CD Odyssey Disc 379: Deep Purple

Another walk to work and back, plus a drive to get a haircut, and another album is ready for review. My hard drive is failing, so I'll try to write fast.

Disc 379 is...Machine Head

Artist: Deep Purple

Year of Release: 1972

What’s Up With The Cover?: I believe this cover is supposed to be 'trippy' with the distorted reflections of the band in what I assume is a piece of polished steel. I just find it looks out of focus. Not my favourite cover, and considering the masterpieces being put out at this time by other hard rock bands at this time, a rather poor effort.

How I Came To Know It: Like everyone, I've grown up with "Smoke On The Water" but never thought to buy any Deep Purple. My buddy Tony V. brought this over one night and I got a chance to hear it, and I liked it. I told Santa I would like to own it a couple Christmases ago, and Santa happily obliged.

How It Stacks Up: I only have this one Deep Purple album, so I can't really stack it up.

Rating: 4 stars.

"Machine Head" is one of those records that if you're a student of hard rock (as I am) you kind of have to own if you want any street cred. I've only had it for a couple of years, but the street cred is very nice, thank you, and keeps me warm on cold nights.

I had the same reaction to this album as I had to the first two Led Zeppelin albums; I knew it was supposed to blow me away, and when it didn't I was a bit let down. Which is not to say "Machine Head" is a bad record - it is an excellent record, a balls to the wall hard rock record that helped shape the sound of heavy metal, before heavy metal existed. For that alone, I must tip our hat.

The album opens with "Highway Star" which has a thrumming and repetitive bass and drum sound that makes you feel like you're driving when you're not, and makes you drive faster than you should when you are. It is a song about being in love with your car, but it is a reckless love, full of gratuitous guitar solos and grandiose claims to fame. It is a song well suited to the car radios of 1972 Dodge Chargers that likely once played it.

The song also feels like the first part of Black Sabbath's "Trashed" from Black Sabbath's 1983 album, "Born Again." No surprise, since that is the one Sabbath album featuring Deep Purple front man Ian Gillan on vocals. Also, "Trashed" is a song about having a car accident. I guess if you speed around in your Charger for eleven years, it catches up with you.

Every song has a memorable guitar lick, as Ritchie Blackmore shows his skill on that account. Some of the better licks are bluesy down-low stylings on "Maybe I'm a Leo" and the proggy-acid fueled solos on "Pictures of Home" but of course, the most memorable lick is "Smoke on the Water."

And when I say, this is the most memorable lick, I don't just mean on "Machine Head," I mean of all time. There is no more recognizable song in the world, and as I type this twelve year old boys across multiple continents are sitting in their shag-carpeted basements trying to make it the first song they learn on their electric guitar. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

For all the joy I get out of "Smoke On the Water" (which is a lot, even after hundreds of listens) I was surprised to find it was not my favourite song on the album. That honour goes to "Space Truckin'." "Space Truckin'" takes a little longer to get going, but I like how it takes its time, shifting gears about an hour in with a low groove as Gillan exhorts his listeners to 'c'mon, c'mon, we're goin' space truckin'."

And that's about as deep as "Space Truckin'" gets. It is a song imagining how you could party your way around the galaxy. The journey features with two awesome and completely different riffs, then a guitar solo, then a drum solo, and over the top lyrics cramming as many space references as is humanly possible to manage, including such gems as:

"They got music in their solar system
They've rocked around the Milky Way
They danced around the Borealis
They're space truckin' every day."

This eventually fades into a series of shrieks from Ian Gillan sounding like he got too close to the sun on the final orbin and lit his over-ample head of hair on fire. All of this in a furiously paced 4:34 of playing time. I wouldn't say this song would change the world, but like "Highway Star" it makes you want to move.

This record was a lot of fun, and is well-deserving of its reputation as a classic. I've heard better classic rock albums, including from that year, including Blue Oyster Cult's self-titled debut and Black Sabbath's "Vol IV" but that doesn't take away from "Machine Head," which has stood the test of time, in the basements of budding rock stars and the condos of aging rock fans alike.

Best tracks: Highway Star, Smoke On The Water, Space Truckin'