Deep Purple Album: “Come Taste the Band [Remaster]”

When I was 13, my older brother, a tremendous force in the direction to which my initial musical indulgences went. Walked in the door with this album under his arm.

I had at this point about 10 albums in my collection. I had Machine Head by DP and thought, wow, what a cool and classy looking album cover.

My experiences with Deep Purple's history outside of Machine Head were quite uninformed. But, one thing was for sure. When I heard the opening open quick drum roll, Tommy Bolin (need I say more?), and the opening lyrics.... Blew me away!

I was hooked!

Producer Martin Birch's incredible recording of this lineup is a masterpiece. This was, and is still to this day an absolutely essential part of my musical collection through 3 vinyl copies and one Japanese CD edition.

It is a perfect album and a sadly underappreciated one in the Deep Purple discography.

This is...Are you ready?? My #2 favorite Deep Purple album after Made in Japan. I think that it is simply incredible. It is funky, rockin', tight and simply some of the best boogie Rock-n-Roll to pour across my early ears and still to this day. NOTE: This is coming from a person that listens to an incredible amount of music from all genres (Except Rap/Hip Hop) and owns over 10,000 albums/CD's. The band is just having an incredible time here. It is obvious.

Plus, I feel deeply that any previous record by Deep Purple didn't have the production quality of this album. Often the recordings on "In Rock" etc. were incredibly compressed and seemingly muddy. To no fault of the musicians. The thing that to this day stands out for me with CTTB is how good these guys were at this time. Largely still are as musicians and vocalists. Their last few records are very, very good.

Here, David Coverdale took the combination of his Ian Gillan meets Paul Rodgers/FREE era styled blues vocals to a new level. I had never before or since heard him sing this well. (Ok, maybe on his first pre-WS solo album?) Glenn Hughes is an incredible soul singer. He is an amazing bassist. Jon Lord is brilliant. He open's up here in only his best way and with possibly some of his best work. Ian Paice is, and will always be, my favorite rock drummer of the "classic rock" era. Not a bad tune in the lot.

Dig it up and play it loud. Come on..."Come Taste The Band.

Perfection!!

"You Keep On Moving" is worth the price of admission alone. One of the great songs from the 1970's, and one of Deep Purple's best songs ever. The rest of the album is also fine. A great "lost' 70's hard rock classic.

This album is simply great. Just buy it. You won't be disappointed. This album was a big part of the soundtrack of 2007 in my life. It is simply a classic, memorable, album. Once you get it, you'll be listening to it for the rest of your life.

Deep Purple werein a jam when Ritchie Blackmore left the band.What was the remaining members to do? Hire american guitarists Tommy Bolin of course.How does this record hold up to the Deep Purple legacy? well first of all let me tell you this record has fans that think it is one of the best records of the bands career and there are others who don't accept it too kindly. Well I think it is one of the bands shining moments.The record starts off with "Comin' Home" and Tommy Bolin steals the show on this one.It"s a steady rocker which will make you ask Ritchie who? It"s that good.Lady Luck is next up.This is a funk rocker brought to the band by Tommy Bolin and the lyrics rewritten by David coverdale.A short and to the point song that drummer Ian Paice does a good job on.For you Glenn Hughes fans out there the next song "Gettin'Tighter" is one of his two spot light songs on the record.Tommy and Glenn do not disappoint on this one.Full force funk rock with incredible vocals.Ian Paice does it again on drums."Dealer" is next and it is the first and only song on this record where Tommy gets a small singing part.Solid rock guitar playing on this song which was written about drugs."I Need Love" comes next it starts as a rocker before turning into a funk-rocker.Tommy and Ian do some justice to this ordinary song."Drifter" arrives next and again Tommy plays a great riff and fills in the rest of the song with his signature tone and style.This one should not be missed."Love Child" is another funked up rocker and Jon Lord plays a simple but effective synthesizer solo backed up by Ians' great drum fills and Tommys great playing.Glenn Hughes and Tommy out do them selves on the next combined songs "This Time Around & "Owed to G"(an instrumental)."This Time Around" is a ballad,a magical ballad performed by Jon Lord on piano and sung by Glenn.This is one of the best sung songs ever by The Voice of Rock.The instumental half of this song "Owed to G" is one of Tommys finest recorded moments and should not be missed."You Keep on Moving" is a duet with David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes sharing the mike and bringing this record to a close.A great song and another great solo by Tommy Bolin.This record is a must in any true rock fans collection .If you already own it your one of the fortunate ones and if you don't buy it now.Don"t put it off,give your ears a treat.

