Posted on by Nathan Beaudry

Episode #150 – Deep Purple – Slaves and Masters (Part 1)

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  • Hans Lilja (Hank The Tank) – 5 Stars!
  • Hey! I wanted to leave a 5 star, but I can’t connect to Apple bla bla bla.. So, if this counts I’ll do it here. I really enjoy your show and I really want to hear that flexitone? or whatever the the name is.
  • It’s actually the only pod (besides Popoff) I listen to. Old (as fuck) Purple fan so I enjoy you guys talking about what I belive is the best band ever. Therefore, 5 star of course. Keep up the good work. Cheers
  • P.S. I started to play the drums because of Ian Paice.

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  • Runar Simonsen – Joining at the $3 “Nobody’s Perfect” Tier
  • I started listening to your show late last summer. Went on Spotify and wondered if there was a DP podcast and boy am I glad you called it ‘The Deep Purple Podcast’! Or else I don’t think I would have found you guys so easily. Never listened to a podcast before so you guys are my first.
  • Love the show! Nice to hear you discuss the music, musicians, events surrounding the different bands and recordings and the interviews with the musicians! 
  • I got into Deep Purple through my parents who both are in their late 50’s. I’m 32. 
  • My dad had made a mixed CD to my mom that she played in the car with songs from mark 2, 3 and 5. 
  • It was about 99/00 that I heard Jon Lord’s intro to Knocking At Your Back Door from Nobody’s Perfect and from that moment I was hooked. I went through every CD and LP that my parents owned.
  • In Rock (this I did not listen to!), Fireball, Machine Head, Burn, Stormbringer, Perfect Strangers, House Of Blue Light, Slaves and Masters, Battle Rages On, Purpendicular and Abandon. A couple of compilations and Nobody’s Perfect.
  • By the time I was 15 in 2004 I owned every studio album that they had released on CD. I bought In Rock that summer and I had heard Speed King, Child In Time and Black Night from the 24 Carat Purple compilation record before. 
  • But when I played In Rock in it’s entirety for the first time… I mean.. Come on! What. A. Record! The intensity of the band, Gillan’s singing, Jon and Ritchie’s solos! 
  • Bad production or not, it’s a epic and a groundbreaking record. 
  • Played that record on repeat the whole summer. 
  • Also! I can’t wait until you get to the Morse and Lord era of the band. Killer albums!
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  • No matter what, I love your show and I enjoy listening to you guys and your guest host.
  • Keep up the good work and I’m exited for the next episode!
  • Cheers.

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Lead up to the Album:

