It’s amazing how one can overlook a classic when that classic
\nbecomes one of the most overplayed records of the classic rock
\nera.<\/p>\n
Take Deep Purple’s 1972 masterpiece
\nMachine Head<\/i>. Every half-ass guitar player starts off
\nfiguring out the opening riff to “Smoke On The Water” (no offense,
\nBo and the guys in Bogart), and it’s almost a guarantee that you’ll
\nhear it on your local classic rock station at some point today.<\/p>\n
But if you take the whopping 37 minutes out of your day that it
\nwill take to listen to
\nMachine Head<\/i>, you’ll realize what made this record so
\nspecial in the beginning.<\/p>\n
The classic second lineup of Deep Purple (known as Mk II in the
\nband’s circles), Ian Gillan and crew are as tight a unit as they
\ncould have ever hoped to be. Jon Lord’s keyboard work was the
\nantithesis to the high-tech noodlings of other keyboard
\nartistes<\/i> like Rick Wakeman, while Ritchie Blackmore’s guitar
\nwork still continues to amaze me, even if he wasn’t one of the most
\ntechnical guitarists out there. To this day, I hear Blackmore’s
\nriff on “Highway Star,” and my jaw hits the floor. Roger Glover’s
\nbass work is no less important than his other bandmates’
\ncontributions, and Ian Paice… well, there’s a reason Metallica’s
\nLars Ulrich idolized this guy.<\/p>\n
“Highway Star” and “Smoke On The Water” are two of the
\nbest-known works on
\nMachine Head<\/i> – in fact, they may be the best-known songs by
\nthe band, but they still are as powerful as they were 25 years ago.
\n“Smoke On The Water,” as you probably know by now, is based on the
\nevents at the Montreux Casino on December 3, 1971 — the band was
\nsupposed to record what would become this album there, but during a
\nconcert by the Mothers Of Invention, the casino burnt down. I find
\nit interesting to listen to this song not only as a staple of rock
\nhistory, but also as a historical re-telling of the events of that
\nnight. “Highway Star,” while maybe not as overplayed, is just as
\npowerful of a tune which features Lord and Blackmore’s musical
\nartistry.<\/p>\n
Were it only for these two songs,
\nMachine Head<\/i> would be worth the price to purchase. Ah, but
\nthere is more – let’s not overlook the unsung gems on this slab o’
\nvinyl. “Space Truckin'” is the highlight for me, complete with the
\nsyncopated drum beats of Paice (and some killer cymbal work with
\nthe snare), while “Lazy” is an interesting take on the blues by the
\nband. Maybe one of the best forgotten tracks is “Pictures Of Home,”
\nwhich shows off the musical tightness of this band and is evidence
\nof how far ahead of their time they really were. (There’s a damn
\ngood reason why this band had such a successful reunion in 1984 —
\nlisten to this album and understand why.)<\/p>\n
\nMachine Head<\/i> may be poo-poohed by some for being an
\noverplayed relic of a past era. I say: spit on those critics, fire
\nup the old Victrola, and allow yourself to be taken back with this
\nalbum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5656],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-35845","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-deep-purple","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35845"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35845"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}