Glenn Hughes - how to get noticed

[Dom in Dorset]

I like the song even more now I know that the first line of the second verse is "I didn't believe she was devil's sperm "
 

[Chezz55]

On 05/05/2019 at 10:41, Paul S said:

I saw them around this time at the Kursaal in Southend when the album 'Burn' came out.  One of the best gigs I've ever seen to this day.  A naked woman appeared on stage seemingly from nowhere and jumped on Ritchie, who promptly unslung his guitar and played it on her backside  

I was there as well - and I've still got an unused Deep Purple sticker from the event.

IIRC the support band were called 'Highway'

[stewblack]

1 hour ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

Mmm. Quaint is not a word I would use to describe it. Not that clip anyway. That boys and girls is a 101 on how to dish out some old school rock 🤘

Don't have much the for all this DP Mk2 vs Mk3 nonsense. The Purple discography across the board is quality, although I don't listen to Shades & Taliesyn as much as the rest.

OK let me clarify. When I first heard this stuff it sounded mind blowingly heavy powerful, noisy and hard edged. Over the years as music has pushed those boundaries ever farther the context has changed. It now sounds comparatively polite, melodic and, yes, quaint. It has lost that crazy edge with the passing of time. 

This does not insult, devalue or belittle the music in any way. It has ever been thus. Cutting edge becomes mainstream, wild becomes tame.

My dad told me how his father dismissed the music he (my dad) loved as "just a noise" and "not even music". It was Bing Crosby. 

 

Edited May 7, 2019 by stewblack

[peteb]

22 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

We'll have to agree to disagree then 😂

I'll give you melodic, but I don't think it's particularly polite or quaint, even by todays standards - all IMHO of course. Cutting edge might become classic I suppose, but wild is wild in my book.

My Dad never understood KISS. He was absolutely convinced that Paul Stanley was gay and couldn't see the showmanship in what they did at all. That's generations for you. He still insists on informing me about classic singers of his era and how groundbreaking and wonderful they all were and I do get it, but it always seems like it's a one way path.

indeed, people with a genuine element of wildness about them generally don't feel the need to wear zombie make up, inverted crosses & affect a death growl as a singing voice. That's just kids playing at dressing up! 

Mind you, I'm with your Dad about Kiss though 😯

[stewblack]

7 hours ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

We'll have to agree to disagree then 😂

I'll give you melodic, but I don't think it's particularly polite or quaint, even by todays standards - all IMHO of course. Cutting edge might become classic I suppose, but wild is wild in my book.

My Dad never understood KISS. He was absolutely convinced that Paul Stanley was gay and couldn't see the showmanship in what they did at all. That's generations for you. He still insists on informing me about classic singers of his era and how groundbreaking and wonderful they all were and I do get it, but it always seems like it's a one way path.

Certainly not worth arguing about. I'm  sorry I didn't explain myself well enough. 

[Paul S]

I'd say, also, that is somewhat comparing apples with pears.  No way Deep Purple could be described as 'Metal' in my dictionary.  Modern equivalent, perhaps, would be Rival Sons - just good old fashioned RnB based rock. 

[ezbass]

Made In Japan was the album that made me throw away all my pop stuff and start again, it just blew my mind. However, looking back, I think that Made In Europe is an overlooked live album with just as much power as MIJ and, because of its single album format, is arguably more punchy.

 

[ezbass]

6 minutes ago, Paul S said:

I'd say, also, that is somewhat comparing apples with pears.  No way Deep Purple could be described as 'Metal' in my dictionary.  Modern equivalent, perhaps, would be Rival Sons - just good old fashioned RnB based rock. 

I'd call it Hard Rock, which I think it was called in the 70s.

[MoonBassAlpha]

I'd also say the term progressive rock was used back then. Over the years the usage and implied meaning has changed slightly.

[Stub Mandrel]

2 hours ago, Paul S said:

I'd say, also, that is somewhat comparing apples with pears.  No way Deep Purple could be described as 'Metal' in my dictionary.  Modern equivalent, perhaps, would be Rival Sons - just good old fashioned RnB based rock. 

Back in the day Purple, Zeppelin, Sabbath and Heep pretty much defined heavy metal, it wasn't until the 'NWOBHM' came along that metal lost its blues edge.

<edit> "I know 'cos I was there".

Edited May 8, 2019 by Stub Mandrel

[Agwin]

27 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Back in the day Purple, Zeppelin, Sabbath and Heep pretty much defined heavy metal, it wasn't until the 'NWOBHM' came along that metal lost its blues edge.

<edit> "I know 'cos I was there".

I was there too.

And I concur

[leroydiamond]

3 hours ago, ezbass said:

Made In Japan was the album that made me throw away all my pop stuff and start again, it just blew my mind. However, looking back, I think that Made In Europe is an overlooked live album with just as much power as MIJ and, because of its single album format, is arguably more punchy.

 

Both albums have their merits, but on Vinyl, 'In Japan' is sonically superior than 'In Europe' IMO. When compared with some of the sonics of many  modern rock recordings, it tends to be no contest IMO. 