  • Gillan says that with “House of Blue Light” that as long as Blackmore was happy with the guitar parts then everyone was happen. Ian says that wasn’t good enough for him.
  • While RItchie recovered from a broken finger (the result of misjudging his timing when catching his guitar) Ian and Roger went to work on “Accidentally on Purpose.”
  • Gillan said that when the tour resumed that the spark had gone.
  • They had an odd route through their European tour and when asked about why at a press conference Ian Gillan said, “Because Bruce Payne is an asshole.” Something he regretted and said out of frustration.
  • Things were very tense between Gillan and Blackmore.  It all came to a head when Ritchie burst into Ian’s room holding a plate of spaghetti which had been covered in ketchup.  Given the tension between the two Blackmore assumed it was Gillan.  He said, “Did you do this?”  Gilland says before he could answer Blackmore had smashed the plate into Ian’s face “as if it were a custard pie.”
  • Gillan claims at that point Blackmore started dancing around holding up his fists and saying, “Come on! Come on!” To which Gillan replied, “I don’t want to hit you, Ritchie.”  He said he turned around and went into the bathroom where he cried with frustration.  He said, “I quit” out loud then changed his mind.
  • Ian had already started working on his side project “Garth Rockett and the Moonshiners” and there was the sense he wasn’t giving his all to Deep Purple.
  • After this they worked on Nobody’s Perfect.
  • After this Deep Purple returned to Stowe for sessions and Ian was invited not to attend.
  • Ian said he finally did show up at the sessions but ended up at the bar and was drinking very heavily.
  • Gillan burst in on Blackmore and his girlfriend who were having a fight and ended up falling onto a sofa and knocking over a huge glass shelf.  He was wearing nothing.
  • Darker Than Blue #38 for November 1989:
    • Article describing “Vocalist Wanted” advertisements in Kerrang! And speculating they may be for Deep Purple.  They’d previously speculated about Brian Howe from Bad Company being a potential vocalist.
    • Blackmore ended up playing on Howe’s solo album which Darker Than Blue said: “. . . to be cringingly called “Howe’d Business” (guaranteed to git it bargain bin status within weeks!)”
    • They also go on to say that Joe Lynn Turner has been on people’s minds as well as Ronnie Dio. Interestingly the Dio rumor came from none other than Don Airey who said he’d heard Dio was auditioning while he was woring with Whitesnake.
    • Coverdale also came to mind quickly to reprise his role replacing Gillan.  Whitrsnake wasn’t exactly stable but their latest album “Slip of the Tongue” was selling quite well.
    • Doug Pinnick of Kings X was also considered.
    • Word from MTV was that JLT had turned the job down.
    • Rumors were that Paul Rodgers auditioned and was “found lacking.”  Hard to believe with Blackmore’s admiration for Rodgers.
    • Jimmy Barnes was rumored to have taken the job as well.
    • The next name was Kal Swan from the band Lion.
    • Jamie Jamison from Survivor was another rumored name.
    • According to Sounds magazine Gillan was fired.  According to NME Gillan quit.
    • Jon said he’d like to work with Colin Hodgkinson again but couldn’t due to the BMG contract running until 1991.  There were so many delays from Deep Purple that Jon Lord ended up touring with him anyway with John Mayall.
    • Simon Robinson says that seeing JLT do Deep Purple material  made himn think they’d need to really rework the set to make it work.  HE said this is ironic considering this seemed to be the main stickign point with Gillan who really wanted to rework things.
  • ++++ Black Knight
  • Tensions were rising between Deep Purple and Polygram. In interviews Jon Lord said they got the impression that Polygram did not consider Deep Purple to be a current group.
  • IT was decided in 1989 they would take a break from touring and focus on a new album.
  • Lord stated they had six nearly completed songs and another six that they were working on.
  • Blackmore wanted this album to go into a more commercial direction.  Gillan wanted it to be something a little more quirky.
  • Gillan wanted to record in a New York studio.  Blackmore hated the idea and Lord said, “The idea of recording in New York fills me with dread.  This upset Gillan and lead to Blackmore calling a recording session without Gillan.
  • Raymond D’Addario: “You almost thought tha tIan wanted to be kicked out.  That’s the impression I got.”
  • Artie Hoar: “I was there when Gillan got fired. WE were in Vermont and Deep Purple was rehearsing. Rich and all of the other band members (except for Roger) went home without telling Gillan that he was going tobe replaced. I left with Rich so I guess Roger told him he was out.”
  • Blackmore had lead the charge in ousting Gillan but the rest of the band backed his decision.
  • Lord: “Ritchie is like a terrier or pit-bul, he gets hold of something and won’t let go. HE ahs a vision of what he wants, and he’ll fight and fight until he gets what he wants. He’s rarely wrong, and if he is wrong, he’ll admit it with utmost graciousness. Until he’s proven wrong, he won’t budge. I love him the way he is.”
  • Roger said in an interview in Kerrang! “Sacking Ian Gillan was not personality clash, it was not about behaviour, it was a decision taken by all of us in the band, however painful that was.”
    • Glover goes on to say it was a difference in songwriting. Gillan wanted to go in a different direction.  He also says it’s painful to talk about and they are still great friends but that his dismissal was necessary.  He concludes with: “In many ways, I miss him a lot.”
  • At a video shoot for MTV Jon Lord said he was glad that Ian had left and said it had gotten “as bad as it was the first time he left.” This caused Bruce Payne to shake his head as this was done on camera.  Several sources cite this including the Kerrang interview with Roger Glover as well as a few of the books.
  • In Colin Hart’s book “A Hart Life” he mentions that Bruce Payne sided with whoever had the most power in the band. At this moment it was Ritchie.  That would change in the future.
  • BMG was not happy about this change as they’d signed the Mark 2 lineup and now they did not have their signature singer to record their next album.
  • The remaining four members did not have any particular singer in mind to replace Gillan.  They auditioned potential singers.
  • It was during this period that Ritchie met Candice Isralow at a charity soccer match.
  • Jon took the opportunity to team up with Pete York and Tony Ashton and others and they toured Germany under the name Olympic Rock and Blues Circus. By the time the tour ended they still didn’t have a singer.
  • Some singers that were auditioned included Jimi Jamieson and Terry Brock.  The former was the singer in Survivor and allegedly was offered the job but refused it at the advice of his management.  Jon Lord said that’s who he really wanted but that Jimi was afraid of his managers.  He said they were “Italo-Americans; that says enough.” Brock was less well known from a band called Strangeways. There were rumors that he and Blackmore had a big altercation with Brock walking out.
  • Jimi Jamieson turned down the band, opting to go with a solo career.  He ended up doing the theme song for Baywatch.  In Colin Hart’s book he says, “Good choice, Jimi!”
  • It was at this point that Blackmore suggested Joe Lynn Turner. The other band members were initially not interested in this idea but eventually they relented, perhaps due to Ritchie’s pit-bull tendencies.
  • When Roger first heard of the idea his first reaction was “No Way! Absolutely Not!”  He went on to say that it wasn’t for any personal reasons but he just felt it was the wrong move.  He said he though the “Deep Rainbow” criticisms would be “flying thick and fast.”
  • Jerry Bloom states in Issue #32 of “More Black Than Purple” that these complaints could have been nullified given Lord and Paice joining Whitesnake and the sound staying relatively the same.  I would contest that that may have had something to do with neither of them taking much of a songwriting place with that band.
  • In a 1984 interview with Mick Wall Blackmore talks about the differences between Rainbow and Deep Purple.  “. . . I feel that although Rainbow did some good stuff, it didn’t ever have the identity that Purple has.”  He goes on to say that in Rainbow he was able to have everything exactly how he wanted it but it didn’t seem to appeal to the masses.  He admitted that him in 100% control didn’t equal the best results.  He then goes on to compliment Gillan: “Ian Gillan . . . will come up with melodies and lyrics to things I’ve written which I would never have thought of. That’s part of the chemistry and magic of Purple. Nobody has a voice like Ian Gillan’s and you can’t say that about the Journeys, Foreigners, Survivors or Rainbows.”
  • Joe says that when he walked in to her audition the band was playing and Ritchie went into “Hey Joe” by Hendrix and Turner got right on the mic.  It’s alleged that Roger Glover has a recording of this in his session tapes.  He goes on in Kerrang to say “I recorded that, I have it on a 12-track, and it was really good. One day I’d like to release that.”
  • Glover in Kerrang: “I don’t think the real test is how well Joe performs the old songs, it’s how well he performs the new songs and how much of a career we forge from here . . .”
    • Glover goes on to talk about whole Who Do We Think We Are didn’t produce any songs that translated into live numbers so they just went back to Machine Head which is just Made in Japan.  He really wanted to focus on getting back to some old 
  • Joe Lynn Turner goes on in interviews about how Ritchie was the band leader, he sided with Ritchie, and Roger and the others sort of did their own thing.  JLT has some somewhat unfavorable things to say about working with Jon Lord, a rarity in Deep Purple circles.  “I can remember Jon saying ‘Love Conquers All’ was shit and it wasn’t a good song and I said, ‘If you play it right I’m gonna sing the hell out of it and it’s going to be a great power ballad so just shut the fuck up and get started.”  He goes on to say that Ritchie had been wanting to say that to Jon for years
  • JLT described Lord as being critical but not very involved in the writing “Jon would never write and he’d be sitting there drinking his glass of wine reading his book listening to classical music.”
  • Despite the fight with Gillan about recording studios they ended up at Greg Rike Productions in Orlando, Florida to record “Slaves and Masters.”
  • This was their first time in a proper studio to record an album since “Come Taste The Band.”  Wonder if this made Gillan mad?
  • In an interview in Metal Hammer from December 1990 Jon Lord says (about why they went with an established singer instead of someone new like they’d done with Coverdale): “We area band of a certain age. And most singers we got audition tapes from were guys of 20-22 years. And two things would happen if we took a guy of that age. One it would look wrong. And two the poor guy would not stand the chance.”  He goes on to say that a young, inexperienced singer wouldn’t be able to “control the band from the front.”
  • Jon said in interviews that Ritchie was the leader of the band and it wasn’t Purple without Ritchie.
  • They played one show with Joe Lynn Turner but Jon Lord opted not to play as it was a very cramped venue.
  • After that Colin Hart arranged a location in Altamonte Springs, Florida, north of  Orlando called Greg Rike Productions. He mentions that the band was tired of the snow.
  • Colin Hart said it took six months to record.
  • Ian Paice: “The thing that’s different is that Joe has the ability to sing anything well, and because of that it opens up more possibilities than ther ewere before. I mean, I an was a great rock’n’roll singer, David was a great blues singer, but Joe has the ability to do anything and everything, so where there were certain limitations on what we could do before, at the moment anything we can think of he can do.”
  • During press conferences JLT wouldn’t miss an oppotunity to speak negatively about Malmsteen and pump up Blackmore.
  • JLT: “Before I joined there were certain restrictions and conditions that I flet had to be met. Ome was that I’m not just gonna come into the band singing someone elses’s drivel.”

