Deep Purple Mk III

REVIEW: Deep Purple – Live in Graz 1975 (2014)

NEW-ish RELEASE

DEEP PURPLE – Live in Graz 1975 (2014 Edel)

Any time there is an official Deep Purple archival release coming out, diehards have to pay attention.  The current library of vintage live CDs is the Official Deep Purple (Overseas) Live Series.  A mouthful.  Live in Paris was the first in the series, followed by Copenhagen 1972 (which I missed but have to catch up on).  Graz 1975 is the third, and it has a long history of incomplete releases going all the way back to 1976!  Some songs were used on the single LP Made in Europe in that year.   In 1996, five songs were remixed and included on Mk III: The Final Concerts.  Now the entire April 3 show in Graz, Austria has been remixed again and released in its completion.

As a guy who owns virtually every single official Deep Purple release and catching up on the rest, I’m amazed at how crisp and fucking essential this new mix of “Burn” is.  The liner notes call it “surely the best version of this song, ever.” Paice and Blackmore both play with an excitement and energy that is even above their standards.  Lord too, but my God are Ian and Ritchie fueled up, laying down fill after fill that were of that moment.  Ritchie was on the verge of leaving — he was gone after only two more shows.  Even if you’ve heard this exact same recording of “Burn” from Mk III: The Final Concerts before, you haven’t heard it like this.  This new mix kills the prior ones, rendering them almost obsolete.  Ditto with “Stormbringer”, which captures all the energy that that was missing from Made in Europe.

I’m always pleased to hear “The Gypsy” from Stormbringer, an underrated track from an underrated album.  Glenn Hughes’ young pipes are achingly powerful, drowning out David Coverdale.  An unreleased “Lady Double Dealer” is the last short song before the show progresses on to long 10 minute or more jams.  Ritchie’s manic pick scrapes are deliciously perfect.  This usually isn’t one of my go-to Deep Purple songs, but this absolutely smokes any version I’ve heard before.

LIVE IN GRAZ 1975_0005

The first long bomber is Ritchie’s blues centerpiece, “Mistreated”.  I confess I usually snooze through this one.  This version will be familiar as one of the “bonus tracks” on Mk III: The Final Concerts.  Ritchie is the main focus of “Mistreated”, and he stretches out far and wide, using bits from “Lazy”, “Sail Away” and classical melodies.  Coverdale is much stronger vocally than he tends to be on this song.  A ramshackle “Smoke on the Water” is also dull by comparison with the first part of the set.  Its highlight is a long, building and breaking Jon Lord organ solo, which leads into “With a Little Help from my Friends”.  “You Fool No One” is over 10 minutes, and it gives Ian Paice a chance to strut his stuff.  Paice is one of those drummers that it pays off to focus on and really listen to, because he is always doing something interesting.  All of this is outshined by a 20 minute “Space Truckin'”. Richard Strauss’ “Thus Spake Zarathustra” is a suitably bombastic segue, for a band of Deep Purple’s stature.  They also detour into “Child in Time”.  If you’re not wiped out by now, you will be by the end.

Gotta say that those responsible do a great job with these Deep Purple products. Absolutely no qualms about this release at all.  Not essential to anyone but fans of Deep Purple Mk III.

3.5/5 stars

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