Deep Purple’s track-by-track guide to Burn (1974)

From loudersound.com

David Coverdale, Glenn Hughes and Ian Paice reveal the secrets of Burn, Deep Purple’s first album with the Mark III line-up

The first album made by Deep Purple’s Mark III line-up, Burn was album that catapulted David Coverdale from nowhere to an international star overnight. It also saw the introduction of Trapeze bassist and singer Glenn Hughes, lured into the band by the prospect of filthy lucre and the chance to sing alongside Paul Rodgers, who’d been first choice for the Coverdale role.  

The arrival of the the men from Redcar and Cannock gave Purple new impetus, and while the world waited for them to crumble, the new line-up solidified. Burn sold by the bucketful.

Below, Coverdale, Hughes and drummer Ian Paice take us through the album, track-by-track.

Burn

David Coverdale: I wrote about half a dozen sets of lyrics for this song – I was that keen! The final words to Burn – and also the words to the Stormbringer song for the next album, for idle curiosity – came about because I was just trying to please Ritchie [Blackmore], I guess. These lyrics aren’t the stuff I would normally write; I looked upon them as science-fiction poems.

Glenn Hughes: Blackmore came up with that classic rock riff, but there’s a lot of talk about it being ripped from something that was written in the forties. [George Gershwin’s] Fascinating Rhythm, wasn’t it? I think it could be from that. Every artist borrows from other artists – but this is a classic example of where Ritchie may have taken something from the forties or fifties.

Ian Paice: It’s a pretty well-played track. It’s got a rapid pace about it. I’ve always said that playing fast is a lot easier than playing slow, because if you play something fast and you screw up, nobody really hears it. But if you play slow and you screw something up, then everybody hears it. I think that as an opening statement from the Mark III line-up, it’s pretty cool.

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Might Just Take Your Life

DC: I think that came out of Jon [Lord]; it was one of Jon’s ideas. It was particularly difficult for Jon as a composer to work in a guitar-oriented rock scenario, but there was a perfect marriage [between keyboards and guitar] on Might Just Take Your Life as far as I was concerned.

GH: Pretty much introducing the dual lead vocals of Hughes and Coverdale. I don’t think this song could have been written for the Mark II line-up because it definitely had more of a bluesy-based feel, hence Lordy’s intro with the Hammond thing.

IP: That was really playing into David’s blues range – it was just to find that groove and let a fairly simple little rock’n’roll song take over.

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Lay Down Stay Down

DC: I was a bit worried when I first heard the remastered version; it sounded really dorky and softer than it should have been. I think they’ve adjusted that; I would hope so. But it was wonderful to hear it again after so many years because I don’t really go back that far and listen to old songs – I just enjoy the memories.

GH: It’s another fresh-sounding song and Paicey plays brilliantly.

IP: It harkens back a little bit rhythmically to Mark II. It had some of that rock’n’roll fire in it, while some of the other tracks on Burn were slowly moving in a different direction. I think you could’ve heard Lay Down Stay Down – OK, with a different lyric – but it could just as easily have sat on In Rock as it did on Burn.

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Sail Away

DC: That was one of my first, really forceful lyrics – but I still think it should have been either me or Glenn who sang the whole song; it throws the sentiment and the atmosphere of the song by having dual singers. Either one of us could’ve done it justice.

GH: I just love the sound of Blackers’ guitar. I really love this particular song.

IP: One of my favourite tracks – I just love the riff on it. It’s got a wonderful feel.

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You Fool No One

DC: This highlights once again the dual-harmony style of Glenn and myself which kind of borrowed from Cream a little bit.

GH: Paicey loved Bonzo [John Bonham], and Bonzo was also a dear friend of mine, and I think we might’ve been listening to a little Led Zeppelin. I don’t think Paicey would mind me telling you this, because we were room-mates at the time. So Paicey actually came up with that drum groove… he came up with this amazing drum track and it was one of the first takes we did.

IP: I was messing around with a rudiment involving the cowbell and the bass drum, and as I was playing Ritchie came in with his riff and they just went together. Basically it’s a drum paradiddle between the cowbell and the bass drum and the snare drum, but it’s a wonderful four-four meter that you can play this rudiment in.

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What’s Goin’ On Here

DC: That’s just a bit of fun. It was actually based around a Jimi Hendrix song – it might have been Highway Chile. It gave Jon a great opportunity to stretch out a little.

GH: David and I had fun singing it. It’s just a twelve-bar blues song, very simple, very live.

IP: Just a nice, simple little blues, really. Fun to play, but an album track, you know.

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Mistreated

DC: This track kind of sums up what I brought to Purple, in terms of establishing a separate identity away from the Mark III line-up. This song and Sail Away, of course. That’s what I brought to the mix. Mistreated still has legs, it still has life, and it still means a lot to people.

