May 28, 2014

Bernard E. Simonson, Jr. ~ The Story Teller: The Elephant



 The Elephant

My experience in Africa was unbelievable and unexpected. The elephant runs wild. They keep the babies in the midst of the heard to protect them. It is well known that the hunters kill the elephants for the ivory tusks. The rhinoceros is also on the hunters list for their horns. That is why it was necessary, under the circumstances, to form a police force to protect them. We refer to them as Rangers; they have an arrangement of official standing. They are indispensable in Africa.

After a short time we found a dead rhino. One of of the rangers said, “I don’t understand it, he was not shot. This is the third one so far that I found. All the horns were intact. It is puzzling; this is a complex problem.”

Then one day as I was walking, I stopped when I saw a young bull elephant attacking a rhino. I shot in the air, the rhino ran off. The young bull elephant was very rowdy. He looked at me, shook his head and moved on. I never experienced anything like this, ever. I was very confused. Why did he attack him? Then it hit me, they were like children with no guidance.

We relocated the elephants back with the young ones. Now they will teach them how to behave. Behaviour is a must for all young ones. Don’t you agree?

The Story Teller




Bernard E. Simonson, Jr. - The Elephant ©2013



Styrous® ~ Wednesday, May 28, 2014

May 20, 2014

101 Reel-to-Reel Tapes 67: Deep Purple ~ Stormbringer








                   Deep Purple ~ Stormbringer
             reel-to-reel tape album cover detail
                         .detail photo by Styrous®  


In addition to my 20,000 Vinyl LP collection I'm selling, I have reel-to-reel, pre-recorded tapes for sale as well. If interested, contact me by email please, not by a comment. 

The Deep Purple ~ Storm Bringer reel-to-reel tape will be on sale on eBay in June (see links below).   

~ ~ ~


Storm Bringer is the ninth studio album by Deep Purple, which was released in November of 1974. It  blendied rock, soul and funk in a way that was quite ahead of its time. Ritchie Blackmore left after the making of the album and its tour, returning to the group later during the recording of the Perfect Strangers album.

album cover and title

Deep Purple ~ Stormbringer
reel-to-reel tape box cover
photo by Styrous®

The cover image of Stormbringer is based on a photo of a tornado photographed by Lucille Handberg on July 8, 1927 near the town of Jasper, Minnesota. Her photograph has become a classic image, and was used and edited for the album's cover. The same photograph was used in 1986 for the Siouxsie and the Banshees album, Tinderbox.

                 Jasper, Minnesota. tornado                                     Siouxsie and the Banshees
  photo by Lucille Handberg                                                 Tinderbox
 July 8, 1927                                                                .

Stormbringer is also the name of a magical sword described in several novels by Michael Moorcock. David Coverdale has denied knowledge of this until shortly after recording the album. A few years later, Moorcock collaborated with Blue Öyster Cult to write "Black Blade", a song that actually was about the sword Stormbringer.


Deep Purple ~ Stormbringer
reel-to-reel tape box back
photo by Styrous®




the songs

Stormbringer is classic, the epitome of hard rock sound with no exaggeration. It is hard rock at its very best and a driving song that doesn't give ground. According to Glenn Hughes, the slurred gibberish that is spoken by David Coverdale at the beginning of the title track just prior to the first verse is the same backwards dialogue that Linda Blair's character utters in the film The Exorcist when she is questioned by the priest.

Deep Purple ~ Stormbringer
reel-to-reel tape box back detail
detail photo by Styrous®


Love Don't Mean a Thing is great rock-funk with a vocal by David Coverdale who hums at the beginning to lead into the song that has a neat funk beat which is perfect for dancing.  

Holy Man is a quiet melody with a nice steel guitar intro which gives it a slightly country-western feeling to it. A gentle song that is nice to slow dance to. 



