Bob Ezrin and the shorter songs

Deep Purple and family
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Martin, I absolutely agree with you. This safe version of DP is not truly Deep Purple - I really believe this is management, the label and Bob Ezrin weighing them down in order for them to have success in their silver years - and if I’m being a bit cynical here, so management et all can rake in a ton of cash in the process.

You see elder abuse happen alot - older people get taken advantage of, get told this is how it’s got to be, get silenced, etc. I can’t help but think that could be going on here - it doesn’t help that the band has had a history of acquiescing to management either.

That said, I do appreciate the discipline in this line up of the band - I’m just hoping the moment arrives when they break free of the imposed fetters that I suspect have been put on them and put their foot down and get back to being adventurous again, while keeping the discipline and stability that Simon brings to the band! Wouldn’t that be nice!

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Ritchie Blackmore to play with Deep Purple 12th August 2026
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Mike, I know that Ezrin’s productions/mixes leave a lot to be desired, but it’s not like he is the custodian of the band members. The band hires Ezrin, not the other way around. Probably because they value his input.

I doubt they are trying to get played on the radio. That ship has sailed. Record sales don’t generate much income any more, so I am not sure what “ton of cash” you are referring to.

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I’m talking about combined pressures from Bob, the label and their new management - it’s not gone unnoticed by me that the shorter songs and less jamming came into play once Bruce Payne was gone and new management got brought in. I doubt that was a band decision.

Regarding that ton of cash a) since teaming up with Bob the band has sold and charted the best they ever have in years - I doubt management et all want to break that formula, and so will put pressure on the boys to keep putting out similar music that sells damn well in the world of Deep Purple b) the song lengths keep getting shorter with each Ezrin produced album, the production more polished, and the songs more catchy and poppy - Splat has an AOR feel to many of the songs. If they aren’t getting played on the radio, they sure as hell sound like they’re trying to go for a more commercial sound! That’s not a bad thing, but is it really the Deep Purple sound we know and love?

A+B = more sales than the band has had in a long time, and management will want to milk that cash cow for as long as they can. Any Fule Kno That!

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Record sales are not what they once were. Chart positions are fun from a fan perspective, but touring is where the money is these days. So, the cash cow you refer to is imaginary.

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Mike, I think that when we’re talking about hypothetical “combined pressures” from the record company and Bob (him again, still the cause of all evils, that is, the good, that is, the cause of everything, the paradox where all the blame ends up!!), the cause of the lack of live improvisations (as if with Steve the improvisations were real and different every night) and then “the pressure on the guys” etc…

I believe that Martin’s overwhelming influence has made you write things that are far from common sense and that do not do justice to the excellent mental health of the DPs.

Let’s not look for conspiracies where there are none, please. :sweat_smile:

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Does my “overwhelming influence” means I am banned now??? :sob::fearful::scream:

Because apparently I haven’t been warned I had any.:innocent:

If it’s really that bad - blame it on my preconceptions and prejudices… I just miss the thing that up to March 2000 was pretty much an integral part of machine head in my, apparently NOT so humble, opinion. That’s it. Now I’ll go up to my keyboard stack and blast me a Child In Time running some 16 minutes. If I, humbly, may!

Thank you, good night, we love you aaaaaaaallll!!! (In Ozzy’s voice)

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I will just say that there still are few guys and bands nearing up 80, where they don’t fear to take risks or feel like they need to reinvent their formula to anything concise just because they age or are misled cash milking managements. Focus (Thijs and Pierre, both 80) or David Cross. Their concerts are sheer display of musicianship AND improvisation skills. So there’s a tiny light of solace still in the rock tunnel. It’s what I love and always did and it’s PURPLE that taught me to love that mode more than anything else. Here’s where I got overwhelmed. And I ain’t going anywhere else, certainly not to 4 minute thick cut corpses of originals or medleys!

Go, hate me now!:smiling_face_with_horns:

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your overwhelming influence, I meant the passion and emotion you always put into your comments! :winking_face_with_tongue:

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Flavio!!!

AAAAAAARRGGHHH!!! :squinting_face_with_tongue::squinting_face_with_tongue::squinting_face_with_tongue::squinting_face_with_tongue::squinting_face_with_tongue::squinting_face_with_tongue:

How could you mislead me this way!!!

My Vendetta will be cruel! :smiling_face_with_horns::smiling_face_with_horns::smiling_face_with_horns:I will post the setlist and running times what I played over last 2 hours.

And yes, the run was dedicated entirely to Deep Purple. Quite fittingly in fact, today is 54 years since Osaka Japanese debut of the band… So I’m only more glad that I did it. Right time, right place and some vintage flow:sign_of_the_horns::sign_of_the_horns::sign_of_the_horns:

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Oh I don’t need Martin’s help or influence where passions and emotions are concerned, I have plenty enough of those on my own!

Flavio, the fact that the band has stated in recent interviews that they’re frustrated with Bob “leaving things on the cutting room floor”. Cutting songs down to basically pop singles length is on him, and that’s an established fact.

Daniel, granted record sales aren’t what they once were, but they do account for something, especially to the record label.

It’s also an observable fact that the jamming got cut short after new management arrived. We can infer that management and label and Bob all want the band to make money so they can continue to get paid - shorter, more accessible tunes and a tight setlist that focuses on the hits and the new material that is selling well aids in that.

This is not a conspiracy - this is business where money is the bottom line. Management, label and producer will all put pressures on the band to keep that bottom line flowing. This is a common struggle in the music industry, art vs business, and it’s not particular to Purple.

It’s called the music business for a reason.

Economic pressures are a real thing, especially when making art!

Do I know these pressures are there for certain? No, I don’t, but given it’s a common struggle for artists everywhere, especially major touring acts like Purple, it’s highly probable that they are there.

