes going on tour with his problem.  They decided his test gig to see if he was ready was the live performance of The Butterfly Ball.  If he could make it through that he’d be allowed to tour with the band.
• He gave a good performance then says he got loaded immediately after the show.
• They then went off to New Zealand on the “no drugs” tour and Hughes says for six weeks they were clean and everything was great.
• They flew to Jakarta where they were received by tens of thousands of fan.  Two nights playing to crowds of 10-15,000 turned into 125,000 per night in a venue the size of Wembley Stadium. The band would have made ~ $1million for two nights.
• The promoter for the gigs had as security the Indonesian military.  Capacity for the venues would have been well below the total number of tickets sold, less than half.  People were crammed in.
• Two girls showed up at Hughes’ room sent by the promoters of the show.
• Hughes in his book: “Thank God Blackmore wasn’t still with us or there would have been a riot.”
• Very scary scene with military and dogs keeping the fans at bay.  Band was very nervous and decided to do shorter sets.
• After the show Patsy Collins, one of the road crew, got in an altercation with one of the girls in Glenn’s room.  Glenn says he walked out of the room after Patsy stormed out and it was silent, no one was there.
• The next morning people came in Glenn’s room at 7:30am.  They said Patsy had fallen down an elevator shaft, stumbled into the lobby and died.  Glenn, along with other road crew were taken into custody.
• He was let out for the second show, handed his bass by a security guard with a gun and watched during the entire set.
• The army let dogs loose on the crowd during the set and the band ended up playing a short set.
• They went back to jail and were going to be held when all of a sudden a couple of girls came forward and told the authorities that they’d seen Patsy open the wrong door.  They were off the hook and free to go.
• Hughes suspects that the girls send to the room were sent to get Patsy out of the room to cause problems for the band.
• The theory the management had is that the band was being discredited as a way to get out of paying them for the shows.  The band was never paid.
• When they went to leave the country the tires of their plane had been slashed.  They needed to pay extra money to get new tires but the airport people weren’t allowed to help so they had to use the co-pilot and some roadies to change the tires.
• Years later, in the late 90s, they had an offer to play in Indonesia.  Jon Lord refused to go because of the painful memories.
• In Japan Tommy Bolin “slept” on his arm and pinched a nerve and was barely able to play.
• They recorded “Last Concert in Japan” and in they were all really drunk on mai tais and pina coladas.  Hughes says you can see him about to throw up on the video.
• Hughes in his book talks about how ashamed he was of the performance.  They were all drunk and Tommy couldn’t even play.
• They couldn’t return to UK because they couldn’t be in the country for more than 30 days a year for tax purposes.
• They rehearsed for an american tour and took a DC9  from LA to North Carolina. It was the same DC9 that killed Lynyrd Skynyrd members.
• At a point Tommy didn’t even want to get high with Hughes anymore.  Hughes was finding dealers and getting high alone because he was so paranoid.
• Bonzo pulled a gun on Hughes after a show because he’d heard that he was involved with his wife.  Luckily they ironed things out and then went and got wasted.
• The last time Bonzo saw him he snuck up on Glenn and said, “So you fancy your chance, do yer?” and punched Hughes in the mouth chipping a tooth.
• The next night someone tried to give Hughes some coke and Bob Cooksey (who’d been hired to keep Hughes straight) punched him out.  The next day Hughes said he realized how good he could performa if he was in shape.
• Hughes was using uppers to lose weight and dealing with full blown cocaine psychosis.  Tells story of calling a hotel manager to say there was a man in a yellow hat trying to break into his room.  His room was on the 24th floor.
• Hughes said everyone expected him to die.  His parents expected that every phone call would be someone telling them he’d died.
• They played their last US show with Tommy and Glenn tried to skip out on the flight back to the UK but he was essentially thrown onto the plane.
• Hughes tells story of sleeping for 3-4 days straight, waking up in a cold sweat, eating whatever he could, and going back to sleep.
• Hughes could stay awake for up to a week at a time.  From March 10 through March 15 1976 he didn’t sleep.
• March 15 was the day that Deep Purple broke up.  Hughes says he couldn’t play well. Lord had to drag him on stage on the 15th.  Hughes says it was his lowest point in Purple. The band had abandoned him. He was staying by himself.  He says it was a miracle that he made it to those gigs at all.
• Bolin was being berated by Blackmore fans.
• The end came on tour in England on 15 March 1976 at the Liverpool Empire Theatre. In the words of Jon Lord:
  • At one point during the show, Glenn said to the audience, “I’m sorry we’re not playing very well, but we’re very tired and jet-lagged.” And I remember spluttering to myself, “Speak for yourself.” I was working like a Trojan to try and make this work … Paicey was playing like a madman just to keep it all together … Coverdale was singing his socks off. So to hear this guy who was extremely high on various substances telling the audience, “I’m sorry, We aren’t playing well” kind of rankled me a bit. I came off stage and went straight to my dressing room, which I was sharing with Ian Paice, and I said, “Ian … that’s it, isn’t it? That’s absolutely the end of this band as far as I’m concerned. Why are we doing this to ourselves?” So he and I shook hands and said, “It’s over. Thank God.” About ten minutes later, Coverdale came in, big blustery guy that he is, and he said, “I’m leaving the band!” And we said, “David, there’s no band to leave.”
  • From Gettin’ Tighter – The Story Of Deep Purple Mark 3 & 4.
• Hughes says he didn’t want to continue making the music that Purple was making.  He wanted to work on his solo album, Play Me Out. His relationship with Vicky Gibbs had broken up (Jon Lord’s wife, and twin sister of Ian Paice’s wife Jacky).  The album is mostly about her.
• Coverdale was talking to Hughes at Ian Paice’s wedding about working on a solo album too.  Only Glenn didn’t know that he’d left Purple. Management hadn’t told him.
• There was no talk of trying to press on.  It was over.
• Glenn gets back with Trapeze.
• Bolin introduced Tommy to Linda Blair.
• Trapeze kicked him out because he was so messed up.
• He ended up moving in with Karen, Tommy’s ex-girlfriend.  They later married
• On December 4, 1976 Glenn got a call that Tommy had died.  He and Karen had received a post card from him the day before saying he’d see them at Christmas.

