DEEP PURPLE (MKII) Fleetwood Mac, Rory Gallager 4-13-1973 Swing Auditorium, San Bernardino, CA (Capacity: 10,000)
Prologue: The outrage . . . Sorry to say that we have hit upon a sour note. OK, two sour notes: First, 00individual doesn’t know how he missed Deep Purple (MKI) earlier in their career leading up to and including the “In Rock” era, (that’s really sour grapes!). Second sour note; Fleetwood Mac, future masters of Soft-Rock were literally booed with each song they performed until in frustration Christine McVie sarcastically agreed with the crowd’s only request (besides “Oh, Well” – without Peter Green? Blasphemous!) and did a quick “slap the audience in the face with it” version of “the Green Manaleshi (with the two-prong crown)”, cut their set short and left the stage, not a good vibe. 00individual understood Deep Purple’s fan base going slightly mad having to endure soft rock to get to hard rock, but still, it wouldn’t have hurt to hear them out,… but apparently it did.
The cause, and the effect . . . This was the record companies’ fault as they used to do weird pairings drawn from their label’s roster of talent when scheduling tours. Fleetwood Mac were Reprise and Deep Purple, Warner Bros., and they were both Rock bands so voila! 00individual experienced a very nasty display when A&M artist Peter Allen (a gay hit songwriter married to Liza Minnelli and portrayed on Broadway by that song and dance man, Hugh Jackman, that’s right, Wolverine won Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Best Actor in “The Boy from Oz”) opened for A&M artists the Tubes up on the Strip at the height of WPOD popularity. It was the same intolerance by the dominant Tubes crowd who were not booing but just ignoring and rudely talking and laughing while he performed. This resulted in one of those movie moments where the entertainer stops, gets up from his piano bench and addresses the rude, noisy crowd and the crowd is silent while he rants and as soon as he’s done ranting they go right back to what they were doing – a total Louis Tully/Terror Dog/Tavern on the Green Ghostbusters scene.
Quick “Fleetwood Mac 101” . . . For the archives, Mick Fleetwood is the Man – and the heart and soul of the band named after him. Fleetwood Mac, seen correctly in regard to Band and LP eras; removes the futile comparisons as the only thing that connected these different entities was their name and their uncanny Rock Spirit to persevere. The original all male blues band featuring Peter Green was a Touchstone of Greatness in Blues Rock History creating one of Rock’s truly solid Iconic LPs; “Then Play On”. The Christine McVie, Danny Kirwan and Jeremy Spencer “Kiln House” “Future Games”, “Bare Trees” band created magical songs that Hippies loved. The Bob Welch era “Future Games”, “Bare Trees” was actually the progressive bridge to the Buckingham / Nicks era where Fleetwood Mac became not only Pop Rock Superstars but made Rock History with their 1977 top ten best-selling album of all time, “Rumors”.
The result . . . So, 00individual was pretty pissed-off at this whole display for three reasons: One; he wanted to hear Fleetwood Mac’s performance for that era, plus, if these idiots would have let them perform they would have for sure done past hits but because of them 00individual was deprived of hearing any of it. Two; the majority of the clowns that made up the audience were amateurs – if you don’t want to see the supporting acts then don’t arrive when they come on! DUH! Three; and most importantly, he saw this as the decline of the Counter Culture’s acceptance and appreciation and tolerance of any live performance or artistic offering. The “times they were a’changin’ and in a negative way.
The beginning of the end . . . That was a bummer. 00individual realized right then that the philosophy and lifestyle that the counter-culture tried so hard to maintain was regressing and would never continue in the idealized sense. That was a sad day; Utopia was slipping away – people were getting ugly.
Deepest Purple . . . However, life goes on and his Rock ‘n’ Roll Spirit was going to persevere in the face of this Fleetwood Mac coitus interruptus-induced epiphany as he geared-up for a historic assault of the senses by one of his favorite bands from all the way back to the Tetragrammaton label days: Deep Purple!
This was when the iconic classic “Smoke On The Water” was only a year old, that’s right, Rockers were soaking in the time when Machine Head was the new heavy hitter on the Rock Block!
