The Deep Purple Podcast

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  • Great fun podcast on Deep Purple
  • I found out about this excellent podcast by accident and I absolutely love it. It’s a great fun listen. I’ve only played a few episodes so have loads to catch up! The House of Blue Light review was interesting. I saw Purple on this tour at Wembley London UK. On that eve Blackmore refused to do an encore! So Lord and Glover played lead. It was definitely an interesting version of Smoke on the water! Having seen Gillan in mind blowing vocal form (the band) live in 81, it was noticeable Ian had sadly lost some of his range/power by 87/88. Overall he was still great. Keep up the great work, thank you!

Lead up to the Album:

• This album saw the departure of Ged Peck on guitar with Pete Parks joining the band. Peck left to pursue classical guitar playing.
• We talked on our last Warhorse episode about how Rick Wakeman was very briefly in the band but did not make it to any of the recordings. Rick left in April of 1970 to join the Strawbs.
• The Warhorse Story Volume 2 liner notes states that the album was released (or as Nick Simper puts it “escaped”) in 1972. There were no singles from this album.
• The head of A&R for Vertigo gave the band a 1,500 budget and said “Take your time, do what you want.”
• At the end of 1971 they headed to De Lane Lea to record the album.
• Part way through the recording Robbie Beck came into the studio to tell them they only had 500 worth of time left. It turns out that the head of A&R had left and not told anybody the budget he’d promised the band.They were able to get a little more money to finish the recording.
• The label wanted the album finished head of Christmas so they had to rush to get it done.
• Nick apparently went into a tirade about the budgeting issue with some of the “big wigs” at Phonogram and were soon dropped after the album came out in June of 1972.

Personnel:

• Bass Guitar – Nick Simper
• Drums – Mac Poole
• Lead Guitar – Peter Parks
  • New for this album
  • Went on to follow Nick Simper to Nick SImper’s Fandango
  • Later played in a band called The Good Old Boys
• Organ, Piano – Frank Wilson (2)
• Vocals – Ashley Holt

Technical:

• Producer [Produced By] – Ian Kimmet, Warhorse (2)
  • Worked with Ann Margaret, Andy Vanwarmer, Danny Gatton, went on to work in management for R.E.M.
• Engineer – Dave Stock
  • Worked on Jon Lord’s “Gemini Suite” and Ashton, Gardner, and Dyke
• Recorded at De Lane Lea Studios.

Album Art & Booklet Review

• Design [Sleeve Design] – Rick Breach
• Liner Notes – Ian Kimmel
• From The Warhorse Story liner notes: “Red Sea, as the second album was titled, also sported a Vertigo sleeve that was as poorly executed as the first one had been brilliant. The original concept of an ironclad warship had sounded great but the less than professional results look amateurish today.

• Alternate covers and titles:
  • 1984 UK Vinyl Reissue 
    • https://www.discogs.com/release/1006145-Warhorse-Red-Sea

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Album Tracks:

All songs composed by Warhorse except the final track.

Side One:

1. Red Sea
2. Back In Time
3. Confident But Wrong
4. Feeling Better

Side Two:

1. Sybilla
2. Mouthpiece
3. I (Who Have Nothing) (Donida, Leiber/Stoller)
   • Donida was an Italian composer
   • Leiber/Stoller, of course, was the legendary songwriting team who wrote numerous rock classics such as “Hound Dog,” Yakety Yak,” Jailhouse Rock,” etc.
   • Alternate version by Tom Jones: Tom Jones – I Who Have Nothing – This is Tom Jones TV Show 1970

