RECORD STORE TALES #1194: You got exactly two words of that right.

I have a soft spot for Ian Gillan and Roger Glover’s Accidentally on Purpose.  The Deep Purple Pair had a writing partnership dating all the way back to the 1960s and a band called Episode Six.  Before Ian was fired from Deep Purple in 1988, he and Roger emerged from the sessions for The House of Blue Light with an excess of stifled creativity.  These lighter, more summery tuned formed the basis for their only duo album.  I found it on cassette in the mid-90s, right when I was seriously collecting Deep Purple for the first time.

It’s not rock.  There are some songs that do rock a bit, but it’s more like fun pop with roots in rock and prog.  There’s saxophone, and loads of programming.  Very 1980s.  It took a couple listens to adjust to this distinctly non-Purple album, but once certain songs like the floaty “Clouds and Rain” and the funky “Evil Eye” started to hit, they stuck.  Programming aside, you’ll hear some cool instrumentation and musicianship on this album.  Eventually, I grew to like it.  As soon as I found out the CD reissue had three bonus tracks that were not on the cassette, I upgraded, as I often do.

The bonus tracks included a song that would have worked on a corny 80s Beach Boys album, called “Cayman Island”.  It also had a sax-heavy cover of “Purple People Eater” which is the definition of guilty pleasure.

Shortly after I bought the CD, a used copy came into stock at the Beat Goes On.  It always happened that way.  If you bought something new, you’d see a used copy a matter of weeks later.  It was eerily inevitable.  Of course, when that used copy came in, I threw it into the rotation for store play one afternoon.

A guy walked up to the counter, intrigued by the music.

“What’s this that we’re listening to right now?” he asked.

I was thrilled to have someone ask!

“This is a side project by Ian Gillan and Roger Glover from Deep Purple,” I answered with inner glee, but also some trepidation as I’d personally prefer to keep listening to it!

He responded, “Roger Waters from Pink Floyd?“

What…?  No!  No!  You got just two words of that right: “Roger” and “from”!

He sulked away upon learning it was not Floydian music.  No sale that day!