We live in a capitalist world and the bottom line is money, even with music. Call the pressures artists work in a conspiracy if you wish, but that doesn’t mean those pressures aren’t there.

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So here it is:

2026-08-15

CLEARLY QUITE ABSURD - DEEP PURPLE CELEBRATION NIGHT

  1. KEYBOARD IMPROV - 3:51
  2. FOOLS - 14:30
  3. NO ONE CAME - 10:31
  4. WOMAN FROM TOKYO - 9:35
  5. CHILD IN TIME - 18:13
  6. ANYA - 14:25
  7. CLEARLY QUITE ABSURD - 8:24
  8. BLOODSUCKER - 6:29
  9. LAZY - 13:18

So, there. At least no one tells me what is right, what is wrong and after how many bars I have to quit soloing. This is what I love in this music. You get lost in certain sections and go for chasing phrases and motifs that flow through your head to your fingers. Such joy, I could almost diet! :sign_of_the_horns::face_with_hand_over_mouth::wink: And yes Clearly Quite Absurd is typically Morse finger breaking complexity, never tried it before, so it ended a solid piece of trainwreck. Blackmore’s stuff is definitely more approachable.

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True!

And, man, hearing it from the audience’s perspective makes it even more impressive…

:purple_heart:

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Welcome to the illustrious club of Bad Overwhelming Influences, Martin, Karin and I were getting lonely, now you can be our Generalgouvernement***! :smiling_face_with_horns::rofl::smiling_face_with_horns:

[***Before ahistorical Mike throws another fit, no, I’m not advocating the destruction of the Polish State, besides it has never worked before, they always keep coming back in Slavic persistence!]

https://youtu.be/N057iKYUj0c

Where were we? Ah yes, dark forces in the guise of a Jewish producer and a German record company conspiring, telling to young and impressionable DP that improvisation is now verboten. :index_pointing_up::face_with_monocle:

The good Herr MacGregor, never a man to mince words, would say: WAULOB!

Yes, bollocks, utterly so, and a whole load of it too. Telling DP to do one thing or the other is like telling Karin to stick to the point or stop her ongoing Ian Gillan hagiography.

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Not gonna happen. Has it occurred to anyone yet that DP might be treading a little lighter with the improvisation because they have basically already played every note forwards, backwards, sideways plus up and down?

The 70s impro excesses of DP (and excesses they sometimes were) were very often simply padding a set because the band had a dearth of playable live material (plus a VERY particular banjo player) - those days are long gone, they now have an embarrassment of riches as regards material from their back catalogue. And most standard concert goers prefer songs to jams.

earMUSIC are chuffed to have DP on their roster; now that doesn’t mean they are a charity organization, but they know that a name classic rock band like DP enhances their own brand, short, long or no solos at all. And Bob Ezrin has heard enough solos to last him a lifetime.

Young Simon, otoh, in any case thinks when he hears the word Solo of this guy …

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PS: Doug, restrain yourself. For once. No separate threads about the Polish partition in 1939, the generally deplorable quality of history education in Canada or STAR WARS please. Listen to me, I AM YOUR FATHER !!!

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Where did they say that?

No, that’s not an established fact. It’s a figment of your imagination.

The band said (and I quote from memory) that yes, the songs on this album are shorter. But there is a lot going on in those 3-4 minutes. I was skeptical about it, but after I heard the whole album several times, I tend to agree with them.

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I have no inside info regarding Purple, but I know the music business quite well. I think that the record company would be very keen to have Purple sound like Purple. So, whatever happened in the process of “shortening” songs would be an issue with the producer. He/She is probably under some pressure to deliver a product that the label can sell. So, to complicate matters, the band comes up with stuff that a producer has to make accessible to a wider audience, sellable. So there’s already a sort of conflict there, but you as an artist have to trust the producer, in many cases at least. Maybe this is why Roger mentioned there were longer tracks worked on, but didn’t get finished..the producer deemed them - not so sellable..Only guessing here..

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How does shortened songs make the band/management more money, Mike? (their new stuff doesn’t get played on the radio regardless)

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Julio, yes indeed! And we have to remember that the 1st Made In Japan night wasn’t as bad as it gets credited for. Of course, most of the tracks from the sets on 16 & 17th surpassed it with one HUGE EXCEPTION - Space Truckin’. Versions from 16/17.8 are LAME in comparison to night 1. If not the asynchronous tumble of walking out of the Mandrake Root improv part, a clear mistake - this should have been used for the live album. And I wouldn’t mind it being edited from two nights in the studio, solos of Jon and Ritchie are soooo adventurous on Osaka #1, that they make the following nights runs look like poor cousins, busking in the streets for a tenner. And this is the only case of the best version being NOT chosen for the final compilation of the 1972 album.

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Songs that are more than four minutes typically don’t get played on the radio. The average pop single is between 3 to 4 minutes, which is quite a few tunes on Splat. While radio play is not guaranteed, keeping your songs under four minutes makes it far more possible.

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…and, shorter songs in a set means more songs in a set which equals more performance royalties for the band. A hits heavy setlist with more tunes that ensures fans come back again and again equals repeat ticket sales and more money over time, which is what management wants.

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Was this the interview where he mentioned the band wanted to improvise more but Bob left much of it “on the cutting room floor” so to speak?

If so, this is the evidence I was speaking of regarding Bob cutting down improvisation in favor of shorter tunes. I remembered someone in the band made comment about this recently, I just couldn’t remember who!

If you could post the bit from Roger I’d be most appreciative - it was definitely not in my head, despite what Nick has asserted elsewhere.

Your reply is what I was basically trying to say, you said it better than I did, thank you!

I am not coming up with wild conspiracy theories, this is how the music business works in general, and I should know as a recording artist myself who has worked with producers and a record label in the past!