I have been a Deep Purple fan since high school when I was 13 years old when I bought my first Deep Purple album featuring the wickedly good line-up that featured Turner as the lead singer but produced what that godawful red-headed stepchild REO Speedwagon-Foreigner disgustingly bad rip-off " Slaves and Masters ", that only had the one good track ( The INSANE first track " King of Dreams " ). After that I picked up all of their other albums in succession according to the line-ups and of course I started with Mark II, then Mark III, and so on. When I got to Mark IV I was COMPLETELY BLOWN AWAY BY THIS ALBUM FOR ONE REASON AND ONE REASON ALONE: TOMMY BOLIN. THE GUY WAS AN INSANE GUITAR PLAYER, especially on tracks like " Coming Home ", " Dealer ", the disco Purple track " I Need Love, and " You Keep On Movin' ". I had never heard a guitarist like him ever in my life and after being a Classic Rock/ Hard Rock/ Metal fan for most of my life I don't think there will ever be one like him again. If you're a new fan just getting into DP, RUN, DON'T WALK TO BUY THIS ALBUM IF YOU CAN FIND IT LOCALLY and then buy some of Bolin's other works, especially his two solo albums " Teaser " and " Private Eyes ", Tommy Bolin Whips and Roses 1 & 2, and anything else you can get your hands on that's legit Bolin. Having died of a heroine overdose at the age of 25 we weren't blessed to hear the sounds that this legendary guitarist would have made over the years, and it's a damn shame that most people today haven't heard of him but I think that's more a testament to how narrow-minded people are in their choice of good quality music and see it as just music but for serious fans of any band it's art, and Tommy Bolin's canvas was his guitar.

The album itself is a mixed bag, I do have to say. Coverdale sounds more mellow and groovy than he did in " Burn ", whereas Burn had slower tempo tracks then this album did ( mostly cos Blackmore's guitar playing didn't have the frenetic energy and flair Bolin was known for ) on this album he and Glenn Hughes are singing in concerto, that is they sound more on the same page on this album then they did on the previous Mark III albums they had made with Blackmore. This was a really revitalized era for Purple and could have been a kind of Renaissance for them, but by this time Lord had been thinking of quitting the band for a while and almost all of them were hooked on drugs and the rock and roll lifestyle had gotten to them, but not before they entered the studio to record the album! It's just a fun, fun album if you're more into blues rock and jazz ( the main reason Blackmore quit the band, since he was having problems with Coverdale and Hughes over their love of what he referred to it as " shoeshine " music. )

That is where the true problem with this albums lies with true DP fans, and causes the raging debates that you'll hear from all the warring Purple factions. This album is not DEEP PURPLE MARK II, AND IT NEVER WOULD HAVE BEEN. I'm sure most Deep Purple fans would have been happy it the band had changed it's name to reflect something new and didn't have the moniker Deep Purple since most fans have a hard-on for Gillan or Blackmore ( both of whom I love to death but I think of Deep Purple as an institution, not as a band ) but most fans probably don't know that the band was actually founded by Jon Lord and the first musician he approached to join was Blackmore, and that little tidbit has been lost over time and later on Blackmore took over more and more and Lord went along. The power struggles with Gillan and Blackmore led to the Mark III phase and while most people didn't initially know how to react to Coverdale subbing in for Gillan it was Glenn Hughes who made a more capable and better bass player than Roger Glover, so this thing went on and on until Blackmore finally had enough and founded Rainbow. This could have marked a new era in Deep Purple's history, but tragically this final, tragic album was their last until the Mark II reformation in 1984. Bolin breathed new life into Deep Purple just like Steve Morse did in 1996, and his flailing guitar playing and thrashing style should be emulated more today ( IF at all possible, cos NOBODY comes close to playing like this guy, NOBODY. ) For anything else, BUY THIS ALBUM TO HEAR TOMMY BOLIN SLAY YOU WITH HIS GUITAR ELTEE!!!!!!!!!!