Machine Head Natchez MS

Machine Head

Deep Purple

Warner Brothers Records, 1972

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 12/29/1997

It's amazing how one can overlook a classic when that classic becomes one of the most overplayed records of the classic rock era.

Take Deep Purple's 1972 masterpiece Machine Head. Every half-ass guitar player starts off figuring out the opening riff to "Smoke On The Water" (no offense, Bo and the guys in Bogart), and it's almost a guarantee that you'll hear it on your local classic rock station at some point today.

But if you take the whopping 37 minutes out of your day that it will take to listen to Machine Head, you'll realize what made this record so special in the beginning.

The classic second lineup of Deep Purple (known as Mk II in the band's circles), Ian Gillan and crew are as tight a unit as they could have ever hoped to be. Jon Lord's keyboard work was the antithesis to the high-tech noodlings of other keyboard artistes like Rick Wakeman, while Ritchie Blackmore's guitar work still continues to amaze me, even if he wasn't one of the most technical guitarists out there. To this day, I hear Blackmore's riff on "Highway Star," and my jaw hits the floor. Roger Glover's bass work is no less important than his other bandmates' contributions, and Ian Paice... well, there's a reason Metallica's Lars Ulrich idolized this guy.