Deep Purple’s machine head was not made under favorable circumstances. The band were originally supposed to start recording at The Casino in Montreux, Switzerland, but in their own words, “a fool with a flare gun burned the place down”. They rented a concert hall hoping to capture their “live” sound for the new studio album, but were chased away by local police because of the noise level. With the Rolling Stones’ 16-track mobile studio in tow, the band members and their entourage eventually settled on the ground floor of the Grand Hotel for three weeks of intense recording. After refining their sound with in the skirt and fireball, Deep Purple Mark II would soon join the ranks of Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath as the pinnacle of early ’70s hard rock sweepstakes. Released April 1972, machine head was destined to become the definitive heavy metal record of the era.
reach number one in the UK, machine head eventually stormed the charts in the States as well. This was partly due to the release of Made in Japan, a 2-LP “live” album released just eight months later that confirmed the band’s mastery of the stage. But most importantly, it was the “Smoke On The Water” single, with an edited “studio” version out machine head on side A and the “live” version Made in Japan on side B, which eventually propelled the band to the top of America. Luckily, Ritchie Blackmore’s inimitable riff, which any aspiring guitarist would quickly get their hands on, coupled with lyrics about the Montreux fiasco, isn’t the album’s only strength.
“Highway Star,” a second single, is as important as “Smoke” in establishing Purple’s driving identity. It remains a mainstay of the band’s live performances to this day and was the opening number of their concerts for several years. Additionally, “Highway Star” is representative of the intertwined guitar/organ exchanges that Blackmore and Jon Lord were often involved in. “Lazy” and “Space Truckin'” also became staples of Purple’s shows – the former a bluesy rip-off showcasing Ian Gillan’s deafening vocal gymnastics and Ian Paice’s sizzling drums, and the latter a stratospheric joy ride that becomes the launch pad for an exploratory 30th album -minute jams. The understated chemistry of “Maybe I’m A Leo,” “Picture Of Home,” and “Never Before” beautifully underscores Purple’s credibility as a world-class rock ‘n’ roll act.
Obviously an album of this magnitude has had its fair share of reissues. In 1997, Purple bassist Roger Glover remixed the entire record, added the lone B-side “When A Blind Man Cries,” and bundled it with the original mix for a 25th Anniversary double CD. machine head was then remixed in 5.1 and released on DVD-Audio in 2001. In 2003, a quadraphonic mix was released on Super Audio CD (SACD). For the 40th anniversary in 2012 machine head received the royal treatment as a five disc box set complete with all remasters, remixes, bonus live tracks and a hefty book.
In the liner notes, Glover says more or less that the band’s circumstances at the time and their accumulated skills as musicians is what it is machine head its fresh, tidy and honest sound. Fifty years later and repeated listening—that’s an assessment few can resist.
~ Shawn Perry
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