Deep Purple ~ Stormbringer
reel-to-reel tape box back detail
detail photo by Styrous®



You Can't Do It Right (With the One You Love) returns to the funk feel with a smooth female group backup. A very nice synth break by Jon Lord on this one.

High Ball Shooter is another hard rock classic that gets you up and moving even if you don't want to; you can't help it! Again, great organ work by Lord.

The Gypsy is a solid, march rock that has some really nice steel guitar work but it does get a bit repetitious at the end.





Soldier of Fortune is a beautifully done ballad written by David Coverdale and Ritchie Blackmore. It has an ace guitar by Blackmore and organ by Lord intro and back up to the brilliant Coverdale vocal. It is soft, gentle and melancholy with regret for wandering ways that have left the singer alone and lonely, longing for a love he's neglected and lost. The lyrics are sad and wistful: I'm put them below. This is my very favorite song on this album.

As of May 10, 2013, Soldier of Fortune is Deep Purple's 12th most "listened to" song with over 14,000 hits on Last.fm and has been included in many rock ballad compilation albums. Though Deep Purple never released the song as a single and it never appeared on record charts, it has developed a cult following over the years. Covers have been released by Whitesnake, Opeth, Black Majesty and the Romanian band Iris.

The version of Soldier by Whitesnake was performed in concert as a guitar and vocal duet. Somehow, because of its sparseness, it seems very much sadder that the original version.

There is also a really beautiful, instrumental guitar solo by Tirta Leonardi on YouTube (link to versions of the song  below). 


Deep Purple ~ Stormbringer

reel-to-reel label detail
detail photo by Styrous®


Track listing:

All songs written by Ritchie Blackmore, David Coverdale, Glenn Hughes, Jon Lord and Ian Paice, except as noted

Original vinyl release

Side One:

No.     Title     Length    
1.     "Stormbringer" (Blackmore, Coverdale)     4:03
2.     "Love Don't Mean a Thing"       4:23
3.     "Holy Man" (Coverdale, Hughes, Lord)     4:28
4.     "Hold On" (Coverdale, Hughes, Lord, Paice)     5:05

Side Two:

No.     Title     Length    
1.     "Lady Double Dealer" (Blackmore, Coverdale)     3:19
2.     "You Can't Do It Right (With the One You Love)" (Blackmore, Coverdale, Hughes)     3:24
3.     "High Ball Shooter"       4:26
4.     "The Gypsy"       4:03
5.     "Soldier of Fortune" (Blackmore, Coverdale)     3:14

Personnel:

Deep Purple

All songs are sung by Coverdale and Hughes except "Soldier of Fortune", sung by Coverdale, and "Holy Man" sung by Hughes
Additional personnel

1974



Soldier of Fortune lyrics

I have often told you stories
About the way
I lived the life of a drifter
Waiting for the day
When I'd take your hand
And sing you songs
Then maybe you would say
Come lay with me love me
And I would surely stay

But I feel I'm growing older
And the songs that I have sung
Echo in the distance
Like the sound
Of a windmill goin' 'round
I guess I'll always be
A soldier of fortune

Many times I've been a traveller
I looked for something new
In days of old
When nights were cold
I wandered without you
But those days I thought my eyes
Had seen you standing near
Though blindness is confusing
It shows that you're not here

Now I feel I'm growing older
And the songs that I have sung
Echo in the distance
Like the sound
Of a windmill goin' 'round
I guess I'll always be
A soldier of fortune
I can hear the sound
Of a windmill goin' 'round
I guess I'll always be
A soldier of fortune

Songwriters
Ritchie Blackmore, David Coverdale
Published by
Lyrics © MAUVE MUSIC/PURPLE MUSIC, INC.
Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976


~ ~ ~
 

Music videos on YouTube:
 
