Posted on by Nathan Beaudry

Episode #261 – Deep Purple – Rapture of the Deep (Part 2)

Link to video episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMq__M43r1s

Note: Video for episode ACCIDENTALLY not recorded! Listen to the audio-only YouTube version or click a link for an audio feed below.

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

How To Support Our Show:

The Deep Purple Podcast is 100% listener supported and ad-free! If you receive value from our show please consider supporting us!

Brendan Ashbrook – Logo Designer

New Patron/Patron Upgrades:

  • I See DC – Upgrade to David “Mikestand” Coverdale Tier – $1.50

Thanks to Our Executive Level Patrons:

  • The “In Memorium” Tier
    • Gerald “Jerry” Kelly & Family
  • The $25 “Uncommon Man” Tier
    • Ovais Naqvi
    • Purple Maniac
  • The £15 “”Fifteen Squid” Tier
    • Alan “Ain’t Too Proud To” Begg
  • The £10 “Good Doctor” Tier
    • Dr. Mike Kattan
  • The Turn it up to $11 Tier
    • Clay Wombacher
    • Frank Theilgaard-Mortensen
    • Mikkel Steen
    • Will Porter, PhDPP
    • Michael Bagford
  • $10 “Some One Came” Tier
    • Ryan M
    • Jeff Breis
    • Victor Campos
    • “Better Call” Saul Evans
    • Peter from Illinois
  • The “Hughes-O-Ween by 2033” Tier
    • Fielding Fowler

Upcoming Shows:

Upcoming Rankings Show:

  • Deep Purple (The Third Album)
    • Patron rankings needed by July 21st
    • Become a patron if you want to be invited to the live stream and submit your rankings!

Deep Dive Podcast Network:

Check out our website to find other like-minded shows taking deep dives into individual songs, bands, and albums.

Album Tracks:

