By Chuck Darrow
There are a couple of things that these days set legendary British rockers Deep Purple apart from the classic-rock pack.
First of all, in an age when many touring acts boast no original or decades-long members, the band’s current roster includes three musicians who appeared on “Machine Head,” the 1972 album that remains a hard rock touchstone (its tracks include the atomic-powered “Highway Star” and the immortal “Smoke On the Water,” whose iconic opening chord progression has been the bane of music-store employees for generations).
But the group, which shares the bill with progressive-rock standard-bearers Yes Aug. 30 at Ocean Casino Resort, is also an anomaly in that, unlike so many of its contemporaries—The Eagles and Billy Joel come immediately to mind–it is still releasing new music decades after its commercial heyday. As a matter of fact, the group just dropped a collection of new tunes called “=1.”
“We would’ve stopped touring 40 years ago if that had been the case,” insisted lead singer Ian Gillan who, along with band mates Roger Glover (bass) and Ian Paice (drums), was part of the unit’s “Machine Head” era, during a recent phone call. “You gotta bring new life into your work, otherwise it stagnates and it’s just going through the motions.
“I’ve always thought of this as an instrumental band. And the joy of performing is really the challenge of what goes on every night. That’s what we’re known for. And so, there’s always new ideas coming forward. I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to carry on just singing the same old songs every night; that would’ve had nothing to do with Deep Purple.
“I guess you have people who just want to hear a live version of the record and see you jumping around on stage, but that’s not us. It never has been. We love and respect the past, but we need the new material to keep the old stuff alive.
“It’s really important to us that we get that vitality in the band. And so that’s why we’re writing. There’s never been a plan. We don’t say, ‘Oh, we need another album.’ We don’t need another album; we want to do another album. And that’s how it works. So, we get a gap in the [touring] schedule, and we sit down and we start writing again and we’ve got a new record. And after this, there’ll be another one. And that’s the way it goes.”
Gillan turned 79 this past Monday. So how is he able to still meet the demands of touring and singing, which is actually quite a physically demanding discipline?
“Well, you gotta be in good shape, because it is extremely physical. And there’s no better way of keeping in shape than doing the same thing every day,” he reasoned. “So, I guess we kind of take care of ourselves a bit more than we used to. I don’t think we would’ve lasted this long if we’d have carried on partying like we did, but I think that that’s just self-preservation.”
He added that there’s a psychological element to the process as well.
“I think there’s gotta be a drive there,” he said. “Some people just don’t like touring. I remember reading about [British rockers] Oasis. They supported some band on their first big tour of America, and they said they were taking three months off afterwards because they were exhausted after doing 10 shows. That made me chuckle; we started this tour the end of May and we finish in mid-November. And that’s pretty average for Deep Purple.”
Apart from several stints fronting Deep Purple beginning in 1969, Gillan also played a not-insignificant role in musical-theater history: He sang the title role on the original, 1971 recording of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” which launched composer Andrew Lloyd Webber’s game-changing career.
According to Gillan, he was initially approached by “Superstar” lyricist Tim Rice, who apparently had heard his vocals on the Deep Purple track, “Child In Time.”
“He called me up and said, ‘We’d like you to sing on our record.’ I went and Andrew was on the piano playing the idea of the tune for ‘Gethsemane (I Only Want to Say}.’ And Tim gave me the lyrics and he said, ‘Andrew will give you an idea of the tune, but we’d like you to improvise kind of in your own style. And Andrew looked over his shoulder and said, ‘Yeah, but not too much,’ which made me laugh.
“I had three hours to record the whole album, and that was it. I forgot about it until they called up and said, ‘We’d like you to do the movie and the stage thing.’ And I said, ‘Well, I can’t, I’m in Deep Purple.’
“I didn’t really want to be an actor. I never did. Being in a musical doing the same thing every night is not really my bag.
“But I loved that record. It was beautifully written and I was very proud to have been part of it.”
For tickets, go to ticketmaster.com
Recreating history
We don’t know if it’s intentional or just a happy coincidence, but on Aug. 30, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City is hosting a performance by the Beatles-saluting 1964 The Tribute. What makes the timing so cool is that it was on Aug. 30, 1964 that the Mop Tops performed at what was then Atlantic City Convention Hall (now Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall).
The group is also scheduled to hit the Sound Waves theater stage on Aug. 31. For tickets, go to ticketmaster.com. And to learn more about that oh-so-eventful visit, go to shorelocalnews.com/chaos-cheesesteaks-color-tv-and-monopoly-when-the-beatles-rocked-atlantic-city.
Chuck Darrow has spent more than 40 years writing about Atlantic City casinos.
