The Complete Deep Purple

by Michael Heatley

From their progressive roots in The Book of Taliesyn, to the classic albums In Rock, Fireball, Machine Head, and Made in Japan, Deep Purple epitomized the sound of hard rock for an entire generation. Revered by their fans, reviled by followers of rival musical styles, only now is it really possible to look back and take stock of their achievements. Rock historian Michael Heatley looks in detail at every album of the group’s original incarnation, from Shades of Deep Purple to Come Taste the Band and Made in Europe. Heatley also details the recording sessions and tours, the comings and goings of band personnel, the feuds, and the final break-up. The career of each band member after the split is also covered, as well as the group’s wilderness years, the Knebworth reunion, and the rebirth and new recordings.

Genres: Music

256 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2005

About the author

Michael Heatley is the author or editor of over thirty biographies, including Backstreet Boys: The Unofficial Book, Bon Jovi: In Their Own Words and Rolf Harris: The Most Talented Man In The World. In 1995, he wrote the liner notes to Rolf's best-selling album Rolf Rules OK!

Since 1977 he has written more than a hundred music, sport and TV books.

He has written for magazines including Privileged View (for viewers of UK Gold and UK Living), 442 and Fultime (Fulham FC), Music Week, Billboard, Goldmine (US record collecting magazine), Radio Times, Daily Record and the Mail on Sunday color supplement.

In addition, Michael runs a fanzine in honor of legendary Welsh psychedelic rock band Man called The Welsh Connection which is circulated to a small but fervent fanbase on a bi-monthly basis.

Reviews

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very comprehensive, if somewhat dry, account of the groundbreaking British heavy metal group's history. The author digs up some interesting information about the band's formation I did not know, such as the fact the band was originally meant as a revolving door supergroup of session musicians but the line-up stuck. Or the fact that at first the band was categorized as part of the same progressive rock scene as The Moody Blues and Procol Harum, hence marketed to the same audience. The members did not feel comfortable with this, as they felt closer to harder acts like the Jeff Beck Group, Cream or the Yardbirds. This goes a long way to explaining the less progressive and much heavier direction the band started taking from their S/T third album from 1969 onwards.

Heatley also does a good job of explaining the different music backgrounds of the various individual members Deep Purple have come from, and how this resulted in their innovative music style combining disparate genres as well as the constant feuding between the musicians involved, in particularly Ritchie Blackmore vs most of the vocalists in particular Ian Gillan.

Another interesting part of this book is the information about which other British rock groups of their generation that Deep Purple have shared members with - not just the better known ones like Rainbow or Whitesnake but also say Trapeze and Ian Gillan's solo records.