Stormbringer 
Love Don't Mean a Thing 
Holy Man 
Hold On 
Lady Double Dealer 
You Can't Do It Right (With the One You Love) 
High Ball Shooter 
The Gypsy 
Soldier of Fortune
Soldier of Fortune (unplugged) by David Coverdale     
Soldier of Fortune (live - concert) by Whitesnake    
Soldier Of Fortune (guitar solo) by Tirta Leonardi 


Deep Purple ~ Stormbringer reel-to-reel tape on eBay

reel-to-reel tapes on eBay



May 19, 2014

101 Reel-to-Reel Tapes 66: Deep Purple ~ Purple Passeges







Deep Purple
Purple Passeges





                   Deep Purple ~ Purple Passages
                 reel-to-reel tape album cover detail
                             .detail photo by Styrous®



In addition to my 20,000 Vinyl LP collection I'm selling, I have reel-to-reel, pre-recorded tapes for sale as well. If interested, contact me by email please, not by a comment. 

The Deep Purple ~ Passages reel-to-reel tape will be on sale on eBay in June (see links below).

~ ~ ~


I remember those long, late-night parties in which I'd dance my ass off to the latest ventures into hard rock by those great groups of the late '60's. Deep Purple was one of them. Oh, my, how I'd dance until I was exhausted!

Purple Passages is a 1972 United States-only compilation album by Deep Purple featuring material originally released in 1968 and 1969 on the Tetragrammaton label. It features classics such as Hush and Kentucky Woman.

This compilation included some alternate mixes of The Bird Has Flown and Why Didn't Rosemary?, with the former having a clean intro instead of a fade-in on the album version. It also included the final Purple Mk. I single, Emmaretta, for the first time on LP. Original lead singer Rod Evans went on to front the popular 1970's band Captain Beyond (see link to Viewfinder article below).



reel-to-reel tape box cover 
.photo by Styrous®



The beginning of Deep Purple developed in 1967 from an idea by Chris Curtis who had the fantasy of building a group centred around himself. There was a conflict of ideologies and Curtis eventually left and the group was then built around Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore. The line-up was completed with experienced ex-Johnny Kidd & The Pirates bassist, Nick Simper, plus singer Rod Evans and drummer Ian Paice, both from The Maze. The band was finalized in March, 1968.




reel-to-reel tape box back
photo by Styrous®



In nine months Deep Purple recorded three studio albums and a non-album single; a pretty amazing feat by anyone's measure. The early releases have been described as lacking direction but in reality, the band was still coming to grips with a wonderful new sound which seemed to work with virtually any type of music, and which did not limit them to a set direction. Every musical avenue was open, and the first to bring success was pop.

Their debut single Hush, by Joe South, originally written for recording artist Billy Joe Royal, was a huge US hit, climbing into the Billboard top five. Hush is one of four songs originally recorded with vocals sung by Rod Evans.  Others are Kentucky Woman, originally from the album The Book of Taliesyn from 1968, Mandrake Root from the same album that originally featured Hush, and Bird Has Flown from the album Deep Purple, or Deep Purple III, released in 1969.



          
reel-to-reel tape box back detail
detail photo by Styrous®



a later line-up
    
    
         
 
 
  
         
       




The Songs


reel-to-reel tape box back detail
detail photo by Styrous®

And the Address has a neat organ intro by Lord that slowly fades up and builds into a traditional hard-rock driving beat instrumental that is a great dance song with some fine guitar work by Blackmore.

Sirens open Hey, Joe which goes into a terrific middle eastern-sounding, syncopated, staccato organ and guitar intro which gives way to the slow, dreamy-tempo vocal by Evans that the song is so identified with. The guitar instrumental break in the song is terrific. It has a very dramatic end with footsteps that go out the door which slams shut. A very nice touch.



there is a lyrics book included with the reel-to-reel tape of Purple Passages

lyrics book
photo by Styrous®

Hush starts out with a distant wolf (?) howl then goes into a a fast, bouncy, syncopated dance beat that is SO good to move to. I love the organ riff by Lord on this one. It references, Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye, a song written and recorded by Paul Leka, Gary DeCarlo and Dale Frashuer, but attributed to a then-fictitious band they named, "Steam".

