COME TASTE THE BAND

What's the context here ? Blackmore left the band (his last live appearence on 7th April 1975 at the Paris Olympia), we've no Gillan and no Glover. The only formers of the classic line up are Ian Paice (who is the only member who was in ALL Deep Purple albums) and Jon Lord. It was David Coverdale that suggested a young american, Tommy Bolin, to replace Blackmore, and he did a decent replacement, and with his addition ot the band, thet band not only had a third great vocalist who also made a huge contribution to the writing process, but a guitarist with a completely different and fresh approach to his predecessor. Bolin was a drug addict. Very sadly he died of a heroin overdose in a Miami hotel room on 4th December 1976 ... Despite "Come Taste The Band" (the last studio record in the 70s) is a competent Hard Rock album, the problem I find is that now it seems to me that I'm not listening to Deep Purple, it's very different. Here goes a short description:

Well, most of the songs here are straight Hard Rock songs, like the raw "Coming Home", "Dealer", "Drifter", with nice solos from Tommy Bolin. "Gettin' Tighter" has a funky moment in the middle of the song, as a prelude to a cool solo; and another funky on "I Need Love". "Lady Luck" is specially a hit, with a very catchy chorus, a song could be easily played on the radio, but in this case that doesn't mean it's bad, it's just fun to hear. THE riff on this album is on "Love Child", which is maybe heavier than the other songs. On every Deep Purple album I have to hear (at least) one great riff, yeah, and they never fail. None of the songs here are prog, except for the 8th track, the "Medey", which has two parts, and is the most interesting song here for Prog fans: the 1st part "This Time Around" features GREAT vocals from Glenn Hughes, backed with beautiful piano (anyway I think they should give more space to Jon Lord, he only does solos on "Love Child" and a great one on "You Keep On Moving", but it isn't like the phenomenal participation on "Machine Head", but that's another Deep Purple, veeery different from this one); the 2nd part is all composed by Bolin and features some nice passages and guitar solos, with change of time signatures this time. But the best track and the only classic here is "You Keep On Moving", I enjoy it every time I hear it, with excellent backing vocals (again) by Hughes and Bolin. It's rocker, catchy and very melodic at the same time, and has the best keyboard and guitar solos played with a lot of feeling, yeah, great moment !!

Overall, a competent album, different to anything Deep Purple has done before, that will appeal to Hard Rock fans more than Prog fans, a good but non-essential.

Rating: 2.7/5

Tommy Bolin R.I.P.