For 00individual’s personal tastes, Deep Purple is one of a few groups who got it right with the righteous use of the Hammond organ. Lee Michaels showed what could be done, as well as Greg Allman (defined the Allman Bros), Peter Bardens (“The Answer” LP), Matthew Fisher (Procol Harum), Richard Wright (Pink Floyd) and then there was Jon Lord.
Like Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac; Jon Lord was the heart and soul of Deep Purple. And it was his command of the Hammond organ that set them apart as hard rockin’, innovative “heavy” leaders of forged in “metal” psychedelic blues and righteous spacey sonic songs.
Jon Lord passed on July 16, 2012 and deserves a lot more than 00individual can relate; so please websearch “Jon Lord” to see the extraordinary depth of his musical life, talents, and contributions to the World of Rock.
00individual remembers clearly the first time he heard “In Rock”, it gave him the feeling of being at the crest of a musical wave that seemed to never break. Here was yet another day with yet another amazing band creating yet more insane Rock.
While he had all of Deep Purple’s LPs up to and including “Who Do We Think We Are?”, there was another band that shared similar sensibilities and 00individual feels that this is a good time for . . .
The Turn On:
QUATERMASS – released in May 1970 featured the power trio of Drum, Bass, and Organ – and Orchestra. The best composed, performed, engineered and produced LP of 1970 – and that’s really a bold statement as there were many solid classics released that year.
Each song on the album is 100% strong, no filler, solid super Hard Rock with an incredible Progressive” use of a real orchestra. You won’t believe it! This is the definitive synthesis of Rock and Classical Orchestration; they counter-point and blend seamlessly into a beyond-belief sonic orgasmic Rock Fest.
QUATERMASS were easily one of the underlying seminal forces of Metal / Prog / Blues / Rock and are by far the Best Unknown Band EVER (along with Rumplestiltskin) that somehow slipped through the entire Rock History canon. 00individual has listened to this LP so many times that he can almost recite the whole thing in his head. This album is epic!
Back to the concert and Deep Purple . . . After Fleetwood Mac were literally booed off stage Deep Purple knew the audience fan base that they were about to play for – rabid Deep Purple fiends – who literally just could not wait for them to perform. Deep Purple put on an amazing rockin’ performance; so the fans got what they wanted – and so did 00individual – the most Hard Rockin’, Loudest, Wildest, and Deepest Purple of Deep Purple performing extended full-frontal assault versions of monster hits of the Machine Head / Fireball / Who Do We Think We Are – era. Whew!
Epilogue . . . The negative reaction to Fleetwood Mac created a positive reaction in Deep Purple’s performance and 00individual got to experience the classic Deep Purple Mark II line up; and that meant a lot to him. 00individual now realizes the historic aspects of this concert; Gillian and Glover left Deep Purple two months later, and that this could have been one of the Last Late Great Performances of Classic MK II.
Lineup: Ritchie Blackmore (guitar), Ian Gillan (vocals), Roger Glover (bass), Jon Lord (keyboards), Ian Paice (drums). Setlist: Highway Star, Smoke On The Water, Strange Kind Of Woman, Mary Long, Lazy, Space Truckin’.
DEEP PURPLE – HIGHWAY STAR – JUST LIKE 00INDIVIDUAL SAW THEM! Literally, you don’t show up at a classy function like this without adhering to customary etiquette by administering one of the many favored varieties of required psychedelics – it just wouldn’t be proper – so yeah, there were some colorful trails involved.
DEEP PURPLE (MKII) Fleetwood Mac, Rory Gallager 4-13-1973 Swing Auditorium, San Bernardino, CA
(Capacity: 10,000)
Prologue:
The outrage . . .
Sorry to say that we have hit upon a sour note. OK, two sour notes:
First, 00individual doesn’t know how he missed Deep Purple (MKI) earlier in their career leading up to and including the “In Rock” era, (that’s really sour grapes!). Second sour note; Fleetwood Mac, future masters of Soft-Rock were literally booed with each song they performed until in frustration Christine McVie sarcastically agreed with the crowd’s only request (besides “Oh, Well” – without Peter Green? Blasphemous!) and did a quick “slap the audience in the face with it” version of “the Green Manaleshi (with the two-prong crown)”, cut their set short and left the stage, not a good vibe. 00individual understood Deep Purple’s fan base going slightly mad having to endure soft…
