In Rock (Deep Purple album)
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''Deep Purple in Rock'' is the fourth studio album by
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 ...
, released on 5 June 1970. It was the first studio album recorded by the Mark II line-up of Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord and Ian Paice. Work on ''In Rock'' began shortly after Gillan and Glover joined the band in June 1969, with rehearsals at
Hanwell Community Centre Cuckoo Schools was a large school for children of destitute families which was created as the Central London District Poor Law School by the City of London and the East London and St. Saviour Workhouse Unions in 1857. It was built on the land of ...
. The music was intended to be loud and heavy, and accurately represent the group's live show. Recording took place at various studios around London in between extensive touring, during which time songs and arrangements were honed into shape. ''In Rock'' was the band's breakthrough album in Europe and peaked at No. 4 in the UK, remaining in the charts for over a year. By contrast, it under-performed in the US, where the band's Mark I albums had been more successful. An accompanying single, " Black Night" reached No. 2 in the UK, becoming their highest charting single there. The album has continued to attract critical praise as a key early example of the
hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...
and heavy metal genres.


Background

By mid-1969, Deep Purple had recorded three albums, and achieved commercial success in the US, but suffered from a lack of musical direction. Although the group contained experienced musicians, none of the original members were accomplished songwriters, and their earlier work ranged from psychedelic hard rock based around guitarist Ritchie Blackmore's riffs, classical-influenced tracks developed and arranged by organist Jon Lord, and cover songs from the Beatles, Joe South,
Neil Diamond Neil Leslie Diamond (born January 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. He has sold more than 130 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling musicians of all time. He has had ten No. 1 singles on the Hot 100 and Adul ...
and
Donovan Donovan Phillips Leitch (born 10 May 1946), known mononymously as Donovan, is a Scottish musician, songwriter, and record producer. He developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelic rock and world mus ...
. After a US tour in May, Blackmore, Lord and drummer Ian Paice decided to replace original lead singer
Rod Evans Roderic Evans (born 19 January 1947) is a British former singer. In the late 1960s, he began his professional career in The Maze, formerly MI5, after which he was a member of the original Deep Purple line-up, who produced three studio albums ...
with someone who could tackle a hard rock style. The group had also recently signed a deal with Harvest Records in the UK, who were intending to represent
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and underground bands, but label owner Malcolm Jones thought Deep Purple relied too much on gimmicks and only appealed to the US market. Lord and Blackmore had met with Paice during the tour to discuss the personnel change, and Blackmore said he wanted to "have a go at being really heavy" after hearing Led Zeppelin's debut album. Blackmore asked his former bandmate, drummer Mick Underwood, to see if he knew a suitable singer. Underwood suggested his
Episode Six Episode Six were an English rock band formed in Harrow, London in 1965. The band did not have commercial success in the UK, releasing nine singles that all failed to chart, but they did find minor success in Beirut at the time. Group members Ia ...
bandmate Ian Gillan. Blackmore, Lord and Paice went to see an Episode Six gig in Woodford Green on 4 June, and after Blackmore sat in with the band, they offered Gillan the job. Gillan and Episode Six bassist Roger Glover were friends and had formed a songwriting partnership. However, Glover did not want to leave Episode Six, so Gillan suggested he could help out with Deep Purple's songwriting as a compromise. On 7 June, Gillan and Glover were asked to play on a Deep Purple recording session for their next single, "
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", with Glover performing as a
session musician Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...
. Afterwards, Glover changed his mind and decided to join the band. The group initially met and developed song ideas in secrecy, not telling Evans or original bassist Nick Simper because the original lineup still had tour dates to promote the album ''
The Book of Taliesyn ''The Book of Taliesyn'' is the second studio album by the English rock band Deep Purple, recorded only three months after ''Shades of Deep Purple'' and released by Tetragrammaton Records in October 1968, just before their first US tour. The n ...
'', which Harvest had finally released in the UK (several months after its October 1968 US release). Furthermore, Episode Six's management did not want Gillan and Glover to quit the group, and they attempted to get a settlement from Deep Purple. However, after a few weeks, both Evans and Simper discovered they had been fired, and were unimpressed with the underhanded way it had been done, particularly recording with a different line-up. Underwood later said he regretted recommending Gillan to Deep Purple because he did not want Simper to lose his job. The final show with Evans and Simper was on 4 July, with the new lineup playing their first gig at
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in London on 10 July. Gillan and Glover continued to play several more dates with Episode Six, the final show taking place on 26 July. They were replaced by John Gustafson as singer and bassist.
Hanwell Community Centre Cuckoo Schools was a large school for children of destitute families which was created as the Central London District Poor Law School by the City of London and the East London and St. Saviour Workhouse Unions in 1857. It was built on the land of ...
was booked for the band to rehearse and write new material; according to Glover, it was chosen because "it was the only place we could find where we could make a lot of noise". The basic structure of "Child in Time" was worked out at these sessions, and both it and "Speed King" (then titled "Kneel and Pray") were in the live set by the line-up's seventh gig at the Paradiso, Amsterdam, on 24 August. The Mk II lineup began to tour extensively, and found they had good musical chemistry together. Work on the new material was briefly interrupted by Lord's ''
Concerto for Group and Orchestra ''Concerto for Group and Orchestra'' is a live album by Deep Purple and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Arnold, recorded at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in September 1969. It consists of a concerto composed by Jon Lord, ...
'', which featured Deep Purple playing with the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London, that performs and produces primarily classic works. The RPO was established by Thomas Beecham in 1946. In its early days, the orchestra secured profitable ...
at the
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on 24 September. Though the concerto was a different style to the material worked on at Hanwell, it led to increased publicity in the UK, which along with the group's live act, started to give them a following. Recording on ''In Rock'' began at IBC Studios, London, with the first sessions in October. Studio work was spaced out between gigs, which were needed to provide the band with income, and continued intermittently until April the following year. Gillan later said that the regular gigging was important for material to be developed and to find the most suitable arrangements before recording. The basic ethos behind recording is that everything had to be loud and heavy; Glover recalls seeing VU meters in the red (signalling audio distortion) in the studio. In November 1969, the group played "Speed King" and "Living Wreck" for a BBC session, while in February 1970, the group performed a concert for the station, previewing some of the new live material. The band's US record company, Tetragrammaton, declared bankruptcy around this time, meaning an uncertainty of the album being released there. Warner Bros subsequently bought out the Tetragrammaton contract, and would release Deep Purple's albums in the US throughout the 1970s. The album was the first one produced by the group, though they made prominent use of the engineers at the sessions, particularly Martin Birch who aimed to reproduce the live sound of the studio room on tape. The title was a reaction to ''Concerto for Group and Orchestra'', emphasising that Deep Purple were a rock band. The cover was designed by the group's management; it depicts Mount Rushmore with photographs of the band's faces superimposed over the US presidents. After recording had finished, the group continued touring. Gillan recalled playing 50 UK gigs in the first half of 1970, plus a further 15 in Europe. They also performed a live television special for Granada TV's ''Doing Their Thing'' and for London Weekend Television's ''South Bank Summer''. On 9 August, the group appeared at the National Jazz and Blues Festival, which culminated in Blackmore setting fire to his amplifiers.


