Come Taste the Band

Come Taste the Band
Studio album by Deep Purple
Released 10 October 1975
Recorded 3 August – 1 September 1975
Musicland Studios, Munich
Genre Hard rock, funk rock
Length 37:16 (Original LP)
90:30 (2010 2CD edition)
Label EMI/Purple (UK)
Warner Bros. (US)
Producer Martin Birch & Deep Purple
Deep Purple chronology
Stormbringer
(1974)		 Come Taste the Band
(1975)		 Perfect Strangers
(1984)

Come Taste the Band is the tenth studio album by the English Rock band Deep Purple originally released in October 1975. The album was co-produced and engineered by the band and longtime associate Martin Birch. It is the only Deep Purple studio record featuring Tommy Bolin, who replaced Ritchie Blackmore on guitar and is also the final of three albums to feature Glenn Hughes on bass and David Coverdale on lead vocals before he later left to form Whitesnake.

History

When Blackmore left the band in 1975, there was uncertainty over whether Deep Purple would continue, as they did when Ian Gillan left in 1973. It was David Coverdale who asked Jon Lord to keep the band together, and Coverdale was also a major factor in recruiting Tommy Bolin to take the guitar slot.[1]

Musically, the album is more commercial-sounding than the Deep Purple Mark III releases, leaning toward a conventional hard rock focus with overtones of soul and funk.

Development and Recording

Rehearsals for the album were recorded by Robert Simon, who was originally engineering the album. But after a dispute with the band over scheduling, the band left Simon's Pirate Sound Studios in favour of Birch.

According to Glenn Hughes and Jon Lord, at least two songs were written well in advance of the album's recording. "You Keep on Moving" had been written in 1973 by Hughes and Coverdale, but was rejected for inclusion on the Burn album by Ritchie Blackmore. "Lady Luck" was written by Bolin's friend and songwriting partner Jeff Cook around the same time, but Tommy couldn't remember the lyrics when the band hit the studio and the group couldn't get hold of Cook. So Coverdale rewrote much of the lyrics, and the song was included with Cook's blessing.

The remainder of the album was mostly written in LA, then recorded in Munich, with the exception of "Comin' Home" which was written in the studio. Hughes went back to England before the completion of the record so he could deal with his then-rampant cocaine addiction, and he cites this as the reason for Bolin playing the bass and singing the lower-register backing vocals on "Comin' Home". The album shows the strong funk influence from Hughes at this point, now working with the equally funk and jazz influenced Bolin, but the direction tended to be more like 1974's Burn, with a heavier focus on rock guitar. The recording with Bolin also allowed the band to take many creative liberties, as Ritchie Blackmore had been somewhat difficult to work with on the band's two previous albums due to creative differences with Hughes and Coverdale.

Release and reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[2]
Rolling Stone(favourable)[3]
Sputnik Music[4]

Generally the record is considered one of Deep Purple's lesser efforts, although it did sell reasonably well on release (#19 in the UK charts, and #43 in the US) and received a rave review in the leading British music paper, the New Musical Express. The album was certified Silver on 1 November 1975 by the BPI, selling 60,000 copies in the UK.[5]

The tour to support this album started strong, according to Jon Lord in the documentary video "Deep Purple – Getting Tighter, the story of MK-IV" (2011), in Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand. However, in Jakarta, Indonesia, the band was (according to Lord and Glenn Hughes on the same documentary) 'set up' for murder. Specifically, Hughes and two others were (according to Lord and Hughes) "framed" for the death of the band's highly trained security worker, Patsy Collins, who died under 'suspicious circumstances'. Hughes and the two others were placed in jail. The promoter also sold a second night's show, and forced the band to play for only the original fee for one night. Hughes was taken from jail at gunpoint to the second show, and returned to jail promptly afterwards. During this time, Tommy Bolin was given morphine by the promoter, which caused problems on the band's next stop in Japan. In order for the band to be allowed out of the country, with the "charges", Deep Purple's management had to forfeit their entire fee as well as pay thousands more out of their pocket to the Army and Airport Security to fly out of the airport in Jakarta.

Their next stop was Japan, immediately afterwards. Tommy Bolin had taken the drugs given to him and fell asleep for an excess of 8 hours on his arm, causing him to be unable to play the guitar properly. According to Hughes, many of Tommy's guitar parts were covered by Lord on his organ and other keyboards. Lord (and in other interviews, Ian Paice) stated that to carry on with the concert, Tommy had several guitars tuned to open keys, minor and major, depending upon the song being played. He would make "a bar position" with his fingers, and play a basic rhythm while Lord played the melodies. Unfortunately, the show was filmed and released as "Last Concert in Japan" on CD and video. In the opening song, "Burn", it's Lord's organ playing the opening riff that was originally played on guitar by Ritchie Blackmore.