 

[ezbass]

38 minutes ago, leroydiamond said:

Both albums have their merits, but on Vinyl, 'In Japan' is sonically superior than 'In Europe' IMO. When compared with some of the sonics of many  modern rock recordings, it tends to be no contest IMO. 

 

You may onto something there. I used to listen to MIJ on headphones all the time and it was sublime. By the time MIE came out, I was playing guitar a lot more and I don’t remember listening to it on headphones, but I really annoyed my parents and neighbours playing along to it, especially Mistreated. 🤘

[Paul S]

2 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Back in the day Purple, Zeppelin, Sabbath and Heep pretty much defined heavy metal, it wasn't until the 'NWOBHM' came along that metal lost its blues edge.

<edit> "I know 'cos I was there".

 

2 hours ago, Agwin said:

I was there too.

And I concur

I was there too - born in '57 and did most of my formative listening in the very late 60s, early 70s.  I guess your gang of mates called stuff different to my gang of mates.  We described Zep and Deep Purple as being heavy rock.  Black Sabbath were the first 'heavy metal' band, I believe the expression was coined because of their industrial roots, and the name stuck for the genre of music kind of followed on from that - more to do with distorted, not just overdriven, guitars.  But my crowd never referred to Led Zep or Deep Purple as heavy metal, ever.  The more complex music from bands like Yes and Genesis were called prog rock.  NWOBHM came long a tad later.  But maybe different location had a different perspective.

[Raymondo]

52 minutes ago, Paul S said:

 

I was there too - born in '57 and did most of my formative listening in the very late 60s, early 70s.  I guess your gang of mates called stuff different to my gang of mates.  We described Zep and Deep Purple as being heavy rock.  Black Sabbath were the first 'heavy metal' band, I believe the expression was coined because of their industrial roots, and the name stuck for the genre of music kind of followed on from that - more to do with distorted, not just overdriven, guitars.  But my crowd never referred to Led Zep or Deep Purple as heavy metal, ever.  The more complex music from bands like Yes and Genesis were called prog rock.  NWOBHM came long a tad later.  But maybe different location had a different perspective.

Snap. born in 57 lived in Nottingham and we all used those exact same labels for the same bands. 

I have never really cared what the music was labelled as, I either liked it or I didn't.🙂

[Agwin]

48 minutes ago, Raymondo said:

 

I have never really cared what the music was labelled as, I either liked it or I didn't.🙂

Quite right, too.

I just about managed to scrape into 1959 as my birth year.

After some consideration I seem to remember the term Heavy being followed by both Rock and Metal back in the day.

I seem to recall Purple being referred to as Progressive at some point in the dim and distant too.

[mcnach]

17 hours ago, ezbass said:

Of course, he's still doing it and age hasn't reined him in too much either. Check out that P tone at 2:40 onwards during the guitar solo.

 

 

I saw Glenn Hughes a few years ago and I was impressed with his energy and sound... And his voice has held pretty well. Yeah, the 'voice of rock' title is a little meh, but, he truly is the voice of rock. I was always surprised that Coverdale was the main vocalist when they had Hughes there. Live you often hear Coverdale strain and then here comes Hughes effortlessly reaching those high notes with total control... I still liked Coverdale 'though, and both together sounded huge. I 'discovered' Purple with Burn and Stormbringer so to me that is the 'classic' Purple although I like all incarnations

[peteb]

28 minutes ago, mcnach said:

 

I saw Glenn Hughes a few years ago and I was impressed with his energy and sound... And his voice has held pretty well. Yeah, the 'voice of rock' title is a little meh, but, he truly is the voice of rock. I was always surprised that Coverdale was the main vocalist when they had Hughes there. Live you often hear Coverdale strain and then here comes Hughes effortlessly reaching those high notes with total control... I still liked Coverdale 'though, and both together sounded huge. I 'discovered' Purple with Burn and Stormbringer so to me that is the 'classic' Purple although I like all incarnations

I read in an interview somewhere that Blackmore wanted a more ‘masculine’ voice to balance out Hughes. They approached Paul Rodgers, who wasn’t interested and supposedly said something like “why would you need me if you already have Glenn Hughes”! Coverdale got the gig as he sounded a bit like Rodgers.

While Hughes has always been awesome, latter day Purple / pre Whitesnake solo (Come Taste the Band / Northwinds) era Coverdale is one of my top three favourite singers. Fantastic voice, so it’s a shame that he then started singing in a higher register for the 1987 era onward. Never the same in my opinion…

[mcnach]

11 hours ago, peteb said:

I read in an interview somewhere that Blackmore wanted a more ‘masculine’ voice to balance out Hughes. They approached Paul Rodgers, who wasn’t interested and supposedly said something like “why would you need me if you already have Glenn Hughes”! Coverdale got the gig as he sounded a bit like Rodgers.

While Hughes has always been awesome, latter day Purple / pre Whitesnake solo (Come Taste the Band / Northwinds) era Coverdale is one of my top three favourite singers. Fantastic voice, so it’s a shame that he then started singing in a higher register for the 1987 era onward. Never the same in my opinion…

 

I'm with you on that one. Big Whitesnake fan, but after Slide it in it lost its way, for me.