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Reception and Review

• Ashley Holt’s performance on “Back in Time” was criticized as having been the “unconscious model for the kind of singing” that they parodied in Spinal Tap according to Richie Unterberger on AllMusic.
  • https://www.allmusic.com/album/mw0000053407
• WARHORSE: “Red Sea” (Vertigo). “. . . this second album cannot fail to establish them in the hierarchy of Europe’s greatest groups” pompously declare the liner notes. That’s a very hard tag to live up to — and Warhorse don’t quite make it, I’m afraid. “Red Sea” is like the curate’s egg: good in parts. But when they’re good, Warhorse are as good, if not better, than most of the bands working in the hard ‘nd heavy rock field. Their greatest asset is lead guitarist Peter Parks who works hard all the time to lift the ordinariness. He’s really missed on tracks like “Feeling Better” where he has to takes  backseat. But his long solo in “Back In Time” is a treat; inventive and exciting, sounding at times like Richie [sic] Blackmore’s work on “wring That Neck” on Deep Purple’s “Book Of The Taliesyn” [sic] album. In fact, “Red Sea” does bear comparison with early Purple albums; hardly surprising, as bassist Nick Simper was on of the founder members of that band. Both he and organist Frank Wilson are content to provide backings which gives the other members of the band something to work on. Vocalist Ashley Holt has a hard, gravelly voice which sometimes doesn’t have sufficient punch to carry some numbers — like “Feeling Better” — on its own. Nevertheless, he can do it if he tries: just listen to “Confident But Wrong” and “Sybilla” — the stand out track, with everybody boogieing along like there was not tomorrow, Drummer Mac Poole provides a solid beat throughout, coming into his own on “Mouthpiece,” an extended solo which is just a little too extended for my liking. But that’s the only bit of self-indulgence on “Red Sea.” — M.O.
• Soon after this Mac Poole left Warhorse to join a band called Gong. They recruited drummer Barney James and began work on a third album that was never completed.  There are bonus tracks on “The Warhorse Story” that were destined for this third album.
• This group played their last show in 1974 though original members would take the stage together a few more times over the years for one off reunion gigs.
• Rick Wakeman would recruit Ashley Holt and Barney James for his solo albums “Journey to the Centre of the Earth” and “The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.”
• Nick tried to get them to stay with Warhorse, telling them that Rick Wakeman’s projects didn’t last too long, they left.
• Two months later Ashley called back about getting back together and he didn’ty have the energy to pick up where they left off.  Additionally it was the first time he’d been off the road since the age of 18.
• Nick then (with Parks) started up Nick Simper’s Dynamite.
• Nick said it was a little galling to sit and watch bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, UFO, and others who had all been opening for Warhorse go on to achieve success as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal really took off.
• Simper: “I used to say tot he guys if we sick together long enough, we’ve got a stage act that wipes them out. We had some great times, which is why the band survived for four years, but there were always [problems with managers, publishers. Lots of support bands borrowed from us, both musically and some of our stage act. Judas Priest, all that leather studded arm band stuff, he took that straight of Ashley Holt. He borrowed the bull whip prop too which is fair enough, we nicked if off Dave Dee, they used one for Legend of Xanadu! That guy from Queen, Brian May, he saw us at the Marquee, was a great fan. He borrowed Pete’s solo from the track Back in Time for one of their albums.”
• Simon Robinson writes: “Indeed dedicated Queen fans who have heard the Warhorse track agree that the solo on Queen’s Brighton Rock is uncannily similar!”
• Robinson concludes: “It’s perhaps all too easy to day to forget just how important the live circuit was back int the ‘70s, both for the bands who played it and the audiences who came to watch and in some cases be influenced by what they saw. Warhorse can be proud of their part in it all.

For Further Information:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Sea_(Warhorse_album)
• https://www.discogs.com/Warhorse-Red-Sea/release/1603965
• The Warhorse Story Part 2 Liner Notes by Simon Robinson
• https://dmme.net/interviews/simper

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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• John’s Drizzly gift arrives!

