SHADES OF DEEP PURPLE

The first song that I listened from this album was "Prelude: Happiness / I`m So Glad" in 1969-70. It was released in my country as a single (divided in two parts, with the Side One of that single having at the end a fade-out at the start of the guitar solo, and at the start of the Side Two a fade-in at the other parts of the same guitar solo). My father bought it. Maybe he listened to this song in the radio some day and he liked it.

This album was recorded with a low budget, and this can be listened in it, really. It was recorded in a three day period in May 1968. The recording is not very good, and it sounds like it was mostly recorded live in the studio, with very few overdubs. There are some sound effects used between each song which were used as "links". They gave to this album a psychedelic sound. But this album really has some different musical styles: Hard Rock, Psychedelia, Pop Rock, Progressive Rock. The band sounds really very at the start of their recording career, but it sounds very well, Still, there are some mellow arrangments and songs, like "One More Rainy Day" and "Help" (this last one is a song from THE BEATLES). There are also some Prog Rock influences with the use of some Classical Music parts in "Prelude: Happiness / I`m So Glad" (using a part from "Scheherazade" by Rimsky- Korsakov) and in "Hey Joe" (with some parts with music by Manuel de Falla). Hard Rock can be listened in "And the Address" , "Mandrake Root" and "Love Help Me". Pop Rock can be listened in "Hush", "One more rainy day" and "Help". Drummer Ian Paice and keyboard player Jon Lord both shine in playing their instruments. Ritchie Blackmore plays well too but his guitar playing style was still not very clear for DEEP PURPLE and his guitar parts were not very well recorded and mixed. Lead singer Rod Evans had a voice maybe more oriented to Pop Rock and Ballads than to Hard Rock, and bassist Nick Simper plays well. There are some backing vocals by Lord and Simper which sound more oriented to Pop Rock too. Anyway, as a whole, this is a good album, with four original songs ("And the address", "One more rainy day", "Mandrake root" and "Love help me") and four covers ("Hush ", "Prelude: happiness / I'm so glad", "Help" and "Hey Joe").

I think that this album and YES`self-titled album have some things in common: both had a combination of original songs and some covers; both albums still sound very "sixties" in musical style and influences; both were not recorded with big budgets; and both show very good bands with very good debut albums. Maybe YES` first album sounds better, but both albums are very energetic. Maybe both sound a bit dated now, but still are enjoyable.