[peteb]

57 minutes ago, mcnach said:

 

I'm with you on that one. Big Whitesnake fan, but after Slide it in it lost its way, for me.

Don't get me wrong, I loved 1987 at the time (not so sure that it has aged that well) but the voice was never the same. 

[KevB]

On 08/05/2019 at 16:32, Raymondo said:

Snap. born in 57 lived in Nottingham and we all used those exact same labels for the same bands. 

I have never really cared what the music was labelled as, I either liked it or I didn't.🙂

Deep Purple were considered 'progressive' in their early days (when they took their cue from bands like Vanilla Fudge) and even up to around the In Rock and Fireball releases, though that might be because they were released on EMI's Harvest label initially which was created to cater for their more 'left field' artists. They became 'heavy rock' and then 'classic rock' as the years rolled on. I don't think fans of DP, Whitesnake, Zep, UH etc would really describe them as 'metal' bands. Sabbath are usually lauded as the pioneers of metal but even they started out playing blues jams.

Back to Glenn Hughes, he's had quite a career and done the whole rockstar lifestyle to the nth degree and has managed to survive and remained a good singer, his voice has aged far better than Gillan's or Coverdale's. I'm off to see him later this month at Rock City, could be an interesting night though I've heard him do a few DP songs in solo gigs before.

Edited May 10, 2019 by KevB

[4000]

On ‎08‎/‎05‎/‎2019 at 15:38, Paul S said:

 

I was there too - born in '57 and did most of my formative listening in the very late 60s, early 70s.  I guess your gang of mates called stuff different to my gang of mates.  We described Zep and Deep Purple as being heavy rock.  Black Sabbath were the first 'heavy metal' band, I believe the expression was coined because of their industrial roots, and the name stuck for the genre of music kind of followed on from that - more to do with distorted, not just overdriven, guitars.  But my crowd never referred to Led Zep or Deep Purple as heavy metal, ever.  The more complex music from bands like Yes and Genesis were called prog rock.  NWOBHM came long a tad later.  But maybe different location had a different perspective.

I was born '63 in the NW and it was all referred to as Heavy Rock (even Sabs) by everyone I knew; the Metal thing crept in later, probably around the time of NWOBHM.

Purple II & III were huge early influences for me. Each year at school when the upper 6th formers were leaving they got to play a track of their choice in assembly; the first I remember was Layla and the second was Smoke on the Water. I remember listening to Smoke thinking "my God this is simple, but it sounds incredible". I went out and bought 24 Carat Purple and never looked back.

Along with Hawkwind/Motorhead and Rush (and Gaye Advert!), they were also a huge part of the reason I was attracted to Rics. I remember looking at the pics of Rog and Glenn thinking "those basses look fantastic". And, to my ears at least, they sounded fantastic too and still do (although I later found out Glenn was actually using his P on MIE, not that he sounds hugely different playing either IMO). Of course YMMV. ;-)

[4000]

I thought Coverdale had a wonderful voice when singing in the lower register, and never worked for me when singing higher, as later.

[KevB]

I first saw Coverdale in 81 or 82 and at irregular intervals since then during the 90's and noughties but I was quite shocked how his voice had deteriorated when Whitesnak were on a double header with Def Leppard doing arenas a few years back. It seemed odd for someone struggling vocally to be deliberately pitching higher, presumably he just can't project enough at a lower range now. His backing band were doing as much singing as he was that night and much higher in the mix than other band members I'd seen him with in the past.

[Stub Mandrel]

11 hours ago, KevB said:

Deep Purple were considered 'progressive' in their early days (when they took their cue from bands like Vanilla Fudge) and even up to around the In Rock and Fireball releases, though that might be because they were released on EMI's Harvest label initially which was created to cater for their more 'left field' artists. They became 'heavy rock' and then 'classic rock' as the years rolled on. I don't think fans of DP, Whitesnake, Zep, UH etc would really describe them as 'metal' bands. Sabbath are usually lauded as the pioneers of metal but even they started out playing blues jams.

Back to Glenn Hughes, he's had quite a career and done the whole rockstar lifestyle to the nth degree and has managed to survive and remained a good singer, his voice has aged far better than Gillan's or Coverdale's. I'm off to see him later this month at Rock City, could be an interesting night though I've heard him do a few DP songs in solo gigs before.

My view is that 'heavy metal' changed, not the bands.

The likes of Zeppelin, Purple, Heep and even Sabbath always had a hefty dose of music as far away from modern 'heavy metal' as Lena Zavaroni... but a fair chunk of their songs were foundation on which heavy metal was built - Whole Lotta Love, Smoke on the Water, to me, are unquestionably so.

Ironically, some contemporary jazz (Soft Machine) and full-on prog (e.g. High Tide)  was vastly 'heavier' than any of those four bands until Sabbath Bloody Sabbath came out (IMHO) but i think these things are intensly personal and everyone will have their own views, which is what makes it interesting.

Tell me this isn't prog AND heavy... 🙂

 

Edited May 10, 2019 by Stub Mandrel