Jan23
Comics come back February 6th. Hang on to your ass, Fred…
A little “Machine Head” for your Monday. A bit of ’70s trivia… Ian Gillian was one of the best screamers of rock in my opinion and he does four wonderful ones at the beginning of “Highway Star” as a result of Quadraphonic Sound being shoved down us audiophiles throats back in the day. I didn’t fall for it. But, that failed audio format became what is known today as Surround Sound. Yeah, take a failed format for audio and stick it on VCRs. Today, who doesn’t own a Surround Sound amp and speakers? That’s right. So take all your failures and turn them into successes. If not, just crank the shit out of today’s song. Either way, you’ll feel better.
*************
My dad had a Sears & Roebuck quadraphonic stereo in our family room when I was a kid and Machine Head was one of the albums he listened to on a regular basis on this stereo. He had the LP, 8-track, the cassette (he kept that in his pickup) and when we finally got a CD player in 1996, the first CD he bought himself was Machine Head. If he ever got an iPod (which I doubt he will, they still use Windows 98) he would probably buy it again in iTunes. So when I saw today’s title in my RSS reader, Highway Star immediately began to play in my head.
I have several albums that I have the LP, the cassette, reel-to-reel and the CD. Led Zeppelin 4 is one of those rare few I have like that. And yes, I did get it on iTunes because I was a lazy ass-hat and didn’t just burn it in off the CD.
I love to listen to “Highway Star” when I’m on my motorcycle…unfortunately it has cost me a couple of speeding tickets.
BTO has the same effect on me when I’m rollin’ on down the highway… good tunes just *beg* you to go fast.
I love listening to that stuff whilst stuck in traffic and revving like mad as if I’m going to roar off!
Surprises some and pees off others, Win! Win! LOL
You’re my kinda guy… might as well enjoy yourself… life’s too short to worry what others are thinking! VROOOM!
DEFINATELY one of my “If you could only have 10 albums…” pieces. Still LOVE that album, & will still crank it up even if “Smoke On the Water” comes on!
It’s a toss up with me over “Fireball” or “Machine Head”. Both are great in my book.
I even crank the LIVE version of SOTW and I usually abhor live versions of songs.
Best screamer? There’s actually a ranking for who can make the best impression of getting his balls stuck in a blender?
Well, his balls must have been in a blender a lot as Gillan could do with the best of them.
Highway Star was used to awesome effect in the animated opening of the Rock Band video game. So happy to introduce Deep Purple to my son via Xbox.
*laughs* One of my old favorites. Deep Purple was one of the first truly hard-rockin’ bands I heard, and that album remains a cornerstone of my ’70s youth.
That being said, the album sounds like it was recorded through a pillow. Did they ever remaster the damn thing? It desperately needed some!
Sidenote: I prefer the live version of the song off of Made in Japan. and yeah – I love that Ian stumbles over the lyrics, laughs, and keeps going. Those sorts of “imperfections” are almost a lost art now; I love ‘em, though, because they remind you that music is made by HUMAN BEINGS, not software.
On that note, I saw Concrete Blonde this week, and they were fucking incredible I’d seen ‘em back in the early ’90s, shortly after Bloodletting came out, and they were decent but not nearly as good. Johnette still has every bit of that spellbinding Voice – she’s lost nothing with the years, which is amazing for a hard rock singer. That show was roughly two hours of sweat, tears and attitude, and the near-capacity crowd was blown away. For a band that’s been out there in one form or another for almost 30 years (CB began as Dream 6 in 1984), they threw down like pros, improving vastly on my memories of them in a younger, leaner time.