Lead up to the Album:

• Lineup change: Bernie Torme comes in to replace Steve Byrd who returned to session work.
• Phil Banfield comes onto the scene to work as Ian’s manager.
• Ian and Phil went to the south coast to get the picture for the front of the UK album.
• Gillan says: “He wanted a picture of me with only water behind, and, t o achieve the effect, he said I had to jump. So there I was, with my manager shoultin, ‘Jump,’ and I’d jump. Again and again. From that moment we agreed that when Phil says jump, I jump!”
• In 1979 Phil got the band in front of audiences, booking the National Jazz Blues and Rock Festival which became known as the Reading Rock Festival.  Gillan were on the same bill as Steve Hcket, Think Lizzy, and Rory Gallagher.
• ON September 20, 1979 the original version of this album was released in Japan by Toshiba-EMI.  This album was billed as Ian Gillan.  Australia and New Zealand got it later in the year.
• That version of the album had a different track list.
• Japanese version: https://www.discogs.com/Gillan-Mr-Universe/release/9594353 including tracks not on the UK release:

*Tracks that does not appear on the Japanese version.

**Track that does not appear on the UK version but does appear on the 1993 “Gillan – The Japanese Album” compilation.

***Track unique to the Japanese version.

• In 1993 RPM released a compilation called “Gillan – The Japanese Album” which combined the tracks from the Japanese “Mr. Universe” (except “Your Sister’s On My List”) album with the original Gillan “Japanese” album. 14 tracks in total.
• Since we’ve already covered 4 of the tracks on the UK version we will focus on the Japanese release of Mr. Universe.
• When you look at it the UK version is really more of a sort of compilation featuring 4 tracks previously released, one with a different lineup.  The Japanese version, however, is a brand new album.
• Stargazer – Issue #20 from December of 1979 also breaks down the differences between the versions.
• Simon Robinson states that he doesn’t detect any real difference between the duplicated tracks.

Personnel:

• Bass, Mixed By, Arranged By – John McCoy
• Drums, Arranged By – Mick Underwood
• Guitar, Arranged By – Bernie Torme*
  • Played in a band called The Urge in the early 70s
  • Also played in a band called Scrapyard with John McCoy in the mid 70s
  • He then formed The Bernie Torme Band which released his first recorded work in 1979 – this was his only recorded credit prior to Gillan
  • Sadly he passed away in 2019
• Keyboards – Colin Towns
• Vocals – Ian Gillan

Technical:

• Engineer, Mixed By – Paul “Chas” Watkins*
• Lacquer Cut By – Porky (5)

Album Art & Booklet Review

• Photography By – Mick Gregory
  • Photography for Deep Purple, Bernie Torme solo, Genesis
• Photography By – Yuka Fujii
  • Visual for Bernie Torme, Iron Maiden (debut album),  
• Photography By [UK Front Cover] – Victor Watts
  • Only credit on Discogs
• Artwork [UK Sleeve Design] – Jubilee Graphics
  • Worked with Elton John, ELO, 
• No Japanese credit for the cover design.
  • Cover is a pic from Ian Gillan at the Reading Festival in 1978 playing with the brand new Gillan

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Album Tracks:

Side One:

1. Vengeance (Gillan, Towns)
2. Mr. Universe (Gillan, Towns)
3. She Tears Me Down (Towns)
4. Your Sister’s On My List (Gillan, Towns)
   • Robinson: “… has lyrics which you would expect from a title like that! Musically it starts off sounding a little Zeppelin like (early stuff), just the way the riff is constructed and churned out.”
   • Robinson compares the ending of the track to an imitation of “Hard Lovin’ Man.”

Side Two:

1. Street Theatre (Towns)
2. Roller (Gillan, Towns)
3. Puget Sound (Gillan, Towns, McCoy, Torme, Underwood)
4. Moving With The Times (Gillan, Towns, McCoy)
5. Sleeping on the Job (Gillan, Towns)
   • Released as the next UK single per Stargazer Issue #20 per Ian.
   • Song is about Leyland night workers
     • Found this article: https://www.aronline.co.uk/archive/sleeping-on-the-job-essay/
     • “The story first hit the headlines on 12 November 1979 when it was revealed that 14 night shift workers had been caught sleeping at a British Leyland plant. The men were found tucked up in sleeping bags when management swooped on the priming shop at the Range Rover plant in Solihull, near Birmingham.
     • “After two days of disciplinary hearings and appeals, BL dismissed 13 Land Rover car workers, who had been caught sleeping on the night shift. A Supervisor who was sleeping was also dismissed, along with a Foreman. The company refused to comment while a hearing was still continuing into charges against a Superintendent.”

