Good to see Glenn Hughes is on the ball, preparing to tour in celebration of Burn’s 50th anniversary, albeit only in sunny Spain so far. As sharper minds than us have pointed out (hi Tim), GH has in fact already played the bulk of the album on previous Remembering DP jaunts. Still he rarely disappoints live so should be a good night out. And maybe he will have a go at A200 to complete the set?! Thanks to Steve Clare for the flyer.
Fifty years ago today (June 14th 1970), Deep Purple In Rock entered the British album charts at 24. It was a significant moment. Although the Concerto had just sneaked in, peaking at 26 in January (and in doing so becoming their first ever top thirty album), this time sales were indicating to EMI that In Rock was set to do much better. The band had really done the groundwork on the road over the previous ten months and were continuing to support the album with a series of one-nighters here and in Germany during June. The single Black Night, released on the same day as the album, was however still struggling but that would eventually change.
People are still marking the anniversary in nice ways. The picture above is from a site called Now Spinning, and one of their editors Phil Aston has written fondly about his memories of buying the album on cassette back in 1973…
https://nowspinning.co.uk/deep-purple-in-rock-memories-of-a-classic-album/
Another nice personal feature which I enjoyed is the one below written by Nedim Hassan:
More In Rock magazine covers are turning up; German magazine MINT (Magazin Für Vinyl-Kultur), issue No.36, 05/20, has used the anniversary as an excuse to devote 40 (!) pages to the band albeit ranging far and wide rather than focusing on In Rock, including an album guide, a feature on Machine Head, Ian Gillan discussing Vanilla Fudge, Steve Morse on The Well-Tempered Synthesizer, Ian Paice talking about Gene Krupa, a feature on the third album cover art by Hieronymus Bosch, etc! And an extra tick for their designer who sneaked in the issue number using Burn imagery. Anyhow, Lutz Reinert who alerted us to it, says we can get it direct by mail order (€8 inside or €9 outside Germany including postage and package): https://www.mintmag.de/
I’d not forgotten that we have rolled around to an important anniversary, honest. Just shocked to realise we’d got the date wrong for all these years…! Seriously. It’s not so easy to find something new to say, particularly as I’ve been raving about this album for fifty years now myself. Many of us have studied the ins and outs of the band’s formation and marvelled at the moments of serendipity which led to these five guys being in the same room at Hanwell together where they started to create this amazing piece of work. But I still feel having had it there on the shelf as part of my music collection all that time has been such a privilege really.
Sometimes you play a bit of vintage music and it sounds fifty years old. It’s not a problem, you appreciate the track in the context of the times and go with it. I never feel that this album sounds old – it just feels of the moment whenever I play it. It’s a massively difficult trick to pull this off, and doesn’t happen very often in the world of rock.
So I was casting around for something to mark the occasion and thought it would just be good to throw in the opening screams of noise which herald Hard Lovin’ Man to deafen everyone who logged on today. Then I looked for a way to do this and found the audio to listen to while I had my thinking cap on. Now many are probably like me and ignore or avoid the below the line comments which people idly chuck into the white space below each YouTube clip. It can be a bit of a graveyard of futile ramblings at times but I started looking and then got stuck into it.
There it all was, people just coming together and sharing their admiration for this one track, together with many of the reasons why it continues to rattle round our heads so memorably. So I pottered through and just red penned some of my favourites. I didn’t save names as most people don’t use them when posting anyway. You’ll know who you are. I know who some of you are. But we share this wonderful appreciation together.
Thank you Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Ian Paice and Roger Glover. And Jon Lord, don’t think you’re getting away. Imperious.
PS The fact that at the end it went right into an ad for funeral plans was a bit of a back to the real world with a jolt moment. Be ready with the mute button in case.
Simon • Darker Than Blue
In Rock is the best rock album ever made in my opinion. Hard Lovin’ Man is a killer track! Awesome!
Those organ notes are – brutal.
I’m quite sure that what Jon does to that poor Hammond is illegal in at least 30 States.
Ian Paice carries this track at 100 mph throughout. Brilliant drumming!
In Rock has to be one of my all time fav albums…beginning to end. And this tune was the baddest of em all.
15 years ahead of its time. This song is a slasher.
To me, this is and will always be Purple’s best album. Better even than Machine Head and Made In Japan. And that’s saying something.
In Rock was the very first proper heavy rock album before 1970; all the big names turned out albums with rock interlaced with blues tracks [but] Deep Purple threw down the gauntlet with this all killer no filler album. The first album I ever bought and played the grooves off it.
And it took until December 2015 to get them into the hall of fame?
One of the greatest rock songs ever.
Everything is said here, the rest is a footnote.
The first speed metal song in history – wonderful.
Absolutely unparalleled, beyond compare, nothing before or since has ever been anywhere near as good as these guys.
No comments. Deep Purple.
This is an example of the GENRE created by Mark 2 with this monumental album. A genre which only they ever played. Mark 2 was both the greatest and saddest story in rock. For the short time they were together these five were quite simply the greatest group of pure rock musicians ever.
Two words… Jon Lord.
I bloody love this track. Ritchie’s constant guitar work is outstanding.
This is beyond words.
And on for 300 more comments in a similar vein…. and you can of course read more in the book which tells the story of the album, Wait For The Ricochet.
What did you do at the weekend just gone? Me I walked round to the shops for some bread rolls and a Saturday paper, did a bit of weeding in the garden and gave a talk on pre-War commercial street photography.
What did Derek Lawrence do with his weekend just gone fifty years ago? Only produced (with the help of a BBC Sound Effects LP!) the first Deep Purple album Shades Of Deep Purple. Happy 50th Deep Purple!
Yes we know they did some shows before, and a few demos, but to me that trip to the Pye basement studios (at ATV house) near Marble Arch meant it all suddenly got real. How could they cut an album so quickly? Well they’d rehearsed and done most of the material either live or in previous groups, so it was all fairly well bedded in. Plus they were damn good musicians. And they had no more budget!
Derek did a bit more work on the Monday, cut and mastered the first (proposed) single later in the week, EMI got on board, and the rest is, well history. History which continues to prove fascinating for many, and music which has given millions pleasure over those fifty years.
The studio? Pye were there until 1989 in one guise or another, but the Sixties building where so many other great recordings were also made was demolished in 2003.
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