I try to avoid ranking the various line-ups within DP as a living breathing organism that undergoes regular changes.
Mk II has always been the object of specific worship and while they had no doubt the most skilled lyricist (and I hasten to add: their unquestionable feats), not everything they did was sheer brilliance. However, that seems to become the default assumption more and more with every passing day as people’s perception of Blackmore-Gillan-Glover-Lord-Paice is bathed in the warm golden light of nostalgia.
Me, I also remember very average gigs by these five gentlemen in the 80s and 90s (I unfortunately never saw them in the 70s, they never toured Africa and by the time we returned from Kinshasa early 1976, Mk IV were in their death throes), but you’re not allowed to say that. They must have all been secret gigs and only I went to them, no one ever seems to mention them here, all Mk II gigs reported on these always exude mesmerizing magic by the participants. There must be something wrong with my memory then. When Ritchie played things way too fast (and well below his technical ability to then still play them accurately or with a feel other than impatience), then that is not something that flawed many Purple gigs according to most of you, but constitutes further evidence for what a daring maverick and ingenious musical director he was. To me it just sounded rushed and with way less precision and musical command than when Judas Priest played even much faster songs. However, when Simon (and before him Steve) performs music that is more complex and sophisticated than traditional Mk II fare nearly flawlessly live today, it’s a sign for what a repetitive bore he is and how he can’t improvise. Maybe he’s just better rehearsed and has a superior work ethic, huh?
A minimalist two-chord early 70s song stolen note for note from someone else’s composition in the intro - with a one-note, non harmonic shuffle pasted in between (something nearly every late 60s/early 70s garage band would do) for the guitarist to show off his (admittedly impressive) chops. Which for some reason has now become the gauge whether DP are up to it or not.
I do remember the two Purple shows i had the opportunity to witness, i was in my late teens then and i was mesmerized by the fact that my heroes whom i had devoted most of my musical life from the age of 12 years on were right in front of me, alive and playing the songs i loved and adored…i do not remember if these two shows were “good”, “bad” or something in between, for me it was a dream come true Situation.
And i do remember about ten shows with Steve on guitar, it always was another kind of more adult magic but yes, regarding accuracy and skills : there was no slopiness within the interaction of guitar and Keys.
Same is true for the two shows of the current lineup, only a feeling of light sadness cause all heydays come to an end.
Hence i love almost every Purple Incarnations, minus the S&M one
It wasn’t just the minimalist chord progression - A minor and G major, a I-VII chord change that populated like three quarters of the Mk II songs in the 70s -, but also the whole violin melody over it which Jon purloined note for note.
Still, I like CiT too as a period piece, but it would have had a hard time finding a place on Sgt Pepper with its harmonic minimalism.
I can easily overlook the fact that CiT might be a rip-off, given the work the band did (it’s safe to say CiT is one of the five most iconic songs of the 70s, isn’t it?), and considering just how much material Led Zeppelin themselves stole for their songs.
I think downplaying what Purple achieved with InRock is a clumsy attempt at provocation that pretends to ignore the entire massive subtext of 1970.
Unfortunately, I was too young to see Purple in the 80s; in 1987, I had no one to take me to Verona, let alone to Switzerland in 1990 to see Purple/Rainbow.
But the 80s bootlegs confirm—even to my ears—that some of concerts were mediocre.
The paradox is that the performances of the MKII-bis songs were better than the MKII ones, including the improvisations.
This brings us back to the improvisational cacophony that took hold of Ritchie’s soul during those years; its context can be found either in the musician’s evolution (or involution) or in the goliardic period of the reunion.
But all things considered, judging solely by the live songs, the improvisations suffered in comparison to the 70s, while the sound clarity paled in comparison to the Morse’s era performances.
I think that if I had attended even just one concert from the PS or THOBL tour, I would consider them unforgettable.
I‘m not downplaying In Rock, it has historic significance and co-cooked up a whole new genre - but they used water to do it! As one does when cooking. Just because something has had huge impact, I don‘t frame it with a halo for reverence.
I think what Ritchie lost a little during his Rainbow tenure and did not regain fully with the DP reunion was his ability to LISTEN. Rainbow had of course been a backing band, there was no point to listen there, but in the early to mid 70s Blackmore still operated more within the framework of DP as a band and drew from the others for inspiration.
I’ve told this story a few times before, but for the record (and for the few who haven’t heard it yet), I saw Purple live in 1971 at Cleveland. They were second billed to the Faces (who had Rod Stewart, Kenny Jones and Ronnie Wood at the time), and Matthew’s Southern Comfort opened the show. Incidentally, MSC’s lead roadie at the time was Colin Hart, who was soon to assume that role with Purple. After MSC opened with a half hour set, the DP boys took the stage and played for an hour exactly. Speed King, Wring That Neck, Into The Fire, Bloodsucker, Child in Time, and Hard Lovin’ Man, as I recall - and they were stupendous. Amazing improvisations. Ritchie and Jon in full flight, both together and separately. Paicey drumming out of his mind. Gillan in absolute top form, especially on Child in Time. Roger keeping everything tied down. Phenomenal musicianship all around. When they finished, they had a standing ovation that lasted more than 5 minutes, but I’m guessing they weren’t “allowed” to have a encore since they weren’t headlining the show. The Faces were excellent, but Purple stole the show that night. They were absolutely transcendant - people were still marveling about Purple as they left the arena. I was heavily into Purple before, but that night sealed the deal for me.
