Deep Purple Album: “Deep Purple in Rock [Bonus Tracks]”

THE BAND: Ian Gillan (vocals), Ritchie Blackmore (guitar), Jon Lord (keyboards), Roger Glover (bass), Ian Paice (drums & percussion).

THE DISC: (1970) Originally 8 tracks long clocking in at approximately 47 minutes. This digitally remastered (UK) version released in 1995 adds 12 bonus tracks bringing the total listen to just over 78 minutes. This is the band's 4th album. Included with the disc is a 22-page booklet containing song titles/time/credits, numerous photos (some unreleased); a brief insight to the making of and happenings during the time the album was made - by Roger Glover and (writer) Simon Robinson (with quotes from Gillan and Lord as well); and the discography of "In Rock" in various countries. Label - EMI Records.

COMMENTS: After purchasing the "Machine Head" and "Fireball" deluxe anniversary packages... I couldn't wait to get my mitts on "Deep Purple In Rock". Every song is a fast paced rocker here with the exception of the ten minute "Child In Time" - one of my favorite slow rockers... and one of Gillan's many highlights vocally, as well as Lord's wonderful slow intro and Blackmore's guitar solo once the song picks up. For some reason, I was thinking Roger Glover cold fix the original tapes and make these songs sound like they were recorded last year. Not so. The sound is still as muddy as ever. In many places, Ian Paice's cymbals & hi-hat are non-existent. Lord's organ/keyboards are mixed so poorly at times it's tough to distinguish between his high notes and Blackmore's high notes. Disappointing to say the least - it still sounds like a.m. radio. I grew up with Deep Purple and I have 17 of the discs. "In Rock" was easily not my favorite, but it was definitely top 5 due to great songs like "Black Night", "Speed King", "Flight Of The Rat" and "Child In Time" (check out the live version of this song on "Made In Japan"... I'll go out on a limb and claim it's better than the studio version here). "Black Night" and "Speed King" made it to most of their greatest hits compilations, while "Child In Time" made it to a few. The bonus tracks are a plus. Though the sleeve will have you salivating at "12" bonus tracks, it's really only "6". The other "6" are intro's to each song lasting on average 20-30 seconds each. Various chit-chat and Blackmore fooling around on his guitar. These 6 bonus songs sound great... slightly different, and much improved sound over the original 8 tracks. 2 of the tracks are unreleased - "Jam Stew" and "Cry Free"... both treats! Two bonus versions of "Speed King", and an unedited remix of "Black Night" are the highlights. In my opinion, the back photo is very telling... Glover is front and center and the backbone of the band - perhaps the glue keeping the 5 members together (knowing how Blackmore and Gillan got along). For me, this is a very good album, but the poor sound quality keeps me from rating it any higher. The lone track "Child In Time" and the bonus songs make this a must-have disc.

I ordered this with great anticipation, largely on the basis of the Amazon description of Speed King as the US album version - I took this to mean that I would finally get a remastered version of Speed King without the UK version's "shred" guitar intro (which was cool for one or two listens but now I find just irritating). I receive the cd, unwrap it, put it in the player, and what is the first thing I hear? The cacaphonous shred beginning of the UK version! OK, fine - this is not a disaster as long as the remaster sounds good. Well, no dice there either - while listening to it I found myself vaguely dissatisfied, and when I A-B'd the gold cd with the Anniversary Edition, I realized why: the Anniversary Edition has much more presence, is louder and has more bottom end than the gold cd. The gold cd pales in comparison. If you don't yet have the Anniversary Edition, buy that instead (it's much less expensive, as well). If you already have the Anniversary Edition, skip the gold cd and save your money; you already have the best version of In Rock.

In the year 1970, heavy metal was just beginning in its first stages of development. Black Sabbath's monumental debut blasted their audience with a new, heavy sound; Led Zeppelin rocked the blues harder than it had ever been rocked; but it was Deep Purple that combined the heaviness and the speed to form what we now know as heavy metal.

Look no further than the opening track, "Speed King". Then listen to anything else that came out in 1970. This song shows no mercy as it instantly blasts out of the speakers, with a fury, excitement, and sexual drive never before heard in rock music. The whole album is consistently furious (although the band definitely slows it down for much of the rest of the album).

Not to mention, of course, the purely awesome technical skill involved in the playing. In the epic "Child In Time", all the instruments run counterpoint harmonies on incredibly fast minor-scale riffs in the brilliant climax. Ritchie Blackmore, in particular, shines on this record. His guitar playing, although it would improve on subsequent releases, was even then simply awesome. He is my personal favorite guitarist of all time, although many would argue with my opinion. Jon Lord is a fine organist as well, working with Blackmore to incorporate subtle neo-classical elements into the music. Ian Gillan, of course, is the famed singer, although the production on this album makes his voice sound strangely shrill and distorted (this is not a huge problem, it's actually not that bad). Ian Paice, while not a particularly notable drummer, certainly drives the music forward, while also showing some ability to lay down the funky beats as well.

Every song on In Rock is a winner, my favorites being the mid-paced groove "Bloodsucker", the ferocious "Flight of the Rat", and the aforementioned "Child In Time". This, my friends, is where it ALL began...