Emmaretta opens with some funky guitar licks by Blackmore. Really nice for dancing, its syncopated beat makes for a good propulsion of movement. This has a nice instrumental break as well as some great drum work by Paice at the fade out.


lyrics book back
photo by Styrous®


Chasing Shadows opens with a really neat drum intro by Paice that leads us into a syncopated, jungle-sounding song with a feeling of gusto and verb. The vocal by Rod Evans sounds distant and echoey. The guitar work by Blackmore in the first instrumental break is sensational! The organ by Lord in the second break is hot as well. This is a fantastic song.



lyrics book back detail
detail photo by Styrous®


The Bird Has Flown has a tom-tom beat that mellows out for a few seconds then goes on to make for a pretty nice dance song. Some terrific guitar work by Blackmore and organ by Lord in this one. It builds to a really hot end.



lyrics book back detail
detail photo by Styrous®



Why Didn't Rosemary? lopes along with a bouncy gallop that is impossible to keep still to. A fun and happy song. Again, great guitar work sby Blackmore during the instrumental. This and Hard Road are a couple of my favorite songs on the album (favorite at the end).

Hard Road has the same feeling as Rosemary and seems to be an extension of it except it is an instrumental.  It opens with some nice organ work by Lord and some really cool tympani work by Paice. It has a great, traditional, hard-rock ending. TERRIFC!  



lyrics book interior
photo by Styrous®


The Shield has a smooth, suspenseful with a mid-east kind of feel to it. This is my second favorite song. I love the opening line, "Mama plays a queen on the hill built on a dream". It has some interesting Korla Pandit-like organ work by Lord. A really fantastic, dreamy-feeling song that gently rocks out, it is perfect for slow dancing or trippin' out. At six minutes you have time to do it. Try it sometime.





lyrics book
 photo by Styrous®






lyrics book detail
detail photo by Styrous®



Mandrake Root has a Smoke on the Water feeling to it so, I guess it kind of was the basis for it. It was recorded from May 11 to 13, 1968. Smoke was recorded in 1972. The title refers to the hallucinogenic mandrake plant, but is also the name of a pre-Purple band that Blackmore was trying to form in Germany when he got the call from Deep Purple's original management.



lyrics book detail
detail photo by Styrous®


Kentucky Woman, written by Neil Diamond, is just plain, old fun. A fast song that moves and I mean it! Terrific for dancin' and rockin'. Once again, Blackmore blows it all out on his guitar and Lord has a field day on the organ.




April opens with a somber organ by Lord, then a quiet piano and guitar form the intro to the song that eventuallly goes into a moderately fast but quiet kind of gallop with some nice tympani, once again, by Paice. A chorus joins in as well as an orchestra and they establish a sensational instrumental that is incredibly beautiful. At one point it goes into a minuet with an oboe that floats above the quiet pizzicato strings. Around eight minutes into the song, the Baroque mood is suddenly interrupted as the rock vocal breaks in and the song reassumes the train-like beat á la rock. The chorus returns and everyone is ready to party.

At a little over twelve minutes, April has the time and space to really explore and is epic by any standard. My only regret about this song is it fades out instead of ending with the grand finish that would have befitted a work of this calibre. As the Stones once said, "You can't always get what you want."


