REVIEW: Deep Purple – Perks and Tit (Live in San Diego 1974)

DEEP PURPLE:  Perks and Tit  (2003 Purple Records/Sonic Zoom)
Re-released in 2007 as Live in San Diego 1974  

Lineup:  Deep Purple Mk III – Ritchie Blackmore – David Coverdale – Glenn Hughes – Jon Lord – Ian Paice

I love bootlegs.  If you don’t, you won’t like Perks and Tit.  Recorded in San Diego, April 9, 1974, Deep Purple are loose.  Ritchie Blackmore’s guitar is imperfectly awesome.  I love every moan and squeal he wrings from that neck.  And only on a bootleg will you hear Glenn Hughes say something like, “This one’s not being taped, so we can say and do what we wanna do!”

The bootleggers were taping that night, preserving this remarkable night of Deep Purple prowess.  A record was released in 1975, and over the years took on different forms and configurations.  Sonic Zoom then released a definitive version of the show on CD, with hard to find onstage banter.

The great news is that Sonic Zoom were able to trump previous CD bootlegs, sourced from vinyl, and go straight to a soundboard master tape.  Apparently Glenn was wrong!  The sound is loud but only occasionally fuzzy.  The vocals are clear, as is Blackmore’s guitar.  You can make out Glenn’s bass a little bit, but on the whole this is a very listenable and enjoyable CD release.

Highlights for me included the rarely played “Lay Down, Stay Down”.  I don’t know what Ritchie did to his guitar there in the solo section, but he went from volcanic eruption noises to velvety smooth picking in like 10 seconds.  The man is unreal!  He and the whole band groove the shit out of “Might Just Take Your Life”, too.  Not to mention his brilliant solo intro to the extended blues, “Mistreated”.  Burn was a brand new album, as Glenn keeps reminding the crowd, and the first four songs are all from Burn!  But when they get to “Smoke”, Ritchie plays with the riff in unfamiliar but really catchy and appropriate ways.

The six-track collection is unfortunately only the first half the night’s set.  The second half, if it was ever recorded at all, could not be found.  So the CD ends on an odd note, a Jon Lord organ solo.  On the other hand, with Jon now gone forever, it’s kind of apropos, no?

4/5 stars

22 comments

  3. If there’s any band worth collecting live recordings of it’s Purple. I’ve got quite a few but I only bought one of the bootleg series (can’t remember what it was called but it was the H-Bomb one) and I’ve hardly listened to it so I didn’t bother buying any more. I’ve bought a good chunk of the official live releases though. I especially like hearing the Bolin ones… Russian Foxbat is especially good! Have you got any Mk I era live? I wouldn’t mind hearing some of that maybe.

    Like

    Reply

    1. I sure do Scott, I sure do. The CD is called Inglewood and it’s interesting enough that I do have a prototype review. If this is an official request, I sure can polish it up and get it publish-worthy :)

      Like

      Reply

        1. Damn! Now you’re gonna make me work? Alright, sharpening my editor’s pencil… ;)

          I have about 3 weeks of content lined up currently so it won’t be overnight, but it’ll happen. BY REQUEST!

          See people? See what happens? It’s like that.

          Like

  4. Good timing, as I was just reading the liner notes to my recently purchased expanded edition of “Burn” last night. I definitely don’t need this in my collection, but I like your review and the artwork is great (awful, but great). I wonder how Coverdale feels about the photos of him from this era. I was always aware that he didn’t have “the look” when he joined Purple, but didn’t know that they put him on diet pills (speed), made him wear contacts and sent him to a stylist. Considering how he’s presented himself for the last 30 years, it’s fun to look back on his awkward years.

    Like

    Reply

    1. Isn’t that funny? And not knowing that, I just always assumed Coverdale was cool! His on stage manner in the early days lacks the flash and confidence of the Whitesnake years, but he had Glenn Hughes next to him, as co-frontman, so that must have helped.

      I’ve been listening to a lot of Coverdale recently and I realize that I really never gave him the credit he deserves. There are some Whitesnake albums that are just brilliant.

      Like

      Reply

        1. I have that 2 CD anthology. Actually, funny thing — I have 3 different 2 CD anthologies. All for their own reasons. So I’m pretty sure whichever one you have, I have too.

          Another underrated album. I want to revisit it soon. I haven’t in a little while.

          Like

        2. I think the 2-CD anthology I have is one of those “Gold” series on Universal. Usually those were reissued (and remastered) versions of previous 2-CD sets with the same track listing. The sound & song selection on that one is fantastic, but I’ve never felt the need to delve any further into the Whitesnake catalog

          If you do a post on Coverdale-Page I will have a lot to say about it. Maybe we could even do a duo review.

          Like

        3. Sure! We can discuss that!

          Gold is a good one because it has more than just Whitesnake, it also has Coverdale Page and solo material. Fantastic comp. That’s why I got it!

          Like

        4. I had forgotten that “Gold” included C-P and Cov’s solo material as well. One of the great things about that series is they usually fill the discs with music…at least 70 minutes worth.

          By the way, I got my expanded version of DP’s “Mad In Japan” today and it sounds great. Hard to believe that this was one of the few classic double live albums from the 70s that I never owned before. Glad I filled that hole in my collection finally.

          Like

  5. This is the kind of thing fans love. Unguarded recordings of a band just killing it. A shame they didn’t record the second half (or maybe they did but it was unusable). Studio recordings are one thing, but live can be where the real magic happens. Cool find, man!

    Like

    Reply

    1. Like I say, I like bootlegs. Rollins would approve because with a bootleg you do know for sure. Deep Purple are like Pearl jam in the sense that played different sets, jammed things differently, and every show was worth hearing. So that’s why I like this.

      Like

      Reply

Rock a Reply