Deep Purple

Deep Purple is the name of a British rock group, and is also the name of a song composed by Peter De Rose, from which the band may have borrowed its name. They are one of the first and most famous hard rock bands, and are considered pioneers of heavy metal.

Top of the World

Shortly after the orchestral release, the band shocked the music world by creating extremely heavy, hard rock music, and thus becoming a pioneer in the world of heavy metal. Their heaviness was only rivalled by newcomers Black Sabbath. During this period, Deep Purple became one of the most popular hard rock acts in the world, releasing the highly influential and successful albums Deep Purple in Rock, Fireball, and Machine Head (the latter featuring their most famous song, "Smoke on the Water"), and the live album Made in Japan.

Related Topics:
Black Sabbath - Deep Purple in Rock - Fireball - Machine Head - Smoke on the Water - Made in Japan

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The classic line-up continued up through the album Who Do We Think We Are (1973) at which point both Gillan and Glover left. They were replaced by an unknown singer named David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes on bass and vocals. This new line-up continued seamlessly into 1974 with the album Burn, another highly successful Purple album. Hughes and Coverdale added a funky R&B/soul sound to the band's heavy metal elements, a sound that was even more apparent on the 1975 release Stormbringer. Blackmore was not happy with the results, and as a result he left to form his own band Rainbow.

Related Topics:
Who Do We Think We Are - 1973 - David Coverdale - Glenn Hughes - 1974 - Burn - R&B - Soul - 1975 - Stormbringer - Rainbow

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With Blackmore's departure, Deep Purple was left to fill one of the biggest vacancies in rock. The gap was filled by the prodigiously talented Tommy Bolin who had established himself as a vivid imaginative guitarist with acts such as Zephyr, James Gang and Billy Cobham. On the face of it Bolin was just what the doctor ordered. However the subsequent album, 1976's Come Taste the Band, for all its quality, proved unpopular with die-hard fans and didn't attract any new ones. Bolin himself turned out not to be ready for the job of filling Blackmore's shoes, suffering hostility from some crowds while turning in performances of highly variable quality. He had a drug habit, heroin, which made matters all the worse. After a particularly traumatic tour to promote Come Taste the Band, the band broke up. Later Tommy Bolin died of a heroin overdose whilst on tour supporting Jeff Beck.

Related Topics:
Tommy Bolin - Zephyr - James Gang - Billy Cobham - Come Taste the Band - Heroin

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Subsequently, most of the past members of Deep Purple would go on to have considerable success in a number of other bands including Rainbow, Whitesnake and Gillan, while there were a number of promoter-led attempts to get the band to reform especially with the revival of the hard rock market in the late 70s/early 80s.

Related Topics:
Rainbow - Whitesnake - Gillan

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