Deep Purple Album: “Days May Come and Days May Go: The 1975 California Rehearsals”

Folks!

I'd grown up with the music, deep purple has composed in the middle of 70's. This rehearsal recordings was taped in june 1975 by the engineer Robert Simon. At that time DP was searcing for the new guitar man, after the legendary Ritchie Blackmore left in that same year. The search on Tommy Bolin's name was on. The materials of Deep purple MK IV rehearsal on that day were absolutely rarities, because they have never sung the numbers such as statesborough blues, Last of the long jam, drifter on stage. Tommy Bolin was ahero in this album, his guitar playing is absolutely grander than grander.

Finally in 2000, Robert Simon gave the original tape to the DPAS chief Simon Robinson in the UK.

PS: A must for all deep purple fans & lovers.

This is MK IV as they should have been represented years ago: Bolin playing beautifully, and the rest of the band digging it. It is not a state of the art recording, a fact that works in its favour because it gives the listening experience a unique atmosphere. Sweaty, smokey and UP without the polish (that kinda atmosphere).

It's a shame that there isn't more of it, like much more of it. We will never hear the band jamming to a newly written 'Gettin' Tighter' or 'You Keep On Moving'; but what we have here is both a fantastic insight and an incredible recording.

Personally I always consider the MK IV line up as the Deep Purple incarnation with the potential to be the most musically significant today. The fusion of rock with funk is very common now, and the widespread love of herbal lifestyles should make the colours that Tommy Bolin brought to Deep Purple very appealing. Bolin played with an energy that would have been perfectly fused with this band were it not for his escalating drug problems. Although Purple lossed Blackmore's love of exotic scales when he quit the band, Bolin raises the pentatonic stakes drastically (his blues playing is awesome -- taking in scales from the Mississippi Delta right through to Texas).

The band hit astonishing peaks during these improvisations. Coverdale Ad-Libs the line "If you feel like you're drifting on air, don't let your friends stop you thinking you're there." The overall standard of the jams is on a par live recordings of The Who, Zeppelin and the Stones during the golden.

Basically, if you like to hear an exceptionally talented band jam like crazy for an hour or so, you will love this album. Some trip, believe me.

This album was really a pleasant surprise, and has far exceeded any expectations I'd had. It had all the hallmarks of a 'scraping-the-bottom-of-the-barrel' release, but rest-assured this CD is a safe buy that will be played many times by most fans of quality rock. Deep Purple Mk II fans can be assured that there is no ear-grating screaming or yelling of juvenile rock cliches, which ruin so many DP III and IV live performances, this being recorded live in studio. On the other hand, people wanting to get an idea of Tommy Bolin's genius can get a better idea of this than on, dare I say, even his own two solo albums, good as they are. The sound quality is amazingly good too, considering the recording technology and circumstances of the tape's survival. What this CD reveals is that being forced to play DP songs live destroyed the band. They sounded best jamming on their own compositions, not covering earlier incarnations of the band, which stifled Bolin's playing. It would have been a much better idea to have given up the name Deep Purple for a possible later date and given the band a completely different name. Then they could have played they own material, and would have been guaranteed a lot of record and concert ticket sales anyway, as most rock fans would have known who they were. Or perhaps that should have been done after Ian Gillan left? Whatever, Deep Purple Mk IV was a great band which I don't really think of as Deep Purple but appreciate as a good rock band, and better than Mark III, that unlikely compromise between classical and funk. This album might just be the finest legacy of the ill-fated band. Not listed on the CD cover but track 10 on the CD is a light-hearted version of 'I Got You Babe', which breaks down after a verse when the CD ends. I have been tempted to buy the CD '1420 Beachwood Drive', which has another 30mins or so of these sessions, but at over $22 the album's minute/dollar ratio remains unfavourable.

don't be foolish to switch this cd to another!

this one is a rare MK IV with Bolin on guitar at that time. After Blackmore left the band, everything has changed but the band still played brilliantly! And The whole set are certainly a good songset not a jamset!