DEEP PURPLE

DEEP PURPLE
SHADES OF DEEP PURPLE (1968)
REMASTER
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Shades Of Deep Purple (1968.), Deep Purple's first studio album.
'Shades of Deep Purple', Deep Purple's first studio album, released in 1968 marks the start of the career of one of the great rock bands that there has ever been. Deep Purple had over the years a constantly changing band line up, the most famous being the Mark II line up which would produce some of the band's finest material in the early '70's. Most people therefore consider the Deep Purple career to start in 1970 with the release of 'Deep Purple in Rock' but what they overlook is the fact that the band had released 3 pretty good albums before this. As a result, the Mark I Deep Purple line up (the 5 members which feature on the first 3 albums) often get overlooked and underrated.
So who were the origianal band members in Deep Purple. Rod Evans was the original vocalist who sadly often languishes in his successor Ian Gillan's, shadow. He's, in my opinion not as good a singer as Gillan but he still has a pretty good voice and fronts the line up very well. Similarly, Nick Simper is the forgotten but certainly more than able bass player. The rest of the band though are the more famous members of the great Deep Purple. John Lord, from the very start of the album shows us just how brilliant a keyboard player he is and for me, his playing shines out the most on this album. Ian Paice's drumming is also excellent on this album - he is seriously the most UNDERRATED drummer of all time! Ritchie Blackmore, the guitar genius also debuts for Deep Purple too - his contributions are very good even if they are not quite at the level his playing would reach with the later DP and his years with Rainbow (i.e. he doesn't do as many solos on this work).
With 'Shades of Deep Purple', the band hadn't yet discovered their classic sound that they would produce in the 1970's but they certainly show signs of it, with great promise. The album, by its general nature is pretty psychedelic with plenty of extravagent keyboard dubs - but its very listenable. The band achieved very limited success in the UK with the work but had a hit with 'Hush' from the album and certainly had a good reception in the US. The issue to get of the album is the remaster edition which contains the bonus tracks - avoid the original album issue which has extremely poor sound quality. The bonus tracks themeselves make nice additions. 'Shadows' is a catchy outtake - the other extras include an alternate take of 'Help', a live performance of 'Hush which has poor quality sound to it and some other versions of 'Love Help Me', 'Help' and 'Hey Joe' which all feature on the album.
So, to the 8 album tracks themselves. John Lord kick starts the opener 'And the Address' in style and it develops into a great instrumental track which features some catchy guitar lines from Blackmore. 'Hush' is the real gem on the album, a cover of a song orignally penned by Joe South - some great vocals over some pretty atmospheric instrumentation. 'One More Rainy Day' opens with a storm effect follow by a pretty extensive bit of keyboard playing giving it quite a psychedlic feel. 'Prelude/I'm So Glad' has an instrumental start which leads into the main song - the vocals are a bit repetitive overall. 'Mandrake Root' has a bluesy style in parts and some powerful vocals - a great track and an early concert favourite for the band. 'Help' is a Beatles cover - not too bad, lots of keyboard again. 'Love Help Me' is another heavily psychedelic styled track - grows on you after a few listens. 'Hey Joe' is a good attempted cover of the classic Hendrix song which he played on his immortal 'Are You Experienced' album - Rod Evans sings it pretty well - the track has a classical influence to it at the start, using some of the instrumentation from 'The Three Corenered Hat', a Spanish suite.
Overall, a pretty solid effort showing great potential for the band. Theres lots of covers on here which Deep Purple put their mark on quite well as well as some fine efforts at their own writing. This incidentally is not the place to start if you are beginning to listen to Deep Purple - start with the classic sound Mark II line up with albums such as 'Machine Head' or 'Fireball'. For any Deep Purple fan, get this album, its a great acquisition.

1. And the Address 4:38
2. Hush 4:24
3. One More Rainy Day 3:40
4. Prelude: Happiness / I'm So Glad 7:19
5. Mandrake Root 6:09
6. Help 6:01
7. Love Help Me 3:49
8. Hey Joe 7:33

Bonus tracks
9. Shadows (album outtake) 3:38
10. Love Help Me (instrumental) 3:29
11. Help (alternate) 5:23
12. Hey Joe (live) 4:05
13. Hush (live) 3:53