"Highway Star" is a song by the English rock band

Deep Purple Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock music, but their musical style has changed over the course of its existence. Ori ...

. It is the opening track on the band's sixth studio album ''

Machine Head A machine head (also referred to as a tuning machine, tuner, or gear head) is a geared apparatus for tuning stringed musical instruments by adjusting string tension. Machine heads are used on mandolins, guitars, double basses and others, and ar ...

'' (1972) and is the fastest song in

tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often ...

on the album. It is characterised by long, classically-inspired guitar and organ solos.

History

This song was born on a tour bus going to

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

in 1971 when a reporter asked the band how they wrote songs. To demonstrate, guitarist

Ritchie Blackmore Richard Hugh Blackmore (born 14 April 1945) is an English guitarist and songwriter. He was a founding member of Deep Purple in 1968, playing jam-style hard rock music that mixed guitar riffs and organ sounds. He is prolific in creating guitar ...

grabbed an acoustic guitar and began playing a riff consisting of a single "G" repeated over and over, while vocalist

Ian Gillan Ian Gillan (born 19 August 1945) is a British singer who is best known as the lead singer and lyricist for the rock band Deep Purple. He is known for his powerful and wide-ranging singing voice. Initially influenced by Elvis Presley, Gillan ...

improvised lyrics over the top. The song was refined and was performed that same night. The song first appears on the 1972 LP ''Machine Head''. The track remains one of the band's staples in live concerts, and was the set opener even before it was released on any album. The very first live version released, recorded live for German TV program ''

Beat-Club ''Beat-Club'' is a West German music programme that ran from September 1965 to December 1972. It was broadcast from Bremen, West Germany on ''Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen'', the national public TV channel of the ARD, and produced by one of its ...

'' in September 1971, is featured on the '' History, Hits & Highlights '68–'76'' DVD. It is the opening track on the live albums '' Nobody's Perfect'' (1988), ''

Come Hell or High Water ''Come Hell or High Water'' is a CD and DVD by the hard rock group Deep Purple. It was recorded on 16 October 1993 at Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle in Stuttgart, Germany and at the NEC in Birmingham on 9 November. The album is one of the las ...

'' (1994), and ''From the Setting Sun… (In Wacken)'' (2015). The most famous live version is featured on the 1972 live album '' Made in Japan''. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' said, "Blackmore’s playing is like a force of nature on the ''Made in Japan'' version; those slashing chords in the intro, and that amazing solo featuring the distinctive neo-classical descending runs, combining the spirits of

Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...

and

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...

Structure

The structure of the song consists of a 35-second bass/guitar introduction, before the band launches into the thumping opening riff, which soon leads into the first vocals section (0:55). The first two verses are sung, then

Jon Lord John Douglas Lord (9 June 194116 July 2012) was an English orchestral and rock composer, pianist, and Hammond organ player known for his pioneering work in fusing rock with classical or baroque forms, especially with the British rock band Deep ...

begins his organ solo (2:14). This part consists mostly of fast,

arpeggiated A broken chord is a chord broken into a sequence of notes. A broken chord may repeat some of the notes from the chord and span one or more octaves. An arpeggio () is a type of broken chord, in which the notes that compose a chord are played ...

notes with a late Baroque/Early Classical influenced feel and makes use of the harmonic minor scale. The organ solo lasts for about a minute, then

sings the third verse of the song (3:24). At the conclusion of the third verse, the guitar solo starts (4:04), and lasts for just under a minute and twenty seconds. Blackmore wanted a very Bach like sound and worked out the solo note by note over the chord progression Dm, Gm, C, A which itself was borrowed from Bach. Then, the fourth and final verse, which in the original recording is simply a repetition of the first verse, is sung, finishing around 6:10. Depending on the version, there may be a 15-second-long exit section before the end of the song. When the song is played live, Gillan has been known to improvise its lyrics, as seen in the official video for the song. The guitar solo would gain recognition when readers of ''

Guitar World ''Guitar World'' is a monthly music magazine for guitarists – and fans of guitar-based music and trends – that has been published since July 1980. ''Guitar World'', the best-selling guitar magazine in the United States, contains original art ...

'' voted it No. 15 in their list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Solos".

Personnel

Deep Purple

– voices *

– electric guitar *

Roger Glover Roger David Glover (born 30 November 1945) is a Welsh bassist, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the member of the hard rock bands Deep Purple and Rainbow. As a member of Deep Purple, Glover was inducted into the Rock and R ...

– bass *

– organ *

Ian Paice Ian Anderson Paice (born 29 June 1948) is an English musician, best known as the drummer and last remaining original member of the rock band Deep Purple. He is often cited as one of the greatest drummers of all-time. He remains the only membe ...

