Deep Purple
Machine Head

THE REVIEW

Many of our Latin ancestors used to say: «repetitae juvant».

It is always useful, then, to remember that between the '60s and '70s, a new musical genre emerged, known as «Hard Rock», thanks to true manifestos like Led Zeppelin II (1969), Black Sabbath (1970), and Deep Purple In Rock (1970).

Why is it always useful? Because it's history.

We also know that there are various versions of DEEP PURPLE, but the most famous remains MARK II (although the following one, with Coverdale and Hughes instead of Gillan and Glover, was not displeasing to me at all). After the rock opera 'Concerto for Group And Orchestra', the Blackmore-Gillan-Glover-Lord-Paice breakthrough came with the aforementioned 'In Rock'. An album that caused a stir in the rock scene, just as it opens with the noise of instruments in the opening of "Speed King": a track that would become an axiom of the newborn genre. Also, "Living Wreck", "Bloodsucker" and "Child In Time" are authentic gems of the new genre and greatly confused critics, who often made the historical mistake of initially cataloging them in the emerging progressive genre, helped by the subsequent work, 'Fireball' (1971), at times truly baffling (in its transitions from "Fools" to "The Mule" through "No One Came"). The audience did not appreciate it, despite what would become a classic titled "Strange Kind Of Woman".

The misstep alerts the five who reconsider, returning to tread the hard rock path, unaware that they are about to enter the legend. 'MACHINE HEAD' (1971) marks the great, almost unexpected consecration, despite the boom with 'In Rock'.

The Mark II posters entered the rooms of millions of fans ready to hold anything their imagination could transform into a guitar and imitate Blackmore and his Stratocaster in "Smoke On The Water": probably, a track on which the five did not count much in their forecasts (the first single was "Never Before"), but that instead boasts what would become the most famous riff of the century. Magazines would call it Purple-mania, and they would not be wrong.

But Machine Head is not just Smoke On The Water, far from it. There is, first and foremost, what I consider the best piece of the entire repertoire (not just Mark II): "Picture Of Home". Just listen: 5 minutes at the top between lyrics, rhythm, Blackmore's solo, Lord's solo, and the gem of Glover's solo. There is the stunning progressive-boogie in "Lazy", over 7 minutes where the usual solo game between Lord's organ and Blackmore's Fender, also sees Gillan's harmonica come in, with a final closure in a coy rhythm'n'blues style. A brilliant, evergreen sound, not at all predictable, even in minor tracks like "Maybe I'm A Leo" (where Paice's touch is almost sophisticated) and "Never Before" (an impeccable performance by Gillan). There is then the well-known "Highway Star" with which Deep Purple defines the outlines of hard rock after having declared its birth the year before (with "Speed King"). Finally, there is a track that live will become a true workhorse as it lends itself very well to various spontaneous interpretations, succeeded over the years by the Lord-Blackmore duo: the legendary "Space Trucking".

In the remastered version "Anniversary 2 Cd Edition" (1997), the splendid blues ballad titled "When A Blind Man Cries" (originally released as a single) was also recovered, where the Blackmore-Gillan duo expressed themselves at the highest levels: truly a shame that the harmony between the two was, to put it mildly, overwhelmed by discord.

In short, this is THE album par excellence of Deep Purple, although 'In Rock' has been the most historically important one, and, excuse the boldness of my thesis, although the real masterpiece was the subsequent Live 'Made In Japan'. Above all, don't mind those well-thinking and learned individuals who enjoy writing about music (because this is not about literature, but about music), according to whom Hard Rock is a genre destined only for an ignorant audience: this album (like others) unavoidably discredits them, and besides, I myself am not ashamed to confess to you that I did not miss a couple of its tracks even on my graduation day. Generalizing (a late legacy of past centuries), if anything, lends itself to being an exercise far too easy, even for a third-millennium ignoramus.

Filippo Guzzardi