Mark 3 & 4 Bonus Tracks:

• Review of unreleased Mk 3 & Mk 4 materia.

1. Coronarias Redig
2. Highball Shooter (Instrumental)
3. Same in L.A.
4. Bolin/Paice Jam

Mark 1-4 Wrap Up

Listener Questions:

• Chrisl @inkpen111 on Twitter asks:
  • What is the Purple song you could happily never hear again?
  • What if Paul Rodgers had actually joined the band?
  • What if there had been another Purple LP after CTTB?
• @StratCars on Twitter asks:
  • What was the best song DP (all lineups) used as a concert opener?
  • Why the Hammond Organ was such a vital part of DP.
• Tim @trzasa on Twitter asks:
  • What if Glenn Hughes had been in Mark 2?
• @murray_bulger on Twitter asks:
  • What if Hughes and Bolin didn’t do drugs?
  • What if Hughes played more rock than funk?
  • What if Mark 2,3,4 didn’t break up and one line up kept going to last 70s into 80s?
  • What if Ian Paice played more double kick?
  • What if Peter Grand (legendary Led Zeppelin manager) was manager of Deep Purple?
  • What if Ian Paice could sing?  And sang a song like Bill Ward Sang “It’s All Right.”
  • What if Blackmore liked funk going into the late 70s? Would Purple have turned to a disco-rock band?
• @Dannymd71 on Twitter asks:
  • I’ve heard that Roger Glover really happened to be brought into the band by chance because he tagged along with Ian Gillan for his audition/jam.  What do you think would’ve happened if he weren’t in the band (at least initially)? Would Nick Simper have stayed longer?

In The News . . .

• Glenn Hughes replaces John Corabi and Marco Mendoza in The Dead Daisies

• Glenn Hughes Interview @ Stonedeaf Festival 2019
  • Interview about Black Country Communion going into the studio in January to start recording a new album.

• This World Record attempt for largest guitar ensemble will be lead and hosted by Deep Purple guitarist Steve Morse!