After tours for this album concluded in March 1976, Deep Purple broke up for eight years. Tommy Bolin died of a heroin overdose in December 1976. (According to Billy Cobham,who Tommy Bolin did studio guitar work for on his Spectrum album, he died from an overdose as a result of a 100 dollar bet that he couldn't do a gram of cocaine, down a bottle of aspirin and drink a bottle of liquor in a relatively small amount of time.) In recent years the album has received some critical reassessment, primarily due to Bolin's contributions to the album. Ian Gillan (who left the band just over two years prior), on the other hand, has stated that he does not view the album as a real Deep Purple album.[6] Jon Lord praised the quality of the album years later in interviews, stating that "listening to it now, it's a surprisingly good album," while acknowledging, "the worst thing you can say about it is that, in most people's opinion, it's not a Deep Purple album."[7]

Reissues

In 1990, the album was remastered and re-released in the US by Metal Blade Records and distributed by Warner Bros. It was re-released again on the Friday Music label on 31 July 2007 (along with Made in Europe and Stormbringer).

While the label's website claims that the album has been digitally remastered, it is unclear which tapes were used as a source for this remastering, but it is unlikely the original master tapes were used, as EMI had repeatedly claimed over the years that the master tapes of this album were missing.

In December 2009, the Deep Purple Appreciation Society (DPAS) reported the original multi-track masters had recently surfaced and that an official remastered version with bonus tracks (including remixes by Glenn Hughes and Kevin Shirley) would see a release in 2010.

35th Anniversary edition

Released on 25 October 2010, the 2-CD Deluxe 35th Anniversary edition includes the original album in remastered form plus a rare US single edit of "You Keep on Moving" on the first disc, and a full album remix and two unissued tracks on the second disc: "Same in LA" a three-minute out-take from the final release in 1975, and "Bolin/Paice Jam" a five-minute instrumental jam with Ian Paice and Tommy Bolin.[8] [9]

Track listing

Original vinyl release

Side one
No. Title Length
1. "Comin' Home" (Tommy Bolin, David Coverdale, Ian Paice) 3:55
2. "Lady Luck" (Jeff Cook, Coverdale) 2:48
3. "Gettin' Tighter" (Bolin, Glenn Hughes) 3:37
4. "Dealer" (Bolin, Coverdale) 3:50
5. "I Need Love" (Bolin, Coverdale) 4:23
Side two
No. Title Length
6. "Drifter" (Bolin, Coverdale) 4:02
7. "Love Child" (Bolin, Coverdale) 3:08
8. "This Time Around/Owed to 'G'" (Hughes, Jon Lord/Bolin) 6:10
9. "You Keep on Moving" (Coverdale, Hughes) 5:19

35th Anniversary Edition

Personnel

Deep Purple
Additional personnel

Charts

Chart performance

Year Chart Position
1975 Norwegian Record Charts[10] 6
1975 New Zealand Charts 6
1975 Dutch Albums Charts[10] 12
1975 Swedish Albums Chart[10] 16
1975 UK Albums Chart[11] 19
1975 German Albums Chart[10] 29
1976 US Billboard Albums Chart[12] 43

Sales accomplishments

Region Certification Sales/shipments
Argentina (CAPIF)[13] Gold 30,000
United Kingdom (BPI)[14] Silver 60,000

*sales figures based on certification alone
^shipments figures based on certification alone

References

  1. ↑ Interview, Jon Lord at TheHighwayStar.com.
  2. ↑ Allmusic review
  3. ↑ Rolling Stone review
  4. ↑ http://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/36792/Deep-Purple-Come-Taste-the-Band/
  5. ↑ "BPI certified awards-Silver". Retrieved 21 February 2009.
  6. ↑ "Gillan Has 'No Interest' In Deep Purple Mk III, Says Glenn Hughes Is 'Copying Stevie Wonder'". Retrieved 24 October 2010.
  7. ↑ "Deep Purple "Come Taste the Band" Documentary". youtube.com. Retrieved 20 October 2014.
  8. ↑ Deep Purple Appreciation Society. "Deep Purple, Come Taste The Band". Deep-purple.net. Retrieved 10 February 2012.
  9. ↑ bravewords.com. "> News > DEEP PURPLE – Come Taste The Band 35th Anniversary Due in October; Details Available". Bravewords.com. Retrieved 10 February 2012.
  10. 1 2 3 4 "Come taste the Band on European Charts 1975". Retrieved 24 October 2012.
  11. ↑ "The Official Charts Company – Come Taste the Band". The Official Charts Company. 5 May 2013.
  12. ↑ "Come taste the Band on Billboard". Rovi Corporation / Billboard. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
  13. ↑ "Argentinian album certifications – Deep Purple – Stormbringer". Argentine Chamber of Phonograms and Videograms Producers.
  14. ↑ "British album certifications – Deep Purple – Stormbringer". British Phonographic Industry. Enter Stormbringer in the field Keywords. Select Title in the field Search by. Select album in the field By Format. Select Silver in the field By Award. Click Search
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