Deep Purple (album)

In late 1968, Deep Purple had embarked on a successful first US tour to promote their second album The Book of Taliesyn, and returned home on 3 January 1969. The band was considered an underground act in the United Kingdom, but word of their success in America had influenced their reputation at home, as they gradually rose in popularity and request. However, their releases had yet to make an impact in the UK, where their second single, a cover of Neil Diamond's "Kentucky Woman", had not charted and was retired after six weeks, after having peaked at No. 38 in the United States and No. 21 in Canada. Deep Purple's American label Tetragrammaton Records pressured the band to make a single to match the success of their hit "Hush", and the band had tried to satisfy that request while still in the US for the last dates of their tour; they recorded some covers in a New York studio in December 1968, without worthwhile results. The musicians had come up with much more complex original material for their second album, and making a song that would easily fit the three-minute range was apparently becoming difficult. Deep Purple's greater visibility and their declared interest in the British public induced local music magazines to print a few articles on them. ==Composition and recording==

The band's management organized the spare time from the UK tour to record new songs for a third album over the course of February and March 1969 at De Lane Lea Studios, with Lawrence as producer and Barry Ainsworth as sound engineer. Deep Purple was the band's third album to be recorded, even though they had been together for less than one year. According to Nick Simper: "Recording was always a problem. We were always short of material, purely because of our schedule. The fact that we were always being chased by Tetragrammaton for material, we never had the luxury like most bands do now of saying, 'hang on fellas, we need a little bit of down time to just think about stuff and try and be creative.'" Added Blackmore: "That really bugs me...going to the studio, 'right, you gotta turn out an LP, boys.' You know, 'here we go, you gotta write a song...today.' It’s just ridiculous." Musical and lyrical inspiration came from very disparate sources. The opener "Chasing Shadows" was based on African rhythms created by drummer Ian Paice with lyrics inspired by one of Jon Lord's nightmares. The baroque "Blind" was written by Lord and largely performed on harpsichord. The song's lyrics pose the question, "Why didn't Rosemary ever take the pill?". "April" was a tune written by guitarist Ritchie Blackmore about his birthday month before the recording sessions had begun; it was later augmented with a long middle section of classical music written by Lord, becoming the album's 12-minute-plus final track and Deep Purple's longest ever studio recording. The only cover song on the album is the Donovan-penned ballad "Lalena", which had been a Top 40 single for its author in the US in the autumn of 1968. The first new song to be publicly performed was titled "Hey Bop a Re Bop", which aired on the Top Gear radio show on 14 January 1969. It was broadcast again on 11 February before being reworked and becoming the psychedelic blues song "The Painter". Although most recording dates are lost, it is known that the band recorded two songs on 17 February. "Lalena" and most of "April" were recorded on 28 February, while a new version of "The Bird Has Flown", retitled "Bird Has Flown", was put on tape on 28 March. The orchestral part of "April" played by hired musicians was the last recording for the yet-unnamed album, which was mixed and delivered by the end of March. ==Musical style==

As is the case with most of the material on their previous two albums, the songs of Deep Purple mix elements of progressive rock, hard rock and psychedelic rock, but this time in a darker and more baroque atmosphere. Lord had been the main writer on the first two albums and his classical music upbringing and interest in fusing classical and rock had profoundly influenced the direction taken by the band. On Deep Purple Lord still had a great influence, which found maximum expression in the harpsichord-flavoured "Blind" and in the orchestral section of "April", an original piece for choir and string quartet that he composed despite being hard at work in writing and arranging his Concerto for Group and Orchestra. the musicians ceased their exploration of the genre in this album with songs such as "The Painter" and "Bird Has Flown", ==Cover art==

The Garden of Earthly Delights painted in the late 15th century by Dutch master Hieronymus Bosch, depicting Hell in a highly symbolic fashion. Tetragrammaton issued the album in a stark gatefold sleeve, wrapped around with a segmented illustration from Hieronymus Bosch's painting The Garden of Earthly Delights. The original painting is in colour, although it appeared on the LP in monochrome due to a printing error for the original layout, and the band opted to keep it that way. ==Release and promotion==

Tetragrammaton Records had been active only for a year, but was on the brink of bankruptcy in the US. Deep Purple were the label's most successful artist, but the band had not been able to produce another hit single like "Hush" The album was released in the UK in September 1969 on EMI's sub-label Harvest Records, around the same time as the much-hyped event Concerto for Group and Orchestra held at the Royal Albert Hall in London. At that time Deep Purple's line-up had already changed. The album was distributed in Canada and Japan in October 1969 by Polydor Records. Deep Purple was reissued very few times and only in Europe, often in a set with the two other albums recorded by the Mark I line-up. The only other international reissue of the album is the Remastered 2000 CD edition by EMI, which contains versions of "The Bird Has Flown", "Emmaretta" and live performances taken from BBC Radio sessions as bonus tracks. All the songs were digitally remastered by Peter Mew at Abbey Road Studios in London. ==Touring==

