Deep Purple – In Rock (25th Anniversary Edition with bonus tracks) (1970/1995)

Deep Purple in Rock (also known as In Rock) is the fourth studio album by English Rock band Deep Purple, released in June 1970. It was the first studio album recorded by the classic Mark II line-up. Rod Evans (vocals) and Nick Simper (bass) had been fired in June 1969 and were replaced by Ian Gillan and Roger Glover, respectively.

Deep Purple in Rock was their breakthrough album in Europe and would peak at No. 4 in the UK, remaining in the charts for months (the band’s prior MK I albums had been much better received in North America than in their homeland). The album was supported by the hugely successful In Rock World Tour which lasted 15 months.

Although this was the first studio album to feature the MK II line-up of the band, it was this line-up that had earlier recorded the live Concerto for Group and Orchestra. The album was also preceded by the single “Hallelujah”, the first studio recording that Gillan made with Deep Purple. “Hallelujah” was a Greenaway-Cook composition released in late 1969, but the song flopped. A second single, “Black Night”, was developed around the same time as the In Rock album, but not included on the album. “Black Night” fared much better, as it rose all the way to No. 2 on the UK charts.

In 2005 the album won the Classic Rock and Roll of Honour Award (given by the British monthly magazine Classic Rock) in the category Classic Album. The award was presented to Ian Gillan, Ian Paice, Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore.

Deep Purple’s earlier work ranged from psychedelic hard rock to orchestra-driven tracks and covers that ranged from The Beatles to Neil Diamond, among others, but on this record all tracks are credited to the five members of the band.

Jon Lord used both the Leslie speaker and a Marshall amplifier with his Hammond organ, therefore the organ sound varies a lot throughout the songs. (Example: “Living Wreck” – Leslie speaker, “Hard Lovin’ Man” – Marshall amplifier).

Ritchie Blackmore used a Gibson ES-335 guitar on “Child in Time”, not his usual Fender Stratocaster. This album is his favourite, along with Machine Head.

The cover depicts the band in a rock sculpture inspired by Mount Rushmore. (by wikipedia)

After satisfying all of their classical music kinks with keyboard player Jon Lord’s overblown Concerto for Group and Orchestra, Deep Purple’s soon to be classic Mark II version made its proper debut and established the sonic blueprint that would immortalize this lineup of the band on 1970’s awesome In Rock. The cacophony of sound (spearheaded by Ritchie Blackmore’s blistering guitar solo) introducing opener “Speed King” made it immediately obvious that the band was no longer fooling around, but the slightly less intense “Bloodsucker” did afford stunned listeners a chance to catch their breaths before the band launched into the album’s epic, ten-minute tour de force, “Child in Time.” In what still stands as arguably his single greatest performance, singer Ian Gillan led his bandmates on a series of hypnotizing crescendos, from the song’s gentle beginning through to its ear-shattering climax and then back again for an even more intense encore that brought the original vinyl album’s seismic first side to a close. Side two opened with the searing power chords of “Flight of the Rat” — another example of the band’s new take-no-prisoners hard rock stance, though at nearly eight minutes, it too found room for some extended soloing from Blackmore and Lord. Next, “Into the Fire” and “Living Wreck” proved more concise but equally appealing, and though closer “Hard Lovin’ Man” finally saw the new-look Deep Purple waffling on a bit too long before descending into feedback, the die was cast for one of heavy metal’s defining albums. (by Eduardo Rivadavia)

In other words: One of the most important album of rock history !

Personnel:
Ritchie Blackmore (guitar)
Ian Gillan (vocals)
Roger Glover (bass)
Jon Lord (keyboards)
Ian Paice (drums, percussion)

Tracklist:
01. Speed King 5.52
02. Bloodsucker 4.16
03. Child In Time 10.18
04. Flight Of The Rat 7.53
05. Into the Fire 3.30
06. Living Wreck 4.31
07. Hard Lovin’ Man 7.11
+
08. Black Night (original single version) 3.27
09. Studio Chat (1) 0.28
10. Speed King (piano version) 4.14
11. Studio Chat (2) 0.25
12. Cry Free (Roger Glover remix) 3.20
13, Studio Chat (3) 0.05
14. Jam Stew”(unreleased instrumental) 2.30
15. Studio Chat (4) 0.40
16. Flight Of The Rat (Roger Glover remix) 7.53
17. Studio Chat (5) 0.31
18. Speed King (Roger Glover remix) 5.52
19. Studio Chat (6) 0.23
20. Black Night (unedited Roger Glover remix) 4.48