  1. Back to Back
    • IG: “[1] There really was a survey in the England to determine the number of times per day that the average man thought about sex – really! Now, I don’t know what kind of focus group they used or what the people with the clipboards actually looked like – did the sponsors think of that? But it turns out – they came to the dubious conclusion – that the average man thinks about sex a certain number of times a day – it really doesn’t matter for the purpose of this song, so I chose five, arbitrarily; why am I explaining this? So I said to the focus group around my kitchen table ‘I can’t understand how the average man keeps losing concentration.’ (Ian Gillan)”
  2. Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye
    • MTV* (European Special Edition Track)
      • Roger Glover: I went to a radio station when Bananas came out and did a long, in depth interview about Bananas and Don and Bradford and all the interest in the new album. And the guy says, “It’s been great having Roger Glover in the studio. Now let’s hear some music.” And then [sings the famous first few notes of “Smoke On The Water” and sighs deeply]. I know I shouldn’t complain about people playing our records. It’s just frustrating when they play the same two or three all the time.
      • Ian Gillan:”It´s really about classic rock radio. I come to the conclusion that more traffic accidents are caused by classic rock radio than by drink driving – because people are falling asleep at the wheel through total boredom because they play the same old songs over and over again! – And so there´s another little story behind it: Roger was doing an interview in an upstate New York radio station for half an hour and he was talking about the album “Bananas”, but the girls kept going back to old historical classic rock things and at the end of the interview she said: Good luck with the new album – and thanks for coming in – and here is some Deep Purple, yeah: “Smoke On The Water”! – And they didn´t play the new record. I think it´s a very healthy attitude to be disrespectful of these things and poke a little fun at them.”
      • Gillan in an interview being asked if there was a chance of Deep Purple being on MTV again. IG: No chance at all! In fact, the interesting thing is that after this last tour, we played about 38 countries and to millions of people, and the average age of our audience is 18 years old!
      • Well, that´s what I said to my daughter when she came out of Wembley. I said “Who let all the kids in, Grace?” And she said “Dad, you just don´t get it do you?”. Well, that´s nice, but 20 years ago when MTV is in its infancy, they swore they would never play any Deep Purple records because we were too old then. So, actually the song is not about MTV! The song is about classic rock radio and I was listening to a radio station in Buffalo, New York when Roger Glover was on. We were touring and I was staying at a friend´s house and…you can get the whole story if you go on my website gillan.com. But she (radio dj) was not in the slightest bit interested in talking about “Bananas”. He was on for about 20 minutes and everytime he started talking about the reasons for the tour, the new record, she was going “Yeah, tell us about this and tell us about that!”. She did not want to talk about it and in the end as she finished the interview she said “Yeah, Roger Grover, lead guitar, Deep Purple, Smoke on the water yeah!”. She got everything wrong and I thought “My God, it´s happening to radio as well!”. Once you´ve had your time in terms of the people who design these categorys, then you might as well be dead as far as they´re concerned. We know in our hearts that this band is very vibrant, performing to young audiences, totally sold out everywhere we go…in the major venues, but somehow it seems divorced from the industry. So they think we´re dead, so let´s poke them. So I´m poking them with some fun with the lyrics. I know a lot of people in the musicbusiness so I´m not being that wicked. Just a little bit.
    • Junkyard Blues
      • Deep Purple interview – Ian Gillan 2005 (part 2)
      • “The junkyard blues sound sound familiar I’m never alone always reminds me of home.”
      • “I spent a lot of time in junkyards when I was a kid. I used to sleep in old cars and stuff like that after going to parties and used to rake around in the junkyards looking for old bits and pieces.  Even when we were kids we used to go to junkyards looking for old wheels and bits of metal and his lumps of wood to make the toys and make trolleys and stuff like that. At the White City there was a huge junkyard and scrap metal yard and cars and trash cars and whatever needs to find all kinds of stuff there.  And always ran out of money I could never afford the fare home so I’d walk half way and if it start raining or whatever I’d climb into one of these old cars and you could smell the leather and you know maybe another car crash or been dumped by somebody thrown away and you started thinking about these were people’s possessions. At one time and they were good for something another good for nothing but at least they gave me a place to sleep during the night okay.”
    • Before Time Began
      • Deep Purple interview – Ian Gillan 2005 (part 3)
      • The interviewer says, “There was one song about religion.”  Gillan corrects him and says, “There are six.”
