Deep Purple 'Burn' - Happy 40th anniversary !!

Paice rules.

 

I just borrowed Burn from the library today, never heard it before.

Typical great Deep Purple musicianship and fairly complex songs and arrangements. I am just not a Coverdale fan.
I also think the bass a kick drum are mixed a little weak on it for a DP album.
But still pretty good stuff.

 

Burn was my first Deep Purple album. I bought it because I was familiar with "Mistreated" from Rainbow's performance on On Stage. Needless to say, I was rather surprised by the restrained studio version.

I really liked Burn - I was especially impressed by the musicianship and the classical/jazz influences - but I didn't really get crazy about Purple until I got In Rock and the other MK II albums a few weeks later. Then I knew this was one of the great bands.

These days I appreciate Burn mainly for Blackmore's deft, tasteful lead playing. Most live shows that I've heard from this period show Blackmore being particularly brilliant as well.

 

I heard Burn on the radio today. Not a track the classic rock station normally plays.

I have the California Jammin cd, and it kinda sucks, soundwise. Are any recordings any better? I haven't found much in my search just that there are other versions out there. In the reviews at Amazon someone mentioned Just Might Take Your Life, which I'm assuming is a bootleg, but it's all I could find as far as a better sounding recording. I don't know if it is but that might be a place to start.

I figured this thread would be good enough a place to ask this. I did a search and found no other threads that looked good. I really don't think I need to start a thread for something that could be easily answered, at least around here. Anyway, someday I'd like to have a cd that sounds halfway decent. I played it recently for a friend who wanted to hear it and I was cringing at how bad it sounds.

 

Yes, Made in Europe is a live album that includes Burn and it's great playing and sound is very fine.

 

You beat me to it.

Paice is awesome on this. I love his drumming and it amazes me he is not often name checked as one of the great rock drummers of all time.

 

As far as the California Jam goes, it's just a dodgy recording. The CD released a while back called Just Might Take Your Life is the most complete but the sound quality is what it is.

You could try a different one, a show from just a few weeks after the California Jam, called Live In London. Same setlist, better recording.

 

My rating on the Purple scale of 1-10 is a wobbly 6.

I didn't learn to appreciate Burn until I had exhausted myself on all of my other Purple. I've had it for decades, but it has never really scratched my "Purple" itch like the Gillan albums did. Maybe it was the sound of the bad vinyl pressing I have? I don't know.

I finally began to appreciate it just this year. One thing that still sticks out is the flat sound. (Yes, I have the CD now) I like a lot of dynamics, but this is obviously very compressed, perhaps intentionally mixed for all those bad speakers out there in 1974. Looking back, it's like Ritchie's albums all started to sound progressively worse, starting here.

Bad pressing aside I have learned to listen past the weak sound and get into the performance. Ian Paice gets the MVP on this one. They are all top-notch, and "Sail Away" has a funky groove...

 

I cannot "like" this post more! Pity we can only press the button once!

Ian Anderson Paice = god

 

I'm not a musical expert when it comes to time signatures... but it's great when he plays straighforward during the main riff, and then goes to drum rolls dring the where the vocals would be...and those little double kicks he throws in...great stuff.

 

Love the album. 3rd in my DP rankings (behind Fireball and Machine Head). That drum track by Paice on "Burn" is awesome. Thanks for posting that.

 

Ok, cool. Nice to know there isn't a better recording. Now I can stop searching.

 

Admittedly I do not know the Deep Purple personnel politics, but this piqued my curiosity--if Blackmore wanted Glover out of DP, how did Glover become a long-standing member of Rainbow (and sometime producer) with Blackmore? Did the two have a personal conflict that they somehow resolved?

Thanks,
PG

 

Ritchie regretted axing Glover and realized Glover's exceptional talents.

 

It was a stroke of genius (and/or a wise move) not replacing Ian Gillan with one lead singer, but two singers. They had a great blend together in the studio. And after so many years of playing the Burn album (as well as Stormbringer), I eventually added a low harmony with Coverdale and Hughes. We sound great as a vocal trio.

 

My first Purple album and therefore, for me, the most important. Bought all the others through the years and there's no question that much of the Gillan era has merit - but purely from a personal perspective, it's the Coverdale LPs I dig off the shelf first. I realise I'm in a minority here.

 

Minority perhaps, but the Coverdale/Hughes era in retrospect was top notch, sometimes excellent, imho.

 

That's amazing. What he does during the verses - that's some of the most off-the-wall drumming for a verse that I've ever heard. It's like the reverse of the standard rock drum arrangement - the verses are a flurry of rolls and the instrumental parts are straight-ahead rhythm. He follows Blackmore really well - too bad he didn't follow him to Rainbow.

 

Ritchie didn't want him in Rainbow.

 

Really? I thought I had heard that he wanted Paice in his new band but Paice turned him down to continue with Purple.

 

Big fan of his drumming as well. He really gave McCartney's Run Devil Run album a kick in the butt...

 

It's always difficult to get to the truth with Ritchie (he rarely admits he is wrong) but interviews from 1975 where he was asked specifically about Paice drumming in Rainbow, suggest he wanted something a little heavier and needed a change from Paice who wasn't medievil enough (there was probably also some kudos of having Jeff Becks's drummer in his band telling the press, Blackmore was the best guitar player ever )

 

Interesting. For the life of me I can't remember where I heard that he's invited Paice to Rainbow - it's one of those things where I've read so many stories about these guys I can't keep them all straight. But it occurs to me that I've heard about Ritchie inviting every member of Purples MK II and III to be in Rainbow at one time or another with the exceptions of Jon Lord and Glenn Hughes. Ian Gillan supposedly turned him down for obvious reasons, and Coverdale because he'd heard Rainbow's songs and thought they were a flashback to 1971 and he didn't want to go there. And of course Roger Glover eventually did join. Never heard of him approaching Lord, which seems strange since Lord seemed to be the guy Blackmore had the most in common with.

But that, "Oh, Paice wouldn't have been a good fit because he always wanted a rhythm" seems kinda revisionist. Rainbow wasn't Blackmore's Night, for pete's sake. Nearly every Rainbow song has a good strong percussion part.

 

I'm sure it's all revisionist..or changed to protect the innocent/guilty.

Ritchie sounds like Dr. Evil..Paice isn't quite medieval enough, he's like the Diet Coke of medieval.

 

It was a good decision.....