GH: When Ritchie first played me the riff I knew immediately how at home I would be in Purple.

IP: It’s a great vehicle for David’s voice. It’s a very, very clever little riff because it’s so simple. And the simplicity is enhanced by a great sound from the guitar. It creates a mood – not just the vocal parts but the solo parts, the way they bring you back down. It’s a little nugget.

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A200

DC: That was always an instrumental; I had nothing to do with it. I was probably down the pub.

GH: Ritchie wanted to give Jon a piece to play on the record. Listening back to it, it sounds pretty good. Those synth sounds I hated immensely first time around are coming back into vogue.

IP: It was an idea that came out of jamming. Just a nice instrumental thing, you know.

Deep Purple Burn (1974)

From backseatmafia.com

Having established themselves as one of the premium hard rock bands of the early 70s, by 1973, it was seemingly simply too much effort for Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan and scalloped-fret worrier Ritchie Blackmore to co-exist in the same band. Gillan walking away / being pushed gave Blackmore an opening to try and convince co-founders Ian Paice and Jon Lord that they should show bass player (and Gillan’s mate) Roger Glover the door as well, and ultimately Glover was dismissed.

Given that it would take a vocal powerhouse to replace a rock screamer of Gillan’s stature, the hunt was on for his replacement, with former Free / future Bad Company frontman Paul Rodgers being top of Blackmore’s wishlist. As it turned out Rodgers had other things to do (i.e. Bad Company), so it was former Trapeze vocalist / bass player, Glenn Hughes who they initially recruited. Having flirted with, then dismissing the idea of going forward as a four-piece, they would pluck the obscure talent that was David Coverdale out of Redcar. With Hughes’ capable rock voice harmonising with Coverdale’s bluesy vocal stylings, Deep Purple acquired an extra layer to their sound, which in turn found Deep Purple’s enthusiasm recharged as they headed into the studio to record the tracks that would become 1974’s Burn.

Burn could have been an abject failure, after all, replacing 40% of your personnel is a risky move, however at this point in their career Deep Purple were one of the biggest acts in the world, had already had a major shake up after their first three albums, and the twin musical frontmen, Blackmore and Lord, were still a potent mixture. Add to that Ian Paice’s superlative drumming and the harmonising of a pair of talented and enthusiastic vocalists, and Burn defied the odds by being a big seller. Listening back to it now, it’s surprising how great Burn sounds, especially when you factor in the subsequent memories of the hair-metal nightmare that the David Coverdale fronted Whitesnake would start morphing into a decade later.

Thing is, Burn isn’t just early 70s Deep Purple fronted by a hair-metal vocalist. At this early stage in his career, Coverdale was legitimately great blues rock singer, still trying to forge his own identity and put his own stamp on the Deep Purple sound. True, he was fronting one of the most popular rock bands on the planet, but the crowds were coming to see Deep Purple because they were Deep Purple, not because it was David Coverdale singing.

Any misgivings that Deep Purple were going to fall flat on their faces without the duo of Gillan and Glover were blown away by Burn’s title track opening the album. Not just one of the best songs on the album, but one of the best songs of Deep Purple’s long career, “Burn” is the sound of a band reborn, and as dynamic and energised as anything the band had recorded since their career had kicked up a gear with 1970’s Deep Purple in Rock. “Burn” is a hard rock song which simply flies, sparking with energy and confirming that while this may be a new line up, Deep Purple still possessed the potency which their audience adored. The only trouble is, it’s such a great song that it absolutely dominates the album, and as solid as the rest of the album is, it can’t help but struggle to match the impact of its opening number.

Even if you take the title track out of the equation, Burn is a fine Deep Purple album, with Jon Lord’s organ playing being a highlight throughout. Blackmore, always a guitarist whose quality of playing was seemingly influenced primarily by his mood, was comfortably lodged between his use of the simple-yet-effective repeated titanic riffs and his more complex classical styles that he would continue to employ during the early years of Rainbow. It’s worth noting that Blackmore would also accidentally influence a generation of generic guitar shredders, but there’s no evidence of such lack of creativity on Burn.

While it’s tempting for fans of Deep Purple’s mark 2 line up to dismiss the material recorded by every other line up out of hand, Burn is all the proof you need that that is a foolish stance to take. Sure, Ian Gillan was, and is, the definitive Deep Purple frontman, but David Coverdale was no slouch as his replacement, and Burn was released at a point in his career long before he decided that soft focus lenses and the shameless pilfering of Led Zeppelin riffs was a legitimate career direction. Burn is an album that deserves to be judged on its own merits rather than on the questionable career choices made by the band members after its release. It’s a reassuringly weighty example of 70s rock, and the flecks of soul and funk influences on top of the hard rock formula give it its own unique identity in the Deep Purple cannon.