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Machine Head (1996)

Duration: 1:13

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Album:Machine Head
Released:March 25 '72
Recorded:Dec '71
Studio:Grand Hotel, Montreux, Switzerland with a 16 Track Rolling Stones Mobile Studio
Genre:Heavy Metal, Hard Rock, Rhythm/Blues
Label:Purple(Europe, Oceania, South America)Warner Bros(USA, Canada & Japan)
Producer:Deep Purple
Deep Purple MK1(Rod Evans-vocals, Ritchie Blackmore-guitar, Jon Lord-organ, Ian Paice-drums, Nick Simper-bass)completed 3 studio albums before Rod Evans and Nick Simper were replaced by bassist Roger Glover and vocalist Ian Gillian some time in '69.Blackmore did not think that Rod and Nick were not fit for the direction Purple wanted to go into.Deep Purple MK2 was born and performing a "Concerto for Group and Orchestra", a three-movement epic composed by Lord as a solo project and performed by the band at the Royal Albert Hall in London Sept '69 and being released on vinyl in Dec '69 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Malcolm Arnold.Deep Purple also making success after their first MK2 line up album "In Rock" in June '70 with single hits like "Black Night" and "Child In Time."Deep Purple's "Smoke on The Water" taking from the Machine Head album which was Deep Purple's(MK2)number 1 selling album!The story goes that Deep Purple MK2 was recording their next studio album in Switzerland at the Grand Hotel with the Rolling Stones mobile studio truck parked right outside with wires and cables running through the Grand Hotel windows.Drums, a Hammond Organ, Marshall Stacks, Fender Guitars, and a Rickenbacker bass set up all over the main halls of the hotel that was renovated to the mighty LOUD DEEP PURPLE.While Deep Purple was recording the album they noticed a haze of smoke and burning flames coming from the Grand Casino Hotel in Montreux where Frank Zappa's band was having a live concert at drifting like an eerie fog over a body of water by the building.Apparently some stupid fan in the audience shot a flare gun into the casino's roof of the building and the place lit up like a burning hell fire of doom.Deep Purple was relocated to a nearby theater called the Pavilion I guess to finish up the album.Deep Purple's MK2 bass player came up with the name of the rock score/song "Smoke On The Water he cried."The story is in the lyrics of the song, just sit back and listen.A riff that was simply made up of perfect 4th's(In music theory a perfect 4th is a musical interval which means the distance between one note to the other).A lot of guitar players play the riff incorrectly and play 5th's/perfect 5/power chord(interval or distance between one note to the next)I played the score exactly how it was written according to "The Best Of Deep Purple Authentic Guitar Tablature Notation" book.I have seen all the "Deep Purple line ups play this song with very interesting versions live.A matter of fact during the live gigs I have heard Jon Lord solo first on the Hammond Organ rather than the guitar solo played first, especially with Deep Purple Mark 2 and Mark 3 concerts.I have seen the Ritchie Blackmore era, Tommy Bolin era, Steve Morse era play outstanding solo improvs during the solo break of the song live.I wanted to stick to the original studio version taken from the "Machine Head" album.You can hear that Fender Stratocaster neck pick up on the studio version then later switched down to the biting sounding bridge pick on the solo(Ritchie was known for playing his Fender Strat between the bridge and neck pick up's, especially during his solo's).Ritchie Blackmore's solo on the studio version is extraordinary.The solo is not built off of just some bluesy minor/major pentatonic boring repetitive lick.The solo really demonstrates blues, minor pentatonic, dorian and some mode scales up and down the fretboard.Ex:The song/score is in the key of G minor(relative Major B flat Major)and the solo demonstrates a good movement of G minor scale runs over the G5 power chord then C minor pentatonic/C blues/C dorian(mode II in B flat Major)scale over the C5 chord.I like how Ritchie wrote the piece by playing from scale to scale (or mode)into the chords and key of the song.I believe Ritchie Blackmore was using late '60's and early '70's Fender Stratocaster's(color's:black, sunburst, natural)with the larger headstock's as seen by guitar legends like Jimi Hendrix, Robin Trower, and even Tommy Bolin at times just to name a few.Ritchie Blackmore noticeable for using Fender Stratocaster's with scalloped(carved in)maple necks/fretboard for better playability and accurate comfortable bending.Blackmore also famous for using Marshall amp stacks throughout his rockstar career with Purple, and Rainbow.Ritchie seen with very few or no pedals, just reverb/delay, and a phase pedal.Don't forget all black clothing and '70's heels.Ladies, Gents Deep Purple!
Deep Purple MK2
Ian Gillian-Vocals
RitchieBlackmore-Guitar
Roger Glover-Bass
Jon Lord-Keyboards
Ian Paice-Drums
Gear
FenderSquier1970'sModifiedStratocaster
BossDS-1Distortion
MXRminigainAmp
Marshallms-2miniAmp

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