This Week in Purple History . . .

September 16 through September 22

• September 22, 1951 – David Coverdale is born

• September 22, 1977 – Ian Gillan Band record “Live at the Budokan”

• September 19, 2002 – Jon Lord’s last show with Deep Purple

For Further Information:

• Deep Purple: A Matter of Fact by Jerry Bloom
• Smoke on the Water: The Deep Purple Story
• The Road of Golden Dust: The Deep Purple Story 1968-1976 by Jerry Bloom
• Deep Purple: Complete Uk Vinyl Discography 1968-1982 By Neil Priddey
• Glenn Hughes The Autobiography: From Deep Purple to Black Country Communion by Glenn Hughes
• Sail Away: Whitesnake’s Fantastic Voyage by Martin Popoff
• Touched by Magic: The Tommy Bolin Story by Greg Prato

Listener Mail/Comments

• Comments about the show? Things you’d like us to cover?  We’d love to hear from you. Send us an email at info@deeppurplepodcast.com or @ us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

Subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Anchor.fm, Breaker, PodBean, RadioPublic, or search in your favorite podcatcher! 

Show Updates:

• Comments from social media.

Thanks to Our Patrons:

• Clay Wombacher – $5 tier
• Steve Seaborg (Alltheworldsastage.net) – $5 tier
• Peter Gardow – $3 tier
• Ells Murders – $1 tier

Lead Up To Album & Writing:

• Ian Paice: “It should have stopped then, but there were certain pressures from behind.  To me and Jon it was a staggering blow to lose Ritchie. While there was a majority from the original band it was a viable proposition to carry on, but when we became a minority it wasn’t.  What really happened is that we just got talked into continuing.”
• In the book “Sail Away” Hughes says that Bolin had been living with him for three months prior to joining Deep Purple.  He also states that the band knew Tommy was addicted but didn’t know how deep it went into morphine and heroin.
• Jon Lord: “In hindsight, and with no disrespect to Glenn and David, we should have finished it then and there.”
• Jon Lord says they’d come a long way in seven years and that they were wealthy and living in LA.  For he and Ian they didn’t mind ending the band but Glenn and David were hungry to move on.
• Lord felt that they were a strong band and could be successful if they could keep Hughes in line.
• In “Smoke on the Water” Thompson talks about Lord and Paice not wanting to go through a lengthy audition process as they did not enjoy it.
• Colin Hart and Rob Cooksey rented a rehearsal space at Pirate Sound Studios in Hollywood.
• When Ritchie left Hughes said he was ready to call it quits and just go back to L.A.
• The common thought was how were they going to replace Ritchie Blackmore?
• Hughes, Bowie, and Ronnie Wood were all in “kind of a cocaine club” according to Hughes.
• At this point, Glenn graduated from only every accepting free coke to actually going out and buying it.
• This begins the first of the Dr. Jekyl/Mr. Hyde thing with Glenn as his addiction began to take over.
• Hughes moved next to Paice as they were dating the twin sisters (Hughes with Vicky, Paice with Jacky).
• Hughes was having auditory hallucinations and was becoming very paranoid.
• Hughes says he didn’t really sleep.  He took cat naps here and there, sometimes being up for 72 hours without sleep.
• Vicky eventually left Glenn.
• Bowie ended up moving in with Glenn, unclear if it was to be with him to make sure he was okay.
• Coverdale’s first choice was Jeff Beck, then Rory Gallagher.  Neither were interested.
