Saying that Deep Purple has gone through many line-up changes is like saying that there are many stores in a mall. The various line-ups are commonly labelled chronologically as Mark I, II, III, IV, and so on, which makes discussion about eras and specific line-ups easier. The first incarnation of the band, Mark I, was active in 1968-69. Mark II, frequently regarded was the classic line-up, was active in 1969-73 – and again in 1984-89, and yet again in 1992-93.
Mark III was born at the end of 1973 when David Coverdale (vocals) and Glenn Hughes (bass) replaced Ian Gillan and Roger Glover respectively, who in turn had replaced Rod Evans and Nick Simper from Mark I. The nucleus of the band had always been Ritchie Blackmore (guitar), Jon Lord (keyboard), and Ian Paice (drums). For all the changes there was always a stable core in Purple.
The most dramatic exit in the band’s history was when band founder and musical director Ritchie Blackmore left the band in 1975. This was nothing less than a bombshell. Losing the person who had largely come up with the music and overseen the creative direction within the band was huge. In most regards, during those early days, Deep Purple was his band. So why did he leave?
Mark III came out of the gate with all their guns blazing. The old members were eager to prove that there was life in the band after the departures of Gillan and Glover, while the new recruits were keen to prove themselves, which they did both on record and by playing several legendary shows.
Their first album Burn (released 15 February 1974) was a solid hard rock album bursting with energy, while also having room for more tender and bluesy moments which suited new vocalist Coverdale well. With Blackmore firing on all cylinders, showing himself as an innovative, enthusiastic, versatile and tasteful player, the album is full of classic tracks and playing. The musical chops of the entire band are also continually on display. The new incarnation was smoking, and Burn is rightly regarded as one of Purple’s greatest albums.
They did not wait too long to return to the studio. Recorded in München, Germany during August and September of 1974, Stormbringer was released on 8 November as the second (and final) album from Mark III. Those who hoped for a ‘Burn, part II’ would be disappointed.
Stormbringer is a Deep Purple album that often does not sound like a Deep Purple album. Much of the material was infused with funk, soul, and groove. The musical direction of this album was more than anything else the direct reason why Blackmore would finally leave the band he had been part of forming in 1968.
The new arrivals had a big hand in the musical expansion. Having firmly established themselves in the band at this point, both Coverdale and Hughes had started to push their ideas forward more. With his love of black American soul and funk, Hughes in particular was bringing in elements that Blackmore loathed.
The album is however not without hard rock material in the classic Purple mould. The title track in particular is a powerful solid album opener, but even there you can hear other things creeping in. Isn’t the bass line overtly funky at times?
Lady Double Dealer and High Ball Shooter also continued the hard rock blueprint established on the previous album. While such material would normally appease Blackmore, he did not feel they were of the usual standard, with High Ball Shooter in particular being marked out for dislike. “I didn’t stick around to find out the title of the song,” he said of it later, “although I recall it is in the key of A.”
And then there were all the songs of an entirely different musical disposition.
This was not the first time different-sounding material was brought in for consideration, but Blackmore had always firmly stopped unwelcome ideas in their tracks. Under normal circumstances, he would have been more forceful this time as well and prevented such developments from happening. However, he was very distracted at this time.
Blackmore’s marriage had broken down and he was going through the process of a messy divorce. He would later sum up his input on the album as, “There wasn’t as much guitar because in a way I was going through more personal problems, and I didn’t have the people there that I wanted to record with. I was thinking about other things when I should have been thinking about the music.”
This may partly explain why instead of coming up with original song ideas, he suggested that the band should cover Black Sheep of the Family – a favourite track of his from Quatermass’ one and only self-titled 1970 album. The rest of the band refused to cover other people’s material. This gave Blackmore a new feeling – that of being marginalised.
Consequently, Blackmore’s interest in Deep Purple dipped during the making of Stormbringer. For the first time since 1969, tracks would appear without his name in the writing credits.
Glenn Hughes saw the guitarist change during the making of the album: “Ritchie might have been losing his grip a little. David and I were firmly implanted by 1974. Ritchie didn’t bring a lot of songs into Stormbringer, I brought a lot more and he played brilliantly on the stuff I wrote but probably midway through it he was thinking about leaving and of course we didn’t have a clue about it. But I think probably through one of the songs like Holy Man or You Can’t Do It Right he was thinking it wasn’t the kind of stuff he wanted to play. It was another band and was becoming something entirely new. Ritchie was never mean. He had his own way, he just wouldn’t speak or he’d send notes through his roadie and it was all childish but we were all pretty childish back then.”