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Reception and Review

• The album reached No. 11 in the UK, selling over 2 million copies worldwide.
• With all the craziness surrounding the track listing and versions of this album there is also another song from the Mr. Universe sessions that is considered lost.  The song is called “Parliament Square.” 
  • You can hear it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUqM48lPLsE

Reviews from Simon Robinson in Stargazer Issue #20, December of 1979:

• Robinson in Stargazer #20 says that the Japanese version is the best ex-purple disc to date.
• Robinson speaks very unfavorably about the UK version, mostly having issues with the mix.
• In the UK they promoted the album touring with Randy California.  Samson with Bruce Dickinson were also there.
• Gillan: “I loved the band; Bernie and John galvanized audiences with their electrifying stage act, and, in John’s case he was described in one review as a ‘walking absurdity’ with a presence that oozed rock ‘n’ roll.”
• Gillan’s story about meeting back up with Ritchie from “Child in Time” pages 139-140.

For Further Information:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Universe_(album)
• UK Release: https://www.discogs.com/Gillan-Mr-Universe/release/1385354
• Japanese (Original) Release: https://www.discogs.com/Gillan-Mr-Universe/release/9594353
• Child in Time by Ian Gillan
• Darker Than Blue, Issue 20, December 1979
• Stargazer – Issue #20 (December of 1979)

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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Social Media Update:

• Deep Dive Podcast Network
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• Cocoscope video site shutting down

Lead up to the Album:

• Jon Lord is said to have worked on composing and scoring this album between January and August of 1975.
• It was recorded between September 3-6 at Stadthalle Oer-Erkenschwick, near Düsseldorf, Germany.
• Remixed at Musicland Studios, Munich.
• This is the next in the progression of his “classical” works from The Concerto For Group and Orchestra, Gemini Suite, and Windows, to this.
• The backdrop for the composition of this work is at the end of Deep Purple’s original run.  Blackmore had left the band in early 1975, playing their last few shows in the spring.  By summer of 1975 Jon Lord was scoring this album.
• Immediately after they would have Tommy Bolin join the band and record their final album until the 1984 reunion.
• Jon moved near Dusseldorf and recorded Sarabande between September 3-6 of 1975.  Eberhard Schoener would join him again, this time conducting the Philharmonia Hungarica.  Other rock musicians were invited to join for this recording. Unlike with Window this time none would be from Deep Purple.

Personnel:

• Bass – Paul Karass*
  • In bands Storm, Rare Bird
  • A small handful of entries on Discogs
• Composed By, Producer, Organ [Hammond], Piano [Rmi, Steinway], Grand Piano [Yamaha], Synthesizer [Arp Odyssey, String Ensemble], Clavinet, Score, Soloist [Pro] – Jon Lord
• Conductor – Eberhard Schoener
• Drums, Gong, Bells [Sleigh], Shaker – Pete York
  • Mentioned in many past episodes
  • Spencer Davis Group, Hardin & York, Jon Lord Windows, etc.
• Guitar – Andy Summers
  • https://andysummers.com/
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Summers
  • Guitarist for The Police
  • Legend of British Rock
  • He was a virtual unknown at this point
• Orchestra – Philharmonia Hungarica
• Percussion – Mark Nauseef
  • Legendary percussionist with Elf, 
  • Many DPP episodes including Butterfly Ball, Ian Gillan Band episodes

Technical:

• Engineer [Assistant] – Hans Menzel
  • http://www.menzelhans.de/
  • German audio engineer
  • Worked with Deep Purple (Stormbringer), Uriah Heep
• Engineer, Mixed By – Martin Birch
  • Regular flavor Birch on this one.
• Lacquer Cut By – Nick W.*
  • Worked for Abbey Road starting in 1968 with The Beatles
  • Almost 1,000 entries on Discogs

Album Art & Booklet Review

• Cover is a drawing of ouroboros.
• Design by John Kosh
  • https://www.discogs.com/artist/1827035-John-Kosh
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kosh
  • Designed the album covers for many albums including both “Abbey Road” and “Let it Be” by The Beatles.
  • Was the creative director for Apple Records.
  • Handled the “War Is Over” campaign for John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
  • Did an album cover for Family “Fearless”
  • Spencer Davis Group “Gluggo”
  • The Who “Who’s Next”
  • The list goes on and on.
• Illustration was by Michael Bryan
  • https://www.discogs.com/artist/2307993-Michael-Bryan-4?noanv=1
  • Worked with John Lennon and Yoko Ono on “Shaved Fish,” B.B. King, Marvin Gaye, etc.

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• Tim “Southern Cross” Johnson

Album Tracks:

Side One:

1. Fantasia
   • This functions as a 3.5 minute overture in three sections.
2. Sarabande
   • The Sarabande is a Spanish dance from the 16th century which originated in the East.
   • Sarabandes are often in triple time
3. Aria
   • Scored for piano and synthesizer.
4. Gigue

Side Two:

1. Bouree
2. Pavane
   • This is a courtly dance often associated with a Galliard in the early BAroque period. It fell out of favor in the seventeenth century.
3. Caprice
4. Finale

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  • Ells Murders
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  • Raphael Choury (Raff Kaff)
  • Spike, The Rock Cat
  • JJ Stannard
  • Hank the Tank
  • Flight of the Rat Bat Blue Light

Reception and Review

• The turbulent final days of Deep Purple pushed off the release of Sarabande until October off 1976.
• The album got a good amount of promotion.  The album sleeve was given a lot of care as they needed to catch the eye of Jon’s largely rock audience.
• Sarabande is often mentioned as Jon Lord’s finest individual piece of work outside of Deep Purple.
• A couple of years after this Shoener would join Summers in recording the debut album for The Police named “Outlands d’Amour” which Jon Lord says was one of his favourite albums.

For Further Information:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarabande_(album)
• https://www.discogs.com/Jon-Lord-Sarabande/release/2022115
• https://jonlord.org/symphonic-works/sarabande/
• Jon Lord: All Those Years Ago
• Vinyl liner notes by Simon Robinson with musical appreciation from Vince Budd.

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

How To Support Our Show:

• Leave us a 5-Star Review on Apple Podcasts
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Thanks to Our Executive Level Patrons:

• The £10 Tier
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  • Steve Seaborg (NameOnAnything.com, Alltheworldsastage.net) – Paypal
  • Ryan M
  • Jeff Breis
  • Gerald Kelly – Paypal
  • Victor Campos

Lead up to the Album:

• Update from last episode:
• Johnny “Dawk” Sterling was the “Dawk Sound” referenced on Discogs.
• https://www.thehighwaystar.com/news/2007/01/08/john-dawk-stillwell/
• Started working with Elf when Glover started producing their albums.
• Article from The Highway Star: https://www.thehighwaystar.com/thsblog/2015/12/23/john-dawk-stilwell-r-i-p/
• Says Glover liked the sound of Dio’s bass so much he asked STerling to make the same modification to his Rickenbacker.  I believe they’re referencing the diagonal pickup.
• He went on to work with Rainbow and Deep Purple when they reunited.
• Sadly he passed away in December of 2015.