• Hughes wanted to replace Blackmore with Clem Clempson from Humble Pie.  He auditioned but didn’t have the charisma they were looking for. He also nearly got into a fight with Bowie.
• Colin Hart mentioned that the owner of Pirate Sound, Robert Simon, had done some work with The James Gang and was impressed with Bolin.  Coverdale already knew him from Spectrum. They played Spectrum for Lord over and over and he was convinced.
• The next guy auditioned was Tommy Bolin.  When Hughes saw him he said, “Whether or not you get the gig you’re coming back to my house tonight.”  He looked like the kind of guy Hughes would want to party with. Tommy accepted a bump of coke from him.  He would party with Coverdale but Coverdale always knew when to call it a night. Hughes felt he had found someone he could party with at the same level.
• Lord on his audition: “He was just . . . marvelous.  He plugged into four Marshall 100 watt stacks and I swear to God it was as exciting as any time we played with Ritchie.  Ian just lit up on his drums and David came over saying, ‘what did I tell you?’”
• Bolin: “I knew they’d been successful but all I’d heard was Smoke on the Water and Hush.  I didn’t think that they would be as good as they were at all, or as funky. Jus tto test them, to see where they were at, I started off with something very funky, and they immediately caught on.  In the first song I knew I wanted to join them.”
• Bolin nailed the audition and they told him the next day.
• Bolin had just signed a solo deal so there were some legal issues they needed to sort through.
• The band took a short break for Tommy to finish his solo album and then returned to Musicland studios with Martin Birch.
• Birch: “Tommy was a great tuitarist but he really didn’t know what he was doing half the time.  He played totally on feel and he got involved with Glenn quite closely so the funk thing now came from both of them.”
• Paice tells a story that they’d gotten off the plane in Europe and it was Tommy’s first time in Europe.  They’d laid out some sleeping pills so they could all get a good rest and beat the jet lag. Tommy came over and swallowed all five then asked Ian, “What do these do?”
• Hughes and Bolin started writing songs for Come Taste the Band immediately, some that wouldn’t be released until the “Play Me Out” album.
• Hughes said he would drink to take the edge off the coke and as he puts it in his autobiography: “not for the fine art of tasting the grape.”
• Hughes decided for Come Taste The Band that he was going to cut back, not quit.
• AT one point he stole some coke from Tommy Bolin’s stash.  After doing it he felt bad and gave it to one of the road crew.  After coming down he was banging on the guy’s door to give it back.
• On Tommy’s birthday they went out to a bar and asked for coke. After doing it Glenn freaked out because it had never had that effect on him.  They’d been given heroin which Hughes had never tried before. But by Tommy’s 24th birthday he was very familiar with it.
• For Coverdale this overt drug use was the beginning of the end for him.
• Hughes talks about how he’d be up for 24 hours playing a Fender Rhodes.  He’d have them delivered to his hotel room or wherever he was. One night Ritchie’s guitar tech, Rob Cooksey, was delivering a piano for Glenn when he had an accident and was killed.
• The band divided into three camps: Glenn and Tommy, David alone, and Jon and Ian.

