Deep Purple – Burn – 1974
Remember Machine Head? How great that record was? And then it was followed by the highly mediocre Who Do We Think We Are?
Forget that. And forget Deep Purple as you might have known them.
From jump street the addition of David Coverdale as Ian Gillan’s replacement has infused the music with something more incendiary than before. On the title track Jon Lord seems to be playing catch up to Blackmore’s guitar and Coverdale’s voice. It’s refreshing and exciting and one of the best tracks this band has put out in a long time. And when he does finally get his chance to shine, it’s superfluous. The song’s already done what it needs/wants to. Ugh, I’m tired of organ….
Of course, no sooner do I write that then I get to the next track, “Might Just Be Your Life”, a hybrid child of “Woman of Tokyo” and “Smoke on the Water” with some of Lord’s most subtle and interesting work. Tracks like “Lay Down Stay Down” rip with Madison Square Garden anthemic quality.
Songs like “Sail Away” and “You Fool No One” show a leaning toward a more funkier sound, an even heavier sound, the convergence of metal and soul, if you will. The torch-blues of “Mistreated” is a ready-made stadium track if I’ve ever heard one. Lighters up!
The closing track, “A 200”, a space age, trippy instrumental number, is inconsequential, inessential and perhaps the worst thing Deep Purple has ever recorded.
Grade: A-
ASide: Burn
BlindSide: Lay Down Stay Down, Sail Away, Mistreated
DownSide: A 200
