What I said back then:
A quick memory, this. This was the first 'serious' album I owned, in 1974. I didn't really know much about them, except that they were de rigeur among the boys in my year, and I really ought to fit in. It wasn't quite what I expected - I didn't know about them having replaced lead singers; it would be another year or so before I was reading the weekly music press - but it made an immediate impact; loud and seemingly designed to irritate one's parents, it was also perfect for those air guitar moments (ah, the innocence of youth...). One Sunday afternoon, I put it on to accompany my homework, and my father, passing the door, commented:
"Fascinatin' Rhythm". And, do you know, he was right...
What I think now:
Well, I don’t really have anything to add to the memory – it still sounds like Gershwin, and I’m sure I read somewhere that Ritchie Blackmore had indeed based the riff on ‘Fascinatin’ Rhythm’. There was much I didn’t say about Deep Purple; how I gradually acquainted myself with their back catalogue, how I figured out who was and had been in the band; how I despaired of ever seeing them, as they disintegrated around the time I started going to gigs, and then got back together just as I had tired of the whole concert-going experience – more on this later, I’m sure.
Since then:
All you have to do is wait 38 years, apparently. Earlier this year, the boys and I trucked along to the CN Centre to watch Deep Purple in the flesh.
Of course, in keeping with Purple, there were relatively few members of the classic lineups in the band, but Gillan, Glover and Paice were all present and correct, and – much to my surprise, they still sounded like a proper rock band – it could have been cabaret, but it was way better than that. For reasons which will only be obvious if you’ve studied the history of the band, they didn’t play ‘Burn’. It didn’t matter.