Man, your music is really funky

Continuing my trip back through the 1971 album charts.

24/10/71 : Fireball - Deep Purple

Our second visit with Deep Purple and whilst I didn't love the last one, I could appreciate the skill involved and they sounded like they were enjoying themselves, so let's hope for more of the same here.

Yeah - that's pretty much where we are. I'd certainly struggle to say I loved it and it's definitely dated, but there's plenty of skill on display along with more variety than I was expecting - I suspect there are plenty of gentlemen slightly older than myself that are instantly transported back many, many years when they hear the opening bars. I'm very unconvinced by the album cover though - but I imagine it fitted in well at the time.

We're all the way down at #13 in the charts this week on their seventh week of a 24 week run, with it having peaked at #1 in its second week. The top five this week were John Lennon (a new entry, which is rare in these times), Rod Stewart, Motown Chartbuster Vol 6, Hot Hits 7 and T Rex, with the next highest new entry being Lindisfarne (#24).

Wikipedia tells us it's their fifth album and their second with their "Mark II" line-up - apparently they're up to "Mark IX" these days. Mark II is probably viewed as the classic line-up, featuring Richie Blackmore and Ian Gillan but their entry tells me the lead singer role was originally offered to Terry Reid, who turned it down. I don't think I was previously aware of Terry but apparently he'd previously been offered a similar role by Jimmy Page - he couldn't make it because he was committed to supporting both The Rolling Stones and Cream on tour, but recommended Jimmy check out Robert Plant instead.

Back to the album, there's remarkably little else there apart from telling us the band struggled to record it because of all their touring commitments - it took them eight months and it was still a bit of a rush-job at the end because they had to get it out before they started a US tour. Critically, the album was pretty well received but the band were mixed on it, with Ian Gillan liking it but others thinking it was a bit of a rushed mess. It's fair to say it's got some famous fans though with Yngwie Malmsteen saying it "changed everything" for him at the age of eight when his sister gave him a copy and Lars Ullrich getting into hard rock after his dad took him to the tour at the age of ten. Commercially, it did very well in Europe getting to #1 in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany and Sweden but it only got to #32 in the US.

discogs.com tells us you can easily pick up a re-released version for £4, but you're going to have to splash out £8 if you want an original version, with a mint original setting you back up to £186.80. This definitely isn't one I'd be tempted by, but I can imagine there are plenty who would be in order to be reminded of their (very distant) youth.

31/10/71 - Mostly unremarkable


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