Ritchie would show his disdain in a number of ways, but he did what was required of him. When asked to perform on a song he did not like, he always turned in a brilliant performance. You would never know there was a problem from listening to the recordings, but to those who were there, the message was delivered very clearly.
One example came during the recording of the song Hold On. Everybody but Blackmore loved it. He still agreed to do the track, but only if he could just use his thumb. You can clearly hear him clunking away on the track, trying to deliver a passable rhythm track, but even without trying too hard he is too skilled to sound bad. Then it came time for the solo. Blackmore just strolled into the control booth, recorded it while doing small talk, and walked straight out again after the take. More than one take was out of the question, but as it happens, that was not needed.
“I sat with him (Blackmore) when he did the solo,” Coverdale later said, “sitting with him in the control room with the speakers on. He played it so casually, said he couldn’t be bothered, but it was fantastic.” What Blackmore did while trying his hardest to show how little he cared about this “horrible” song, was blast off an amazing solo in one single take. With his thumb! “Ritchie’s ideas about what he will and won’t play are quite firmly stated” drummer Ian Paice later diplomatically said.
A similar thing happened when they recorded Holy Man. Hughes told Blackmore that a bottleneck slide solo would be great in this song. There was a bottleneck across the room, but rather than walk over to get it, Ritchie picked up a screwdriver that was laying within his reach. Once again he would put the solo down in one take, throw the screwdriver down, and walk out. He was done with the song. Who knows whether he planned it that way or not, but it sounded amazing.
Having to play on other people’s ideas was bad enough, but the final straw was having to fight for his own ideas to be included. Blackmore and Coverdale had co-written the ballad Soldier of Fortune and they really liked it.
At the time Blackmore was primarily finding inspiration in medieval music and was looking to bring more of that style into his guitar playing, and consequently, into Purple. Soldier of Fortune was a classic example of a renaissance ballad, performed on acoustic guitar with a very emotive, bluesy vocal. The song, however, was disliked by the others. Blackmore had to use whatever leverage he had left to get it included.
“Dave and I wrote that song,” Blackmore later said. “It’s one of my favourite songs. It’s got a few of those medieval chords. You will be surprised how difficult it was to convince the others to play that song. Jon fairly quickly said okay, but Ian (Paice) and Glenn didn’t want to know about it. So I said, ‘I’ll play your funky song if you will play mine.’ So Glenn said as casually as possible, ‘OK I’ll do it.’ Glenn hated that song, he thought it was shit. Ian quit after two takes as well. Not enough for him to do in that song to prove himself.“
It is interesting that Blackmore had been instrumental in bringing on board the members who were now steering Purple’s style towards soul and funk. “Glenn is a good singer, but a soul brother, a big Stevie Wonder fan,” Blackmore said of that. “He wanted more funky things and Dave went along and even Ian started to play differently. Ian always used to be a straight rock’n’roll drummer, but all of a sudden he started to experiment with a lot of things. Very composed, very nice, very tight, very funky but no emotion. I wanted to try different scales, stuff from the 15th century. I could see that it would be the last album. I thought if it goes beyond this point then that’s it for me. That’s why I left, too many solo trips. I thought, ‘Go ahead with your shoeshine music; I’m off.’”
And off he was, after finishing the album and all concert obligations. But Blackmore had a plan in the background. While he did not officially leave Deep Purple band until June 1975, he was able to book private recording sessions in December 1974. He had been genuine in his wish to record a new version of the Quatermass-penned Black Sheep of the Family and intended to release it as his first solo single.
The sessions went so well that he booked further sessions in February and March 1975 to make it into a full album. Blackmore’s next band Rainbow had been born – but that is another story…
Deep Purple would soldier on. They recruited Tommy Bolin as Blackmore’s replacement, and recorded (the quite frankly brilliant) Come Taste the Band (1975) – the lone Mark 4 album – before personal demons and burnout made the band collapse in on itself. After a particularly disastrous gig in Liverpool in March 1976, it was over – for now.
The band would lay dormant until the successful Mark 2 reunion in 1984. But that, as well, is another story…
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