Deep Purple - Burn

Burn will always be known as Deep Purple’s first transitional and last truly awesome album.  After years of laying the ground work of Heavy Metal with Black Sabbath, the addition of two new members had a significant impact on Purple’s sound and style. They would eventually go off the deep end and cause Richie Blackmore to quit due to the shift in styles, but even with all the boogie friendly rock, bopping bass lines, hints of funk, dueling vocals, hopping keyboards, and Blackmore riffs, “Burn” rules.

Vocalist Ian Gillan and Roger Glover were dismissed following Who Do You Think We Are. By this point, Deep Purple was growing tired and sounding tired from endless tours and releases.  Initially, Blackmore and the boys wanted to replace both members with Trapeze bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes. Management balked at Purple going at it as a four piece and felt the band needed a true frontman. After numerous tryouts, Purple settled on the unknown David Coverdale. But things got out to a rough start. Hughes wasn’t going to just be the bassist (after all, he was a frontman of his previous band) and Coverdale was required to ditch his glasses and get fashionable.

To make matters worse, Coverdale and Hughes had dueling vocal styles and Purple was still apprehensive about going from one vocalist to two. Coverdale had a rich, husky tone compared to Hughes higher, more Gillan-like register. Hughes was also not allowed to receive any writing credits due to contractual obligations.  But both he and Coverdale would greatly influence Purple’s direction. Blackmore would later go on to claim that Burn was the last Purple album that he was proud of and both Hughes and Coverdale greatly contribute on the following albums before the band dissolved in 1976.

Even with the rough start, Burn is ferocious and ambitious.  The title track is one of the best album openers ever crafted. Any naysayers about the new members were instantly silenced and the song would not only rip up radio airwaves (even given its non-radio friendly length) and be the de facto concert opener for the remaining of the band’s 70s career. Surprisingly enough, Coverdale’s Whitesnake has been known to start recent concerts with “Burn” and Hughes solo dates always features the song somewhere in the set list.

While “Burn” was classic, if not recharged Purple, the following tracks would mix things up. “Might Just Take Your Life” featured a much more boogie beat and gave keyboardist Jon Lord several places to show off.  Again Coverdale and Hughes would duel it out and even join in some spectacular harmonies. “Lay Down, Stay Down” turned things back to a heavier direction, but the soloing section proved the band was starting to embrace elements of funk. “Sail Away” would feature some slick, funky organ playing from Lord that seemed to omit Blackmore from the equation. “You Fool No One” would continue the harmonized vocals and find Blackmore soloing over some seriously boogie-friendly grooves from Lord, Hughes and drummer Ian Paice.

The boogie would continue with “What’s Going On Here.” The aptly titled track would show a true Funk-friendly style that Purple would later fully embrace on “Come Taste the Band.” The pianos and bass seem to go off on a jam while Blackmore solos around Hughes lead vocals and Coverdale is almost delegated to back up.  While the track still rocks, rolls and would tap countless toes at the pub, it really isn’t Purple.

Perhaps the gem of Burn is the full-on blues of “Mistreated,” a song that both Coverdale and Blackmore would command. Moody, melancholic and totally awesome, “Mistreated” is an oppressive buzzkill compared to all the upbeat music before it. When Blackmore left Purple in 1975, he took “Mistreated” with him.  With Rainbow, Blackmore juiced up the song, turning it into the mother of all blues jams and guitar soloing extravaganzas. Even Ronnie James Dio and Hughes would perform this song live in the 1990s.  It’s safe to bet that “Mistreated” is probably the most performed and covered Deep Purple song next to “Smoke on the Water.”

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Closing out the original LP is another Purple oddity, “‘A’ 2000.”  Purely an instrumental, both Blackmore and Lord seemed to drift off into the heavens and space out for 4 minutes.  The 2005 remastered CD would feature another instrumental (B-side of “Might Just Take Your Life”) that would be a bit more traditional and really show off the skills of Blackmore.  Also included on the 2005 CD are remixes of several songs.

In closing, Burn was a risk for Deep Purple, with Gillan and Glover, Purple conquered Europe, Japan and America on the radio and in concert halls.  With Coverdale and Hughes, Purple would continue their reign but eventually lose Blackmore after Stormbringer. Blackmore hated the Funk elements Coverdale and Hughes brought to the band yet he would later start his own band with one of the genre’s finest vocalist and influence countless Metal bands with Rainbow. The Funk aspects perhaps would go too far as the aforementioned Stormbringer had little input from Blackmore and “Come Taste the Band” would prove to be the last Purple album for over a decade. Tommy Bolin, Blackmore’s replacement, never got a fair shake (until his music was revisited after his death) and Hughes crafted songs more akin to Motown than Metal.  By late 1975, Purple was Funked up, burned-out, and losing fans due to the now drastic shift in styles and concerts either marred or canceled by the some of the members’ heavy drug abuse. This version of the band would officially call it a day by 1976.

Burn is legendary. It’s flawless, fresh and fantastic. It’s the album that would also launch the careers of both Coverdale, who would go on to massive success with Whitesnake, and Hughes, who would not only re-Metalize with Black Sabbath and Tony Iommi’s solo discs, but still continue the Funk-Rock style with his own solo albums.  Both Lord and Paice would later rejoin Coverdale on several early Whitesnake albums but quit before the band’s legendary chart-topping period. Oddly, Coverdale was approached to join the Sabbath after Dio quit, but declined.  Looking back, Burn was the start of a massive Deep Purple-Black Sabbath connection. Especially since Ian Gillan would quit Sabbath to reform Purple in the 80s and  Hughes’ filling in for the late Dio for Heaven and Hell’s final live date.

Even with its history and impressive family tree, Burn is one of Deep Purple’s finest moments. Rock, Metal and even Funk Rock would not be what it is today without this album.  

Release Date: February 15, 1974
Label: EMI/Purple/Warner Bros.

TRACK LISTING

1. Burn
2. Might Just Take Your Life
3. Lay Down, Stay Down
4. Sail Away
5. You Fool No One
6. What’s Going On Here
7. Mistreated
8. “A” 2000

2005 Re-Issue Tracks
9. Coronarias Redig
10. Burn (2004 Remix)
11. Mistreated (2004 Remix)
12. You Fool No One (2004 Remix)
13. Sail Away (2004 Remix)

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Classic Review

July 14, 2010

Reviewer: Rottenbucher