      • “Um well you know I can I explain this.  I the early, in the stone age if you like, that the beginning of time when humans had started becoming families and tribes there would be a chief of the tribe or a matriarch or a leader of the tribe.  The equivalent now would be a president or prime minister or a dictator who looks after affairs of the state and your corporate well-being.  About the same time — almost immediately — emerged what would you say the witch doctor, who took care of the mind the spirit and the soul and the equivalent of witch doctor today would be the vicar or the priest or the mother or the rabbi. Charles Darwin was so scared of publishing his papers on the origin of the species and the theory of evolution that he kept them secret for 20 years because he was scared of the church.  Same happened with them Galileo Antonin.  Presenting the ideas of that were alien that the church didn’t agree with.  Every day I’m looking across the water to Northern Ireland and then murdering the bejesus out of each other, the Catholics and a Protestants, and the Christians they worship the same God.  Shiites and and Sunnis doing the same thing.  When I was at school, when I, the early days of going to church and I went to Bible studies to go to confirmation.  I used to be a boy’s soprano in the church choir.  I used to go once or twice a week to file the stubs the vicar the local show for confirmation classes as they were called.  And, uh, I started asking questions about the virgin birth,, about the resurrection about the gospel truth and he would say, “have faith my son.”  And I started at that time to employ my mind into trying to understand what this was all about and he gave me all the wrong answers. And then I realized the Bible was written by men.  This when I was 12 years old. I realized the Bible was written by men it wasn’t written by God that they were trying to persuade me it was.  Or that God had inspired these people to.  And as far as I know all the other religious books were written by men too. I think it’s about time when we look at the expansion of the human population on this planet.  The rate of expansion that we have at the moment and look at the projected population figures for 50 years time and tremble.  It’s terrifying to think what lies ahead.  We’re not genetically programmed to reduce or reverse or slow down our multiplication.”
      • “The only way I think that we can we have to go is to reclaim our intellectual approach to the thing that we know best but we’ve never been allowed to study and that is our soul and our spirit.  There’s no surgeon with a knife opened somebody’s head and said oh I’ve discovered the human spirit or the heart and so I’ve discovered the soul.  Nobody even really understands how the memory works.  And they’re only just beginning to hypothesize on the way [??] sense of smell works. I know what you’re thinking, not word for word, but I can tell the same as you can with anyone about the whether you’re having an interesting conversation or whether it’s rejection or it’s an open conversation.  You can tell the atmosphere when you walk into a room.  A mother clutches her heart at the exact moment that has son falls dead on a distant battlefield.  And we’ve all experienced these things and we all know that our minds have an extended value and yet we’re, not.  It’s heresy if you start talking about it.  If I had said this in another country it’s quite likely somebody would come out and chop my head off.  I’d said it 300 years ago in another I’d probably have been, have my head chopped off.  That’s how terrifying religion is, that’s how brutal it is and that’s how stifling it is on our characters and that’s what all these songs are about.”
      • Ian Paice: “You never know, “Before Time Began” might turn into something wonderful on stage. But, those two or three [referring to Rapture of the Deep and Money Talks, and Wrong Man], I think they have the spark inside them, which connect immediately to people.”
    • Things I Never Said* (Japanese Bonus Track)
      • https://deeppurple.com/blogs/news/ian-gillan-interview-2007
      • How come “Things I never Said” was not included in “Rapture of the Deep” album despite the fact that this song is being performed live at just about every show?
      • IG: Sorry?  It’s not on the album? It sure is!
      • –Actually, it was not on the original U.S. release.  It finally came out here when the tour edition of the album was released on the second bonus CD.
      • IG: Oh, I have no idea what’s on what anymore (laughs).  Apparently, there’s a new Deep Purple DVD out and I didn’t even know about that, so there you go. (laughs)
      • –That song by the way is one of my favorite tracks on the album and I’m glad it’s being played live.
      • IG: Good! It’s a wonderful transition from 6/8 rhythm into a swing, a 4/4 swing, and it’s a very clever transition.  It works very well on stage and starts the set off in one of those embracing ways musically.  There’s no break between the first four or five songs.  We just go, bang, bang, bang, and it works very well.
      • Ian Paice: “Yeah, there is not one bad track there, but you get caught in a situation were you have to hold one back for the Japanese. It’s not the track I would have left off. We couldn’t make our mind up which track had to go off, so in the end, we just left it to the record company. We all had different ideas, so you know in the end four of us, maybe all of us, won’t be happy. Who knows? <laughs>”