Of all the great songs on this album, 
this one is my favorite.




reel-to-reel tape label detail
detail photo by Styrous®

Track listing

Side one

  1. "And the Address" (Blackmore/Lord) - 4.53
  2. "Hey Joe" (trad., arr. Lord/Evans/Simper/Paice/Blackmore) - 6.57
  3. "Hush" (Joe South) - 4.20
  4. "Emmaretta" (Lord/Blackmore/Evans) - 2.58
  5. "Chasing Shadows" (Lord/Paice) - 5.31
  6. "The Bird Has Flown" (Evans/Blackmore/Lord) - 5.30
  7. "Why Didn't Rosemary?" (Blackmore/Lord/Evans/Simper/Paice) - 5.00

    Side two

    1. "Hard Road (Wring That Neck)" (Blackmore/Lord/Simper/Paice) - 5.11
    2. "The Shield" (Blackmore/Evans/Lord) - 6.02
    3. "Mandrake Root" (Blackmore/Evans/Lord) - 6.03
    4. "Kentucky Woman" (Neil Diamond) - 4.44
    5. "April" (Blackmore/Lord) - 12.03

      Credits

      Deep Purple

        
      Warner Brothers Records
      WST 2644-F-DP
      1972



      Links to Deep Purple related sites on the net:
      Links to music videos on YouTube:

      And the Address
      Hey, Joe 
      Hush
      Hush (original 1968 film clip)
      Emmaretta
      Chasing Shadows
      The Bird Has Flown
      Why Didn't Rosemary?
      Hard Road (Wring That Neck)
      The Shield
      Mandrake Root k
      Kentucky Woman
      April



      Deep Purple ~ Purple Passages reel-to-reel tape is on sale on eBay

      reel-to-reel tapes on eBay


      PURPLE HARD ROCK RULES!


      May 18, 2014

      101 Reel-To-Reel Tapes 65: Deep Purple ~ Concert at the Royal Albert Hall - 1969







      Deep Purple ~ Concert at the Royal Albert Hall





      Deep Purple ~ Concert at the Royal Albert Hall      .
      reel-to-reel tape box cover detail               .
      detail photo by Styrous©                                 .
          

      In addition to my 20,000 Vinyl LP collection I'm selling, I have reel-to-reel, pre-recorded tapes for sale as well. If interested, contact me by email please, not by a comment. 

      The Deep PurpleConcert at the Royal Albert Hall, reel-to-reel tape will be on sale on eBay in June (see links below).   

      ~ ~ ~


      Deep Purple was formed in Hertford, England, in 1968, as a progressive rock band, the band's sound shifted to hard rock in 1970.  Together with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they have been referred to as the "unholy trinity of British hard rock and heavy metal in the early to mid-Seventies". 

      Deep Purple were ranked number 22 on VH1's Greatest Artists of Hard Rock programme and a British radio station Planet Rock poll ranked them 5th among the "most influential bands ever". At the 2011 Classic Rock Awards in London, they received the Innovator Award.



      Deep Purple ~ Concert at the Royal Albert Hall
      cover design: Castle, Chappell & Parners Ltd.
      reel-to-reel tape box cover
      photo by Styrous©


      Deep Purple gained publicity in 1969, with the Concerto for Group and Orchestra, a three-movement epic composed by Jon Lord as a solo project and performed by the band at the Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Malcolm Arnold. Together with Five Bridges by The Nice, it was one of the first collaborations between a rock band and an orchestra. This live album became their first album with any kind of chart success in the UK. However, Ian Gillan and Ritchie Blackmore were less than happy at the band being tagged as "a group who played with orchestras" at the time; what they had in mind was to develop the band into a much tighter, hard-rocking style.


      Deep Purple ~ Concert at the Royal Albert Hall
      reel-to-reel tape box back
      photo by Styrous©



      Concerto for Group and Orchestra, composed by Lord, with lyrics written by Gillan, was first performed on September 24, 1969 and released on vinyl in December 1969. The 1969 performance was the first ever combination of rock music and a complete orchestra and has been cited as paving the way for other rock/orchestra performances.


      Deep Purple ~ Concert at the Royal Albert Hall
      reel-to-reel tape box cover detail
      detail photo by Styrous©      




      Concerto for Group and Orchestra displays some characteristics of the concerto grosso, sinfonia concertante, and concerto for orchestra genres in three movements.