Album Art & Booklet Review

• First album with a gatefold since Who Do We Think We Are.
• Bolin: “Jon who knows every song in the book, started playing Cabaret and I was really drunk and I started singing by mistake ‘come see the band, come taste the band’ so that’s how the title came . . .”
• “Some people want a serious title like New Born or New Breed.  I think we should have an amusing title. People take things to seriously anyway.”
• Designed by Castle, Chappell & Partners.

• Photo shot once again by Fin Costello (who did Burn).  Though another source says Peter Williams did the photography.  It may have been the layout.
• Jon Coletta got the mock up and showed it to Coverdale but they’d gotten it wrong and it said “Come & Taste The Band” so they had to redo the artwork.
• Hughes was so messed up on cocaine that he couldn’t make the shoot and they had to use an old photo of him.

• Inner sleeve with lyrics.

Album Details and Analysis:

• Bolin was the main contributor on 7 of the ten track (including This Time Around/Owed to G) as separate.  Astonishing given the fact that he was hired as a replacement.

1. Coming Home (Coverdale, Paice, Bolin)
   • Last song written and recorded on the last day of the sessions because they realized they were a little short on time.
   • Coverdale remembers going off with Bolin to write it: “We’d discovered we were a few minutes short for the album and we couldn’t have a fifteen minute side so Tommy Bolin and myself went off and wrote it in the studio.  I just rediscovered recently that Paicey’s there on the credits — I dunno what he did apart from play the drums! Anyway, it’s still got that hundred miles an hour tempo, that’s still intact. It’s still like a Tobacco Auction trying to sing the bloody thing!”
   • Opening lyrics reminiscent of Speed King.
   • Talks about “grooving to American Bandstand.”
   • Bolin on backing vocals.
   • Bolin also laid down bass on the track as Hughes had already left to go to the UK to start rehab.
   • Rarely played live.
2. Lady Luck (Cook, Coverdale)
   • Written by Coverdale and Jeff Cook who was the singer in Energy, Bolin’s old band)
   • They used to perform this track and when Bolin played it for the band they wanted to play it.
   • Coverdale wrote a new lyrics because Bolin couldn’t remember the original ones with the blessing of Cook who got writing credits.
   • Energy version – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5ZKOtdsM3c
3. Getting Tighter (Bolin, Hughes)
   • Speculation as to whether “tight” means “drunk.”
   • Hughes refutes this to Steve Pilkington: “Absolutely not. To me, and this was what was in my mind when I wrote the song, “Getting Tighter” was about how good can this groove get, how tight am I with that bass drum – it’s about how tight he music can be, and getting as great a groove as we possibly could.  It was a celebration of that, really, “We’re tight, we’re grooving, we’re ready to go to a club, let’s go.”
   • This was a live number.
4. Dealer (Bolin, Coverdale)
   • Bolin takes lead vocal at end of the song.
   • Hughes: “This was David’s song to me I guess; he cared for me a lot and always had his head screwed on.”
   • Bolin: “It’s about junk. It’s the best thing in the world when you have it, and the worst thing in the world when you don’t.”
   • Hughes states in “Sail Away” that he sang this song, came back to the studio and Coverdale had taken over on lead.  He says that he must’ve been voted off the track by the rest of the band.
5. I Need Love (Bolin, Coverdale)
   • Was played live on the Asian dates in 1975 but soon got dropped.
6. Drifter (Bolin, Coverdale)
   • Standard Coverdale lyrics.
   • Again played in Asia then dropped from the set.
7. Love Child (Bolin, Coverdale)
   • Lord’s funky solo.
   • Stayed in set list until the very end.
8. This Time Around/Owed to “G” (Hughes, Lord, Bolin)
   • These were two tracks recorded separately but sequenced together on the album.
   • The band always played them back to back live.
   • Lord plays all the instrumentation on “This Time Around.”
   • Hughes heard Lord playing some chords told him to stop and says they’d written it in an hour and then recorded it after that.
   • Hughes said he laid down the vocals at 2am alone in the studio with Birch.
   • Hughes, in an interview with Steve Pilkington: “What happened there was that the very same week I wrote that song I found myself getting a bit deeper into trouble with the drink and too many drugs, and all those problems and I was beginning to think “What if this is the end” , you know.  So I was kind of writing about that, being on the edge, with the world hanging in doubt, but trying to bring some love into it. I was in a pretty dark place then.’
   • Lord: “I  actually remember playing that theme on the piano one day all by myself when I was alone in the studio.  Well, I thought I was alone and then Glenn came and said: ‘What’s that?, I told: “Well, I don’t know yet, it’s the beginning of an idea.  And he said: ‘Let’s work on it!’ I think we did it in a half of hour. That’s one of my favorites.”
   • One reviewer called this: “the Purple song Stevie Wonder will wish he’d written a year from now.”
   • Bolin said in an interview that they’d toyed with calling the first part of the song Gersh and the second part Win.
   • Owed to ‘G’ written by Bolin.
   • ‘G’ is Gershwin.
9. You Keep on Moving (Coverdale, Hughes)
   • The only Coverdale, Hughes collaboration in all their time together.
   • Was one of the first tracks they wrote in 1973 but they never got to show it to Blackmore so it didn’t end up on Burn.
   • Hughes: “Yes, that was written by David and I above a Wimpy Bar in Saltburn-on-Sea, which is where he was living at the time, in August of 1973.  But Ritchie Blackmore, bless him, didn’t like “You Keep on Moving” so we had to wait until Tommy came in before we could use it. I love it, it’s one of my favorites for sure.”
   • Coverdale: “Jon wrote the chords around the ‘where angels fear to tread’ bit.
   • Bolin joins in on the line “and the cry, still returning”.
   • Released as a single but not successful.
   • Was briefly in their live set.

