Guide to British Music of the 1960s

January 2003

CD Review

Deep Purple- Shades of Deep Purple

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Deep Purple may be more associated with the 1970s due to their best-known tracks like Black Night and Smoke on the Water. However, they produced a couple of classic albums during the late 1960s and a single that ranks among the greatest debuts of all time, even if it was a cover version. 

Shades of Deep Purple is really the band discovering its sound. Aside from Hush there are covers of Help, Hey Joe and I'm So Glad while the opening track makes a promise of Sunshine of Your Love. This is not the heavy sound that Deep Purple became known for later and anyone buying it for that will be disappointed. Shades has more in common with the psychedelic sound of late 1960s England. Think more of Piper at the Gates of Dawn when listening to the opening And the Address. The track is an instrumental that fuses the sound of Cream, Pink Floyd and even The Nice. Jon Lord's keyboards shine through and distinguish the sound from other "heavier" bands of the late 1960s.

Hush is a cover of the Joe South song and has a driving drum and bass backing that is overlayed by the organ and Ritchie Blackmore's guitar. The "na na na na" chorus makes the track sound very different and was done years before Kylie!!

One More Rainy Day is a more lightweight track but which does not sound out of place on this album, nevertheless. A second nod to Cream comes with the Deep Purple version of I'm So Glad. Many would view this as being better then the Cream version. Both have their merits. The Deep Purple version has a long intro based around Jon Lord's organ that is evocative of Keith Emerson in the Nice. 

Mandrake Root is the heaviest track on the album and a foretaste of things to come. It is a vocal track but with long instrumental passages that are based around the keyboards.

A cover of the Beatles' Help is very different to the original and this makes it a different song rather than a pale imitation. It is one of the slower tracks on the album. This is a track that suggests comparisons with Vanilla Fudge although, possibly less heavy. Love Help Me is a faster track with a driving bass line. It is a more accessible track, than even Help. 

Hey Joe is a song, like Help, that is so well-known and associated with one particular artist that the only way to make any sort of mark was to do something completely different. Deep Purple achieved this through an introduction of 2 1/2 minutes before the first verse started. 

The CD reissue packages the original 8-track album alongside five additional tracks that include live versions of Hush and Hey Joe. Shadows is an out-tale from the album that is weaker but not unpleasant. An instrumental version of Love Help Me is almost "punky" with its speed.

Surprisingly the original album failed to chart in the UK although it did reach 24 in the US. It was some time before they achieved the same success at home that they had achieved in the US.