Album Art & Booklet Review

• From Darker Than Blue (#33, January 1987)
  • Posters for the LP went up around town early January, with press ads about the same time. The “mystic symbols” which appeared in the ads (and again on the front sleeve) may have puzzled some of you, but we & others assumed them to relate to the name of the band. Two are astrological signs – the bow & arrows are Sagittarius the archer, for Roger Glover, the two masks are Gemini, the twins — Jon Lord’s sign. Ritche has been having owls about him since the first Rainbow LP. The rocket may relate to Garth, the crossed hands for Paicey, but we ain’t sure why. The sleeve itself didn’t look very promising, and we were right! A real K-Tel special — obviously they ran out of the right letraset doing the name and had to finish with something off another sheet . . .

Album Tracks:

Side Two:

1. Hard Lovin’ Woman (Gillan, Blackmore, Glover)
   • Gillan: “Well, we had a song called ‘Hard Lovin’ Man’ in the early days, so we thought ‘Hard Lovin’ Woman’ would be a laugh. Roger and I wrote a whole list of potential titles up on the wall of this little room in Stowe where we recorded the album, and that was one of them. We wanted to do a hard rock’n’roll song with tight harmonies and that kinda thing…and that title fitted the bill.”
2. The Spanish Archer (Gillan, Blackmore, Glover)
   • Song is 35 seconds longer on the 1987 CD release.
   • Gillan: “‘Spanish Archer’ is the next, isn’t it? Well, if you give someone the ‘Spanish Archer’, you give them the ‘elbow’ as you probably know, and so that song is about giving some lump the heave-ho. I don’t actually think this song should’ve been included. I mean, it isn’t properly arranged – it’s just a series of verses with jamming in between (and Ritchie takes about four solos!) – and it wears on me. But everyone else disagrees with me – which is par for the course anyway, ha! -so it’s been included.”
3. Strangeways (Gillan, Blackmore, Glover)
   • Song is 1 minute, 40 seconds longer on the 1987 CD release.
   • Gillan: “In contrast, ‘Strangeways’ is my favourite song on the album at the moment. I like the vocal harmonies on the intro…have you heard this one yet? You should, I’m very pleased with it.”
4. Mitzi Dupree (Gillan, Blackmore, Glover)
   • Gillan and Glover made a demo of the song to bring to the band to flesh it out.  Blackmore didn’t like the song so he added a rough guitar track to the demo and refused to explore the song further with a proper studio recording.
   • The version they used on the album was the demo.
   • As Gillan relates the saga of trying to get Ritchie to approve the song “Painted Horse” for inclusion on “Who Do We Think We Are” to the saga of Mitzi Dupree.
   • Gillan: “And ‘Mitzi Dupree’ is a good one, too. Actually, it’s a true story. I was on a plane going to Salt Lake City when I was in Black Sabbath and I saw this most amazing boiler – oh, a sensational lump! – so I went over to talk to her and she said, ‘Hi, I’m Mitzi, Mitzi Dupree…’ and I thought, ‘Wow, what a great name!’ I was in love.
   • “Anyway, it turned out she was going up north to a mining town in Canada to do a show. So I asked her what she did and she told me that she did a show with ping-pong balls… Now, I’ve actually seen women do this before – in a small room behind a kitchen in Bangkok – and it’s absolutely amazing. There was this Siamese girl onstage, and there were five Italians in the front row, all with a glass of wine each. She bent over backwards and – pop-pop-pop-pop-pop – these five ping-pong balls were fired out of you-know-where and each one landed in a glass – I swear to you! This bird also pulled out 50 double-edged razor blades from the same place all attached to bit of cotton, she signed autographs, she did paintings … it was unbelievable! ANd this was what Mitzi did.
   • “‘Mitzi Dupree’ is a dead live song. It came out of a jam and we just recorded it for reference. I played it afterwards and thought it was great – I couldn’t stop singing it – so I said to Roger, ‘We’ve _got_ to do something with it.’ And he said, ‘Well, we can write on it, but we don’t have to play it again because everyone else hates it’. So we wrote the lyric and I sang it to the jam tape, and Roger and I decided to leave it like that, because it sounded so natural and spontaneous. It’s a great track.
5. Dead or Alive (Gillan, Blackmore, Glover)
   • Song is 18 seconds longer on the 1987 CD release.
   • Gillan: “The last track on the album, however, ‘Dead or Alive’, is a pile of s**t.”
   • When asked what he doesn’t like about it: “It’s just not any good,” the singer laughs, shrugging his shoulders.”
   • Answering why it’s on the album: “Exactly. Don’t ask me. No, it’s going to be good onstage…maybe _that’s_ why it’s on there. I _did_ write it,but under protest I might add. I think everyone else likes it, but I don’t.”