Reception and Review

• The work that Bolin did on the album had it carried to the live shows could have put fans’ longing for Blackmore to rest.  However, their live set was instead disjointed and inconsistent.
• “Come Taste The Band” is often forgotten or dismissed.
• After recording the album Hughes went to rehab for the first time but it wasn’t successful.
• Steve Peacock summarized the album in the weekly publication “Street Life” with the following:
  • “Riff, squark, solo, squawk . . .”
  • Come again?
  • “Solo, riff, fade . . .”
• Fanfare called it ‘the best since Machine Head.’
• NME: “probably their best since, let’s say, In Rock . . .”
• Circus magazine suggested that CTTB was a concept album “about the psychic dislocations of the rock lifestyle.”
• Hardcore Deep Purple fans were the most critical.
• Some people really loved it, unfortunately by the time fans became aware of it, it all came crashing to an end.

In The News . . .

• Glenn Hughes Cancels South American Tour
  • Due to the South American Promoter failing to fulfill the required contractual obligations, Glenn Hughes will not be touring South America this September/October.
  • Glenn’s management has been unsuccessful in reaching any solution with the Promoter and has reluctantly decided that the tour will have to be rescheduled into 2021 with a new South American partner.
  • Management are confident of securing a new tour period and will have news of this soon.
  • Read more at http://www.glennhughes.com/ctc/bulletins/glenn-hughes-south-america-tour-cancelled/#tPsFUQLRFAcY5SCo.99

• Flying Colors’ New Album “Third Degree” release date announced for October 4th
  • Casey McPherson – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards
  • Steve Morse – lead guitar
  • Neal Morse – keyboards, lead and backing vocals
  • Dave LaRue – bass
  • Mike Portnoy – drums, lead and backing vocals

This Week in Purple History . . .

September 9 through September 15

• 9/11/1989 – Ian Gillan joins Black Sabbath on stage and performs Smoke on the Water as an encore

• 9/9/2003 – Deep Purple release Bananas

• 9/12/2014 – John Gustafson dies

For Further Information:

• Deep Purple: A Matter of Fact by Jerry Bloom
• Smoke on the Water: The Deep Purple Story
• The Road of Golden Dust: The Deep Purple Story 1968-1976 by Jerry Bloom
• Deep Purple: Complete Uk Vinyl Discography 1968-1982 By Neil Priddey
• Glenn Hughes The Autobiography: From Deep Purple to Black Country Communion by Glenn Hughes
• Sail Away: Whitesnake’s Fantastic Voyage by Martin Popoff
• Touched by Magic: The Tommy Bolin Story by Greg Prato

Listener Mail/Comments

• Comments about the show? Things you’d like us to cover?  We’d love to hear from you. Send us an email at info@deeppurplepodcast.com or @ us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

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Show Updates:

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Thanks to Our Patrons:

• Clay Wombacher – $5 tier
• Steve Seaborg (Alltheworldsastage.net) – $5 tier
• Peter Gardow – $3 tier

Background:

• Born in Sioux City, Iowa on August 1, 1953 to Rich and Barbara Bolin.
• Started playing drums then later keyboards before starting guitar.  His dad got him one at Sears.
• His father took him to see Elvis and he said one day he’d be on stage like that.
• Played “Heartbreak Hotel” on “Kids Corner” and they wanted him back.
• Painted a school bus blue and started a band called “Patch of Blue” and the parents would accompany them because they weren’t old enough to play at bars.  Tommy’s dad would drive the bus wherever they would go.
• First band was at thirteen The Miserlous.
• Brad Miller, another school kid from Denny & The Triumphs recruited him to join.  Then he played in a band called Patch of Blue.
• Rule of the school was to have hair at the collar.  They had him cut it. He did and went back and they said he needed to cut above the ears.  Tommy didn’t want to cut his hair. His parents fought it and Tommy decided just to drop out.
• Dropped out of high school at the age of 16 and moved to Denver to join  a band called American Standard, later called Crosstown Bus.
• Jeff Cook tells story of them jamming and hearing him tap on the window and asking to jam.  He was 15. They almost told him to get lost but he played “Purple Haze” note for note and they let fired their guitarist and let him join the band.
• Eventually he started a band called Ethereal Zephyr which would later rebrand as just Zephyr.