    Thanks to Our Core Level Patrons:

    • The $7.77 KeepItWarmRat Tier
      • Michael Vader
    • The $6.99 “New Nice Price” Tier
      • Spike the Rock Cat
      • Sugar T
    • The Episode $6.66 Tier
      • Steve Coldwell
      • Arthur Smith
      • Anton Glaving
      • Charles Meadows
    • The $6.65 “Almost Evil” Tier
      • Kenny Wymore
      • Richie Sucksmith
    • The $6.00 “What’s Goin’ On Here” Tier
      • Richard Fusey
    • $5.99 The “Nice Price” Tier
      • Robert Smith
      • Karl Hellberg
    • The 60 Kroner “Scandinavian Nights” Tier
      • Knut Morten Johansen – 
    • $5 “Money Lender” Tier
      • John Convery
      • German Heindl
      • Adrian Hernandez
      • Jesper Almén
      • Oleksiy The Perfect Stranger Slyepukhov
      • Kev Roberts
      • Percival Frequency
      • Scott Zerns
      • Cynthia Dube
      • Raff Kaff
      • Coyote Bongwater
      • John Miceli

    Bustin’ Out The Spreadsheet

    Reception and Charts:

    • The album peaked on Billboard‘s US Top Independent Albums chart at position No. 43.[11] In the US, the album sold 2500 copies during the first week. In the UK, the album sold 3500 copies during the first week and 1200 copies during the week after.[12] It also made the top 20 in several European charts. The title track “Rapture of the Deep” was released as a promo single in 2005.
    • Ian Gillan: ““We moved on with this record, which I still call an album, because an album is a collection of songs or photographs or experiences which represent one specific time in your life or with a group of people. And I think it should be the same with a rock band.”
    • Ian Gillan (in an interview with Bankrate.com): “Ian Gillan: It’s completely fresh. In fact, this is one of the most enjoyable records, in a creative sense, we’ve ever done — very similar to how we worked in ’69 and ’70. The band was very hot, and there was not a single note or word written or preconceived notion of how the album would be.”
    • Ian Paice (From interview with Benny Holstrom): Obviously I think it’s very good. I think that four, five of the tracks have the possibility to become classic Deep Purple songs — because we don’t decide that, the audience do — but there is some very, very good stuff there. The album was very easy to make and very quick; and when the recording is easy and fast, it usually means that the songs are correct, that you are not trying to create, trying to find something which is not in the song.
    • The whole thing — writing, arranging, and recording the base tracks – was three weeks, which is very quick. And in the same way that “In Rock” was very quick, “Machine Head” was very quick. Those sorts of records tend to have immediacy and a feeling that communicates to people who listen to them. Whereas with some of the records which take a long time, you may end up with perfect tracks, but you’ve lost a little bit of the soul and the heart which you had when you first started to record it.
    • Because every one of these things has either take one, two or three, and that’s when you still have the excitement to play something new. Once you have played it fifteen, twenty, twenty-five times, to get it perfect, you may end with five minutes of really perfect boring nonsense, as opposed to that first take that was five minutes of pure magic, but maybe not perfect. So everything that we kept was when we were still physically excited about playing something new, and when the actual take wasn’t perfect, it was good enough that you could fix a little bit so it became perfect, instead of going over and over to fix something which isn’t there.
    • And so, to me, the record is very immediate, and as I said four or five tracks — you almost know straight away, as soon as you’ve heard it once, you sort of know what it is, it’s inside your head. But making a record nowadays is, you know, you’re in the lap of the gods, whether it is accepted or not accepted by people, because music is not the driving force it used to be for the public. They have many other things that they do, whereas thirty years ago, for young people music was everything. You know, waiting for the next record, you waited for the next big band to come to town. Now people travel, have internet — they spend more money on bloody ring tones than they do on records. So it’s different, but all you can do is try to make the best record you can and hope you connect with enough people. That the album generates enough interest and income for things to be able to continue. There are some records you hope is gonna be ok. This one I know is ok.
    • Ian Paice on working with Michael Bradford again:
      • THS: How was it to work with Michael Bradford again?
      • IP: Easier this time than the last time, and the last time was easy.