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Technical:

Album Art & Booklet Review

  • Artwork [enhancement] – Ralph Wernli
    • Worked on album photography  for numerous others including Art Garfunkel and Kool Moe Dee. While a photographer he is credited with artwork on this album.
  • Photography – Didi Zill
  • Art Direction – Roger Glover

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Album Tracks:

  1. King of Dreams (Blackmore, Turner, Glover)
    1. Glover says in Kerrang: “King of Dreams is a perfect case point. That came out of a couple of days of frustration, the atmosphere in the studio was like pea soup, everyone was really down in the mouth. Then Ritchie just started playing a completely different riff. He only played it once cos when we’d done it I said “That’s really good, let’s work on it’ – but Ritchie wouldn’t!  We came back to it a couple of weeks later, did a few overdubs, I got Joe in to work on a set of lyrics I’d got, then by the time the band came in we had a song. It’s not perfect by any means. We tried to improve it, but it wouldn’t be improved. It just lived the way it live . . .”
  2. The Cut Runs Deep (Blackmore, Turner, Glover, Lord, Paice)
    1. In Black Knight Joe Lynn Turner says that Jon Lord started playing the keyboard intro at his audition in Vermont and Turner started singing the vocal line “What about the heartache? What about the emptiness inside?”
  3. Fire in the Basement (Blackmore, Turner, Glover, Lord, Paice)
  4. Truth Hurts (Blackmore, Turner, Glover)

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