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- famous as a heavy metal rock band, founded by guitarist Ritchie Blackmore
in 1968 ... original band members were
- Ritchie Blackmore - guitar
- Jon Lord - keyboards
- Ian Gillan - vocals (also sang the role of "Jesus" in the
original recording of Jesus Christ Superstar)
- Roger Glover - bass
- Ian Paice - drums
(#4, 1968; first single)
Smoke
on the Water
(#4, 1973)
- autobiographical song about their near-disastrous Montreaux experience with
Zappa
- they were set to record Machine Head in a studio that was part of the Casino ("gambling house" in the song)
- members of Deep Purple were in the audience as Zappa & the Mothers were playing a concert in the casino theater the night before recording was to begin, when a patron ("some stupid with a flare gun") shot a flare into the ceiling and the resulting fire leveled the Casino ("burned the place to the ground")
- 1969 - Deep Purple joined with the royal Philharmonic Orchestrat to perform
Lord's 3-movement "Concerto for Group and Orchestra"
- typical series of tempos for each of the three movements ... fast-slow-fast
- 1970 - Lord was commissioned by the BBC to write another work for rock group
& orchestra
- he composed a 6-movement work entitled "Gemini Suite"
- each movement centered around a different soloist ... 3 of whom were
from Deep Purple (Lord, Glover, & Paice), plus three soloists: Albert Lee (guitar),
and vocalists Tony Ashton & Yvonne Elliman (Elliman played the role of Mary Magdalene in the film version of Jesus Christ Superstar and had a hit single with "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from that rock opera)
- exhibits a closer interaction between soloists & orchestra
- writing is sophisticated and solo performances are excellent
Gemini
Suite
(movements described below)
- 1st movement "Guitar" - opening
motive played by the guitar
- featuring Albert Lee on guitar, not Ritchie Blackmore
- introduced by timpani
- based on minor 3rd (C to Eb)
- note similarity of this motive to opening guitar progression from "Smoke on the Water"
- later use of motive in the 1st movt
- 2nd movement "Piano" - excerpt
- featuring more adventurous style of composition than Moody Blues
- 3rd movement "Drums" featuring Ian Paice
- 4th movement "Vocals" features first Yvonne Elliman, followed by Tony Ashton,
then a duet
- 5th movement "Bass" - excerpt
- 6th movement "Organ" - organ/orchestra
dialogue
Other rock-orchestra groups:
- Electric Light Orchestra
- Procol Harum
- New York Rock Ensemble
- Emerson, Lake, & Palmer
- Mothers of Invention (Zappa)
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