      • THS: Because then he was the new guy?
      • IP: Yeah, Michael’s musical input was a lot less on this record. We didn’t need any of his ideas for songs, because we were just coming up with so much, plus I think Michael’s been very, very busy anyway, so I don’t think he was in a position to stop on any ideas that we may have liked. But as I said, that wasn’t necessary anyway. Michael’s contribution on this record was one of, again, getting the work ethic correct, so that we would work efficiently — not crazy, but every day was a productive day. There wasn’t a bad day, where you went home or didn’t achieve anything, they were always great days.
      • Occasionally he would stick his head around the corner from the control room and say “you don’t need to do that bit twice, just do it once”. Because you’re inside, you don’t see the big picture. Those in the control room, though — he would go, “no, don’t, don’t need to”. He would just be adding little ideas about the arrangement of things, “you don’t need to do that” or “that shouldn’t stop there, you should add just little time there” and that was basically his musical input on that level. But of course it’s the sound he achieves that you’ve got him there for, you know, and it’s a good sounding record.
      • THS: And the choice of studio; you also worked in his studio this time.
      • IP: Yeah, the studio is by his house. That’s the only negative. I mean because it’s in his house. His family don’t think he is away working, they always phoning him up and doing things like that. I have never worked in a studio that small with Purple, it’s probably the size of this room here <indicating the lobby where the interview is being done>. Maybe a fraction bigger, but not much. When we were recording the tracks, basically the drums had the whole studio and all the other instruments were in isolation booths, so that wasn’t a big room. It’s a good sounding room. It’s a very hard sounding room, so it captures the drums in a very natural way, it’s quite easy. I didn’t have to mess around with the drums at all, just hit them properly and sound came out.
    • Gillan: “Even, for example, on the last album ‘Rapture of the Deep’ there was no master plan. Nothing had been written in advance, no scraps of lyric or even a song title. We had no idea what lay ahead.
    • We turned up in L.A., someone put on the kettle. We enquired politely about the families back home and discussed the prospects of Sunderland, Nottingham Forest and QPR in the forthcoming football season. Having dealt with the niceties, we dutifully trooped out of the kitchen and picked up our instruments – in my case a pencil. We jammed for a few hours every day – usually from about 1.00-6.00PM – until the record was done a few weeks later.
    • Roger: “With ‘Rapture Of The Deep’ in particular, we’ve really clicked with this one. There’s a real harmony and respect for each other. This album was a joy to make and it was great to push each other too.”
    • ROTD sales in the USA and UK
    • Reports from the USA say that Deep Purple’s new album “Rapture of the Deep” sold 2500 copies during it’s first week in the shops. In the UK, the album sold 3500 copies the first week and 1200 copies the week after. This took the album to #81 in the charts first week and #184 the week after.
      • A user in the Deep Purple Fan Forum has compiled chart information from the world. Here is the list over which place in the charts “Rapture of the Deep” debuted in each country:
      • Germany: 10
      • Finland: 11
      • Swiss: 16
      • Austria: 20
      • Sweden: 22
      • Italy: 26
      • Czech Republic: 32
      • Poland: 40
      • England: 81
    • “Rapture of the Deep” jumps straight into number 3 in BBC Radio 1 Top 40 Rock Albums. In Sweden, the album went premiered at number 22 on the Swedish album sales chart. In Germany, the album debuted at number 10 but dropped out of the top 25 the week after.
    • Thanks to Bjørn Sund for the BBC information.
    • Roger: “”I love “Bananas”, it got played more than any other Deep Purple record in the history of my home, and with my friends! But it was another transition, because it was the first record made with Don Airey and I think at that time he was considered probably more just moving in to replace on Lord. And I think on this record he is a lot bolder. He made a big contribution to “Bananas”, but I think his personality has emerged over the last couple of years on the road and consequently that has a knock on effect with the other guys in he band. And it´s created that wonderful balance between Don Airey´s organ and Steve Morse´s guitar. Perhaps the last album was more in favour of the guitar – this one is more balanced, I think.”