I was a young high school kid when this came out......I loved it!! "Speed king" and "Child in time" were great steps forward toward the metal music that I grew to love. Had already been listening to Zeppelin, Hendrix, Cream, Blue Cheer, Humble Pie and Mountain. Was a young long-haired stoner kid who loved hard rock (it wasn't called metal until later in the seventies. Even Purple didn't call their music metal in the beginning.) Today I'm much older. A guy in his 50s who still likes this stuff (hey, I'm still much younger than Dio, Lemmy and Ozzy.) When I first heard "Hush" in 1968, it seemed like Purple was an organ dominated band, just like Vanilla Fudge was. This LP/CD took them in a harder direction. Ever since the first Cream & Hendrix albums came out, I've been buying about 4 or 5 metal LPS/CDs a year. I'll give you metal kids the best metal records every year since the Cream/Hendrix days:

1967 - Jimi Hendrix "Are you Experienced?", Cream "Disraeli Gears"

1968 - Jimi Hendrix "Electric Ladyland", Blue Cheer "Vincebus Eruptum", Cream " Wheels of Fire" Steppenwolf "Steppenwolf"

1969 - Led Zeppelin, "Led Zeppelin 1", Led Zeppelin "Led Zeppelin 2", Mountain "Climbing"

1970 - Black Sabbath "Black Sabbath", Deep Purple "In Rock", Black Sabbath "Paranoid"

1971 - Led Zeppelin "Led Zeppelin IV", Black Sabbath "Master of Reality", Alice Cooper "Killer", Deep Purple "Fireball"

1972 - Deep Purple "Machine Head", Black Sabbath "Vol 4", Wishbone Ash "Argus", Uriah Heep "Demons and Wizards", Scorpions "Lonesome Crow"

1973 - Deep Purple "Who do we think we are", Led Zeppelin "Houses of the holy", Black Sabbath "Sabbath bloody sabbath", Queen "Queen"

1974 - Deep Purple "Burn", Queen "Sheer Heart attack", UFO "Phenomenum", Kiss "Kiss", Rush "Rush"

1975 - AC/DC "High Voltage", Kiss "Kiss Alive", Rainbow "Ritchie Blackmore's rainbow," Aerosmith "Toys in the attic", UFO "Force it"

1976 - Judas Priest "Sad Wings of destiny", Rainbow "Rising", Aerosmith "Rocks", Rush "2112", Kiss "Destroyer"

1977 - Judas Priest "Sin after sin", UFO "Lights out", Queen "News of the world", Motorhead "Motorhead", AC/DC "Let there be Rock"

1978 - Judas Priest "Stained Class", Van Halen "Van Halen", AC/DC "Powerage", Scorpions "Taken by force"

1979 - AC/DC "Highway to hell", Motorhead "Overkill", Judas Priest "Hell bent for leather"

1980 - Judas Priest "British steel", AC/DC "Back in Black", Motorhead "Ace of Spades", Black Sabbath "Heaven and hell"

1981 - Ozzy Ozbourne "Blizzard of Oz", Motorhead "No sleep till hammersmith", AC/DC "For those about to rock"

1982 - Iron Maiden "Number of the beast", Judas Priest "Screaming for vengeance", Ozzy Ozbourne "Diary of a Madman", Scorpions "Blackout"

1983 - Iron Maiden "Piece of mind", Def Leppard "Pyromania", Motley Crue "Shout at the devil", Metallica "Kill em all", Dio "Holy Diver"

1984 - Iron Maiden "Powerslave", Metallica "Ride the Lightning", Judas Priest "Defenders of the faith", Deep Purple "Perfect Strangers"

1985 - Anthrax "Spreading the Disease", Megadeth "Killing is my business", Slayer "Hell awaits", Possessed "Seven churchs"

1986 - Metallica "Master of Puppets", Slayer "Reign in Blood", Megadeth "Peace sells..who's buying"

1987 - Anthrax "Among the Living", Guns n Roses "Appetite for destruction", Def Leppard "Hysteria"

1988 - Iron Maiden "Seventh son of seventh son", Metallica "And justice for all", Slayer "South of heaven", Megadeth "So far so goo so what"

This was about where I got off the "crazy metal train." Didn't like where it was going. The death metal and thrash metal just began to lose me. Mayhem and Possessed and Sepultura and Pantera and Cannibal Corpse was the end for me. I still bought Metallica and Iron Maiden, and of course Judas Priest and Deep Purple and Black Sabbath all through the '90s up to today (when they release something, which is rarer and rarer.) So any metal kids can finish where I left off around '88. But remember, even though Dio & Lemmy & Ozzy & Tony Iommi & Ritchie Blackmore & Jon Lord & Jimmy Page & even Rob Halford are all older than me.....I'm up there myself. So there WAS heavy dark music before Sabbath. Trust me. But they were great, no doubt. Just buy ALL the CDS I just mentioned to get THE WHOLE PICTURE !!

Superbly done CD reissue of Deep Purple's 1970 landmark British hard rock album.Seriously,if you haven't heard of this lp,you either need to get out of the house more OR escape from the sanitarium that you're currently living in.Most memorable tracks here,of course are "Speed King",the ten minute epic "Child In Time","Into The Fire" and the inspiring "Hard Loving Man".This EMI pressing comes with seven(7) bonus tracks,as songs+five bonus snippets of studio chit chat.This is GREAT!Absolutely essential.