Oh come on, Erik, the F isn‘t really a chord but just an intro to the G chord - just like the G chord with which the song starts is only an intro to the A minor. You could play the song with just A and G power chords and sing CiT or SOTW or WABMC or WFT or Soldier of Fortune or Uriah Heep‘s Lady in Black over it and it would work pretty much every time. That I-VII chord change was a staple diet of DP in the 70s.
Purple were great riff writers and arrangers, also great soloists and improvisers, but as chord changes go they were about as experimental as the Sex Pistols and that is probably doing Johnny Lydon and his men a disservice. It all of course has to do with Ritchie not being much of a friend of fancy chord changes - unlike Jimmy Page - and preferring meat & potatoes instead. It is no surprise that the sophisticated chord changes in the solo of Gates of Babylon, which transcended in complexity anything that Rainbow or Purple had done before, were David Stone’s and not Ritchie’s do (Stone was bought out as a co-songwriter for a flat one-time fee). Harmonies, be they instrumental or vocal, just weren‘t Purple‘s turf.
The harmonic progressions of Place in Line and Perfect Strangers, for example, are well-constructed and not banal.
There are far more than three chords.
It‘s not just the amount, it‘s also what type of chords. And Purple are simply not very adventurous in that, they stick to black and white chords, at least Blackmore does mostly (Steve was more explorative).
That is not a knock, lots of bands do, especially rock bands. At the end of the day, Purple is a glorified Blues band (as most hard rock bands are) and the Blues is by nature harmonically unadventurous. Look at ZZ Top.
Some people seem to assume that because they like DP, DP must write the catchiest chorus parts, play the best solos, come up with the most variable rhythms and reinvent Western European harmony rules all the time. Nope. DP have a cookbook too and while that cookbook has more pages than many others of the genre, it has a first and a last page and there are prioritized ingredients with most recipes in it. And complex harmonies are not a vital seasoning in DP‘s cuisine. I don‘t even see how that can be debated, it‘s like arguing that Jimi Hendrix was technically a great singer when he obviously wasn‘t (yet had a one-of-a-kind voice). Changing from A to G and then to C, D or E is not especially imaginative (and even adding an F doesn‘t change that), it‘s standard for the most basic types of rock.
For something to be good or noteworthy, it doesn‘t have to excel in all departments. DP has strengths and it has weaknesses, what‘s so hard to accept about something so obvious? Oh, I get it, DC has the answer!
Why do you keep going on about DP being so unadventurous and not as refined as we think? I think we’re qualified to decide for ourselves how DP stand out compared to other bands.
Uwe, you are right, it is true that many most memorable songs are constructed simple and touch us listeners most…cause, funny as we humans are: beneath our intellectual surface we like it that way…i like playing weird chord progressions myself but i also do love simple songs
The chord progression of “Place in Line” is exactly what is needed to show that, even in the 70s, Purple were not a predictable band:
it is a blues song, but it is much more complex than all the blues standards played by most blues and hard rock bands of the era.
They were clever enough to create a song featuring two blues progressions that could actually have been two separate blues songs; I may not be a blues expert, but I’ve never heard anyone else do that—not even Led Zeppelin.
It’s a major key standard that cycles through E, D, and B, with an A major passage interspersed. But these chords keep rotating—they never remain static relative to one another—and there are also chromatic movements involving F and F#.
But Ritchie’s main riff isn’t just a run-of-the-mill blues riff either, because it features an extended chromatic tail, the kind usually tacked onto the end of blues songs, not the main riff itself!
That’s why I think Place in Line is proof that Purple—if they wanted to—could write songs that were anything but ordinary.
Of course, “Mandrake Root” or “Child in Time” are built on just three chords, but they work well precisely because of that.
I never said that DP were not adventurous, they just weren‘t adventurous in the harmony department, but very adventurous in forging a sound, their solos and the - for the time new - Gorgan interplay. DP weren’t great with harmonies just as The Beatles weren‘t great with riffs, that diminishes neither DP nor the Fab Four, I‘m just being objective and discerning.
And Flavio, one swallow does not a summer make, the Beatles wrote a good riff with Come Together too, likewise I never said that Purple didn’t have a grasp of harmony if they needed too, it just wasn‘t a stylistic priority to them. And Blackmore hated Place In Line like he hated almost everything on WDWTWA. Personally, I think it‘s one of the strongest songs on the album which I have always rated for DP trying to get away a little from just the riff-o-mania of MH where every song with the exception of maybe HS is anchored by a dominant riff.
Daniel, is your definition of acceptable DP fandom to adore and worship everything they do and how they do it indiscriminately? Are you a zealot? You are free to say “Harmony isn’t as important to me in music as good riffs.”, that is a perfectly credible stance to take and a decision/preference I don’t interfere with. Me pointing out certain - rather obvious once you leave the DP fandom bubble btw - traits of DP doesn’t question (nor intends to question) your right to decide to like them just the same.
I’ve been a DP fan for so long and have argued the band’s case so often with people who are noncommittal about or even actively dislike DP, that I am well aware of the arguments put forward against DP’s way of making music. Not all these arguments are made by imbeciles and do not hold a true core, but that is apparently where we differ.
I think we’re qualified to decide for ourselves how DP stand out compared to other bands.
You are free to say “Harmony isn’t as important to me in music as good riffs.”, that is a perfectly credible stance to take and a decision/preference I don’t interfere with. Me pointing out certain - rather obvious once you leave the DP fandom bubble btw - traits of DP doesn’t question (nor intends to question) your right to decide to like them just the same.