• Zephyr
  • ZEPHYR featuring Tommy Bolin ‘St James Infirmary’ – Barry Richards Show
  • Bass, Backing Vocals – David Givens
  • Drums, Backing Vocals – Robbie Chamberlain*
  • Guitar, Backing Vocals – Tommy Bolin
  • Lead Vocals, Harmonica – Candy Givens
  • Piano, Organ, Flute – John Faris
• Zephyr, Sunset Ride, Going Back to Colorado.
• Tommy was annoyed with Candy and David wanting creative control.  He was furious how they mixed the “Going Back to Colorado” album and he quit in 1972.

• Tommy Bolin and Bobby Berge quit Zephyr to form Energy.  Tommy vowed never to be in a band with a female singer again.
• Energy had no vocalist at first.  Very freeform. Shunned commerciality.  Were constantly being given advice about how to appeal to more people, play covers, turn down the volume, etc.  They stayed true to what they wanted to do.
• Instrumental based on Tommy’s bad taste from Zephyr vocalist Candy Givens but eventually Jeff Cook joined on vocals.
• Energy
  • “Limits” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOinWtLXSo8
  • Bass – Stanley Sheldon
  • Congas – Bobby LaKind (tracks: 1-7)
  • Drums – Bobby Berge
  • Guitar, Vocals – Tommy Bolin
  • Keyboards – Tom Stephenson
  • Vocals – Jeff Cook
• Energy broke up in 1973 after failing to get a record contract.
• Jeff Cook in Tommy Bolin “The Ultimate” documentary tells story of how they were playing two shows in one night.  They saw the first show and the band was incredible. They told them they were as good as signed, they had a deal.  The band began celebrating between sets, drinking grain alcohol. They bombed the second show not knowing the executives stayed.  They blew it.

• Billy Cobham heard of Tommy Bolin and recruited him for his Spectrum album.
• Tommy was worried because he couldn’t read music but Cobham just wrote him out some charts and he played along.
  • Red Baron – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_wQAhBcPEU
• He was completely broke after Energy.  Joe Walsh called Tommy Bolin to ask him to replace him in The James Gang.  Jeff Cook wrote songs with him that were used in The James Gang.

• Bolin then replaced Joe Walsh in The James Gang
• Tommy told his friends he was embarrassed by the gig but if he stayed with them for a year he’d have enough money to make his own album.
• Bolin, in “Touched by Magic”: “They were tight among themselves, but it was like I was on one side of the river, and they were on the other.  For instance, if I would be doing a guitar solo, be getting inti t and all that, they would almost at points look . . . bored, y’know? They were straight-laced rock players, whereas I wanted to go out and explore other places.

• After Miami came out it began charting but Tommy was unhappy with the group and quit.
  • Wildfire – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTWKQdPD5lk
  • Bass, Backing Vocals – Dale Peters
  • Drums – Jim Fox (2)
  • Guitar, Backing Vocals – Tommy Bolin
  • Lead Vocals, Percussion – Roy Kenner

• Alphonse Mouzon “Mind Transplant”
• Bolin: “I also did the ‘Mind Transplant’ album with Alphone Mouzon.  I really like the L.P., but every tune is about a minute too long.
• Mouzon: “Tommy was a pure genius at what he did. No one played guitar like Tommy.  Tommy was always funny and making jokes. He was really happy and sincere — it all showed in his guitar playing.  He didn’t read music but it didn’t matter, because he had a special gift that allowed him to memorize melodies and chord changes immediately.  He would add harmonies to the melodies because Tommy had great ears.”
  • Snow Bound – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GMuz9qqRt4
  • Bass – Henry Davis
  • Drums – Alphonse Mouzon
  • Guitar – Tommy Bolin
  • Organ [Hammond], Electric Piano [Fender Rhodes] – Jerry Peters

