Customer Reviews

Smoke on the Water & Other Hits

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It's a very limited number of bands in the world of rock music that can ride atop a wave of hits indefinitely through the decades, remaining successful and culturally relevant against all odds. By and large most bands simply have one brief but nonetheless respectable period of artistic focus during which that particular slice of their work is immortalized; the latter proves to be the case with Deep Purple. Smoke on the Water and Other Hits, a concise yet quintessential budget compilation of their finest cuts, spans the group's early to mid 70's heyday. The band's most popular era remains firmly rooted in their 1970-1972 output recorded with second vocalist Ian Gillan. This particular period boasts the majority of Deep Purple's most incendiary hits including "Black Night", "Smoke on the Water" and "Woman From Tokyo". Also in attendance are a fine selection of later cuts sung by David Coverdale in the vein of "Burn", "Stormbringer" and "Gettin' Tighter". The ten tracks featured on this disc function if nothing else as a concise introduction to Deep Purple's signature grit. Much like other hard rock recorded during the first half of that decade, it is simple, unselfconscious and above all: catchy as hell. The freshly initiated fan might consider The Very Best of Deep Purple for further listening, which graciously includes the infectious late 60's covers "Hush" and "Kentucky Woman", sung by original vocalist Rod Evans.

A while back I got into some (surprisingly respectful) correspondence with a Deep Purple fan on one of Amazon's message boards. I've never been a fan exactly and wouldn't have a clue what differentiates one "Mark" from the other. I know Ritchie Blackmore is a guitar hero admired by all and sundry...and I know the two or three tunes played on "classic rock" stations lo these many years. Unlike other non-fans, I never doubted that they weren't quite "good of kind." I just wasn't wild about the KIND. I mean, "Smoke On the Water" seemed almost a caricature of a heavy rock song--and "My Woman from Tokyo," well, that COULD just be silly fun if it weren't for the FM overkill. But that's one song that has worn out its welcome on my sound system.

Overall, it may just be wiser to just tune out the lyrics of most DP songs in general however. I get the impression that songs like "Burn" or "Sweet Child In Time" set out to make some kind of significant, Dylanesque statement. Hard to say if they're aiming to high or not high enough, but lyrically, tunes like this are misfires, whatever you might want to say about the songs' instrumental settings. They seem to fare better with a souped car song like "Highway Star" than with any of their attempts at a grandiose statement.

Textual concerns aside, however, in an odd way, I did come to appreciate my correspondent's fervor for the band, when I recently brought along this admittedly limited compilation along with me on a recent interstate road trip. I have a CD that keeps playing the disc over and over until you intervene. Traffic was heavy and, hey, I just let it happen. Eventually, I found myself getting something of a handle on the band's appeal. I wouldn't necessarily even TRY under normal circumstances but after a few plays the tunes on this sampler did start to sink in and got into something of a heavy mode for the first time in, well, decades.

And it was fun in a way, I'll admit. I mean, this is never going to be my cup of meat. Just as I'm probably never going to appreciate even the best of hip-hop or thrash metal. But I can see Blackmore's appeal to guitarists both actual and of the "air" variety, and, yes, even the dirge-like riffing on a song like "Smoke..." is kind of infectious, though I gotta say, I liked this standard classic riffing a bit better when it was sped up and punked out by the Stooges a few years before.

And, no, I'm not accusing anyone of plagiarism here. Like I say, these are standard rock riffs--and not just rock either. People a lot more scholarly than I have compared it not only to Iggy and the boys' "Loose," but also to an even earlier number by jazz and samba star (!!) Astrud Gilberto. (I've heard the track and you do hear the same phrase, however briefly, in Gil Evans' arrangement, but nobody's gonna call out the plagiarism police, I'm sure--nor would any former member of the Blues Magoos have much luck pursuing a lawsuit on the "Ain't Got Nothin' Yet" quote in "Black Night." It's the nature of the r'n'r beast.

Of course, a budget line sampler hardly serves as a definitive collection. This one actually has exposed me to a few more DP tracks than my local classic rock station ever did. Considering all those "Marks," however, I'm guessing that there's likely more to the Purple oeuvre than this smattering of songs might suggest. Given world enough and time, I'd check out some more. Not really burning to at this sweet point in time, however.

The big hits plus strong lesser known songs like "Sweet Child of Mine(Wait for the Ricochet)" Very prominent rock organ.