If you ever want to know
where the word “Kerrang” came from listen
to the opening of Speed King, an open
chord with everything louder than everything
else.
After a brief respite the
band come thundering into Speed King proper
and Ian Gillan’s opening lyrics give you
a good idea of what’s to come. “'Good
Golly!', said little Miss Molly as she
was standing in the house of blue light”.
There follows six more master
classes in hard rock (nothing so crass
as heavy metal) where all five musicians
vie for the spot light at the same time.
There never has been a rhythm section
in Deep Purple, everybody up front and
in your face. The pinnacle of Deep Purple's
music is captured like a rampaging Rhino
on “Child in Time”. A beautiful entry
by Jon Lord on Hammond organ soon leads
to Ian Gillan showing off his amazing
range of terrifying screams, until the
prince of purpleness, Mr. Blackmore, is
let rip to shred the stratocaster. Somehow
Mr. Lord brings it back under control
until the triumphant finale.
The newly released 25th
Anniversary edition of Deep Purple’s “In
Rock” contains thirteen bonus tracks of
varying interests, but it’s the original
that got this dog banging his head on
the dog house roof.
Pawed by Mott The Dog
Remastered by Ella Crew
E-mail: review@mott-the-dog.com