– drums

Production

Martin Birch Martin Birch (27 December 19489 August 2020) was a British music producer and sound engineer. He became renowned for engineering and producing albums recorded predominantly by British rock bands, including Deep Purple, Rainbow, Fleetwood Mac, W ...

– engineer, mixing * Jeremy "Bear" Gee – assistant engineer * Nick Watterton – technician,

Rolling Stones Mobile Studio The Rolling Stones Mobile Studio (also known as the RSM) is a mobile recording studio inside a DAF F1600 Turbo truck, once owned by the English rock band the Rolling Stones. Numerous bands and artists have recorded music using the RSM, including ...

operator

Covers

The song was covered by the

Gwar Gwar, often stylized as GWAR, is an American heavy metal band formed in Richmond, Virginia in 1984, composed of and operated by a frequently rotating line-up of musicians, artists and filmmakers collectively known as Slave Pit Inc. After th ...

side project X-Cops in their 1995 album '' You Have the Right to Remain Silent...'', with the lyrics changed to reflect the band's police brutality theme. In 2012, a tribute album featuring cover songs from Deep Purple's ''Machine Head'' was released, titled '' Re-Machined: A Tribute to Deep Purple's Machine Head''. On this album, a live recording of "Highway Star" was featured by rock supergroup Chickenfoot, as well as a version recorded by Glenn Hughes,

Steve Vai Steven Siro Vai (; born June 6, 1960) is an American guitarist, composer, songwriter, and producer. A three-time Grammy Award winner and fifteen-time nominee, Vai started his music career in 1978 at the age of eighteen as a transcriptionist for ...

, and

Chad Smith Chad Gaylord Smith (born October 25, 1961) is an American musician who has been the drummer of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers since 1988. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012. Smith is also the drummer of the ...

. In 2018, a cover by Cory Todd was used in the science fiction television series ''

The Expanse Expanse or The Expanse may refer to: Media and entertainment ''The Expanse'' franchise * ''The Expanse'' (novel series), a series of science fiction novels by James S. A. Corey * ''The Expanse'' (TV series), a television adaptation of the ...

'', in the episode of season 3 "Delta-V". The lyrics of the song were rewritten in the mix of English and

Belter Creole Belter Creole, also simply known as Belter, is a constructed language developed by the linguist and polyglot Nick Farmer for ''The Expanse'' television series. In the universe, it was spoken by Belters, inhabitants of the asteroid belt and outer ...

, a

constructed language A constructed language (sometimes called a conlang) is a language whose phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, instead of having developed naturally, are consciously devised for some purpose, which may include being devised for a work of fiction. ...

made for the TV series by Nick Farmer, that was used in the show by Belters, the inhabitants of the

asteroid belt The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, called ...

and

outer planets The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...

. The lyrics were additionally adjusted to fit the in-universe setting, with the references to the car in the song being replaced with the spaceship. The full version of the song was later placed on ''The Collector's Edition'' version of the TV series soundtrack, that was realized on December 13, 2019. Other bands to record the song include

Dream Theater Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 under the name Majesty by John Petrucci, John Myung and Mike Portnoy while they attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. They subsequently dropped out of the ...

Point Blank Point-blank range is any distance over which a certain firearm can hit a target without the need to compensate for bullet drop, and can be adjusted over a wide range of distances by sighting in the firearm. If the bullet leaves the barrel paral ...

Stryper Stryper is an American Christian metal band from Orange County, California. The group's lineup consists of Michael Sweet (lead vocals, guitar), Oz Fox (guitar), Perry Richardson (bass guitar), and Robert Sweet (drums). Formed in 1983 as Roxx ...

Metal Church Metal Church is an American heavy metal band. They originally formed in San Francisco, California in 1980 and then relocated to Aberdeen, Washington the following year and briefly using the name Shrapnel. Led by guitarist and songwriter Kurdt ...

Buckcherry Buckcherry is an American rock band from Anaheim, California, formed in 1995. The band released two albums, '' Buckcherry'' (1999) and '' Time Bomb'' (2001), before dissolving in 2002. Buckcherry's first album ''Buckcherry'' was DreamWorks first ...

Type O Negative Type O Negative were an American gothic metal band formed in Brooklyn, New York City in 1989 by Peter Steele (bass, lead vocals), Kenny Hickey (guitar, co-lead vocals), Josh Silver (keyboards, backing vocals), and Sal Abruscato (drums, percu ...

Faith No More Faith No More is an American rock band from San Francisco, California, formed in 1979. Before settling on the current name in July 1983, the band performed under the names Sharp Young Men and later Faith No Man. Bassist Billy Gould, keyboardist/r ...

References

{{authority control Deep Purple songs 1972 songs Songs written by Ritchie Blackmore Songs written by Ian Gillan Songs written by Roger Glover Songs written by Jon Lord Songs written by Ian Paice Songs about cars