• Moxy
• Earl Johnson was supposed to do all the guitar on the album but got in a huge fight with the produce who kicked him out of the studio.  Bolin was hearby and Moxy’s manager asked him to fill in. The manager, Roland PAquin, had been The James Gang’s road manager as well and knew him.
  • Moon Rider (Earl Johnson, Buzz Shearman) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaKQ2mjrXKI
  • Bass – Terry Juric
  • Drums – Bill Wade
  • Guitar – Tommy Bolin
  • Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar – Earl Johnson (5)
  • Rhythm Guitar – Buddy Caine (2)
  • Vocals – Buzz Shearman
• Earl Johnson: “Regarding Tommy — I loved his playing, but never met him personally, and wish I had.  I wrote about 95% of Moxy’s first album as the guitar player.”
• On getting thrown out of the studio: “It actually made me a better player, as I felt challenged, and knew I had to improve my playing.  Tommy had a great feel and style, and I admired him for that.”
• Coverdale loved Bolin’s work on Spectrum and Mind Transplant and wanted him in the band.
• Coverdale: “I was really impressed with his work, and I had no idea if he was a 70-year-old African American–I had no idea.”  Everyone was impressed with him so they sent out the word that they wanted to meet with him and audition him.
• Tommy Bolin had seen The California Jam and knew Smoke on the Water but was otherwise unfamiliar with the band.
• Bolin’s approach was the complete opposite of Blackmore being much more laid back, not needing musical control.  However he was given almost total control over the album.
• Blackmore: “Tommy Bolin is very good.  He’s one of the best. I think Purple will probably be quite happy with him.  He can handle a lot of stuff, including funk and jazz. Maybe they’ll turn into a rather different band, but I really don’t think so.  I think they know that if they did they’d be just another funk band . They’ll still keep to the rock side of things, I’m sure of it. In fact, the next album will probably be a lot rockier than my last record with them, Stormbringer.”

In The News . . .

• Bernie Marsden’s autobiography ‘Where’s My Guitar?’ gets full release in November
  • A fascinating insight into the golden-age of 1970s and 80s rock and roll told through the eyes of music legend Bernie Marsden and, most notably, his role in establishing one of the world’s most famous rock bands of all time – Whitesnake.
  • Bernie Marsden is a musical treasure…I don’t think people know ALL he has done and just how much he was a part of the early British rock scene to present day. It’s all in here. READ THIS BOOK!’ Steve Lukather, Toto
  • Touring with AC/DC. Befriending The Beatles. Writing one of the world’s most iconic rock songs.
  • This is the story of a young boy from a small town who dreamt of one day playing the guitar for a living – and ended up a rock n’ roll legend.
  • It follows Bernie Marsden’s astonishing career in the industry – from tours in Cold War Germany and Franco’s Spain, to meeting and befriending George Harrison and touring Europe with AC/DC. It’s a story of hard graft, of life on the road, of meeting and playing with your heroes, of writing iconic rock songs – most notably the multi-million selling hit ‘Here I Go Again’ – and of being in one of the biggest rock bands of all time. At age 30, Bernie left Whitesnake due to serious conflict with his management, something he explores in this memoir for the very first time.
  • Packed with stories and encounters with the likes of Ringo Starr, Elton John, Cozy Powell, Ozzy Osborne, B.B. King and Jon Lord, this is not just a remarkable look into the highs and lows of being a true music legend, but an intimate account of the revolutionary impact rock and roll music has offered to the world.

This Week in Purple History . . .

September 2 through September 8

• 9/5/1945 – Mick Underwood is born

• 9/4 & 9/6 1986 – Nobody’s Perfect Live Performances

• 9/3/2010 – Blackmore’s Night Releases Autumn Sky

For Further Information:

• Deep Purple: A Matter of Fact by Jerry Bloom
• Smoke on the Water: The Deep Purple Story
• The Road of Golden Dust: The Deep Purple Story 1968-1976 by Jerry Bloom
• Touched by Magic: The Tommy Bolin Story by Greg Prato
• Tommy Bolin The Ultimate Special from Music Link

Listener Mail/Comments

• Comments about the show? Things you’d like us to cover?  We’d love to hear from you. Send us an email at info@deeppurplepodcast.com or @ us on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.