Songs

Unlike earlier albums, every song on ''In Rock'' is credited to the five Deep Purple band members. Gillan recalled the songs were initially rehearsed at Hanwell, then introduced to the live show to see how they would work. Lord said the purpose of the album was to make "a conscious effort to stop and think about writing material we all understood".


Side one

"Speed King" developed from a bass riff written by Glover at Hanwell, in an attempt to emulate
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 ...
's " Fire". Gillan wrote the lyrics by taking phrases of old rock 'n' roll songs by
Little Richard Richard Wayne Penniman (December 5, 1932 – May 9, 2020), known professionally as Little Richard, was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He was an influential figure in popular music and culture for seven decades. Described as the " ...
. It was originally known as "Kneel and Pray" and developed as a live piece for several months before recording. The first studio take of the song featured Lord playing piano instead of organ, which was later released as a
B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...
in Holland. The final take used on the album was recorded in January 1970; it opens with an untitled instrumental known as "Woffle", recorded in November 1969. "Bloodsucker" was recorded at De Lane Lea Studios and finished at
Abbey Road Studios Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music c ...
. Paice enjoyed playing on the track. The song would be re-recorded 28 years later, with Steve Morse on guitar, and retitled "Bludsucker" for Deep Purple's 1998 album ''
Abandon Abandon, abandoned, or abandonment may refer to: Common uses * Abandonment (emotional), a subjective emotional state in which people feel undesired, left behind, insecure, or discarded * Abandonment (legal), a legal term regarding property ** Chi ...
''. "
Child in Time "Child in Time" is a song by English rock band Deep Purple, taken from their fourth studio album, ''Deep Purple in Rock'', released in 1970. The track is loosely inspired by the Cold War and runs over ten minutes. History and characteristic ...
" was written early during the Hanwell rehearsals, after Lord began playing the introduction to "Bombay Calling" by
It's a Beautiful Day It's a Beautiful Day is an American band formed in San Francisco, California, in 1967, featuring vocalist Pattie Santos along with violinist David LaFlamme and his wife, Linda LaFlamme, on keyboards. David LaFlamme, who as a youth had once p ...
. The group decided to play the song's main theme at a slower tempo, with Gillan writing new words inspired by the Vietnam War. He later said he came up with the song's title spontaneously. The song was regularly played live, and was well-rehearsed by the time it was recorded at IBC in November 1969. It subsequently became a de facto anthem for anti-Communist resistance groups in Eastern Europe during the period of the
Iron Curtain The Iron Curtain was the political boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union (USSR) to block itself and its s ...
.