While the band was recording the new album and touring in the UK, their managers at HEC Enterprises had found an agreement for Deep Purple to support the Rolling Stones in their upcoming US tour during Spring 1969, the first in three years and a certain sold-out event. This time their trek also touched Canada, where their albums were distributed by Polydor Records. this time the single "Emmaretta" and the band's back-catalogue remained sitting on store shelves. Coletta later commented on how 1969 was a wasted year for Deep Purple in America. Even though their most recent single was doing poorly, Deep Purple maintained a reputation as a fine live act in the US. Despite having turned into a highly proficient band on stage, things were starting to heat up internally, with band members getting more vocal about the direction they wanted the music to go, as well as being dissatisfied with their treatment financially. Simper remarked in later interviews, "Once we started making money, the friendships went out the window." He further noted that Blackmore was particularly peeved that Lord and Evans were earning royalties above and beyond the other band members because they had composed the B-side of the "Hush" single ("One More Rainy Day"). Meanwhile, Lord and Blackmore were tired of being identified as a "clone of Vanilla Fudge" which had become a great success on both sides of the Atlantic, after its release in January 1969. They felt that Rod Evans, with his tender, smooth voice, would not be able to cope with louder, more aggressive material. Tensions were also high with bassist Nick Simper, On the other hand, Simper sided with Blackmore against Lord's excessive influence in the band's songwriting and was critical of classical music getting in the way of harder rock. As a result of those tensions, communication between band members was at a minimum during the tour. They talked their ideas over with drummer Paice, gaining his agreement to the line-up change. End of the Mark I formation Back in England in early June, the decision taken had to be kept secret until the promotional tour for the British release of The Book of Taliesyn was completed. Gillan, who did not see a future in his then current band, Gillan convinced the reluctant Glover to audition for Deep Purple and the two soon found themselves torn between the new band, which gladly welcomed both of them, and obligations with Episode Six for the completion of a UK tour. Evans, Simper and Episode Six's management were kept unaware of these events and of the fact that the new line-up was already active in writing and rehearsing new songs. Simper sued Deep Purple's management for breaking his contract, and the dispute was settled economically out of court. The music of the album Deep Purple was played only during the tours of 1969 and never performed again by other line-ups, though Simper played songs from the first three Deep Purple albums with the tribute band Nasty Habits in Europe in 2010. ==Commercial and critical reception==

Deep Purple was practically ignored by the music press in the US upon its release in June 1969 and bounced up and down on the Billboard 200 chart for a few weeks, peaking at No. 162 and not coming close to the success of its two predecessors. Tetragrammaton's financial problems were partially to blame, for promotion was lackluster, but the lack of a hit single to be aired on FM radio or a tour in support of the album were also important factors. At the time of release, Deep Purple was generally ignored by the British music press, more focused on the eventful Concerto for Group and Orchestra than on an album by an extinct line-up. Modern reviews are generally positive. AllMusic's Bruce Eder calls the album "one of the most bracing progressive rock albums ever, and a successful vision of a musical path that the group might have taken but didn't", remarking how Deep Purple succeeded in combining "heavy metal's early, raw excitement, intensity, and boldness with progressive rock's complexity and intellectual scope." Jedd Beaudoin of PopMatters appreciates in his review the heavier sound of the songs and notices how "Evans sounds more and more out of place in a band that was increasingly more comfortable with stretching itself beyond the confines of pure pop pieces", like in the track "April", which he considers not only "the most ambitious thing on the entire record, but also arguably the best." David Bowling, in his Blogcritics column, reviews the album as "the least satisfying of their three early career releases, although it can also be considered their most adventurous" for its "meandering through a number of different styles and sounds." However, considering the growth shown by Blackmore and Lord as performers in this release, he concludes that it is "a fitting conclusion to the band's formative years." Martin Popoff praised the album for being "stronger, more aggressive and much better recorded" than "either of the first two records", showing the original work of "a strangely soulful psych band distinguished", with the exception of singer Evans, "by its hard-hitting players". ==Legacy==

The track "April" served as inspiration for the music written for The Legend of Zelda, an action-adventure game released in 1986 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The inspiration is most clearly heard in the "Title Theme" and "Dungeon Theme". Koji Kondo, the composer of the game, has confirmed that he draws inspiration from many 70's rock bands, including Deep Purple. ==Track listing==

All credits adapted from the original releases. ==Personnel==

Deep Purple • Rod Evans – lead vocals • Ritchie Blackmore – guitars • Nick Simper – bass, backing vocals • Jon Lord – Hammond organ, piano, harpsichord, backing vocals, claves on "Chasing Shadows", string and woodwind arrangement on "April" • Ian Paice – drums, timbales, maracas, cowbell, timpani Production • Derek Lawrence – producer, mixing • Barry Ainsworth – engineer • Peter Mew – restoring and remastering at Abbey Road Studios, London (2000) • Deep Purple – liner notes ==Notes==