DEEP PURPLE - Turning to Crime
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At a time when I just started to appreciate one of my all time favorite bands moving into a more prog direction out they come with a cover song compilation. Now of course the precursor argument for this is that DEEP PURPLE started out doing covers on their early albums. Ah yeah I know and I love those albums. But they were re-imaging certain songs from blues and pop music acts into a more psych rock friendly style of the time.
Be that as it may earlier this year SAXON came out with their album Inspirations which was an all covers album. To their credit it was a decent album albeit they stuck to rock music covers. On here DEEP PURPLE goes way out of the box with their choice of songs to cover. I'll get into them in a few but I give em credit for not playing it safe.
There's also something else important about this album. The band sounds fuckin fantastic and they're having a blast. With the exception of guitarist Steve Morse, everyone else in the band is in their 70's. Speaking of which Steve Morse, who I never really appreciated as I should have while in DEEP PURPLE, sounds cool as fuck on here. His soloing is absolutely killer as well as exciting.
Moving on from there I might have said it before but it bare's repeating. Jon Lord somewhere is smiling because of Don Airey. I mean if you've followed Don Airey's career in hard rock then you know he's done great work. And on here he really shows off his versatility. Finally Ian Paice and Roger Glover as the rhythm section are on fire. But Ian Gillan sure you can't scream anymore but you've steal got that bluesy sound which was always cool.
Now as far as their cover song collection well there's cool, surprising and horrible selections. As far as the cool and surprising go well opener "7 and 7 Is" by the late 60's band LOVE is a decent opener. The band pretty much plays it straight on here. "Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu" by HUEY SMITH is damm good especially with Don Airey's piano work. Their version of FLEETWOOD MAC's "Oh Well" is cool as well since the band starts off with it being traditional and then Steve Morse rips in with some amazing soloing. He even adds some prog rock style to the old English blues classic.
Some more surprises, "Jenny Take a Ride" the MITCH RYDER classic is done traditionally but with some better guitar soloing and keyboard accents. Paice's drumming on here is fuckin nuts. Next up is also a surprise, BOB DYLAN's "Watching the River Flow". Never heard the original version of it but DEEP PURPLE makes it sound like a jukebox cut worthy of playing at a Texas juke joint. Also I gotta say their cover of "Lucifer" by the BOB SEGER SYSTEM is pretty damm epic.
As far as the bad (or what I don't like) go well to me they're very bad. There's the jazzy "Let the Good Times Roll" from RAY CHARLES. Basically not might type of thing but hey they, mainly Don Airey, do a good job with it. Their cover of LITTLE FEAT's "Dixie Chicken" is somewhat straight forward. I'm sure this was a Steve Morse pick. I've always hated LITTLE FEAT so there you go. Ian sounds horrible singing this cut.
Next up in the bad dept, I'm surprised to say it but their cover of the YARDBIRDS' "Shapes of Things" tries to owe much to the original but switches to the Jeff Beck Group's version in mid song and ends up being boring as it closes. Then there's the whatafuck is up with doing JOHNNY HORTON's "The Battle of New Orleans"? But of course there's CREAM's "White Room" which is their second insult to great 60's rock. Sorry Steve Morse but your solo ain't Clapton.
The final cut on here is a throwaway jam of touches from the JEFF BECK GROUP, BOOKER T and the MG's, the ALLMAN BROTHERS, LED ZEP and the SPENCER DAVIS GROUP. Yeah gimme a break. The coolist thing I've heard from DEEP PURPLE of late was their jazz inspired rendition of "Smoke on the Water" which I saw on a French TV show. All in all the first half of the album is cool but the ending is questionable.
LISTEN HERE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJpUNGaldCI
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