Side two

"Flight of the Rat" was the last song recorded for the album, at De Lane Lea on 11 March. It evolved during rehearsals from a humorous re-arrangement by Glover of " Flight of the Bumblebee". "Into the Fire" was written by Glover as a warning against drugs. The main riff developed after discussing chromatic scales with Blackmore. "Living Wreck" was recorded at the early IBC sessions in October 1969. It was almost left off the album as the group felt it was not good enough, but they listened to it again towards the end of the sessions and decided they liked it. Blackmore played the guitar solo through an octave pedal. "Hard Lovin' Man" was derived from a Glover bass riff and developed as a jam session by the rest of the band. It was the first track for the album recorded at De Lane Lea in January 1970 with engineer Martin Birch. The group were impressed with Birch's skills, and he was retained as engineer for the rest of the group's albums up to 1976. He was credited as a "catalyst" on the original LP.


Other songs

After completing the album, the group's management were worried there was no obvious hit single, and booked De Lane Lea in early May 1970 so the band could write and record one. After struggling to come up with a commercial-sounding song, Blackmore started playing the riff to Ricky Nelson's arrangement of "Summertime", while the group improvised the rest of the structure. Gillan later said he tried to write "the most banal lyrics we could think of". The result was the single " Black Night", which became the group's first UK hit. "Cry Free" was recorded at IBC in January 1970. Although the group recorded over 30 takes, it did not make the final track listing, and was later released on a compilation album. An instrumental, "Jam Stew" was recorded in late November 1969 at IBC. A version with improvised lyrics had been recorded as "John Stew" for a BBC session, while the main riff was featured on the track "Bullfrog" on the session album ''
Green Bullfrog ''Green Bullfrog'' is a blues album recorded by an ad hoc band and produced by Derek Lawrence. The bulk of the album was recorded over two sessions at De Lane Lea Studios, London in 1970, with later string and brass overdubs. It was originally ...
'', released the following year.


Release

The album and the single "Black Night" were both released on 5 June 1970. ''In Rock'' reached No. 4 in the UK and stayed in the album charts throughout the year and into the next, until the follow-up album ''
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'' was ready. The original release featured a gatefold sleeve with full lyrics, and a set of black and white photographs of the band. The U.S. release of the album cut the intro to "Speed King", which lasts just over a minute. It remains edited on the standard Warner Bros. U.S. release, but was restored to full length on the 25th Anniversary package. The album was reissued in a single-sleeve vinyl in 1982, replacing the original gatefold sleeve. The Mexican release also included "Black Night" to the track listing. The chart success of ''In Rock'' greatly raised Deep Purple's profile. In October, while touring the UK, ''
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'' ran a feature of "Purple Mania" showing the group's concerts were attracting increasingly enthusiastic crowds. The band finished the year touring Scandinavia and Germany. At a show at Lüdenscheid, they played without Blackmore who had taken ill. Fans started a riot and destroyed £2,000 worth of equipment.


Reissues

In 1995 a remastered and revised 25th anniversary edition of the album was released by EMI. The album was remastered by Glover, adding "Black Night", "Jam Stew", a new mix of "Cry Free", and remixes of "Flight of the Rat" and "Speed King". In 2009 audiophile label Audio Fidelity released a remastered version of ''Deep Purple in Rock'' on a limited edition 24 karat gold CD. Mastering for the CD was performed by Steve Hoffman. This release follows the original seven-track format with no bonus tracks.