      Deep Purple ~ Concert at the Royal Albert Hall 
      reel-to-reel tape box back detail
      album cover photos by Daily Express
      & British Lion Films
      detail photo by Styrous©

      First movement (Moderato - Allegro)
      After an elaborate orchestral introduction the Group and the Orchestra work as separate blocks, trying to get dominance over the main theme - this opposition of a group of soloists against an orchestra is quite "concerto grosso" style.


      Deep Purple ~ Concert at the Royal Albert Hall
      reel-to-reel tape box back detail
      album cover photos by Daily Express
      & British Lion Films
      detail photo by Styrous©

      Second movement (Andante), with lyrics sung by Ian Gillan
      Here the group integrates more with the sound of the orchestra while still clearly on top of the orchestral texture, giving a sinfonia concertante look and feel.


      Deep Purple ~ Concert at the Royal Albert Hall 
      reel-to-reel tape box back detail
      album cover photos by Daily Express
      & British Lion Films
      detail photo by Styrous©

      Third movement (Vivace - Presto)
      Apart from Ian Paice's drum solo, the music is so tightly knit that the distinction between the group and the orchestra is almost lifted: in a way the group becomes part of an extended orchestra, with one elaborate "solo" passage, by an instrument that is no soloist throughout the movement, giving a concerto touch: this is more or less what is understood by the Concerto for Orchestra genre.

      Deep Purple ~ Concert at the Royal Albert Hall
      reel-to-reel tape box back detail
      album cover photos by Daily Express
      & British Lion Films
      detail photo by Styrous©




      Original 1969 Royal Albert Hall performance

      The Concerto was first performed and recorded on September 24, 1969 in the Royal Albert Hall, London.
      The programme consisted of:

      No.     Title     Performer(s)     Length     

      1.     "Symphony No. 6, Op. 95" (Malcolm Arnold)
          1st Movement: Energico (9:19)
          2nd Movement: Lento (8:52)
          3rd Movement: Con Fuoco (7:02)

          The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra     25:13

      2.     "Hush" (Joe South) Deep Purple - 4:42
      3.     "Wring That Neck" (Ritchie Blackmore, Nick Simper, Jon Lord, Ian Paice) Deep Purple - 13:23
      4.     "Child in Time" (Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Lord, Paice) Deep Purple - 12:06

      5.     "Concerto for Group and Orchestra" (Jon Lord, with lyrics by Ian Gillan)
          First Movement: Moderato-Allegro (19:23)
          Second Movement: Andante (19:11)
          Third Movement: Vivace-Presto (13:09)

          Deep Purple with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra     51:43

      6.     "Parts of the Concerto's "Third Movement" (Given as an encore.)           5:53
        
      Deep Purple ~ Concert at the Royal Albert Hall 
      reel-to-reel tape
      photo by Styrous©




      The Concerto for Group and Orchestra was performed one more time, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Lawrence Foster at the Hollywood Bowl on 25 August 1970, after which the score was lost. After the score was lost in 1970, it was performed again in 1999 with a recreated score from a project started by keyboardist Jon Lord, who sought to recreate the band's original 1969 album with the help of Marco de Goeij, a fan who was also a musicologist and composer, the two painstakingly recreated the lost score.




      Deep Purple ~ Concert at the Royal Albert Hall
      reel-to-reel tape label detail
      detail photo by Styrous©



      Track listing:

      Concerto for Group and Orchestra (Jon Lord, with lyrics by Ian Gillan)

      Side 1: 
          First Movement: Moderato-Allegro (19:23)
          Second Movement: Part one- Andante (19:11)

      Side 2: 
          Second Movement: Part two - Andante (continued)
          Third Movement: Vivace-Presto (13:09)

      Warner Brother Records
      September 24, 1969



      Deep Purple ~ Live At Royal Albert Hall, 1969, video on YouTube




      Deep Purple ~ Concert at the Royal Albert Hall on eBay