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Reception and Review

• Gillan: “So that’s it; ten tracks on the album, and that’s more than you usually get on a Purple album, so… I’m pretty pleased with it. I would say ‘delighted’ but I won’t because I feel there should only be eight tracks on it. Still, it is a good album overall.”
• The album hit number 10 on the UK charts and number 34 on the Billboard 200 in the US.  It was also top 10 in six other countries including #1 in Germany, Sweden, and Norway; number 3 in Switzerland, Number 5 in Australia, and Number 9 in Japan.
• Overall the 1987 CD release is 4 minutes, 32 seconds longer than the LP, cassette, or 1990 CD release.
• The LP and cassette version are shorter featuring shorter versions of some of the songs.
• CD released in 1987 though some version have a copyright of 1986 but may be because it was released on January 12, 1987.  Not sure if an earlier release was done in any other countries.
• In 1999 they released a CD version using the master tapes which matched the track length from the original LP and cassette version.
• Promo materials:
  • Lord: “We decided from the start we weren’t going to do just one album and tour. This is keeping our promise.”
• Gillan said this was a long and difficult album to produce comparing it to the “Who Do We Think We Are” session in Rome.
• Gillan: “I look back at House Of Blue Light, there are some good songs on that record, but there’s something missing in the overall album. I can’t feel the spirit of this band. I can see or hear five professionals doing their best, but it’s like a football team, it’s not functioning. It’s like 11 superstars that are playing on the same field but are not connected by the heart or by the spirit.”
• Blackmore: “I think I played like shit on it, and I don’t think anyone else really got that into it.”
• Blackmore also says that many parts and songs were rerecorded.
• Gillan: “…so long as Ritchie was happy with the guitar parts the lads were happy. I wasn’t and said so. But let’s not blame everything on Ritchie . . . I was a wanker too.”
• Lord: “House of Blue Light was a weird album and hard to put together. We made the massive mistake of trying to make our music current. We discovered that people didn’t want us to do that.”
• Glover: “Perfect Strangers, we kind of knew what the album was going to be called, very early on in the album, it was one of the hot contenders. But The House of Blue Light — we finished the album and we didn’t have a title. I was producing, so I was, ‘Okay, what are we going to call it? And there were lots of suggestions, but no one could agree.  In the end, we were getting really desperate — we needed a title, so I came up with The House of Blue Light, which of course is a line from ‘Speed King.’  Everyone kinda went, ‘Oooer, yeah, it’s okay’; and because everyone went, ‘It’s okay,’ that was the one. It wasn’t the best one, it wasn’t the most appropriate. It was simply the only one everyone seemed to agree on, and that’s not a pleasant thing to do. If you have a title at the beginning, it gives you a landscape for what you’re doing.”
• The album seemed to be Gillan, Glover, and Ritchie bringing in ideas on their own rather than working together.  Of this Lord said, quoting Winston Churchill: “A camel is a horse, designed by a committee.  Deep Puprle seems to make a better horse by committee!”
• Lord also compared House of Blue Light to Fireball: “We always do one good album, a confused one, and then another good one.”
• Review from: http://www.deep-purple.net/DPASmags/dtb33.htm#1 by Simon Robinson
  • Many numbers just don’t have the extra spark to lift them onto my play-list. Let’s face it, there are only so many hours in a day, and I don’t feel inclined to waste too many listening opportunities putting on stuff which I really wanted to like but can’t. To me, as an album it doesn’t scale the heights which Purple have scaled before.
  • BAD ATTITUDE knocks me out, I’ve been playing it over and over, it’s probably the most powerful cut on the LP, with a no nonsense feel and edge to it which is often lacking elsewhere. Gillan does a great vocal, and the backing does him justice. Nowhere else on the LP does the production sound balance out quite as well as here either, with the right amount of everybody present all of the time. THE UNWRITTEN LAW by contrast is weak. and the efforts to introduce “current technology” only serve to water things down even further. MAD DOG contains the most truly godwaful keyboard noise in Jon’s solo. Whatever it is, destroy it or wipe it from the computer discs AT ONCE! STRANGEWAYS is a great track and shows what they can still do. I suppose it’s the fact that they keep coming up with goodies like this which makes it all the more frustrating with the lesser cuts. The overall balance is back too – somehow this does seem vital in keeping the Purple feel alive. I like DEAD OR ALIVE, not least for the proper organ and guitar solos – and about bleedin’ time! There is something special about the vocal though which I can’t really put my finger on, it just has a weird haunting quality. All the more curious that lan should write it off in the recent Kerrang feature.
  • It’s a long album, something around 46 minutes or so. Originally they’d been going to ditch a couple of the numbers, (MITZI DUPREE was one they couldn’t all agree on including), or save them for the CD. The CD is in fact a few minutes longer than the vinyl. The single b-side will be STRANGEWAYS with the CD length cut on the 12″, so this is a help for non-CDers like myself. The sound quality on the LP does suffer as a result of getting so much on (as well as the usual thin vinyl.), and it does need to be cranked up for full effect. I do feel they’d benefit from someone from outside coming in to handle production or something, someone who isn’t bothered about any outside pressures and who is also capable of capturing the essence of Purple on disc. That would entail a greater effort from the band too, the disc is very patchy. I personally will be surprised if people take to it unreservedly, the people I’ve heard from or spoken with so far haven’t (some have been down right damning!). After two years I had hoped for rather more.
• Gillan says that Glover looked so drained after returning from mixing the album that he said, “I tell you what . . . I’ve got an idea. Let’s go and make a record.
• Gillan Glover and Blagona departed for George Marin’s AIR Studios in Montserrat where they relaxed and made Accidentally on Purpose to unwind before the House of Blue Light tour.
• The tour for House of Blue Light ended up being a difficult one with personality conflicts reigniting.

