PPE Makes An Amazing Admission
Promise
Before I tell you the name of my favourite band, you must promise not to snigger. You see, the media has done such a good job over the years of discrediting the type of music the band plays, that people think sniggering is the right thing to do. The group plays heavy rock and there's always been an implicit assumption in society that only those who are musically illiterate and generally moronic profess a liking for it.
OK, here goes. My favourite band is Deep Purple.
Rotherham
It's been said now, and there's no retracting the statement. I've followed
the band through thick and thin, rather like a soccer supporter might cling
to 'his' team. Sad to say I once went to Rotherham, not that there's anything
wrong with Rotherham itself, but I attended a nice party there and met
a local lad who was also a Deep Purple fan. He testified that he refused
to listen to any Led Zeppelin records because he regarded Zep as opposition
to his beloved Deep Purple. It was just like listening to a City fan talking
about his loathing for United. I certainly don't fall into that category
of fanaticism - what we might call exclusive fanaticism; I'm just loyal,
and haven't stopped liking Deep Purple in favour of the new band on the
block. And for the record (yes, I know!), I'm actually rather fond of Led
Zeppelin's early albums myself.
Nothing New under the Sun
My wife has called me an 'old fogey' for sticking to the progressive
rock music of the late 60's and early 70's. I've spent my adult life building
up a collection of albums almost exclusively from that era or new works
by bands and artists who were at their height in those days. There were
many LPs I couldn't afford back in my student days, and so I've spent my
adult life buying them and filling in the gaps. The reason I do this rather
than buying into all the latest acts is that the musical vocabulary of
today's bands was mostly determined during that progressive period. It's
not that the new music is bad in comparison. I'm very impressed by much
of what I hear, but it's not new in terms of ideas and I see little point
in buying music that is derivative and only an echo of that earlier music,
and one that was formative for me.
It's been very satisfying to 'grow' with bands like Deep Purple. As the band and the audience have aged, the music and, more importantly, the lyrics have reflected the changing attitudes and concerns of our generation. I don't really 'connect' socially or spiritually with newer bands. It simply annoys me that they regurgitate ideas that have already been stated with great articulation by the rock music pioneers.
"Yeah man, but is it a progression?"
Those pioneers had a big advantage that's not been available to artists
since then. It enabled them to push musical boundaries so that what they
did was always fresh and new. In those days, the rock critics always approached
a new album with one question in mind: is the music a progression on the
last album? The result was that artistes were actively encouraged to try
different, new ideas, to be as flamboyantly creative as they possibly could
be. And, amazingly, record companies let these young musicians do it! The
result was that a group's first couple of albums were often pretty poor
as they experimented, and even later albums could contain some ideas which
sound rather stupid in hindsight. The Beatles' Sgt. Peppers album is a
classic example of this. There's experimentation on all the songs, and
with the studio gear. The stereo sound stage is arranged rather oddly in
many places. But these musicians were allowed to make mistakes. A&R
executives went on a spree of looking for bands with highly individual
styles. Commercial certainty was not part of the music industry's modus
operandi. Not like today, when everyone has to play safe, and there's a
really big struggle for new forms of musical expression to find any kind
of market.
Absolutely No Hype! Thank You!
Of course, the benefit to all this was the emergence of bands with genuinely
distinctive sounds and ideas that worked well. Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side
of the Moon' epitomises this. It might seem an odd thing to say after mentioning
an album that took months and months to record, but the other element that
encouraged creativity in music was the critics' propensity for damning
any hype or artificiality. This had the benefit of ensuring honesty in
musical endeavour and promoted good musicianship. In normal circumstances
a band like Queen would have sunk without a trace in such an environment;
their music employed studio gimmickry to the full and many songs sounded
rather contrived. That they survived, and in such style, demonstrates that
their excellent song-writing abilities shone through the theatrical artifice.
In the wake of both the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper LP that illustrated the uniqueness of recorded pop music as a separate art form to live performance, and Jimi Hendrix who revolutionised the electric guitar, things were set for some remarkable years in rock history. Of the bands that emerged to conquer the teenage world Deep Purple were by far the most interesting to me.
Smokin'
I had a school friend called Reggie. Since age five we had been good
friends. We went to Saturday matinees at the cinema, shared a great love
of Thunderbirds and Batman, did 'bob-a-job' together, and liked the same
music. One day he invited me round to his place. He'd got hold of a borrowed
copy of two albums, Led Zeppelin II and Deep Purple's Machine Head. The
latter was still riding high in the charts. As a young teenager I found
the angst of Led Zeppelin II more appealing initially: there's lots of
fireworks and escapism going on through the record. But it was the darker,
bluesier sound of Machine Head that held my interest far longer. Here was
music that engaged on every level. Who could fail to be inspired by that
monster riff to Smoke on the Water? Despite all the classic Jimmy Page
riffs like Whole Lotta Love (which I imagine he stole) Smoke on the Water
had a power and immensity which blew the Zeppelin away, helpless on the
wind.
If I have a favourite album then Machine Head is it. I have the album in just about all its guises. I don't buy music for the sake of collecting, but it's worth breaking that habit with this album. You'll find my review of it elsewhere on this site. If I could only keep one rock album then this would be it.
Keep on what???????
This site is something of a fan's scrap book of memories of a musical
era. I hope you find something to amuse you and entertain you. Perhaps
you would like to contribute or suggest something. In the meantime 'keep
on truckin' as they used to say in the 70's!