One of my favorite pastimes of late is enjoying past-their-prime releases of known bands. Uriah Heep, Saxon, and... now add Deep Purple to that list. If nothing else, gives me something to look for while combing the thrift shop CD bins. I had a grade on this from before, but I don't remember a thing about it, which tells me I probably heard it real time. Back then I wasn't so keen on these "has-beens" trying to stay relevant. I also didn't give it a chance I'm sure. In reflection, I'm hearing the classic Deep Purple sound 20+ years from their best years. And when one looks at the line-up, it's Mk. 2 with Steve Morse instead of Blackmore on guitar. Which is sacrilege for many, but Blackmore left Purple behind a couple of times, and hasn't looked back since 1993. So what's a band to do - quit? No. Persevere. Bands as brands as I've said many times before. This is pretty much 70s hard rock with Hammond organ (yep, the old warhorse Jon Lord is still banging away on the heavy piece of wood) and Morse providing a more updated guitar approach (i.e. more notes per minute). Gillan sounds great, and his bluesy voice is timeless. Paice and Glover are a machine by this point. Good set of tunes. What else do you need?
Ownership: CD: 1996 Prominent (USA). This was part of that large October thrift score. The booklet is a multi foldout poster, the kind that always gets dogeared and rumpled later. Still a nice presentation.
10/22/21; 12/31/21 (new entry)
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