    Reviews

    • Darker Than Blue Issue 58   July 2007
    • https://web.archive.org/web/20060116043819/http://classicrock.about.com/od/artistsaf/fr/deep_rapture.htm
    • https://www.allmusic.com/album/rapture-of-the-deep-mw0000703026
    • https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/wnjw/
    • https://bravewords.com/reviews/deep-purple-rapture-of-the-deep
    • https://drownedinsound.com/releases/6757/reviews/477537-deep-purple-rapture-of-the-deep
    • https://www.popmatters.com/deeppurple-rapture-2495873557.html
    • Rapture of the Deep – reviews (from Øyvind)
      • From a paper called VG: https://www.vg.no/rampelys/musikk/i/xRArgX/deep-purple-rapture-of-the-deep+ (25 October 2005)
      • Two out of six
      • “As recording artists, Deep Purple has hardly released a brilliant record since the grossly underrated “Burn” in 1974 (highly recommended!), but now the needle points dangerously close to the low point. Ritchie Blackmore first disappeared (Steve Morse took his place), and since last Jon Lord is also gone (replaced by Don Airey). In other words, Deep Purple is far from the songwriting collective it once was, and it doesn’t get any better because Ian Gilian’s voice seems both dull and not overly engaged on a record that lacks most of what a good hard rock record should have, not least good tunes.”
      • From a magazine called PULS (yes, the same as “pulse”), 7 November 2005: Musikkavisen Puls: Deep Purple: Rapture Of The Deep Musikkavisen Puls: Deep Purple: Rapture Of The Deep
      • “Deep Purple has no plans to give up. The band, who made their record debut in 1968, have changed labels, and are here with their second record since Jon Lord packed up his Hammond organ and left. With three out of five of the classic crew in the ranks, Purple still limps along. However, the rest of the line-up are no slouch either, with Steve Morse celebrating his 10th anniversary as Deep Purple guitarist this year. Jon Lord has been replaced by Don Airey, who has worked for Ozzy Osbourne, Rainbow and Jethro Tull. It’s been two years since Bananas, which was recorded with the same line-up that drew a full house in Oslo Spektrum the same year. And where Steve Morse pulls in a completely different direction than his predecessor Ritchie Blackmore, last seen in a Robin Hood costume on Sentrum Stage the other day, Don Airey is more Jon Lord-oriented to keep the Deep Purple sound. Rapture Of The Deep is also a little bit rockier than its predecessor, recorded with Michael Bradford again in the producer’s chair. “Money Talks” opens with a completely ordinary Purple groove, and with a Steve Morse repeating himself with triplets, triplets and triplets again. The man Gillan, Glover and Paice refer to as a complete guitar virtuoso is definitely stuck, and here seems less inspired than ever in Deep Purple. There is one exception, however, and that is in the song Ritchie Blackmore would never have had his hands on. “Clearly Quite Absurd” has an impressive chord sequence with many antics that Morse has glued together to a sweepingly great ballad that lifts the album. And imagine a ballad making it onto a Deep Purple album, 35 years after “Child In Time”. Because where Deep Purple has rocked on and seemed invincible from before, they repeat themselves again with guitar riffs doubled with Hammond organ and a 60-year-old Ian Gillan doing his best on top. On “Girls Like That” the primal scream comes for the first time, and it’s not pretty. Incidentally, a song where they surprise you a little with a catchy chorus with a lot of back-up singing. The rest is autopilot from a band that will probably deliver what they need on the upcoming tour with several classics on the setlist. But I doubt whether the 2nd division songs “Back To Back”, “Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye” and “MTV” will make it there. On January 30, Deep Purple will play in Oslo Spektrum.”
    • From a metal site called Arctic Metal: DEEP PURPLE Rapture Of The Deep | Album Review (arcticmetal.no)
    • 8 out of 10
    • “I have always been of the opinion that Richie Blackmore and Jon Lord have been the most essential pieces in Deep Purple’s unique sound, so the skepticism was relatively great for this release, where both of them shine with their absence. However, the record is very good and I now realize that both Gillan, Glover and Paice are more important elements in the Deep Purple sound than both I and perhaps others with me had thought. Also, both Steve Morse and Don Airey put in a solid piece of work on ‘Rapture of the deep’. It seems as if the band has played and experimented more than in a long time this time, and now and then I get little flashbacks to releases like ‘In rock’ and ‘Fireball’. Yes, Deep Purple has released many albums that surpass this one in terms of quality, but ‘Rapture of the deep’ is just as much a strong album that proves that the band has the right of life even if the calendar says 2005. Have been playing the album apart and together recently and I actually just like it better and better.”

    Thanks To Our Foundation Level Patrons:

    • £3.50 “Deep Purple NY” Tier
      • Lord Longford
    • The £3 “The Aromatic Feed” Tier
      • Simon Ford
      • Richard Breese
    • The $3.33 Half Way to Evil Tier
      • Stephen Sharpe
      • Duncan Leask
    • $3 “Nobody’s Perfect” Tier
      • Peter Gardow
      • Ian Desrosiers
      • Mark Roback
      • Stuart McCord
      • Flight of the Rat Bat Blue Light
      • Øyvind Fjeldbu –
      • Runar Simonsen –
      • JJ Stannard
      • Ruinous Inadequacies
      • Michael Boyette
      • Corey Morrissette
      • Ashely { Still I hear, “Burn” } Rose
    • The $1.71 “I Want My Own Tier” Tier
      • Rich “Yngwie” Shailor
    • The $1.50 David “Mic Stand” Coverdale Tier
      • I See DC
    • The 10 kr “” Tier
      • Carsten Lau
    • $1 Made Up Name Tier
      • The “Rapture of the Leak” Leaky Mausoleum
      • The “Before Slime Began” Leaky Mausoleum
      • Stephen Sommerville The Concerto 1999 Fanatic
      • Hank the Tank
      • Private Eyes
      • Ashen Lionel
      • Blackmore’s Tights
      • Steve “Down to Earth” Koeller
      • Zwopper The Electric Alchemist
      • Anders Engstrom
      • Durple Purple
      • Purple Swede

    Merch, Etc.

    • Jeff Breis’s Collection

    For Further Information:

    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.

    Leave a Reply