Critical reception

Reaction to ''In Rock'' was positive. '' Record Mirror''s Rodney Collins said it was "a stunningly good album" showing that "rock, given a fresh stab and alert material, is still one of the most rewarding areas of contemporary music." Richard Green, writing in ''
New Musical Express ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'', said the album was "Good, meaty rock all the way" and particularly praised Gillan's singing on "Child In Time". ''
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'' rated it 4 stars out of 5, comparing the sound to the Nice, and noting Blackmore's instrumental dominance over Lord. According to Tony Dolan in ''Deep Purple: a Critical Retrospective'', the first Mk II album ''Concerto for Group and Orchestra'' had given Deep Purple much needed publicity in the UK, but the band – Ritchie Blackmore in particular – were determined that they "would not be labelled as a novelty act. He was adamant that the next studio album should be an all-out assault on the eardrums. As Blackmore said to others, 'if it’s not dramatic or exciting, it has no place on this album.' ''In Rock'' was everything Blackmore had envisaged and more. It would remain in the UK charts for over a year. Deep Purple had finally found its niche with its hard-driving, heavy, thunderous, powerful rock." Retrospective reviews have been similarly favourable. '' AllMusic''s Eduardo Rivadavia has called ''In Rock'' "one of heavy metal's defining albums". Rock journalist Malcolm Dome stated that "''In Rock'' is one of the great albums... not just by Purple, by anybody." On new members Gillan and Glover, he added: "How Ian Gillan remains completely in control of his voice whilst going completely insane is remarkable. And Roger Glover was unfussy, but very good technically... also contributing nicely and impressively to songwriting." Sid Smith remarked in his BBC Music review the "strident confidence that the new line-up had found" and how the album "pretty much carved out the template for heavy rock." Canadian journalist Martin Popoff wrote that "Deep Purple's ''In rock'', along with
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's '' Paranoid'' and Heep's '' Uriah Heep'', all in 1970, outright and triple-handedly invented Heavy Metal", with ''In Rock'' being "the flashiest, freshest and most sophisticated of the three." In his review, he reminded how the album remains "the sharpest, most insistently metallic Deep Purple record until '' Perfect Strangers''" 14 years later, despite Deep Purple never accepting the title of heavy metal act, "fancying of themselves as a jazzy bluesy proggy hard rock band." Blackmore has since said the album is his favourite during his time with Deep Purple, along with '' Machine Head''.


Track listing

All songs written by Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord and Ian Paice. * Some cassette releases had sides one and two switched, with the last four tracks on Side One and the first three on Side Two.


Personnel

Deep Purple * Ritchie Blackmore – guitar * Ian Gillan – vocals * Roger Glover – bass * Jon Lord – organ * Ian Paice – drums Additional personnel * Andy Knight – engineer IBC Studios (side 1, tracks 1 & 3, and side 2, tracks 2 and 3) * Martin Birch – engineer
De Lane Lea Warner Bros. De Lane Lea Studios is a recording studio, based in Dean Street, Soho, London. Although the studios have mainly been used for dubbing feature films and television programmes, major artists such as the Animals, the Beatles, Soft Mac ...
(side 2, tracks 1 and 4) *
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– engineer
Abbey Road Studios Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music c ...
(side 1, track 2) * Edwards Coletta Productions – cover design * Nesbit Phipps & Froome – art studios * Mike Brown, Alan Hall – photography * Mick (Egg) Angus, Ian (Bige) Hansford – equipment *
Peter Mew Peter Mew is a retired British music audio engineer. He worked at Abbey Road Studios, where he was the senior mastering engineer. He came to Abbey Road in 1965 as a tape operator and has since worked with many artists at the studio. Kevin Ayers of ...
– original album remastering * Roger Glover – oversaw the mixing of the extra tracks * Tom Bender and Jason Butera – additional studio work


Charts

;Album ;Singles


Certifications and sales


Accolades


Notes


References

Citations Sources * * * {{Authority control Deep Purple albums 1970 albums Harvest Records albums Warner Records albums Albums produced by Ritchie Blackmore Albums produced by Ian Gillan Albums produced by Roger Glover Albums produced by Jon Lord Albums produced by Ian Paice Albums recorded at IBC Studios