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For Further Information:

• Deep Purple: A Matter of Fact by Jerry Bloom
• Smoke on the Water: The Deep Purple Story by Dave Thompson
• Black Knight: Ritchie Blackmore by Jerry Bloom 
• Child in Time by Ian Gillan
• The Complete Deep Purple by Michael Heatley
• A Hart Life by Colin Hart with Dick Allix
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_of_Blue_Light
• https://www.discogs.com/Deep-Purple-The-House-Of-Blue-Light/release/1471344
• https://www.thehighwaystar.com/interviews/gillan/ig198701xx.html
  • Interviewed in From Kerrang! No 137, Jan. 8 1987.
  • Interviewed in Montreux, December 1986, by Mark Putterford.
• Darker Than Blue (#33, January 1987) by Simon Robinson
• http://www.deep-purple.net/DPASmags/dtb33.htm
•  

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Bonus Tracks:

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2. Damned For All Time / Blood Money (Guide Vocal)
3. King Herod’s Song (Try It And See) (Guide Vocal)
4. I Don’t Know How To Love Him (Tim Rice And Murray Head Vocals)
5. I Don’t Know How To Love Him (Murray Head Vocals)
6. This Jesus Must Die (Scat Vocals 1)
7. What A Party

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1. This Jesus Must Die (Scat Vocals 2)
2. Heaven On Their Minds (Instrumental)
3. I Don’t Know How To Love Him
4. (Too Much) Heaven On Their Minds (German Single)
5. Strange Thing (Mystifying)
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